Greek Graffiti

This post has been on the back of my mind since we arrived in Athens and it's about something that is hard to avoid here in Greece: graffiti. In America, graffiti isn't something that we embrace. It's usually associated with rough areas, gang territory, or vandalism. In Athens, graffiti is all over the place. Most streets sport scribbled spray paint messages in Greek and sometimes in a little English. The main difference between American graffiti and Greek graffiti is the message. Admittedly, not everything here has substance. But a lot of it has a purpose or a message and quite a bit of it is political. Greece has been struggling for the better part of a decade and many people are disgruntled. From my experience Greeks are not only well informed or in touch with the political climate but they are also very passionate about it. That's something that I'm not used to at all, but having that understanding makes the concept of expression through graffiti much easier to comprehend.

Not all graffiti here is easy to interpret as political or passionate. Some of the best I wouldn't consider graffiti at all, but rather I'd refer to them as street art. The best examples I've gotten photographic evidence of here were over in Gazi, near central Athens. They really are spectacular

 This was on the side of a building near the railroad

 This was the best I have seen, by far. It is really a work of art

 This was in an alley next to a couple cafes

This wasn't far away from the monkey

Street art is much less common than graffiti here, but Gazi is full of it. It's a very interesting part of town. Most everywhere else only has graffiti, but a LOT of it. In the three weeks we have been here I think I've been desensitized to it. I think that not seeing graffiti in the States will be a weird part of the reverse culture shock. It's hard to communicate just how much there is of it. The best description would be that if I were to walk down a street and not see at least one thing tagged here in Athens, it would be unusual. I'll work on documenting just how prevalent it is and update this post with more pictures (probably). Until then stay tuned for more exciting and insightful posts from Nick the Greek!