On my return trip through Athens, I stayed in the same hotel in Omonia that I’d used my first few days in Greece back in May. The price had gone down to only €30 a night so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Unfortunately, the neighborhood had really degraded in the months between my visits.
I arrived in Athens at 10 pm, after an 8 hr. ferry ride to Piraeus. The police, who had a very visible presence in Omonia back in May, were nowhere to be found in September. The street leading to the hotel was lined with people huddled on stoops or doorways, in small groups of two’s or three’s, preparing needles.
I lived in New York City back when Times Square was still seedy and dangerous at night, and my Sunday chore was to sweep crack vials off the stoop before heading out for church in the morning (pre-blasphemer days), so drug use doesn’t jar my sensibilities, but it had been a long time since I’d seen people advertise their illicit drug use so openly. The middle portion of the street, between the curtain of junkies, was occupied by prostitutes and transvestites, chatting gaily and giving me the once-over until they saw that I was headed for the hotel.
I’ve found transvestites to be very entertaining in the few conversations I’ve had with them, and I feel pity rather than fear towards junkies, but I was still wary due to all the gear I had with me and the thousands of photographs stored on my laptop.
A police car with flashing blue lights made a slow drive down the street once a night, to little effect. The junkies and prostitutes couldn’t be bothered to scatter, they just slinked into dark doorways, looked bored, and waited for the cop to pass.
My last night in the hotel, someone tried to open my door several times in the middle of the night. This is common in hotels so I try not to read too much into it – it’s usually someone who’s had too much to drink or forgotten their room number, but the hotel’s setting guaranteed a sleepless night.
I’d skip Omonia next trip.
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