 More
than the ruins, the traffic, the food, and the history, Athens is about people. Not just the Greek people. Athens
has been a center for displaced people since ancient times when it attracted the great minds that had outgrown
other towns or whose homes had been over-run by barbarians. Today, people who have fled wars and poverty in their
own country try to begin a new life in this ancient city. Because jobs are hard to find many of these people are
on the streets selling flowers, cigarettes, tissues, anything they can. Some of them were professionals in their
home countries and some of them are children. There are also musicians from Romania, Serbia, Russia, Albania and
Turkey, who go from restaurant to cafe entertaining tables with music of such high quality that sometimes it seems
that whatever you give them is not enough and you wish you could offer them more or even a recording contract.
Scattered among these foreigners are Greeks, some from the mainland and the islands, and others from Eastern Europe.
There are Greek-Moslems from Thrace and even a European and an American or two, trying to make a living on the
streets of Athens. I don't know their stories but these are their pictures...Matt Barrett |