Past POIs - Acropolis [Athens, Greece]

Point of Interest: Acropolis
Location: Athens, Greece
Date of visit: June 2017

If you ever visit Athens, Greece, it will be pretty hard to miss the Acropolis if you are near the city center. It is actually built on what looks like a small mountain/hill and you can see if from everywhere. We were lucky with our hotel rental because it actually had rooftop views of the Acropolis which was very nice.

The Acropolis is included in the multi-site pass and is well worth it since the Acropolis itself is 20 euros and the multi-site pass is just 30 euros. It can be a bit of a hike for those that are not in shape since there is no cable car or assistance with getting up there. You'll have to take the side roads to get to the entrance and then just follow the path and up the stairs like everyone else.

Since it is high up and not covered, I would advise you to visit either in the morning or in the afternoon/evening to avoid the mid-day sun.

Well worth a visit, there is plenty to see up there and the are plagues everywhere telling you what you are seeing (however I tend to not stop and read those for long). Unfortunately when we went, it was under renovation, which seems to be the story of our travels. I am recalling how we got out in Rome to see the pyramid and the entire thing was covered in scaffolding for renovations.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Past POIs - Temple of Zeus [Athens, Greece]

Point of Interest: Temple of Zeus
Location: Athens, Greece
Date of Visit: June 2017

When we visited Athens in 2017, we knew that we were going to visit a lot of the historic museums and luckily for us, there is a multi-site pass that allows you to visit a majority of the sites for a low rate of 30 euro. Since the Acropolis itself (the north and south side) cost 20 euro, it is a no brainer to pay an extra 10 euro which gives you access to an additional 6 other sites. One of those sites is the Temple of Zeus.

Oddly, the Temple of Zeus sounds more interesting than what remains today (which is also true for a lot of the sites). What you see when you go today is several columns left of what was once an enormous temple dedicated to Zeus.

We went because of the name (well, I did) and because it was included in the multi-site pass, however, there isn't really much to see here. You can complete the site in under 10 minutes (depending on your interest in reading plaques and imaging how the temple must have looked).

Not to say that it is a bad site, however, if you are to visit Athens and this is on your list, I would try to visit all the other sites before Acropolis since it is the most restored site that gives you an idea of how things were back in the day.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Past POIs - Athens Central Market [Athens, Greece]

As someone who is used to how Canada and United States work where you buy your groceries from a grocery story, going to visit a market in foreign countries is always a treat since you get to see how things operate elsewhere. Mind you, they do have grocery stores as well, but the atmosphere, price, and quality differ significantly.

The Central Market is about a 15 minute walk from Syntagma Square, you'll find fresh meats and fish in the Central Market. It is a market open to the public and you will see stalls upon stalls filled with what I assume are the catches of the day. Mind you, you will walk past 5-10 stalls that all sell the same thing with the same prices, but still worth seeing my mind. Note, the market isn't for the faint of heart. You will see a lot of blood (and liking be walking in blood soaked tile), and some recently killed animals that they are butchering on the spot. We did notice that there weren't fresh seafood, which was a bit odd.

When you are done, just across the street is the fresh produce market which is outside and not covered, however, you can find all the fruits and vegetables that you desire, as well as shops that sell essentials like oils, spices, herbs, etc.

Sorry for slacking off, I'll try to maintain my usual schedule again. Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

2017 - Greece Summary (Athens)

Duration: 6 days (2 were for the Meteora tour)

Highlights

Meteora is worth the 2 day tour that we did. While the food was disappointing, seeing the sights in person was fantastic. I have mentioned that it is a bit disappointing when you are in the monasteries since it seems normal, however, that in itself is a feat since it doesn't seem like it is built on the edge of a hill.

Panathenaic Stadium, the world's only marble stadium is a definite must see even if you just want to see it from the outside.

Acropolis, try to make it early in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the crowds and heat. A must see for anyone who comes.

Central Market, a must for people who like markets. While it is always similar, it is just always interesting for me to see.

Lowlights

Athens in general outside of the tourist area is a bit sad to see. Lots of graffiti and poor people. I knew that they were hit hard with the recession, but this was unexpected for me. While I wouldn't say it was disappointing, it was eye opening for me.

Food Suggestions

Meliltos, suggested by our Visit Athens volunteer and I would suggest it to anyone. It is a bit pricier, but the food was very good.

Thansis, you should stop by for the kebap. I think there are two restaurants next to one another, but I never found out what the difference was.

Tips

Negotiate! It doesn't take anything but a minute to ask for a discounted price. We got 15% off just for asking if they could give us a better price on the 2 day tour which is a sizable amount.

Final Thoughts

Athens has its charms although I feel like I enjoyed Meteora more. Plan accordingly since if you are not interested in ruins or museums, I felt like Athens does not have much to offer.

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 13 [Athens]

Today, we visit Meteora and then head back to Athens where we will be spending the remainder of our trip.

Meteora Monastery

Hotel Orfeas' breakfast is the same as usual. Usual suspects are here, eggs, ham, cheese, bread, yogurt, honey, nothing special.

Hotel Orfeas' breakfast

We left the hotel at 8:00am and made it to the first monastery, Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoron (first of two) just before 9:00am which is when it opens. We were told that they try to get use there before 9:00am because it gets busy afterwards.

Meteora Monastery

We had 1 hour to wander around the monastery and it was enough time and didn't feel rushed. There isn't a lot to see and I think it looked more impressive when looking at it from the outside than the inside. The reason? It seemed like I was in a regular building. You would have no idea that you were built on top of a cliff. By the time we left, it was really busy outside, so it was good that we got here early.

Meteora Monastery

Some things that you will see inside is a museum which has wooden crosses and old war items like swords, guns, and uniforms.

Meteora Monastery

Next stop, the second monastery, Monastery of St Stephen, where we spent 45 minutes there. It was much smaller than the first one, however, this is a female monastery whereas the first one was a male one. By the time we finished, it was 11:30am. We didn't get as much time at the second stop, but it didn't have a lot for you to explore either. Note, photos are prohibited in a lot of places inside the monastery.

Our sad expensive lunch

Lunch was from 1:30pm - 2:30pm at another handpicked restaurant where the food was expensive and not really good. It cost us 17 euros for a plate of pasta with hotdogs and beef patties with fries.

Final stop was at 4:30pm until 4:55pm and it was just a rest stop with shopping if you like. I noticed that this day, there was significantly less talking from the tour guide.

We ended up making it back to Athens at 6:00pm. We were told that the traffic is random here, so we lucked out and got back early.

Melilotos' beetroot salad

Melilotos' squid ink tagliatelle with trout

Melilotos' beef railway

Checked into our new hotel at Athens Square Center Hotel and had dinner at Melilotos which was suggested by Vanessa from Visit Athens. We ordered the beef railway, beetroot salad, tagliatelle with trout which came out to 38 euros. It was a bit more than usual, but for the food and service was really good. Would recommend if you feel like spending a bit more.

Went back to the hotel to call it a night, tomorrow, we visit the Acropolis.