Last weekend I went to Thessaloniki in Greece. Quite a cool city, though it was pretty dead due to the Easter weekend....
Anyway, there is lots to see even if nothing is going on, and just hanging by the water in the sunshine was a great feeling after winter in land locked Kosovo.
All over town there are relics of former empires and traditions, it was fascinating to see so much heritage on almost every street... however I got the feeling that with so much of it, it was in danger of losing its appeal, especially to locals.
This was evidenced by the general feeling of crowding around many of these objects, development encroaching on churches and ruins all over town.
At what point do you simply have to stop providing appropriate space around historical buildings and allow a modern city to develop and flourish?
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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When we went to Athens I was very disappointed by the appearance of the city. It feels like civilization has gone backwards rather than forwards in Greece - the ancient buildings are so beautiful and elegant the new ones so hideous. Could they introduce a planning provision so that all new developments have to be mock-ancient?
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