Athens Bouzoukia bars & clubs
With more than 3000000 people in the Athens basin,
Greece's capital has a very active night life. Like every other big
city in Europe Athens has everything to offer for every age. the
young ones prefer the bars the so called "barakia" in Greek. Those are
pub style places with loud mainstream music or latest Greek modern
music. The most popular outing of the Athenians though, are the famous
Bouzoukia place. The Bouzoukia a few decades back was a place for the
proletariat and the lower classes. Since the middle sixties Bouzoukia
with the promotion of the Greek popular music Laika and the films of
the Greek cinema have become the main entertainment for all ages.
The new type of Bouzoukia places though, has nothing to do with the old
ones. Light effects, loud music, ballets, fancy clothes and
expensive prices. In the old Bouzoukia you could enjoy the most
famous singers and bouzouki players with the whole
family with a kilo of retsina and some lamb chops or a bottle of 3 stars
cheap cognac, today you must pay an arm and leg for a
bottle of whisky, some fruits and nuts. That's why many Greeks when go
to bouzoukia usually they will share the bill. As an alternative to bouzoukia there are many restaurants and
taverns that have a couple of musicians, usually a bouzouki and one
guitar and you can enjoy good
Greek music while dinning. Unfortunatelly live music in those places you will find mostly
Fridays and Saturdays.
For the tourists that travel to
Greece and want to get to know the local way of life, the main places of night activity is the area of Plaka and the area of Psiri and Thission
near and around the Acropolis, in Plaka, once the centre of
the Athenian nightlife still some restaurants offer syrtaki and
bouzouki shows for the tourists. Psyrri a former scruffy area of any
kind of handicraft shops next to Monastiraki flea market, became during the late
90's the replacement of Plaka with numerous restaurants, taverns and
bars attracting a huge part of the Athens night outing, another
place of nightlife with many bars and upmarket restaurants is the Thission area , mostly for the younger generations.
A good magazine about knowing events, places, clubs, restaurants and
all kind of entertainment in Athens is the Athinorama. Within this
magazine you will find all the addresses and telephones of all of the
above businesses like bars, clubs, restaurants, theatres, music
halls ech.
If you want a taste of the new style of Greek floor show try
Asteria in Glyfada at 2 G.Lambraki street, another one is at the
centre of Athens in 48 Panepistimiou street at the former REX
theatre with floor show and famous Greek singers like in Asteria. In
both places the price for a bottle of whisky cost between 160-180
euro. For more humble occasions you can try taverns with live Greek
music like the good old taverns in Plaka ,Sissyfos at
Mnisikleous street 31, or To perivoli tou Ouranou at 19
Lysicratous street near Hadrian's Arch.

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