Greece - Athens

11th October 2014

Our Athens apartment was really awesome. We got it on Airbnb, and it was just 2 minutes from the Akropoli metro station. Super convenient, although slightly expensive. I think it was worth it. The view was great too - you could see the Temple of Zeus on the left!

We woke up late as usual, and decided to find a nice place for lunch before anything else. I found a great restaurant on trip advisor, but we couldn't find it!! So we went to Smile Cafe Restaurant which also has a pretty good rating. We had gyros for lunch, pork (3€) and chicken (3.50€). It was really the cheapest meal ever. And the gyros were really good!

After lunch, we decided to explore Plaka first, afraid that the shops would be closed on Sunday. There are a lot of shops selling souvenirs, leather goods, food, drinks, etc. I was really tempted by the leather goods as they had so many pretty bags and shoes!!! But the prices were a bit steep.

After 2 hrs of walking, I got super tired, so we went back to our apartment for a rest. I fell asleep again. Lc almost left me to sleep and went Acropolis himself!!! Hahaha. OK can't blame him cos I refused to wake up :P We had free admission at Acropolis with our student passes. If not then I guess the 12€ combined ticket for all the places of interest that is valid for 4 days would be the most worth it.

The Acropolis is quite small, compared to the Palatine Hill at Rome! It was quite empty as well, maybe because we went to Rome during the super-peak period. The climb up wasn't too difficult.

The second picture shows the Old Temple of Athena, and the third is the famous Parthenon. The view on the hill is great, and you could even see most of the places of interests.

After that we visited a few other attractions, such as the Temple of Zeus. We had dinner back at Plaka at the Fish Cafe. We were searching for another restaurant actually, but couldn't find it again!! Anyway, we had a seafood platter, which was huge and only 14€. I thought it was quite delicious as well!

We strolled around Plaka again, and the ambience at night was pretty good!

There was a bar, called Brettos, which was super nicely decorated with colourful wine bottles on the walls. It is apparently the oldest distillery in Athens. Should definitely get a drink there!

We continued walking around and ended up at Monastiraki, which is another area with lots of shops and flea market. There are a lot more locals there, compared to Plaka.

There were a LOT of food. I'm sure you will drool when you're there!! Slowly, we walked around, and then back to Plaka for a drink. The Brettos was too crowded, so we ended up in a random restaurant.

I actually just wanted to get a beer, but everything was so expensive in this restaurant, so we looked at the menu, and found this: Ouzo. Cheapest on the list. And recommended by the waiter.

Apparently it is the most popular drink in Greece! It has a super strong anise flavour that you can't miss, once you put that wine into your mouth. And it tastes pretty weird to me. But the locals love it. And it's pretty strong, 40% according to the internet, but the waiter insisted that it was NOT strong. -.-

And before we resigned to our beds, we got a pork souvlaki from the place right outside the Akropoli metro exit. And it. was. awesome. Even better than what we had in Santorini. The meat was so tender!

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12th October 2014

We had lunch at Smile again, since it was so near our apartment. We had a Moussaka and a Pastitsio, which is basically baked pasta. The Moussaka was fine, but definitely not as good as what we had at Daphne (mentioned in the Santorini post). Lc also tried the greek coffee, which smells very strong but tastes okay (we don't like strong coffees). And it has this special taste that I can't describe! Gotta try it yourself.

We visited some museums and then went to the Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the first modern Olympic Games. The track was quite small, definitely not 400m. Maybe 300m?

Since it was our last night in Athens, my darling decided to treat me to a seafood dinner. So we got another seafood platter, which cost 39€. Pretty expensive for a meal in Greece! It was good, and other than the calamari which I always love, I loved the prawn too!

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13th October 2014

So our trip ended here and we headed back to our cities. Lc's flight was at 2pm and mine was at 4.30pm, so I waited in the airport by myself :'( I witnessed the longest check-in queue ever. And it did not even move. Took an hour of queuing to get myself checked in. And no, there was no online check-in. They had to add 2 more counters to avoid getting the plane seriously delayed. Having said that, lc's situation was far worse. Get the story here.

I took Air Serbia, flying from Athens to Belgrade, then Stuttgart. Well, can I consider myself to have been to Serbia as well? :P Anyway, Belgrade looked really beautiful from the plane.

I really loved Greece and I have to bring my mum to Santorini next time. I think she'll love it!