✈️ Athens (Not Your Typical Guide)
Street Art, Local Gems & No Touristy Fluff.
👋 Ciao, I'm Giulia Blocal, your street art insider. This is Beyond the Postcards, the travel side of Beyond the Walls, my long-running newsletter on street art, graffiti, off-the-beaten-path travel, and a bit of my life in between.
Each month, Beyond the Postcards takes us to a different city, diving into its street art scene and uncovering all those offbeat, overlooked places you won’t find in guidebooks (unless it’s one of mine 😉).
After Lisbon, this month we land in Athens 🇬🇷 the last stronghold in Europe for raw underground energy and thriving countercultures.
Let’s go!
Athens looks different depending on how you approach it.
From above, it’s a white sea of rooftops spilling down toward the horizon, where the Mediterranean glimmers in the distance. But at street level, the city is an explosion of color and texture: posters, installations, graffiti, stencils, murals. Every wall feels like it has something to say.
Hunting for street art here means chasing both the big and the small: monumental murals painted with precision, and quick, raw interventions that carry the urgency of protest.
And then there’s the graffiti (on the streets, on the trains, on the metro cars) raw and everywhere. Because Athens is one of the last strongholds in Europe where underground culture isn’t just alive, it’s thriving.
And so, subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t already, and let’s get started!
🇬🇷 In this Athens mini-guide you will find:
Athens’ Best Street Art Neighborhoods
My Favorite Museums & Art Galleries
Non-Touristy Spots You Shouldn’t Miss
Where to Eat & Drink Between Murals
My Interactive Athens Map
Books, Films, Music & Newsletters to Get in the Athens Mood
Athens’ Best Street Art Neighborhoods
Monastiraki:
At first glance, Monastiraki is all about souvenir shops, crowded squares, and the constant buzz of tourists. It’s one of the busiest parts of central Athens, and not exactly where you’d expect to find interesting street art. But if you’re willing to weave your way through the flocks of visitors and wander a little off the main shopping drag, you’ll notice walls covered in graffiti, stencils, and paste-ups, as well as some striking commissioned murals. This mix of raw, unsanctioned expression and curated interventions gives Monastiraki an edge that contrasts with its postcard image.
Gazi:
Developed around Athens’ former gas factory, Gazi is a neighborhood shaped by reinvention. Once an industrial zone, it has been reimagined as a cultural and nightlife hub, with the Municipality officially branding it as the city’s clubbing district. Today the area buzzes with bars, restaurants, and music venues, while the old gasworks (now Technopolis, a cultural complex) anchors the neighborhood’s identity.
Urban art played a big part in this transformation. Large-scale murals stretch along Pireos Street, turning blank walls into landmarks, while smaller unsanctioned pieces fill the backstreets with grit and color. Together, they weave into the story of a district where Athens’ industrial past collides with its creative present.
What makes Gazi interesting is precisely this mix: the contrast between sleek nightlife spaces and the raw, layered textures of a neighborhood still in transition.
Exarchia:
Often described as Athens’ “stronghold of anarchists,” Exarchia is the neighborhood that grew around the university and still beats with a radical, rebellious heart. Street art here is everywhere and unapologetically political: graffiti and murals that speak of resistance, solidarity, refugee rights, anti-fascism, and critiques of social injustice. The walls attract both internationally renowned artists and young crews from the suburbs who come armed with spray cans and something to say.
A must-see is Navarinou Park, a small lot once destined to become a parking garage but occupied by activists who transformed it into a self-managed garden under the slogan “their parking, our park.” Overlooked by a towering mural by BLU, the park is a perfect snapshot of Exarchia’s spirit.
What I love about this neighborhood goes beyond the street art: it’s the communal energy, the sense of pride, the mutual support that runs through its streets. Exarchia is home to students, politicized youth, intellectuals, and left-wing movements, a mix reflected in its bookshops, vinyl stores, co-ops, no-frills cafés, and alternative businesses. It’s messy, alive, and endlessly thought-provoking.
Psyrri:
Once notorious for its rough edges and criminal past, Psyrri underwent a dramatic makeover in the run-up to the 2004 Olympics. The transformation turned it into one of Athens’ most fashionable districts, packed with stylish bars, restaurants, and boutique hotels. At night, the area hums with energy and is a magnet for tourists looking for nightlife in the city center.
But Psyrri isn’t just about cocktails and neon lights. By day, large-scale murals appear on building façades, blending the area’s gritty history with its trendier present. My recommendation is to step off the main streets and let the layers of Psyrri’s identity unfold!
Metaxourgeio:
A neighborhood of contrasts: gritty yet artistic, rough around the edges yet slowly reinventing itself. Once known for its “trainspotting-esque” vibe, in recent years it has welcomed hip restaurants, contemporary art galleries, and commissioned murals that have softened its reputation without erasing its raw character.
What makes Metaxourgeio stand out, though, is its enduring village-like feel. Life here revolves around Avdi Square, where you can sip coffee among locals, artists, and passersby. Wander down the cobbled pedestrian alleys and you’ll find an easygoing rhythm that feels worlds away from the city’s fast pace. Despite its changing face, Metaxourgeio still manages to preserve an authenticity that makes it one of Athens’ most intriguing areas to explore.
Vyronas:
Although technically not an actual “neighborhood,” Vyronas feels like a seamless extension of Athens thanks to the city’s sprawling growth. The area has carved out its own place on the street art map, hosting numerous works produced during the Vyronas Street Art Festival. Large-scale murals cover residential blocks and public spaces, adding bold splashes of creativity to an otherwise everyday urban setting.
The neighborhood’s mix of quiet, residential streets and striking artworks makes Vyronas a reminder that street art in Athens isn’t confined to the center, it thrives in the peripheries too, where local communities and visiting artists leave their mark side by side.
🎨 🏛 My Favorite Museums & Art Galleries in Athens.
🏛 Museums
National Sculpture Gallery
Housed in two buildings of the former royal stables, this annex of the National Gallery displays 19th- and 20th-century Greek sculpture, plus a small outdoor park with more contemporary sculpture pieces. (plus a stunning urban art piece by Wild Drawings that wraps all the way around a monopteros!)
Many Athenians don’t even know it exists, or don’t make the trip out to this suburban corner, which is exactly why I love it. It’s one of those overlooked gems you can have almost entirely to yourself.
Industrial Museum Gazi
Located in the old Athens gasworks in the Gazi district, this museum tells the story of the city’s industrial heritage through preserved machinery, archival material, and guided walks across the plant’s original structures.
Pireos 138 (Benaki Museum)
The Benaki Museum is one of Greece’s most important museums, with multiple branches across Athens. The main building houses an outstanding collection that spans Greek history from antiquity to the 20th century, while satellite spaces focus on Islamic art, contemporary culture, and more.
My favourite Benaki space is Pireos 138, a striking industrial-style building dedicated to large-scale temporary exhibitions, often showcasing contemporary art, photography, and design.
Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art
An international contemporary art hub housed in a repurposed sock factory. The DESTE Foundation is known for its thought-provoking exhibitions, often working with leading global artists and curators.
Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center
Founded in 1988, this pioneering private art space hosts exhibitions by established and emerging artists, covering everything from painting and sculpture to installation and new media.
🎨 Art Galleries
Delirium Athens - Athens’ only gallery dedicated entirely to urban art, founded by local graffiti writer The KRAH. Starting in the 1990s with the respected 101 crew, The Krah developed his graffiti style between Athens and London, where he lived for 20 years. His gallery hosts temporary exhibitions, often group shows built around a theme, featuring works by both Greek and international artists with street backgrounds.
Breeder Gallery - Housed in a former 1970s ice-cream factory, The Breeder has transformed the space into a hub for cutting-edge contemporary art, nurturing some of the most innovative voices in the field. In the past, they’ve also produced several murals in the surrounding Metaxourgheio area.
TAF (The Art Foundation) - Housed in a restored neoclassical building in Monastiraki, TAF combines a contemporary art space with a courtyard café and design shop, making it as much a social spot as a gallery.
🚂 ⛰️ 📖 Non-Touristy Spots You Shouldn’t Miss in Athens:
🚂 Explore Athens Beyond the Postcards (ha!)
Santiago Calatrava’s Olympic Sports Complex
Designed by Santiago Calatrava for the 2004 Olympic Games, the sweeping steel-and-glass structures of the Olympic Sports Complex are a striking example of neo-Futurist architecture. The most famous element, nicknamed the “skeleton,” arches dramatically over the main walkway, giving the site an almost otherworldly presence.
Locals have mixed feelings about the complex: the Games came with a huge price tag, and many of these impressive structures stood abandoned for years before a slow process of repurposing began. The result is a place where bold architectural ambition meets the quiet stillness of neglect — and, let’s just say, urbex lovers know what I mean.
Athens’ Monumental Cemetery (First Cemetery of Athens)
More than a resting place, this is Greece’s largest sculptural park: an open-air display of ornate tombs, marble statues, and monuments to poets, politicians, and artists.
The cemetery sits in Mets, which to me is the most beautiful neighborhood in Athens. It’s a leafy, elegant area with neoclassical houses, quiet streets, and small cafés, all set against the backdrop of the city’s hills. Mets feels both central and tucked away, with a calm charm that makes wandering here a pleasure before or after visiting the cemetery.
Hellenic Parliament Library
Once an industrial powerhouse, this 1930s tobacco factory was restored and transformed into a contemporary cultural centre, hosting art exhibitions, events, and housing the parliament’s publishing departments. The library supports Greece’s parliamentary work with vast collections of rare books, manuscripts, newspapers, and more.
The reading room is open to visitors during set hours, offering a quiet space to consult materials or work discreetly from your laptop. 🧑💻
Theater Train at Rouf
Only in Athens: a strange and wonderful cultural venue made from vintage train carriages parked at Rouf station. One car is a restaurant, another’s a bar, and others host music, theatre, and art performances—plus a platform-open-air bar in summer.
⛰️ Hiking in Athens (with striking views!)
Athens has no shortage of panoramic hilltops, but these two are my favourites:
Lycabettus Hill - Athens’s highest natural lookout! Climb (or take the funicular) for sweeping panoramas of the city’s skyline and the Aegean beyond.
Strefi Hill - A quieter favorite among locals, this rugged little green hill in Exarchia provides amazing views over Athens without the usual crowd. At sunset, it feels like you’ve found a secret perch in the city. 🌇
Mount Hymettos - Where you can find graffiti as old as the alphabet! Rising just beyond Athens, the mountain feels both part of the city and apart from it—close to the urban sprawl, yet removed from its bustle. For centuries, Hymettos has been in conversation with the people who lived around it, preserving their marks in stone and clay.
At the sanctuary of Zeus Ombrios, around 170 graffiti on pottery fragments from the late 8th to early 6th century BC stand among the earliest alphabetic writings in Attica, emphasizing the act of inscription itself. Further south, near Vari, more than 2,000 rock carvings from the 6th century BC record names and figures, linking the pastoral landscape to memories of Athens’ earliest temples.
Alongside the ancient carvings and modern graffiti outside, 18th-century French archaeologists also carved their names into the cave at Vari—a gesture not unlike that of today’s writers, who continue to inscribe the mountain, from road signs to old walls and abandoned warehouses.
📖 Indie Shops
Hyper Hypo - A bold art-and-design bookstore championing contemporary visual culture with curated international and Greek titles on art, photography, graphic design, film, and pop culture. They also host talks, readings, performances, and exhibitions in their project space.
Desired Landscapes - A pocket-sized bookstore in central Athens that celebrates the poetic side of urban life: visual culture, typography, oral history, and local wanderings. They also organize intimate city walks and field trips rooted in design and storytelling.
The Athens Zines Bibliotheque - A unique zine library housing hundreds of independent and artist-made publications from Greece and around the world. The space regularly opens its archive for zine lovers to browse, discover, and contribute. 📅 Good to know: visits are by appointment only.
Greek Graffiti Library - A curated archive dedicated to graffiti publications in Greece. Curated by graffiti writer RTM, it showcases niche, graffiti-focused print culture. 📅 Good to know: visits are by appointment only.
O Meteoritis - An independent bookstore in scruffy-hip Kypseli, stocked with contemporary Greek literature, plus books in English and French, graphic novels, poetry, and second-hand finds. The warm, vintage-lit interiors regularly host readings and events, making it a local favourite.
Bok Choy - Part gallery, part studio, part boutique, Bok Choy is a concept art space in Athens that sells ethical, cruelty-free, and slow-fashion items. Expect handmade jewellery, stickers, ceramics, and more in a creative, hybrid setting.
🍴🫒☕ Where to Eat & Drink Between Murals
🍴Ergon Bakehouse: Stylish Eatery in Monastiraki
Here you can try a variety of Greek dishes, with the baked goods being a standout. Don’t miss the peynirly, a pizza originally from Turkey—it’s a must! They also have plenty of vegetarian options. The venue is a hotel too, and there’s a stunning mural by INO at the entrance, adding to the charm of the place.
🫒 The Food Market That Has It All: Athens’ Central Market
Housed in an eclecticist metal structure built in 1880, the Athens Central Market is a landmark in the city’s architectural, economic, and social history. Inside, stalls overflow with fresh produce, while the surrounding streets are lined with tavernas, wine bars, and cafés.
I often head to Alexandrino or Maxairitsa for their no-frills charm, but honestly, every taverna in and around the market serves food that’s as fresh as it gets.
🕗 The market is open only in the morning; the tavernas stay open all day.
🍷 Gary: Arts, Books & Wine Project
A much-loved creative hangout that brings together a bookstore (with titles in both Greek and English), a bistro, and a wine bar in one warm, laid-back space. Run by an art collective, it’s powered by a group of friendly, welcoming people who make visitors want to return often.
🌱 Vegan Restaurants in Athens
Mama Tierra - A modern vegan restaurant known for its warm, unassuming ambiance and inventive plant‑based takes on Greek classics like coconut béchamel moussaka and mushroom souvlaki.
The Joshua Tree Cafe - A bright, vegetarian-friendly café offering a healthy menu in a beautiful setting. Right on one of my favorite streets in the city.
Veganaki - A chic and airy spot specializing in honest-to-goodness vegan Greek fare. Think generous portions of vegan feta sandwiches, pastitsio, and fresh pomegranate juice for a vitamin kick.
☕ Cafés and Tea Rooms in Athens
Peonia - A cheery tea and coffee house with a relaxed vibe, one of my all-time favorite spots in Athens!
Santo Belto - Kipseli’s hipster hangout, offering standout brunch, excellent coffee, fresh seasonal dishes, and natural wines. All enjoyed in a nice setting with artisanal goods on display.
Bel Ray - An aesthetic yet cozy café-bar in Koukaki, pairing friendly service with a laid-back, hip atmosphere.
Little Tree - A charming book café where it’s easy to get lost in a good read, surrounded by a cozy atmosphere.
🗺️ My Interactive Athens Map
As a subscriber, you have access to all my street art Google Maps.
You can always find the link to the map archive in the footer of each email newsletter👇
Just scroll down and click the button that says ‘Here are ALL my maps.’
🎥♫💌 Books, Videos, Music & Newsletters to Get in the Athens Mood
📖 “The history of graffiti in Greece 1984 - 1994” by Charitonas Tsamantakis (research), edited by Orestis Pangalos, Futura Publications (Athens, 2016)
A remarkable bilingual (Greek and English) volume that offers a unique window into the origins and early development of Greek graffiti culture. It’s packed with rare photos (many from the 1980s) featuring breakdance crews, NYC-inspired sketches, backpieces, and early graffiti pieces by Greek writers, in Athens and beyond.
🎥 “A Youth" is a short documentary film by Giorgio Bosisio, focusing on an aspiring teenage Afghan rapper stuck in Athens with his friends. The film explores how these young individuals use music and poetry to navigate their circumstances and find meaning in their lives.
Watch the full movie 👇
🎥 1UP taking over Athens in a cinematic clip by the one and only Selina Miles (I’ve shared it before, but it’s still every bit as captivating)
♫ This is a stunning video blending Greek graffiti with music. Even though I can't read the Greek language, I absolutely love it:
♫ They may be from Thessaloniki, not Athens, but the synth-pop duo Marsheaux is my go-to soundtrack whenever I travel to Greece:
💌 Finally, a few Athens-based newsletters to keep the inspiration going:
That’s my Athens, or -at least- the version of it I’ve pieced together through its walls, backstreets, and long conversations over iced coffee. I hope it inspires you to step off the beaten path, take a closer look, and maybe even get a little lost.
Next time, I’ll take you somewhere very different ⏭️ London.
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I’m trying to find the free map of Athens street art — but it has disappeared. Anyone got the link?
Ευχαριστώ (thanks) for including my newsletter! 😊