By Bob Van Leer

  (ATHENS, Saturday, May 30, 1987) - Today we started the morning with a short briefing on Greek politics and then the day was free. We spent most of the day visiting the Flea Market area of old Athens in the company of Paul and Marie Creviere of Depere, Wisconsin, whom we met last year on a tour of South Africa.

  The Flea Market area is composed of tiny shops on narrow streets set up for the benefit of tourists. Tourism, we are informed, dropped 50 percent in 1985 after hijackings and bombings. It is now coming back, although not yet up to former levels. This is serious because tourism is the largest income earner here.

  The shops sell a mixture of local and imported crafts. There is a lot of brassware and much ceramics; many are reproductions of ancient designs.

  Curiously, there is a heavy trade in furs. Curious, because this is a warm climate. Much of downtown is old, but mixed in with the shops are much older buildings such Byzantine churches. At one edge of the Flea Market are the ruins of Hadrian's Library. Visible through many cross streets is the Acropolis, the hill dominating Athens with the jewel of the Parthenon on its top.

  Prices we find to be not outrageous, but high. Traffic is heavy and drivers are not very polite. We noticed a number of women dressed in black and were informed that this was mourning dress. For a not-too-close relative mourning might be for three months. But a woman is supposed to wear mourning for her late husband for the rest of her life.

  Tomorrow we are to go on a bus tour of the city.