Athina

Within the sprawling city of Athens it is easy to imagine the golden age of Greece when Pericles had the Parthenon built. When the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were performed in the Theater of Dionysus. And when democracy brought all citizens together to decide their common fate on the Pynx Hill.Athens is built around the Acropolis and the pinnacled crag of Mt. Lycabettus, which the goddess Athena was said to have dropped from the heavens as a bulwark to defend the city. The suburbs have covered the barren plain in all directions and the city is packed with lively taverns and bustling shops.

Athens is not what it used to be. It is better. What they did to Athens to prepare for the Olympics turned a city, known for its faults as much as its assets, into one of the most walkable, livable, exciting, art, music and entertainment centers in the world.

The Metro, Coastal Tram and Buss services are very effcient to say the least..

Athens is a unique mix of Ancient and Modern Culture, here you see the anicient ruins along with the fast life of any modern European city.

Havent been to any party hot spots in Athens yet, though i plan to visit atleast one and find out for myself whether its wild night life reputation is well earned or not...but theres still time for all that.

The project at Aspis Bank, the reason for my "Business" travel to Greece, is going smoothly till now, we will finish the User Aquaintance exercise by the 17th, and then we move into System Integration Testing that going to be a tough one with many interfaces to take data from.

Today we plan to go to Pssiri, i badly need a haircut, and thats where we can get the cheapest haircuts. Why ?? well its an Asian locality in central Athens where you can find Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Iraqis and a few Africans too...Bangladeshis by far are the largest in number followed by Pakistanis, havent seen many Indians though. The haircut costs 5 Euros, as against the regular 10-15 Euros charged by those ubiquitous Salons.
The area is identified with shady activities that is so very "Asian", you can see people in small groups bargaining for smuggled Cell Phones or the odd handy cam, the sound of a patrol car gets them scampering for cover...

We also found a Pakistani CD shop, that guy can copy any [Well almost any hindi or english movie] you can think of in minutes and whats the price... Its a mind boggling 1 Euro per movie... I couldn't ever imagine getting a pirated copy of a latest Hindi movie for a buck, its cheaper than Mumbai.
Last week was Gangster week at our apartment with "Satya" and "Company" played back to back. today hopefully we should lay our hands on "Bunty Aur Babli", and "D" too if we are lucky.

Will catch up sometime next week .....