Athens.  Dirty, hot, Athens.

Actually it’s not so bad.  After just about everyone who’s been there telling me it was a shithole, my expectations were reasonable.  I had a ton of fun there, and the Acropolis is worth the trip in and of itself.

We got in about 2 hours late on Sunday evening.  It’s a two hour time difference, and we were supposed to leave London at 11:55.  Well some guy went and got sick once we were about to take off so they taxied is ALL THE WAY BACK to the terminal!  And then they brought a doctor on board to check him out for 45 minutes before deciding he was unfit to fly and taking him off the plane anyway.  For real?  So we were late.

Took the Metro from the Athens airport to our hotel, and once we got off the Metro it was dark.  So that was fun, because Athens isn’t the cleanest or most confidence-inspiring place, in the daytime or the nighttime.  But we found the hotel relatively easily, and once we settled in slightly we went off to find a restaurant that my guidebook said is good.  And it was.

We went to a place called Savas and Alex ordered a gyro and I ordered souvlaki, but I’m pretty sure they just gave us both souvlaki.  But it was delicious either way: amazing pieces of grilled chicken, pita bread, onions, yogurt sauce, and some fries.

After dinner we walked around the area, which had some nice views of the Acropolis all lit up.  Took some pictures, and then we went back to get some sleep.

The sleep thing, however, was hard to come by seeing as our room did not have AC (they charge extra and I was trying to be money-conscious).  Holy crap I think it was 90º all night, I got no sleep at all.  Taking the shower the next morning was pointless because I think I was sweating all through my shower and definitely throughout getting ready.  Disgusting.  €9 for AC doesn’t seem so steep after that night!

The best part was when we left the room to start our day, the hallway was about 20º cooler.  I think we should have slept with our door open.  But we made our way to the Acropolis after being pointed in the right direction by the hotel guy.  It was within 10-15 minutes walking distance, so that was great.

Once we got to the Acropolis area we realized we had to climb a big hill to get there.  It made sense of course, just hadn’t thought that through.  All the sidewalks, stairs, and roads are pretty much all made of marble in Athens.  Marble is very slippery, whether dry or wet.  It was so much fun.

Thanks to the giant hill, it had some amazing views of the city.  Like this one, where I think I almost made Alex poo himself because there was a straight down drop right behind me and I just hopped up on the ledge like no big deal:

And then of course you have your Parthenon (under construction apparently since 1983! the Greeks take their time):

After spending some quality time with the Parthenon and its friends at the Acropolis, we went down to the Agora.  (Contrary to Alex telling me all about how he knows who Agora is, and then telling me all about her which I’m sure is actually true… Agora means marketplace in Greek.  Hence Agoraphobia, fear of crowded spaces.)

At the Agora they do have some cool stuff.  The main monument there, I’d say, is the Temple of Hephaestus:

Post-Agora, we went to find lunch.  TripAdvisor has been my BFF through this whole process, so I let it lead us to the Smile Cafe.  The locals know it, and it’s sort of a little hole in the wall, but I had a great gyro there.

After that we went to the National Archaeological Museum.  I’m not a museum person.  Some things were cool, especially the exhibit on mythology (more accurately mythology and coins…).  But the rest, I could have breezed through quickly.  I think Alex enjoyed it far more than me.  So I guess that’s good.

By then we were getting exhausted.  We decided to go to the National Gardens to see what those were all about - FYI, nothing in comparison to London’s parks or the Tiergarten in Berlin.  Then we went to check out Hadrian’s Arch, and then the Panathenaic Stadium.  The stadium was built in the 4th century BC as a venue for Panathenaic athletic contests, and was also the venue for the first modern Olympic games.

By then we were burnt out.  Went back to the hotel to chill and rest our feet, while I also picked the restaurant.  We hung out for a little while before leaving for dinner.

The restaurant was hard to find but worth it.  I had Moussaka for the first time, and it was incredible.  I also got us some stuffed grape leaves for an appetizer which I think might have been a bit too much of a culinary stretch for Alex.  But we got a half liter of wine for €4, which was so so awesome.

After dinner, since we were right next to the Hilton Athens, we decided to go up to their rooftop bar.  My friend Andrew has been up there and he recommended going to some rooftop bar for views of the Acropolis at night.  It certainly didn’t disappoint, and the drinks were plenty strong to boot!

So then we went back to the hotel to hopefully get some air conditioned sleep (and we were successful!).

That was all yesterday, and this morning we had to get up early to catch our flight to Santorini!  I already love this island so damn much, but that’s for the next blog :)