Athens was not what I expected it to be. A bit grungy, a bit dirty, VERY hot and full of shopping haha

Day 1

Our flight was already delayed from Dubrovnik which got us to Athens around 1pm (2 hours after our scheduled arrival). This means we got in during the peak heat of the day.

Getting out of the airport was also surprisingly long. It’s about an hour out from the main city and where we were staying (near Monastiraki).

When we finally got out to our stop, we were shocked once again by the condition of our hostel (SmallFunnyWorld).

It was a little bit dingy and was only the bare essentials. Which was fine once we convinced ourselves that “it’s a roof over our heads!” We got a private room with a double bed on the ground and ensuite. But we did have to go into the dormitory to shower. And those cubicles were small! But we managed.

Then we headed out to get some food. First meal was falafels! It was only a pocket size but it was already quite filling!

What to do

Next on the agenda was finding stuff to do. We were still a little bit uncomfortable with the area because the truth is there are people on the streets and beggars. After walking through a few streets though, we did get the hang of it.

Shopping

We headed towards Ermou street, a massive shopping area similar to our Pitt St back home in Sydney. There were department stores such as Forever 21, H&M, Pull and Bear, Birkenstocks….

It was so hot, we literally went into stores to enjoy the air conditioning haha Another good way to hydrate is by buying water from convenience stores on the streets. A bottle of water will only set you back .50€ which has been the cheapest we’ve been able to find across Europe.

I was also surprised there was so much shopping, so if you’re looking for something to do in Athens that isn’t the ruins (more on that later), you can do a bit of retail therapy. Just off the major walkway, is the entrance to the Athens flea market which connects to the Plaka district. You can find souvenirs, Greek leather sandals, linen shirts, restaurants all along the roads here. After we had exhausted all the shopping options available to us we walked towards Monastiraki square and into the National Garden.

National Garden

It was interesting to be in a somewhat secluded garden with green trees, lakes, some ruins amidst the hustle and bustle of Athens metropolitan. But we were quickly out of there because of how hot it was.By the end of the walk we decided to visit the Temple of Olympian Zeus as it was nearby.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

A single entrance is 8€ or 30€ for the combined ticket which includes entrance to 5 different sites including the Acropolis and it’s slopes which is one of the main attractions for visiting Athens. We were taking a guided tour of the Acropolis the next day, so we decided to get the combined ticket. They also last for 5 days. But note there is only one entry into each attraction. You will scan these tickets at barriers or they will be scanned by the ticket security people there.If you are a student, you can often get half price reduced tickets for most attractions and transport.

Note: never buy international student cards from ISIC, because they have moved to digital cards and they are NOT ACCEPTED in Athens to validate you as a student. They only accept physical cards here and I didn’t bring my UTS student card because I thought I could rely on ISIC. Firstly I was silly to think that I could not bring my actual student card because it doesn’t have an expiry date, but secondly ISIC’s move to cardless has been so stupid and irresponsible. They should have know that many vendors for these places do not accept digital cards before making the move. Don’t make my mistake and just AVOID the company altogether. I’ve had to pay full fare as a result.

Now that my rant is over, heading into see the Temple of Olympian Zeus was spectacular. From far away it doesn’t look intimidating, but up close it is so majestic. We also went at golden hour, so the orange from the sun really accented the intricate details of the columns and you could really see the majesty of the whole building.

Rooftop bar

We then decided to see the sunset from a better vantage point above the city. I had also read a lot about the rooftop bars in Athens being amazing. And I had been dying to go since we arrived.

We ended up going to A for Athens as it was close to Monastiraki. This place was packed!

We wanted to eat dinner here too but there was no eating room, instead we told the bar attendant that we were happy to stand and buy a drink. And just like that he led us to an upstairs table with the most perfect view over the city with the Acropolis in sight and the last golden rays of sunlight spreading its orange and pink hues across the sky.

Their cocktails list is also impressive, all named after Greek mythological characters and themes.

As sunset turned into evening, we were actually offered a table and we could order food for dinner.

We ended up staying for an extra hour to eat and it was such a great view that I was really grateful at how lucky we were to have made it up there. And so ended our day 1.

Day 2

Acropolis

Today we went on a walking tour of the Acropolis with Athens Walking Tours via getmyguide. Our tour was in the early morning at 830 which was great because there was not much of a crowd and it was not too hot. The tour lasts for about 1.5 h and we had Artemis who was fantastic as a tour leader! We learnt so much history and she made it interesting with her stories, anecdotes and personal insights. The exact tour we took is linked above.

There are also different times for tours with different companies you can find on getyourguide.com – so if you are not an early bird you can also take a late afternoon tour.

I would recommend either doing it early in the morning (the gates open at 8am) or in the late afternoon (closes at 8pm) so it is 1. Not too hot and 2. So there are less crowds = less lining up time and competing with people for photos.

By 11am the place was already packed and it took us about 10-15mins to even get down from the Acropolis 👀

The pantheon is also the 3rd and last one built. The previous 2 went through wars and was destroyed. I also learnt that Nike means victory and the Greek god had wings. The myth is that the wings were cut off so the Greeks could keep victory with them.

It also took only 9 years for 4000 Athenians to build the Parthenon which sits atop Acropolis. It has now taken 40 years to do reconstructions. The columns are slightly curved and centred, if they went up 2km they would make a pyramid! And another fun fact is the strip of pictures above the columns used to be coloured blue. There will never be a roof as well.

Other places

We were quite hungry after the voyage up to the hill so we went off in search of food. We came across Balcony Restaurant and Bar where we were the ONLY customers! It was so hot that we definitely took advantage of our time there to cool down and relax. They even gave us free dessert haha

We then made our way down to the Plaka neighbourhood afterwards and explored the winding streets filled with goods to buy. Jono ended up buying a pure linen shirt which looked very nice.

Afterwards we visited some of the other archaeological sites to get our monies worth from the combined ticket. We went to the Roman Agora (agora means market place). There was not much to see here and it was very hot so we were quick to walk in then leave.

Next we went to the Ancient Agora which was much larger and had its own grand Temple of Hephaestus.

We had no guide here so it was hard to know what was what, but it was still amazing to see albeit the heat did make it hard to stay long.

We then headed off to do some more shopping before grabbing a bbq dinner near our hostel and preparing for our 715am flight the next morning.

This meant we had to wake up at 330 to catch a 440 bus from Syntagma (the X95) which is 6€ for a full fare or 3€ for students and goes straight to the airport in an hour.

And now we sat bye to Athens and off to Santorini!