Athens

View from the hotel

I had mixed feelings about visiting Athens. Many people had told me it was “just another big city”, but I desperately wanted to visit the Acropolis (another fangirl moment!) and of course, that’s smack bang in the middle of Athens!

Parthenon

It was definitely a big city, but the underground/metro was easy to navigate, and took me to most of the big places I wanted to go. I was meeting up with D in Athens — as luck would have it, she was starting an extended Europe trip at the time, so we arranged to meet here for a couple of days before I headed home and she continued on.

Drinkies on the roof

The Hilton Athens was pretty awesome, as Hiltons often are: views of the Acropolis, rooftop bar, extensive swimming pool and fitness complex, good brekky… and they gave me a bottle of wine on arrival, which is always the way to my heart!

Fish markets

The first morning I left D to recover from her longhaul flight and headed off on the Urban Adventures’ Markets, Ruins and Ancient Athens day tour as a bit of an introduction to the city. This was great, especially so because I ended up being the only patron that day, so it was a private tour!

Coffee

The walking tour was a good pick — we walked through ancient ruins being excavated in the middle of the city, explored a bit of the markets, I tried some very strong, thick Greek coffee, before we hopped on the metro to go visit Monastiraki Square, where there’s an old monastary, and conveniently some more markets.

On the way up the hill – the Agora

Then it was off to the Acropolis, but since it would have taken hours to explore it properly, the tour just takes you to the outside to get a good view of the hill, before heading back down to point out the museum and then back into the city proper again.

The Acropolis

The city

Readers will be terribly surprised that there have been no cat photos for a few stops, but never fear — there were lots in Athens. There were a few friendly felines schmoozing the queues to get into the Acropolis Museum (and made people look down to the amazing excavations being carried out underneath the museum itself!)

Kitty outside the Acropolis Museum

The last stop was to see Hadrian’s Gate, which is located on a busy road near the museum area. I can imagine people frequently stopping traffic to try and get that perfect photo, and almost getting run over!

Hadrian’s Gate

After the tour finished, I headed back to the markets at Monastiraki Square as K had expressed interest in the mythological chess sets I’d seen there, and I needed to get a sense of whether I could carry one home for her. There were small, travel sized ones, but as with everything, go big or go home! (I was cursing the chess board though, as I needed to take it as carry-on luggage, and that thing barely fit into the overhead bins!)

Chess set

D was feeling a lot better by Day 2, so we spent the day out at the Acropolis, having many fangirl moments seeing the Parthenon up close. I’d seen the Marbles at the British Museum (we won’t get into that argument) and so it was amazing to see the rest.

The Parthenon

Continual repairs and restoration is happening, and also a continual stream of tourists, so we weren’t able to have the same kind of experience I’d had at Knossos, but it was definitely a must-do.

Parthenon

We also explored the Agora area in more detail, and spent time looking at the various other sites on the Acropolis hill.

At the Agora

And then it was time to say goodbye to Europe once more, and to head home. I found Athens more interesting as a destination than many people had warned, but then again, the low expectations I’d had (except for the Acropolis of course!) helped to make each experience surprising and exciting.