Athens  is going up and out as the population increases with new residents each day, vying for a piece of this city.  They say New York never sleeps, but Athens has incurrable insomnia which has the volume meter over the endurable noise level 24/7, crime increasing  throughout and traffic at intolerable saturation in every crevice of the municipality.  Athens today is a far cry from the picturesque city of the past with its' old buildings and cobbled streets, now seen only in the Tourist section of Athens, Plaka and Monastiraki. This is a city you either love or hate. If you love it, it's for all the reasons those who can't stand the place, hate it.  The mayhem, the disorganization, the pollution, the absolute  domination by the people of the city, who chisel away at its' edges, leaving all who pass through it either cut with passion or left bleeding and fleeing to return home.

When the city gets too much there is always a quiet taverna to drink and eat away the Athens overload.