Before I was going to Athens, I thought I know a lot about Greece and Athens. Maybe it is because of i am living in an old Greek building but the facts were sadly opposite. The purpose of my visit to Greece was business and i lived there for 3 months. Those 3 months has taught me lots of things and changed my point of view.
Athens was bigger than i expected. Okay there is around 5 million people lives there but the area of the city is huge. From airport to central it takes at least 1 hour by metro if you are lucky to catch one, cause mostly there is a strike. Yeah, from my first day i faced with strike. It is a think like you support them innerly for their labour rights etc. but somehow also hate it cause it makes you late for work and as a foreigner,you don't know how to manage other transportation methods. Generally there is two option; wait until it comes or take a taxi. Mostly i prefer the second one at the beginning. By the way taxis and uber are realy cheap comparing with other European cities.
Strikes are part of the daily life in Athens. You should be prepared for it. If you are in Athens for vacation, it is a great city. Walk around the Acropolis, eat some gyros and souvlaki and have a good dinner with uzo in the streets of Monastraki. And if you want to see an anarchist neighourhood just take a bus and leave it at Exarchia. For me one of the best place in Athens. You can feel the freedom in the air and on the walls of buildings. They have really good street art on the walls and good weed in the Exarchia square. But be carefull, it can't be friendly for you.
For living i can't say Athens is the best. Every metropolis has its own problems but the problems i have seen in there depens on two things; Greek lazzines and economic crisis. Imagine banks are opening at 8 am and closing at 2pm. For me it was impossible to open a bank account for 2 weeks, finally i did it on my day off. Also the banking system is so slow and tortures you even for simple transactions. If you are not lucky to find a good flat with all included rent, you should get the bills on your name and it can take around 1 or 2 weeks. Just simple public duties are so hard to achieve. Many of the greeks blaming government officers for this slow bureaucracy. Cause there is no watchmen for their activities and they are not in rush to finish their daily jobs.
Those were the first impession for me in my second week. But after some time i realized these things were always the same for them. Athens is like stuck in 2004. Years have passed but they are still living in that time. Cars are old, buildings not renovated, things are getting darker and only thing they can do is blaming EU.
Most of the people in Athens are coming from islands. You can understand from their energy and gestures. They are more friendly than mainland Greeks -it is only my impression i don't want to offend anyone.-
Athens, once upon a time it was magnificent, you can understand from ruins and history books but nowadays it is like an old lady. Still beautiful but you can understand she has no joy and power for future.
In the end i quit my job - i don't want to quit but Greek government didn't give me a working visa because of my birthplace, yeah it happens in 2018- came back to my hometown. It is better to live in a old Greek house then living in Greece.