The above is a legal sex studio somewhere in the centre of Athens. This is the Greek equivalent of an illegal massage parlour in Canada, especially famous in Chinatowns around the country. Prostitution has been legal in Greece since During my last stay in the city centre, I decided to take the deal on trivago and stay at a cheaper hotel just south of the ever-popular Omonia Square, known for its seediness and abundance of purse snatchers. I knew and confirmed the drill with a taxi driver.
The taxi brought me to the hotel using a side road whose houses looked abandoned by its original owners and that was now a liveable pseudo-haven for south Asians. All this being said, Athens is one of the safest cities in Europe and the most affordable in western Europe.
Central Athens is always close to the Acropolis, almost always visible no matter where you are. This is an example of a street we passed by. At the time, I made a mental note that thus was simply a bunch of abandoned buildings. And although squatting would have been possible as another option, brothels never would. And the owners of the brothels were not pimps but simply government workers. The diaspora on the streets was not profiting from the brothels, the government and the employees were.
This building apparently has multiple brothels. This is where we should make the distinction between brothels more popularly known as bordellos and studios. Brothels are mostly hidden and the clients know about them by word of mouth. This seems odd since they are all supposed to be legal. And being legal consists of medical testing bi-weekly. This is very important because those not passing the tests can no longer work legally.
This may explain their hush hush existence and lower prices. I started realising early on in my stay that my hotel was one of the popular ones for call girls to make outcalls to because of its location. The hotel was respectable and quite clean. It seemed a bit secretive, but I blamed that on a lack of motivation by the staff. The agency would give you peace of mind that these girls were well-bahaved, clean, and would not bleed you dry when you were sleeping.
