Our delayed departure, plus a long line at customs in Athens, meant we were later to be picked up by the car service than expected by about an hour. All our baggage barely fit in the van. Shane rode up front and conversed with the driver. He’s never met a stranger, and even in the Philadelphia airport we met other people going on the cruise with us just from him being affable.
Our ride took about an hour into Plaka. The driver was friendly and had a reasonably good command of English. We probably over-tipped him, but it felt right.
At the hotel, they let us put our bags up in the breakfast area, but our rooms were not ready at right around 11:30 or so when we arrived. Shane, Lisa, and Mason stayed with the baggage, but Shannon and I needed to go stretch our legs and get some lunch.
We basically circled the block around the hotel. There are many shops in this part of town, which the driver described as the old part of town. Within easy walking distance are several food places, ice cream stands, leather goods stores, gift shops, jewelry stores, and various other vendors. We also have a grocery store right nearby, and I’m pretty sure a church.
We got lunch at a place that described itself as having traditional souvlaki food, which to my eyes was reminiscent of kebabs. Shannon got a chicken gyro platter and I got a pork gyro platter. Hers came with honey mustard and mine with tzatziki sauce, so we switched. Both meals came with fries and pita. They were both delicious, to the point where Shannon said she wanted to go back to the same restaurant in the future. I think it turned out pretty well as a lunch choice.
We then visited the grocery store and she got some type of Greek kit-kat bar equivalent and I got some dried figs. They’re decent, but I think I like the ones from CostCo more.
When we got back to the hotel, she and Lisa ventured back out to make a reservation at a rooftop bar/restaurant called Cielo, that is also quite close by. We’ll be eating dinner there at 7.
The rooms were ready around 1:30 as it turned out, and we were very happy to get into ours. It’s quite small, and the beds are the style we came to know in Germany where there are two twin beds together. I took a shower, and then a nap. Shannon followed suit with a shower and a nap. Neither of us hardly got any sleep on the plane. Shannon maybe 20 minutes, and me none at all I’d say.
Getting a nap was refreshing. we’re preparing now to venture back out.
Around 5pm Shannon and I were ready to head out. After texting with our friends, it was determined that Shane would come with us, but Lisa and Mason wanted to decompress some more. We went down to the lobby, hung around a bit, and Shannon went to a nearby leather goods store, and another place across the corner where she bought some post cards.
Shane came down and we set off, just wandering the area by the hotel, looking into random shops. It must just be the area we are in, but there is massive amounts of retail establishments here. Some are high end fancy stores, others are basically just boothes selling temu stuff (or so it seems). A lot of the stuff does claim to have been made in Greece.
Shane was on a mission to find the “most unique item” for 2 euros for a contest the cruise was holding. He ended up buying a die with sex positions on it. A lot of the merchandise for sale has sexual content or themes. Phalluses and all kinds of depictions of sexual activity. I guess that’s nothing new for this town.
We visited a church from the 11th century is visible from our hotel, just a small chapel, but very beautiful. Apparently a lot of the paintings in there were from the early 20th century and even 1955. We also found a large Catholic church from the mid 1800s, and outside of that was a statue of the archbishop during WW2, a man named Damaskos. There was also a statue of the final Byzantine emperor, who similar to the first Byzantine emperor was named Constantine. A Greek gentleman told us about it briefly.
I’ve been doing an OK job with reading and translating Greek considering how little I was able to study it on Duolingo beforehand. Fortunately, nearly everything also has English translation available.
At 7pm we met back up with Lisa and Mason to have dinner at a rooftop restaurant called Ciel. We were up above 6 floors, and had a great view of the city. The food was decent, but I wish we’d had more Greek food. Shannon and I got bruschetta and a margherita pizza with prosciutto. The bruschetta was on large whole weat toast and had presumably feta cheese mixed in. It tasted fine. The pizza was a bit less impressive, but we ate the whole thing. Shannon also had an espresso martini that I drank half of which was good. There was threat of rain in the distance, it got a bit windy, and we saw a bunch of lightning in the distance.
After dinner, Shane and Mason went out to experience the nightlife, and Shannon, Lisa, and I went to find a gelato and head back to the hotel. I got a vanilla, Shannon had biscoff, and Lisa got oreo. The oreo looked very yellow and we didn’t really see any oreo pieces in it. The vanilla was fine. Not so far better than any of the gelato we had in Germany.
We then went back to the hotel and got a restful sleep. On deck for tomorrow is to get on the red bus line and visit the sites in Athens, probably starting with the Acropolis and the Parthenon.