Although I may think Athens is beautiful, there are quite a few critics out there that claim it's way too overcrowded or unkept. These are definitely true, there are cement buildings that literally climb their way up the side of the mountains because there's no more space in the valley and it's not the cleanest city. BUT if Athens was the perfect neoclassical-European city we all want it to be like Rome or Paris, it wouldn't have half the character. The city is plastered in political and artistic graffiti that takes on its own culture. Artists will risk their lives painting these masterpieces on a building, billboard, subway car, any surface they can in order to express themselves. Once their work is up it belongs to the public, you don't have to pay an admission fee to a quite museum where pictures aren't allowed. Here are some of my favorites I have seen around (last one is a little up north, but I thought it was cool).