2017 - Greece - Day 15 [Athens]

Today is our last day in Greece before we head back to home to Toronto and our goal today was to look for graffiti art. Since we fly out I'll write about our experience flying out as well in this post.

Athen's graffiti

Breakfast was the same as usual, no change at Athens Center Square Hotel.

Breakfast

We wandered to the Gazi area by foot in search of some graffiti, since it was early in the day, we didn't really worry about anything (we were told to be a bit careful when it is dark). I think overall, we never felt worried while being here at all. As long as you are in the tourist areas you'll be okay.

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti (look closely, you'll see half of it on on a brick wall, the other half is on the side of a different wall)

Ended up finding some graffiti, but it wasn't as crazy as expected. My opinion on this is based on my desire to find graffiti that looks like art and not fancy tags (graffiti which is just words).

Kebap on the left, cheese on top, souvlaki on the right

With that done, we ended up back at Thansis for lunch and we ordered the chicken souvlaki, kebap, saganaki today which came out to 24 euros. The saganaki I would avoid, I think it is just an overall salty cheese and it seems a bit disappointing compared to the Halumi we had the other day.

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Visited the Central Market by our hotel and it is well worth a visit for those who don't know markets, or those who like them. Imagine if you walked into a grocery store, but your usual areas like meats, veggies, fish, as all operated with different owners, but they all more or less sell the same thing.

Central Market

Central Market

You will see stall upon stall that sells meats in one section, an area that sells fish, and then outside it was fruits and veggies. Very neat place. Not, if you don't like looking at dead meat/fish, you might want to avoid this.

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum was next and we walked there from our hotel, it wasn't too long of a walk and we ended up being there from 2:30pm to 4:30pm at a cost of 10 euros per person. This museum has a lot of things to see and it is a bit confusing in terms of layout in my mind. Your stay depends on what you like and you may not even be interested anyways. Unfortunately, it is a bit outside of the usual tourist area, it just happened to be near our hotel, so we paid them a visit.

Oddly, our hotel staff told us to just take the metro to the museum, we did opt to walk there and was a bit confused by the suggestion. Maybe tourists don't like to walk? We weren't really sure.

Aspro Alogo Greek Salad

Aspro Alogo Calamari

Aspro Alogo Anchovies

Dinner was at Aspro Alogo again where we ordered the calamari, anchovies, and greek salad for 20 euros.

So concludes our trip to Greece! Overall, a lovely country with lots of history to explore.

The next day, we walked to the nearby metro station which had a train to the airport. We noticed that is cost 10 euros to 1 person, 18 euros for 2 people, and 24 euros for 3 people. So it is actually to your advantage to have more people! Similar to our experience with the trams in Germany.

There was plenty of signage to get to the airport, so, no worries there. Note, the station that we were at has trains that operate on the same station, even though they are on different lines. In our case, we were at Monastiraki station and we needed to wait for the blue line and not the green line. There is a sign board at the station in case you get lost. In our case, we just followed the people that looked like they were going to the airport. Note, the train took 40 minutes from our station and the train itself comes every 30 minute, so check the schedule before heading out.

Once we made it to the airport stop, again, just follow everyone. It seemed like there we plenty of people going so you probably won't need to worry. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

Over the next few posts, I'll cover the summary of the areas that we visited in Greece.

2017 - Greece - Day 11 [Athens]

Today, we wander around Athens with the 5 day Museum Pass which covers the following places (Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Hadrian's Library, Roman Agora, Kerameikos (Cemetery), Olympieion (Template of Zeus), and Lykeion (Gymnasium)). The museum pass cost 30 euros and is valid for 5 continuous days starting from when you buy it. It is recommended that you get it from anywhere other than Acropolis since it is very busy there. Note, since the Acropolis is already 20 euros on its own, if you visit 2 other sites, the extra 10 euros will be earned back fairly quickly.

Athen's multi-site 5 day pass

Our first breakfast at Hermes Hotel and it was also a breakfast buffet. The food was okay, not as extravagant as the last few places, but it'll do.

Hermes Hotel Breakfast

Hermes Hotel Breakfast

Hermes Hotel Breakfast

Hermes Hotel Breakfast

First stop, Temple of Zeus! This one was a bit disappointing in my mind since you can see it fairly well from the road and when you go inside, you don't actually see much else besides you being able to get closer to it. It only took us about 15-20 minutes to go through it all. Basically, just loop around the columns, look at the gate and go. It cost 6 euros at the time if bought separately from the multi-site pass.

Temple of Zeus

Next stop, Panathenaic Stadium. We saw that it was close by and decided to go pay it a visit. This was a tough one for me. Allison can attest to how hard I thought about going inside. It only cost us 5 euros, but I kept thinking that you would only walk on the bottom path and not be able to wander anywhere. After Allison convinced me to ask the ticket booth operator, we paid and went in!

Panathenaic Stadium torch/poster collection

Panathenaic Stadium 

Included at 5 euros is an audio guide per person and it talks about the history of the site. There is a little museum exhibit inside where you get to see the old Olympic torches, as well as the old Olympic posters. It seemed to be mostly for the summer Olympics, but there were quite a few of them inside dating back all the way to 1904! It is the only marble stadium in the world to boot.

Panathenaic Stadium 

Panathenaic Stadium 

After that, it was free reign to explore the site. You can go all the way up to the top and take pictures wherever you like. You can run around the lap and even take pictures on the fake podium that they have in place. We saw a couple that only took pictures near the podium for the entire time we were there. So, your enjoyable is based on how much fun you have with taking photos. We spent about an hour here.

Natural Gardens

Our expensive snack (I think it cost us 5 euros)

We ended up walking around the Natural Gardens. It is a very nice place, reminds me of a smaller Central Park. There is even a small zoo inside. We had a snack at the shop inside, which was a bit expensive, but does provide a nice backdrop. Overall, I wouldn't suggest the snack shop, but that's just me. The Natural Gardens itself though is nice and worth a stroll if you are in the area.

Walked to Aristotle Lycrium, didn't really enjoy it and spent maybe 15-20 minutes here but since it was included in the multi-site pass, it was okay. I wouldn't suggest it, but I also didn't spend a lot of time reading the information boards that are placed everywhere here, so I didn't appreciate what I was looking at.

Changing of the Guard

Changing of the Guard was next which happens hourly in front of the parliament building. It was pretty different from what we have seen before. They have some funky outfits, which were apparently summer outfits, so I'm unclear as to how they survive when it gets hotter. Anyways, the bottoms of their shoes have some metal attaches and it reminds me of tap shoes.

It was an interesting experience, odds are, if you are in the area, you'll be able to catch this and it is worth a peak at least to see their outfit and their movements.

Everest snack

Snack #2 was at Everest nearby. Their computer registers weren't working when we arrived and it was chaos there. It cost us 5,55 euros for a sandwich, a slice of pizza and an orange juice which we believe was in error since they were trying very hard to get their old school register to work. In Greece, it seems to be mandatory that you get a receipt for what you buy, I believe it has to do with Greece trying to minimize tax fraud. So, without a receipt, we wouldn't have been able to buy anything there.

Fruit vendors

Flea Market

Nearby was the local flea market (Monastiraki Flea Market), which we sort of walked into by accident. Pedestrian roads with lots of souvenir shops, not really uncommon from the trips that I've been on, but it is always neat to see.

Aspro Alogo, mixed souvlaki on left, anchovies on right

Lemoncello and cake

Dinner was at the shop nearby the hotel (Aspro Alogo) where we ordered anchovies and mixed souvlaki which came out to 16 euros. The owner also offered us free lemoncello, a slice of cake each, and free bottles of water each as well. Very nice fellow. Food was good, I would suggest it.

Acropolis from Plaka Hotel

Our hotel owns a nearby hotel called Plaka which has nice views of the Acropolis which we went to see. It is indeed very nice up there and worth checking out. If you happen to stay at either hotel.

Afterwards, we called it a night since we needed to pack up for our 2 day Meteora trip starting tomorrow.