GREECE | ATHENS DAY ONE

Remember that time I went to Greece and never posted about it? Well I’m fixing that because I’m finally getting around to recapping our trip! Starting with our first day, or half day rather, in Athens~

We landed around noonish and with buying a train pass, waiting for train, riding train while falling asleep in public, walking to hotel we didn’t arrive until about 3 or 4 and immediately took a nap but first looked out our small hotel porch to see this:

For this leg of the trip we didn’t splurge on our room by any means, but instead got something cheap and close to everything.  The Airotel Parthenon was close to everything but I will say, it looked nicer online, ha! Our room smelled of sulfur and it overall felt dirty but the lobby and breakfast that was included was very nice. I wouldn’t say don’t stay there because we were able to walk to all we did and the staff was great but beware, you get what you pay for.

After our power nap we got up and went to get some spiked coffees with no real plan just going where details led us like “pretty flowers! lets walk this way” stopping at the cutest outdoor cafe.

Went a little nuts snapping photos of this cafe, but I was so in love!

We did a lot of walking from the start, had to pick up some fuel from a street vendor.

This day was very short so after coffee and snacks we hightailed it to Mars Hill to catch the sun setting on the entire city and view of the Parthenon atop Acropolis. You can’t tell from this photo but it was very windy up there and we had to be extra careful walking around all the slippery marble.

I was squealing with delight over the rosy gold glow, it was like Joshua Tree in the sense of it just kept getting better and better!

Some of these were taken with my little Rebel but this last one Dustin took on his phone and I was very impressed! The following day we switched over to the Acropolis side but first getting a different view of it was extra cool.

Once it got dark I stuck with just using Snapchat so no more photos from day .5 but the fun didn’t stop after Mars Hill. Next destination was the historic neighborhood, Plaka. This is where you can do it all -shop, drink, have fish eat the dead skin off your feet, watch street performers, eat, shop some more.  A friend here in Atlanta that’s from Thessaloniki who helped me big time with the trip recommended a spot for dinner he and his family go to every time they are in Athens, Thanasis Kebab.  He said “it’s nothing fancy but I love it” and I would agree, it wasn’t the fanciest but we sat on a cobblestone street lined with other restaurants and lots of foot traffic and enjoyed some Greek beer with the traditional plates and loved it!  We attempted to stay out as long as possible to battle jet lag but that night was pretty brutal for me. Having never traveled with such a big time difference, 7 hours ahead, I laid wide awake most of that night being envious of Dustin soundly sleeping like it was no different.

Have no fear, I totally rallied the next day! Check back tomorrow to see post two from Athens!