Our trip to Athens started out pretty well: at the airport I found 10€ on the ground and we got to skip the line at security, cause we were a little late and boarding was about to start. The first thing that hit us once we got off the plane was the heat wave, as it was well over 30 degrees in Athens. We made our way to the train and traveled to Kifissia, a suburb in the north of Athens where we stay with a friend of my parents. We got picked up and brought to a beautiful house where we had to take advantage of the swimming pool, since even our short trip from the airport made us need to cool down. Later on we made our way to the city centre of Kifissia where we did some window shopping and got in touch with the first Greek people.One great thing I noticed was that everyone was incredibly nice and spoke enough English for anything we needed. No matter if ice cream shop, museum, train ticket office… everyone was very helpful. Of course, we made the effort of learning the most basic things which you should learn for every country you travel to:
Hello/ Good day: Kaliméra
Good evening: Kalispéra
Please: Parakaló
Thank you: Efcharistó
Goodbye: Antío
Honestly, for me these are the most import things which will already get you very far, with the most important being “Thank you”.
The next day we went to central Athens to discover its ancient site. We got out at the Monastiraki metro station and were already pretty much in the middle of the tourism centre. First, we headed to the flea market nearby, but it wasn’t very interesting to be honest. Most of the stores offered cheap souvenirs and sunhats, but there were also some stores in between selling high quality leather goods, olive oil and alike. Since it was our first day we were not interested in buying souvenirs just yet and having to drag them all around the islands we were going to visit, so we left and walked towards Plaka, the old city centre.
It is quite pretty with its little streets and charming shops. Although also swarmed by tourists, it was still a nice place to walk around and enjoy our first Greek lunch. Afterwards we went to the Acropolis museum, which I recommend to everyone visiting Athens. It is really well done with many ancient statues and figures with some descriptions, but you are not overwhelmed by information. Once it got late afternoon, we decided to was time to climb the Acropolis. On our way there we got a little lost in the streets of Plaka and passed many cute restaurants and ruins and from time to time a sign with “Acropolis” would indicate we are on the right track.
In one of the streets there was an old woman holding on to a barking dog and the girl in front of us went to save a kitten which was too scared to move and almost attacked by the dog. It got so scared it peed all over itself and the girl’s hand, so Sarah offered her some hand sanitizer. She thanked her and asked whether we knew how to get to the Acropolis which we denied, but we decided to join forces and find the way together. That’s we became friends with Mackenzie, an American travelling on her own and for her last day in Greece. After some more getting lost and asking around we eventually made it to the Acropolis and it’s quite breath-taking. Not just the ruins itself, but also the view you get off the city. After walking all around and exploring every corner of the ancient site, we walked back to Plaka to get some dinner before heading back home, since the next day we were taking a ferry at 7am to bring us to our first island.
weltenbummlerinjoanna 