I am back from Athens with my party commando. We have spent the best 10 days there. The Olympic Games was all fun — as you can see it on the pictures. But now you get a little bit of Athens by night feeling.
How to live through Athens by night (with my party-commando)
Land of the Sinking Sun
Shards of sunlight pierce the slats in the shutters like laser beams. We roll over and look at the clock. 7.30 p.m. A three-hour siesta is a miracle cure for last night's excesses and now we are ready for more. Athenians have an expression for this summer sickness: "My house can't hold me." Cold shower, sweet frappe, lipstick, and heels, and we are all set to hit the town.
The sky is pink and purple like streaky bacon. Sunset calls for rooftops and cocktails, so we ride the Hilton elevator all the way up to the Galaxy Bar. We forsake the spoof 60s interior for a prime seat on the terrace. Armed with a dry martini, we survey the Athenian skyline and map out tonight's club crawl. With the city at my feet, anything seems possible.
The American tourists at the next table are headed for Plaka . Why not? For all its gimmickry, the area remains disarmingly charming, especially round sunset. The heady scent of aniseed lures us into Brettos, a nugget of nostalgia amid the souvlakia and souvenirs. This liquor store looks like an alchemist's apothecary: a glass rainbow of home-brand liqueurs and ouzo lines the walls. We lean on the marble bar beneath the barrels, and knock back a few shots with the amiable old proprietor.
A little dizzy, we slip away from the crush of Kydathinaion Street into the secret garden of Xinos taverna. We know of just one golden rule for a successful night out: food. In this star-spangled taverna it always tastes good, and the retsina slips down a treat. With our stomach safely lined, we wander through the brightly-lit lanes of Plaka to Psirri, the old artisans' quarter now colonized by an army of hip entrepreneurs. The music-and-mezze bars seem to have mushroomed overnight. Wandering minstrels, courting couples, gypsies touting withered gardenias, and rowdy revelers, jam the sidewalks and squares.
Midnight's Children
Psirri's hit of the season is Astron. This little sea-blue bar is the next best thing to being on a Greek island. Drinkers spill out onto pedestrian Taki Street, urban pretensions dissolve, and anything goes.
We could perch on this pavement drinking vodka tonics all night, but we've got to go.
It's already half past one. Thisseion is a nyfopazaro - a monkey-parade of young blood eager to see and be seen. Even the cool courtyard of Stavlos, King Otto's former stables, is a stampede of Saturday night party animals. So we move on up to moneyed Kolonaki.
Pedestrian Haritos Street, Kolonaki's best bet for barhopping, is a poser's paradise. The well-heeled crowd eyeing each other up at City is more refined, but there's no chemistry between us. We head instead for Plateia Mavili , home to some of the cheapest and liveliest watering holes in Athens. Oblivious to the traffic roaring up and down Vassilisis Sofias Avenue, a mixed crowd cools off around the fountain in the square. Red-eyed fortysomethings prop up the bar at Loras, the classic hole-in-the-wall that launched the Mavili trend. Laid-back thirtysomethings are squeezed into friendly Flower, while Latino lovers prowl Briki in search of a salsa partner.
Better Late Than Never
We can feel a shimmy coming on, so we cruise up Kifissias Avenue to Cafe Folie, where the rare grooves soon have us burning up the dance floor.
The place is smoking. Orange lights flash and sway above our head. A waitress snakes past with a tray of fruity shots, crushed watermelon laced with vodka. We drink up and keep moving.
Eventually, we come up for air. In search of a sea breeze, we decide to hit Piraeus. At 2:30 a.m., the seafood restaurants are still packed. There are teenagers and fast food joints everywhere. We don't really know this scene, so we ask a guy on a moped if he can recommend any good local bars. "Looking for a bar myself, but can't seem to find it," he slurs. Never mind. We’re in luck. There's a Cuban Festival on Freatida Beach. Colombians, Peruvians, and a few bold Greeks bump and grind to the live band, kicking up a storm in the sand. Corona beer bottles litter the beach. The air smells of sex and salt. Athens has suddenly come over all Caribbean.
Getting back into the Greek groove is no sweat. We just have to negotiate the bumper-to-bumper traffic inching towards Leoforos Posidonos. Better known as the Paraliaki (seaside street), this highway is one endless stretch of summer clubs, from skyladika to bouzoukia to techno. The traffic is entertaining in itself. Car stereos alternately blast us with Greek pop and hardcore trance. Blonde babes in shiny minis preen in open-top BMWs, while slick little rich kids hang out of daddy's Range Rover to chat them up.
Girls and boys babble into mobile phones, trying to liaise with friends stuck at the last traffic lights. These leggy divas and their clean-cut beaux queue to get into 'exclusive' clubs like Privilege, Kalua, and Tango.
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough
The crowds milling outside bouzoukia (live Greek music venues) and skyladika (a kind of down-market bouzoukia) like Vareladiko, Romeo, and Asteria are a different breed. The ladies totter along in a cloud of lace and hair spray, their beefy escorts squashed into shiny suits and open-neck shirts. Although we haven't booked a table, we manage to sweet-talk the inflatable doorman at the curiously named Neraida, Gorgones kai Manges (A Fairy, Mermaids and Dudes) into letting us in. The stage is a sea of gyrating bodies. The crooner weaves between his appreciative fans, whipping them into a lovesick frenzy. Flower girls in tight white suits wiggle between the tables. There isn't a spare seat in the house. A pair of buxom women in deep decollates clamber onto a table full of whisky glasses and sculpted fruit to shake their stuff. Everyone is having a grand old time.
After about an hour of enthusiastic carnation flinging and clapping, our arms are tired and our ears are ringing. It's 4.30 a.m. - still time for one last stop on the night-train before we keel over. We cannot miss out on + Soda, the hottest house club in town, conveniently located beside a funfair. The bouncers are ultra cool and ultra condescending. Inside, bedraggled fashion victims are sprawled across the white vinyl sofas, but dozens of ecstatic ravers are still carving strange shapes in the air on the cavernous dance floor. Two bony girls in leopard-print bikinis flail their limbs atop a pair of podiums. The DJ looks like the captain of the Starship Enterprise as he works the wheels of steel behind a metallic control panel framed by giant space bubbles.
One more vodka tonic and we’re back on track, dancing for all we are worth. At 6.30 a.m., we’re having so much fun the bouncers practically have to beg us to leave.
Morning Has Broken
Outside, in the pinkish dawn, the sea shimmers invitingly. We contemplate a sobering skinny dip, but thankfully come to my senses. The traffic has eased up, but it's busy even now. We pull over at the first cantina, an all-night hot-dog stand especially designed for jaded clubbers like us. But as soon as we smell the sausages, we come over queasy. A bowl of patsas (tripe soup!) at the bloodshot Athens Meat Market is an even less appealing breakfast option. Instead, we stop at one of the 24-hour kiosks in Ommonia Square, pick up three litres of water, a couple of sesame koulouria, the Sunday papers, and call it another Athenian night.
Hello my sexy friends!
I always start my updates with apologies for being late with the update… not this time ;)
Our party commando was superb again! June was the month of the party places found in big shopping Malls. Normally at the beginning of summer we would visit more open-air clubs, but thanks for this really nice summer weather (16 degrees at night, and 200km/h wind) we opted for other kind of bars fenced from these storms.
So we quickly agree and pitch upon Mammut (big Mall in Budapest), since even four clubs can be found there, we start our trip there. So car, Szena Square, Mammut and the first round can come.
FEVER club (12:15 p.m.) These days rather the nice and pretty young people visit mostly this club. Well it is especially true for the girls. In the boys case it’s a different story: if you want to belong to the "cool guys" team, you’d better purchase upturned-necked shirt and smear a kilo gel on your hair. The entry fee is 2000 HUF, which can be drink down. The place gives the sixties Italian design trend feeling with square bar in the middle between comes the dancefloor for east-coast rhythms.
DOCK Café (1:10 a.m.) In the first round, we get to know the followings about this place: very trendy (this conclusion can be drawn from the sight of lots of people lining up), great safety (metal-detectors, big security guards in suites with earplugs, searching) and there is a high chance to run into celebrities. In the second round it also turns out it’s not allowed to take cameras in here ( they say it in advance, if it had been the reason for bringing the 10 kgs camera gear by chance). In the third round, yet inside, the place gives us a little bit of a cantee feeling, on the right side is a huge long bar - well actually it can be walked around - and on the left side are a lot of tables, although the furnishing is more like in the 70’s, and the dancefloor is at the back of the bar. The visitors are usually well-situated, yet the prices are very reasonable.
But now it’s time to move away.
So we lift up two stories and already pushing ourselves into the enourmously long line in front of Cuba Libre. There’s searching here as well, although the securties are really loose wearing sweaters, but the bar can be walked around here too. There’s not much difference from the previous places, only the red wall and many Che Guevara pictures, but we are not completely persuaded of the fact that a better Cuban disco looks the same. Dance is in the two ends of the place, only in theory, but rather nowhere in practic, even the walking causes difficulties. (But for sure, those who can not dance should take their girlfriends here, because this little secret will never reveal.) So we rather choose the bar too and unequivocally establish that the audience is the more mixed here. And also that the winter wear (don’t forget there’re stormes outside) is too much in 70 degrees! After sweating 2 kgs off we leave the place and amble to the opposite disco, Kameleon. We would have entered if we could have done that, but the place is FULL.
So let’s stay at Mammut and have the last drink at one of my favorits chill out cafes: Kilimandjaro. They have delicious sandwiches and the mango tea is unforgettable, but I double dare you tasting any kind of cakes there. On every Saturday the KENT promo boy and girl come to this Café and give out really cool CDs and lighters… even though I have never smoked I gladly score any of them.
In one year so many things has changed. Before 365 days we have not seen a single track of Britney Jean Spears. Although many maxi tracks were forced out from her last album, but her awakening film carrier has stagnated at the beginning. To cap this all, Britney’s bad-girl alterego, Christina Aguilera brings out wicked pop songs meanwhile, which put her to the top at once. It seemed like we lost sight of Britney… But Miss Spears can struggle. She get back as we liked her before and toped in with a bad-girl image. She started smoking, going to bars, and sometimes she even got high…and she came to Hungary and gave huge (?) concert.. at least 2 of her songs were not playback.
The fantabolous Sziget Festival 2004 is coming up again!
For the twelfth times this year Sziget Festival will welcome the visitors between August 4th and 11th. The international Culture-camp - with Hungary's joining to the EU - is an integral part and a determinative multicultural event of the cultural circulation of Europe.
This year the Festival offers - as the audience of Sziget is already used to it - over a thousand programmes at 60 venues including 5 big stages of different genres.
For its natural environment, the colourfulness of the programmes, the high standard services and last but not the least for its low prices the Festival has become very popular not only among local audiences but in Europe and even Overseas. By now it is widely known that Sziget is more than just a festival: Sziget is more festivals in one.
Updated confirmed acts for Sziget Festival 2004 are Basement Jaxx (UK), Anthrax (USA), In Flames, Faithless (UK), The Rasmus (FIN), Busta Rhymes (USA), Scissor Sisters (USA), Sugababes (UK), Bloodhound Gang (USA), Third World (Jamaica), Die Aerzte (D), Seeed (D) on the Main Stage, Roni Size (UK), Talvin Singh (UK), La Familia (F) and more on WAN2 Stage, Cannibal Corpse (USA), Saxon (UK), Grave Digger (D) on Hammer World Stage and Rachid Taha (F), Klezmatics (USA) and many more on djuice World Music Main Stage.
I will be definitely there, as I go in every year. Tickets are on sale!
Hugs to all of you,
Kata
