I woke up to my alarm at 6:15. After a quick shower, Shannon and I went down to the hotel breakfast, which was on what I’d call the 2nd floor, above the ground floor, but here it is labeled as R. Our room is on floor 1 which is actually the 3rd floor from my reckoning. Shane had told us his plan was to be down to the breakfast at 7, although as we found out later, he and Mason had been out late enjoying Athens. We did not see them down at breakfast around 7:30 when we got there.
There was a blend of Greek, American, and German style breakfast options, from my perspective. I had some bacon and scrambled eggs for the American portion, then picked some sliced salami and mortadella, as well as a couple varieties of white cheese labeled as “cow cheese” for the German style portion. I’d say maybe they were vaguely swiss and provolone respectively but it was hard to tell. For the Greek side of things, I got some green olives and kalamata olives, some wedges of Greek cheese, and then later some yogurt and honey. I had to add more honey, sadly I just don’t much care for Greek yogurt. I also had a couple slices of sesame seed bread with butter, and a small shot glass of what turned out to be banana jello. For fruit there were peach slices and apricot slices. Juice available was orange and grapefruit. Both tasted like they were fresh squeezed although they came out of a machine. Shannon also got me a cappuccino from a machine similar to the ones we saw in Germany.
We decided to head out to our local area while waiting for our friends to get ready to go. We went into a grocery store called AB that was right across the corner from our hotel. There I got a 4 pack of Vikos Cola, the 2nd most popular cola in Greece. I’d imagine Coca Cola is number 1, there are ads for it everywhere. We also got a Coka Cola Lemoni, which I’d seen a sign for the day before. As a major lemon fan, I couldn’t pass it up.
We brought that stuff back to the hotel, put the drinks in the fridge, and then met up down in the lobby to head out. We walked over to Syntagma Square to get tickets for The Big Bus, a hop on hop off bus tour around Athens. Syntagma Square turns out to be the first stop along the 15 stop route of the Red Line. The company has employees stationed at all the stops to sell the tickets, and they make a bit of a show negotiating the price with you or offering a discount, however you want to say it. Shannon and I paid 20 eur each for our tickets, which are listed at 22 eur each.
We boarded the bus and went up to the top deck, which was convertible to open air, but at the time, they had a tarp over the top. We road a complete circuit on the bus past all the sites, and then planned to head back to the Acropolis. Headphones were provided, and there was a little audio narrative dialogue of the sites from a man and woman giving little vignettes on what you’re seeing.
The second stop from Syntagma Square is Plaka and the south entrance to the Acropolis. If we had gotten off here, I think we would have been able to ride a funicular up to the top. The third stop is an Acropolis museum, then the fourth is the Acropolis and Parthenon.
From there, you see the Temple of Zeus, then the parliament building. We happened to be there in time to see the soldiers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there doing their changing of the guard ceremony. Other interesting sites were an Olympic stadium that was restored for the first of the current modern Olympics, and a number of other squares. Shannon and I made plans to go back to Monastiraki Square after the Acropolis.
After we completed the circuit we went back to the Acropolis, and started to ascend. We got near the entrance of the actual “park” for lack of a better term and it turned out you had to buy tickets. It was probably 11:45 AM at this point, and the next time for climbing up to the top of the Acropolis was at 3:45 PM. So instead of that, we went up a different rock that was free and got some really great views of All around Athens. It was somewhat treacherous and precarious up there, and everything was slick despite not being wet, probably just from being worn down from people walking on them for however many centuries.
As we walked back down, the group was ready for lunch. Near the bus drop off area was a very nice restaurant called Dionysos Zonar’s. We sat outdoors. Shannon got a local Radler beer, Mythos was the brand. It was very refreshing. She had a pasta dish of some sort, the waiter informed us they made it Italian style instead of Greek style at the restaurant. I had a croque madame. This was an expensive restaurant.
We got back on the bus after lunch. Our friends got off at the Olympic stadium and we rode back to the Monastiraki Square. We looked at the goods on offer from a number of shops. Many stores seem to carry the same set of goods. There are phalluses and sexual goods on sale all over the place. Other big Greek themes are an Eye that is meant to serve as a talisman to ward off “the evil eye.” Cats and donkeys also seem to be prominent symbols, as well as the Owl that represents Athena.
We walked down the street toward the fish market we had seen earlier on the bus tour. They had spices and other stuff for sale, but the fish seemed to be mostly sold out for the day. We then realized we were close enough to the hotel to just walk back. I had the sense that the bus tour, which was great, could have all been realistically accomplished from just walking.
We’re back at the hotel now resting. We had an early dinner reservation, but cancelled it, as we are not hungry yet. When the time comes though, I want Greek food.
We finally set out a bit after 7, wandering in random directions from the hotel. We perused more of the retail stores, which are just interesting. Many of these places sell the same stuff, and much of it is marketed as being made in Greece, but I’m somewhat skeptical all this Temu tier slop is being manufactured in Greece. I’d be curious to understand the supplier network behind whoever has their produce in all these shops.
We went to a random place we encountered called Erato for dinner. It was selected because they offered hummus on their menu. Hummus must not actually be a Greek dish because most places did not have it for sale. It was listed as Lebanese hummus on their menu. Shannon got meatballs and rice, along with the order of hummus and pita that had to be ordered separately. I got pork souvlaki which came with fries and pita. I also ordered a glass of ouzo. I had remembered it being anise flavored, and it was. Shannon did not care for it. I probably wouldn’t make a big habit out of drinking it either. This meal was the best in Greece so far, although the hummus needed some punching up to be good. We had to add salt and pepper, and when my food came, we squeezed some lemon juice on it as well.
In our post-meal wanderings, we encountered a gelato shop, and I ordered red velvet cake gelato and Shannon ordered tiramisu gelato. The red velvet cake gelato really had more of a raspberry flavor, and Shannon preferred it to the tiramisu, so we switched, which was fine by me since the raspberry element, though good, made the red velvet cake basically a false advertisement.
Following dinner, we walked around more, eventually making our way back to Syntagma Square. Shane and Mason had planned for us to all visit there the day before as they heard there was a massive music festival and street fair going to be happening. As it turned out, this was the Athens Pride Day celebration. We skirted around the edge, and walked up to the middle a bit, but the promised music wasn’t starting, just speeches. Around 9pm, it was finally getting going, but the area was extremely crowded and we were tired.
We left and went back down Metropolis street, which leads back to our hotel. There was a bakery with a walk up window we had seen a couple times always with a massive line. At this hour of the night, it was less busy, and we got a chocolate croissant. It could’ve used more chocolate, but was quite large.
Back at the hotel, we went up to our own roof top bar, and were fortunately able to get a table. The view of the Acropolis from there was truly splendid, and I enjoyed another local beer, Nissos pilsner. Shannon had a prosecco. We were back to the hotel room by 10:30 or so, filled out our post cards, and went to bed.
