Exarcheia is the most argued-over quarter in Athens — the student and anarchist heartland, where the politics are painted on the walls and the cafés are really debating chambers with coffee. It rewards a reader's eye. Walk it in the afternoon, climb Strefi Hill before the light goes, and let the quarter explain itself.
Start in Plateia Exarcheion with a coffee and a look around. Then the bookshop streets off Themistokleous — the densest run of independents in the city — and the political murals of Tositsa and Stournari, which work less as decoration than as a running argument in paint. Read a few before you climb.
The foot of Strefi Hill is where the streets simply stop and a pine path takes over. Ten minutes up through switchbacks and the whole of Athens opens out, the Acropolis off to one side, the city at your feet. Locals bring a beer up at dusk. Come down the leafy far side onto Kallidromiou for a last café table, then Panepistimio is a short walk south.
