{"id":78,"date":"2025-06-22T21:39:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/?p=78"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:04:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:04:31","slug":"lexikopoleio-a-place-that-travels-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/2025\/06\/22\/lexikopoleio-a-place-that-travels-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Lexikopoleio: A “Place that Travels You”"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

by Annalisa Jenkins<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Diamantis Diamantidis says he works at \u201ca crossroads.\u201d

Lexikopoleio, the bookstore where he serves as events coordinator, sells books in Greek, English and French, and attracts visitors from all over. Our first week in Athens, Vivien, Noah and I walked into Lexikopoleio hoping to buy a notebook and were surprised to hear boisterous English from the corner. It was Wednesday\u2014we had stumbled upon the English book club.

Clocking us as English-speakers, Diamantidis waved us over to join, unrelenting even as we explained that none of us had heard of the book. We listened for 45 minutes as they discussed Perfection, a novella by Italian author Vincenzo Latronico that follows a couple of digital nomads as they make a life in Berlin.

It was a fitting choice. The group\u2014Greek locals and expats from the US, Ireland, Argentina and the Netherlands\u2014discussed what it meant to live and work abroad. We couldn\u2019t help glancing at each other as they criticized the couple for their role in Berlin\u2019s gentrification and for not learning German. Very few had themselves learned Greek (and neither had we).

Since just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Diamantidis\u2014who grew up in Pangrati\u2014has noticed expats flocking to the neighborhood. The Greek government is working to attract wealthy foreigners as the Greek birth rate drops. With Greece\u2019s aging population, \u201ceven with zero unemployment, only 45 percent of the population [could] earn money and pay taxes and social security contributions,\u201d Greek journalist John Psaropoulos wrote in a February article for his substack Hellenica.

Greece has implemented a number of programs to bring in foreigners, including tax incentives for retirees who pledge to invest large sums and a \u201cDigital Nomad Visa.\u201d The Digital Nomad Visa allows remote workers to stay in Greece for up to a year, with the possibility of annual renewal. It is \u201cideal if you\u2019re not ready for a long-term commitment but want to explore Greek culture and lifestyle,\u201d an article on the government \u201cworkfromgreece.gr\u201d website says.

The front page of the same government website, reading like an ad, asks blatantly, \u201cHow can we tempt you?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\"\"(photo credit: workfromgreece.gr)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These incentives for short-term residents come as Greece faces a housing crisis. According to a 2024 OECD report, from\u00a0 2017-2024, housing costs rose by 69%. Greeks spend more on housing\u2014an average of 35% of their income\u2014than anywhere else in Europe, <\/span>the Greek Analyst wrote in a recent substack article.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This increase is due, in part, \u201c<\/span>to the increasing share of non-resident buyers in the Greek real estate market,\u201d the OECD report said. More than 70% of AirBnB listings in central Athens are owned by hosts with two or more listings\u2014people are making a business of buying up homes and renting them out at high prices to tourists and short-term residents, the Greek Analyst said.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The \u201cAirbnbification of Athens\u201d can become \u201ca socio-economic nightmare for people priced out of their old neighborhoods,\u201d the Greek Analyst wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

At the book club, when an American asked the group what would happen when they (the expats) were priced out of Athens with the next round of transplants\u2014as had happened to the characters in Berlin\u2014a Greek member of the group laughed sardonically and responded, \u201cask the Athenians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Exploring this pull for Western implants felt particularly dissonant as we spent class time learning about the ultra-right wing Greek Migration Ministry\u2019s quest to shut Greece’s borders to migrants.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Around Pangrati, graffiti decries this dichotomy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"
(photo credit: Vivien Wong)<\/p>\r\n

\"\"(photo credit: Noah Labelle)<\/p>\r\n

Like Lexikopoleio, Greece itself is a crossroads situated between the East, whose Ottoman influence it tries to forget and whose migrants it rejects, and the West into which it has integrated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But Diamantidis is proud of the international community that he has helped to cultivate. <\/span>Lexikopoleio is a place that \u201ctravels you\u2014through the books\u201d and \u201cwith the conversations,\u201d he said, sitting in a small nook surrounded by shelves.<\/span><\/p>\r\n




<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Annalisa Jenkins Diamantis Diamantidis says he works at \u201ca crossroads.\u201d Lexikopoleio, the bookstore where he serves as events coordinator, sells books in Greek, English and French, and attracts visitors from all over. Our first week in Athens, Vivien, Noah and I walked into Lexikopoleio hoping to buy a notebook and were surprised to hear … <\/p>\n

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