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Athens, Greece Day 1
This trip really snuck up on Sarah and I. When we booked it, it felt like it was so far away and then before we knew it, we were on the plane. We left on Wednesday, April 24th and spent all day traveling. We arrived at our hostel around 2am on the morning of the 25th. Greece is two hours ahead of Belfast, so it felt like 12am to us which was our only saving grace. The hostel was called SmallFunnyWorld and it was pretty much right in the center of the city which was nice. Walking to it at 2am though, I didn't get the best first impression from Athens. I immediately noticed the excess of graffiti that covered the buildings and the few amounts of people, mostly males, who were in the streets. We made it to our hostel safely, checked in, and went to bed.
We woke up in the morning and grabbed our free hostel breakfast, if you can even call it that, as it was pretty much bread, olives and feta cheese (of which I only like bread), so I had a pretty carb-filled meal. We got ready and then set out to explore for the day. We were so lucky with the weather for this entire trip because it was around 80 degrees and sunny each day. The only unfortunate thing about that was the fact I had to wear sunblock every day. At first we just walked around the area by our hostel to see it during the daytime, and it was actually a pretty cute area. There were a bunch of small shops and restaurants. Then we made our way to our first historic stop, the Acropolis.
In order to get there, we walked through an adorable part of Athens called Plaka. It's basically a section of the city that's built on stairs and has restaurants on each side of the stairs with seating on the stairs. It was a very charming little area. The rest of the walk up to the Acropolis was very beautiful as well. A overlooking view of the city began peaking through the trees and plants. We went to buy our tickets for the historic sites around Athens (as they came in a bundle) and were pleasantly surprised to discover that our student discount actually meant free tickets!
The first clearing we came to at the top overlooked some kind of arena ruins as well as the densely populated city of Athens. It looked like a sea of buildings spanning for miles. We continued to the very top where the remains of the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, and a few other ruins stood. The view from the top was the most surreal view I had experienced up until that point in my life. The Parthenon in the forefront, an ancient Greek structure, with the sea of buildings in the background. I could've stared at that view for hours. We took a whole bunch of pictures, took in the views, and then headed back down to the city.
On our way down we passed an older Greek man sitting to the side with his guitar. Sarah and I were passing by when he asked us where we were from, we stopped and told him, and then he asked us to sit across from him for "just two minutes." He said a couple other things to us, but his accent was so thick that neither of us could really make our what he was saying. Then he started to serenade us. He sure was no American Idol winner, but he was very sweet and you could tell he was very passionate about his music which was a joy to watch. When he finished we thanked him, gave him a small tip, and continued down to the city. We walked down a long road that had small street vendors on both sides selling mostly antiques and jewelry. Another thing I quickly learned about Athens is the fact that if you are walking by a restaurant, you need to be prepared to be attacked. Everyone wants you to come to their restaurant, and will literally try and stand in your way to tell you all the reasons you should eat there.
Walking through the city center, not only did we have to fend off waiters from restaurants, but also Jamaican guys. There were a whole bunch of them promoting an event they were holding that night and they all had a fistful of bracelets. One approached us and offered us each a bracelet, we said no and then he proceeded to say it was free and before we could walk away one guy grabbed my wrist and another grabbed Sarah's and tied bracelets onto them. They said some kind words, and then of course, asked for a donation. "€10, €20, whatever you heart is willing to give". I almost had to laugh. First of all, you stick bracelets we didn't want onto our wrists, and then you ask for that much money? It really was comical, but I refused to give him more than sixty cents.
We stopped for lunch at a place called The Greco Project which was in the city center. This was our first experience of how dining works in Greece. Unlike what I'm used to, you can seat yourself pretty much everywhere, and someone will bring a menu over to you. Someone will come back to take your order, and then once you are brought your food and your bill (which they often bring at the same time), you don't see your waiter again and often have to get up and find them to pay. We also quickly learned that they will sometimes charge you for things you didn't even order such as bread and water. Most places didn't end up charging us for the water in Athens, but this place brought us pita bread without asking, and then we were charge one euro for it. It was good pita though so I wasn't too upset about it. I also had my first gyro for lunch and it was very good!
After lunch we continued to a few more historic sites such as the ruins of the Library of Hadrian and the Ancient Athenian Agora. The sites were very cool to see in person, but unfortunately in pictures it most just looks like a bunch of bottoms of old buildings.
Another thing we quickly discovered about Athens was the plethora of stray cats that the city has. They are EVERYWHERE. Luckily they pretty much keep to themselves so I didn't mind them.
While walking through Athens, we stumbled upon a little area that first and foremost, reminded me of Belfast because above the street were rows of umbrellas just like in the Cathedral Quarter. As we got closer, we discovered a little hidden gem, a little section that was Mary Poppins themed! There was a restaurant and a bakery and it was bursting at the seems with Mary Poppins related props and decorations. Part of me wishes we had stopped to get a little something to munch on, but we figured it was probably extremely overpriced, so we settled for a few pictures and continued on.
It was getting close to dinner time so we decided to grab a drink before finding something to eat. We went back to Plaka and found a rooftop bar where we enjoyed some delicious sangria and a beautiful view, until it started to rain. We can't really complain though because that was the one and only time it rained on our entire week-long trip. We finished our sangria inside and then stopped back at our hostel to change into something a little warmer, and then found a place to eat dinner.
The restaurant we ate at was right by our hostel and it was very good! Sarah and I both had smoked salmon sandwiches and a glass of Greek wine. Greek wine and sangria are so good!
