Journalist and flaneur Nikos Vatopoulos recently wrote in Kathimerini about the signs on old storefronts. The piece is, of course, excellent, but I find myself drawn to the photograph of the glass door of a closed corner shop. With its colorful, naive lettering, the shop looks innocent: I have nothing to hide, it seems to say. Look, I even have a glass door.
I contrast it with a new phenomenon I have noticed in Athens: Airbnbs with window bars. I don’t know if you have seen them. They are ground-floor or basement apartments that have been renovated – meaning that their uniqueness has been erased in favor of functionality. Goodbye terrazzo floors. Goodbye wooden balcony doors, goodbye flowerpots and unprotected windows with simple glass panes. Goodbye Athens. Hello nowhereland. Rooms you recognize before you have even stepped off the plane, because they are the same everywhere. Tiles for easy cleaning, a kettle, decoration with AI-generated paintings. And now: bars.
At the Airbnb near my home (which is not mine – I rent), the renovation was completed overnight. Two ground-floor apartments became short-term rentals. The bars cover the entire entrance. On the side there is one of those lockboxes containing a key. They radiate suspicion.
