36 Hours in Athens

Ioanna Kakissis writes that although for years, Athens was little more than a one-night stand on the way to the Greek isles, it is now reinventing itself as a city where antiquity meets edginess. In her article, she proposes a 36 hour tour of Athens, abound with walks in parks, hikes in nearby mountains, visits to museums and of course outings to night clubs, restaurants and cafes. Concretized and crowded, she says, Athens lived off its archaeological sites and dirty-dancing-on-tables night life. But now a visit has become more than just a quickie for the sake of the Parthenon. Museums and galleries abound, and new ones are in the works. Late this year, the New Acropolis Museum, designed by the New York-based architect Bernard Tschumi, is scheduled to open at the foot of the ancient citadel. Not a bad warm-up for Mykonos.