We land in Athens and get the metro into town, as we get
closed into the city we find HEAPS of ‘stinky cheese’ on the train which would
be only an appetizer of what was to come. If you haven’t figured this out already
‘stinky cheese’ is our code word for suspicious looking subjects or beggars. We
find our cute little hotel, and the room is just our style with fabulous
vintage National Geographic magazines which inspired our future travels even
more. We read an article from the late 70’s on travelling Syria – it looked
fabulous (in the 70’s). The afternoon is slow as the weather is awful but we
find a change of pace at a nearby vegetarian organic restaurant called Avocado.
After weeks of pasta, meat and pizza a fresh feed is exactly what we needed.
They had the most incredible carrot cake that we went back to the next day for
afternoon coffee and cake (no this is not something we usually do, but the
carrot cake was amazing, and organic, so healthy right?).
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| Cool kids cruising into town. |
We set out to the massive task of photo sorting for our Rome
blog, we have 890 photos just for Rome, hence the reason to split into 2 posts,
it was definitely one of the toughest sorts yet. How do you decide what to say
or show about a city that wonderful!
Seeing Athens in a
Day
We wake early to smash out our only day in Athens, we are
keen to see as much as we can. It is important to note that Athens is pretty
quiet in the morning, even finding a coffee is a mission in itself, and coffee
here isn’t cheap and isn’t great. The journey starts at the Temple of Zeus, its
remnants are some very impressive columns. It’s hard to believe that this
temple was once bigger than the Parthenon! Use your imagination here.
You can see the Acropolis across the city, it sits high on a
hill, surrounded by what looks like castle walls. We had heard that to get to
the Acropolis is a very steep walk, but in reality it’s just a bit of a steep
incline, and not too bad. The ruins start at the base such as the Odeon of
Herod, and get increasingly better as you walk up the hill.
The day is shaping
up to be gorgeous, with a clear blue sky and the sun shining, a refreshing
change from the cold, clouds and rain of Naples. Getting to the top we see the
main event, the Parthenon. It is really spectacular, we were more impressed
than we thought we would be. Athens has done a superb job of preserving these
ruins, even with cranes over the Parthenon we could enjoy its majesty. We had
already seen the original friezes in the British National Museum, we could only
imagine how incredible it would look like with the originals on. Luckily we
arrive up there with minimal tourists and we spend a good hour before the bus
loads come in, providing a perfect cue for our departure. We recommend getting
to the Acropolis on opening!
We get down this hill, and into some more Greek and Roman
ruins, time slips away as we admire the sheer enormity of what this all must
have looked like. Starving and hot we find some frozen Greek yogurt, they sell
this everywhere. Its risky business though and you need to know the protocol.
We ended up spending $10 on our first try, on the second go in Santorini we got
it down to $4. Unlike Australia where you just pick a size and pay accordingly
you get one standard size cup and you ‘pour’ your own yogurt from the frozen
machine, put your toppings on and pay by weight. So you put as much or as
little in as you like in the cup. Not knowing this we filled it to the brim and
covered it with strawberries… pricey mistake. Delicious nevertheless.
We head out of the ruined, preserved part of town into the regular
city and have lunch at the aptly titled (by our hotel) Souvlaki Triangle. A
corner with three of the best souvlaki shops all next to each other. We choose
one and sit outside only to discover that this makes us prime ‘stinky cheese’
targets. It was saddening so many child beggars, at least fifteen different
children with small piano accordions, guitars, tissues, or just their hands out
came by and attempted to get money from us during our lunch. It is easy to say
no, because you know that the money is not going to them and only serves to
perpetuate the problem. However it’s not so hard to supress the urge to want to
give this child a hug, a warm bath, a new set of clothes and a hot meal. The
waiters are indifferent and do not shield you at all, it’s too hard to police.
Then there is the regular adult cheese trying to hock whatever cheap crap
they’re selling that day. The food is different to what we expect, its very
salty, and more like a kofta than a souvlaki we have at home, and we decide to
try a hole in the wall that delivers a good gyros.
We find the Monastiriki Flea markets and push through the
usual crust of knock off sellers and souvenir shops to find the gooey, antiquey
centre. It’s no Paris but sure enough there are stores stacked with old furniture,
coins, photos, toys and just about anything you can think of. It would be a great
place to go shopping for a standout piece for an eclectic room. We both decide
to do more market shopping when we return home.
Leaving the trash and treasure behind we do some window and
a little actual shopping on Ermou Street, the main shopping drag of Athens.
Simon tried a frappe which we have seen everyone drinking. The Greeks put
nescafe, ice and sugar in a cup and blend it. The results are… interesting,
wouldn’t recommend it but it’s cheap, and apparently the Greek drink of choice.
Everyone is drinking it, including the cops.
The Police force is visible in Athens, there are cops
everywhere. We weren’t sure if this was for security, visibility or they just
have/need a lot of police. Either way we felt like assistance would always be
nearby but a little disconcerted that so many were around meant so many must be
required.
Finishing up on Ermou Street we arrive at Sintagmatos Square.
Right in front of us is the house of parliament which is the former royal
palace. There is some grand architecture around the square and further around the
corner there are some great neo-classical buildings including the national
library and the Athens Academy.
After climbing, walking and exploring since sun up we are
knackered. Our hotel recommended a bar that’s meant to be awesome, Bretto’s.
Sure enough we find it by spotting the brightly coloured bottles of liqueur lit
up behind the bar. The bar has been around for roughly a hundred years and they
make their own liqueur, and know what they’re doing. There is about two dozen
different flavours to try along with ouzo, grappa and brandy. We order two
cocktails, one of which is absinthe mojito. This is possibly the best cocktail
Simon has ever had in his life and one was plenty. Delicious, punchy and pricey.
Going off another hotel recommendation we had dinner is
nearby at a traditional trattoria, Paradosiako. We have moussaka and meat balls
and they are both delicious, although we feel that Greek cuisine could become
repetitive.
The next day we are up early to get to the airport and fly
to Santorini, we don’t normally opt to fly inside countries but it was an 8
hour ferry or a 45 minute flight… Worth every cent.
Santorini
Santorini is the picture perfect island of Greece, it
promises blue and white washed villages, spectacular sunsets, and stunning
views, after all the photos we had seen we couldn’t wait to have a mini holiday
in our travels here.
We exit the plane and the sun is shining gloriously,
excitement is bubbling over, then we arrived at our hotel and the rain began.
It subsides on sunset so we bust our butts up the hill to see one of these
spectacular sunsets. The hills on Santorini are brutal, under no circumstances can
you be unfit, but the views across the caldera (volcanic ocean cliff) are worth
it. We are based in Fira, the biggest town and the tourist hub, it just one of
the many villages across the island. We park ourselves on a ledge and wait for
the sunset, the clouds from the rain distort its beauty somewhat but we can
understand how in the summer people line up for hours to get their desired
spying spot. A cheap gyros (shaved meat souvalaki with chips and tzatziki)
satisfy as dinner.
Our second day is pretty cloudy but we do some serious
walking to some local villages, they’re like ghost towns at this time of year. The
rain sets in and we find a bar to settle in for the next few hours while we
blog.
By day 3 we still had not really been able to see too much
of the island, with buses in the low season being pretty thinly spread. We hire
an ATV to zip around, and our first stop is Oia, oh beautiful Oia. Oia is the
picture perfect town that everyone thinks about when they think of Santorini. We
wander and take too many photos, scoping out of sunset position for the night,
and finding a café with breathtaking views. We get on the ATV to cruise to our
unknown next location, and we are met with an unresponsive ATV. Simon
eventually gets so mad he shakes the ATV relentlessly and miraculously his rage
makes it work. Note to everyone, this works with computers too.
We take our time cruising the island, and find ourselves at
the highest point, the views are incredible, this view point allows you to see
the island end to end, sunrise or sunset would be perfect. The wind however was
unbearable and we were freezing! We look at the clock and realise the sun is
going to set soon and we are on the opposite side of the island. We lock our
helmets on and cruise with the wind freezing us, it’s a race against the
sunset, and we are chasing it. Looking at the sky we park the ATV and race to
our pre-organised spot, our fingers are frozen from the ride in and barely
work. All the other tourists found our spot too, the waiting game begins. It
reaches a point where we know it should have set by now, unfortunately it had
but it was just one of those sunsets that don’t go anywhere, there was too much
cloud to watch it set.
There are stray cats and dogs all over the island. They're all super lazy and just chill out in the sun.
We decide to spend our last night in Europe at a bar, and
the Greeks know how to have a good time! Free tequila shots, and ouzo leaves us
pondering our next travels and we decide on the Taj Mahal, after all it is
closing to the public soon. Our bucket list grows by the day, and at times
looks unachievable.
Santorini was incredibly beautiful, even in the low season.
We will come back for a week or two in the future to lie in the sun and soak up
the beauty. Even with half the island closed and sleepy we still got a feel for
the buzz this place would have in June.
Lessons Learnt
- Best time to go May and August (shouldering the high season)
- Chips are always inside a gyros, and its not garlic sauce its always tzatziki
- ATVs are a good compromise between a scooter and a car
- If you want to swim do not come in the low season, all the pools are empty :(
Parting Thoughts
- Greece is a land that has plenty to offer. With a robust ancient history of early civilisation and the cradle of democracy it has a lot of stories to tell. Athens was not what we expected, and we mean that in a good way. It is clean, modern and easy to get around on the public transport. Well worth more than the day we gave it. They do a have big stinky cheese problem that we’re not sure how they will sort out, we just know that it’s sad to see and inevitably frustrating and annoying.
- Santorini lived up to its reputation as a fabulous holiday destination, only the weather could have been better but when the sun was out it was glorious! Hooning around on the ATV was super fun and exploring the beautiful blue and white villages. It was so beautiful everywhere we went that it’s definitely on our ‘return to’ list.
Simon and Amy xoxo
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