Our stay was peaceful, interesting, rewarding while simultaneously provoking a sense of wonder, curiosity and joyful-sorrow. Plaka is a small village in the midst of a massive city with oases of peace and beauty around the corner, even if in the midst of gross materialism and vanity. We will return soon to experience this paradox. And the Athenian Home was a fitting place to stay for this purpose, as it embodied this strange wonder as well. The home was at once warm and cold: warm and cozy, a peaceful three story refuge from the bustle, yet cold, full of modern art, void of images of heaven (it would deserve 5 stars if an icon of Christ or the Theotokos was on a wall, any wall), and incongruous with the rich spiritual and intellectual history of not only “Athens” but in particular Plaka — a place which retains so many continuities with the past, roots deep in the soil of the pious Romoi. Still, we appreciated it nontheless for its cleanliness, simplicity and great location.