Athenian for a Day (or Two)

 Wednesday November 23rd-Saturday November 26th, 2022

Our road trip finishes off in Athens after a roughly 4 hour, mostly highway, drive from Meteora. The weather continues to be on our side. Apparently it rained all day in Athens but by the time we checked in to our hotel, it had cleared right up. 

Athens is a big city - nearly half of the entire population of Greece lives in the area (approx. 5 million). Compared to everywhere else we've been to date, it's busy. Typical big city busy. Our hotel is in a great location, smack dab in the middle of the action, a stone's throw away from the Acropolis and anything else we might want to see. It's on a bit of a sketchy side street, but turns out almost all the streets in Athens are sketchy side streets.

Graffiti, unsurprisingly is bad here. Very bad! And given the economic state of Greece over the last while, many things are in a state of disrepair or abandonment. On the flip side, other things are very much updated and upscale. It's a weird mix. This was also the case in the other places, but feels much more "in your face" here in Athens.

We arrived after dark and so spent our first evening just roaming around, trying to get our bearings. The Acropolis is well lit so that's lovely to see, but other things, not so much. Lots of shops, markets, restaurants, cafes and rooftop bars to let you have a drink and admire the Acropolis from up high. We do hit up a rooftop for a drink before having gelato for dinner, across the street from our hotel. 

Thursday morning we have another guided tour. There was a bit of a mixup as our itinerary said 10am and so we went out for a bit beforehand and came back just before 10am, but the guide had 9:30am and had been waiting for us all that time. Not sure what happened. In the end, no big deal, but pretty sure she was sitting in the lobby when we went out for our walk (not that I would have known who she was at the time). Her name is Dorina and she will take us on a long walking tour of the Ancient Greek Agora, the Acropolis and through the old part of the city - Plaka. 

The Agora is very interesting as that is where most of the history happened. It was the city centre, the parliament, the court etc... where all the action happened. The most well preserved temple in all of Greece is located here as well as the reconstructed marketplace which now houses the museum. It is thought that the prison here was where Socrates was held and eventually sentenced to death via hemlock poison. 

The Acropolis, where the Parthenon and a few other temples are, is majestic but was primarily used for religious purposes and festivals to honour the Gods (particularly Athena - duh). Walking up through the gates, it's impressive to feel the size of it. All marble. And the view from there is incredible. All 360 degrees. From there you also see Mars' rock where St-Paul preached to the Athenians before moving on to Corinth and also where they held the murder trials. Talk about a multipurpose rock!

The city of Athens itself is not much to marvel at. Everyone had warned me and it is as described. Between the graffiti and the rundown buildings, the architecture isn't overly appealing either. Some neo-classical that's been remodeled but alot of ugly buildings. If it wasn't for some interesting churches and fun winding narrow streets, outside of the shopping and eating streets, it's so-so. 

After our tour with Dorina we hit up a place for some souvlaki and then continue touring with another archeological site stop - Hadrian's library and then up to the parliament gardens. Unfortunately the interesting parts of it were closed off so not much luck there. Scott tried to lead us to another site - the ancient cemetery and ancient city walls and did get us there, but took the absolute longest route possible! Turns out it was just down the street, not 5 minutes from our hotel. But took us a good 20 to get there LOL. By the time we did find it, it was closing soon, so we'll go back tomorrow.

Now it's about 5pm and aside from lunch, we've been walking for basically 8 hours. Some rest is in order and then dinner at a fun, modern Greek cuisine spot that was recommended by the girl at reception. I wasn't hungry, but it was a fun vibe and the food looked good and interesting. Feta donuts anyone? We also fell upon a VERY festive holiday themed cafe? We're really not sure what it was... there were people and tables, but it might also have been a shop. It was huge and had multiple sections. Whatever it was, it was hardcore Christmas!

Friday, our last day, was supposed to end with a cooking lesson and dinner with a local family. Unfortunately we decided to cancel that because of my unreliable appetite and Scott not eating before a flight. So we now have the entire day to do anything. Of course we hit the beach! (Or at least head towards it).

We hop on the metro for about a 20 min ride to the port of Athens in Piraeus. Emerging from the station you're hit with massive cruise ships everywhere. The local port and beaches are on the other side of town so we head that way. Not before stopping in a church that caught my attention. And WOW-WEE what a church! They've all been fascinating and interesting, but this one was stunning! Not an inch was bare from iconogaphy or imagery. It must have been recently refinished because all the colours were bright. It was breathtaking.

The port was full of yachts. Very nice, very big and very very very expensive yachts! I just kept thinking - how much money is floating in this port right now? One was so big, it pulled into it's spot (instead of backing in like all the others). BONKERS! 

Just down from there was a local beach. Rocky, but the water was nice. Had it not been so far it would have been nice to go for a swim, there were a number of people out swimming. But alas... over 2 weeks here and didn't go swimming once. Shame on me!

We then spent a good 90 minutes or more searching for Jurassic Park! You see, we noticed these posters in town for "Dinosaurs Live" in Athens and when we looked it up, there is supposed to be an exhibit of life-size animatronic dinosaurs at the old Olympic stadium. HELL YES!!! SIGN US UP!!! The stadium was less than a mile from where we were so we head that way. And we searched EVERYWHERE. No dinosaurs. Not even a sign or a poster of a dinosaur. So weird! I even asked a lady and she didn't know anything about it. There was no indication of any sort that the exhibit was there. So no idea. It had to be somewhere else, but the website 100% pointed us to the stadium. Sad day. We really wanted to see the dinosaurs :(

Another full day of walking is wrapped up with an evening of power shopping for me. Some live music, met some nice people and had an insane dessert thing. Yes it was delicious, no I didn't finish it. The weather remained perfect. But then it is time to pack it up. The car comes to get us at 9:45am tomorrow and after over 2 weeks of fun in the Sun and traveling about Cyprus and Greece, it's now time to come home. 

Cyprus and Greece are beautiful countries. The weather is amazing. The food is out of this world (bring your appetite because the portions are insane). If you like history, there is more than enough to fill anyone's interests (and I highly recommend using guides to help fill in the gaps and help you understand where you are and what you're looking at) and if you don't, the scenery and culture are wonderful too. It's going to be a big day back (over 24 hours) but it will be nice to sleep in my own bed again soon!