Low expectations proved to be advantageous in this case. I didn't start reading about what there was to see until our first layover. Geoff had put some Greece books on my phone, as well as some overviews of philosophy, Greek architecture, etc. Our Airbnbs, the city, the very friendly people, and the FOOD all turned out to be surprisingly amazing.
Adele and I arrived a day earlier than her friend Sami and her mom Colete. Our Airbnb in Athens was in a quiet area near Monastiraki, which was a great central location. We spent our first day shopping and exploring. We made our way to Syntagma Square, which is where the riots happen that we read about in the news. We watched the guards in front of the parliament building for awhile.
We discovered one of the oldest Byzantine churches in Athens on our way to the Vodafone store for a local SIM card. Look at the beautiful Church of Ayioi Theodoroi! It was small and felt very much like the Byzantine-era church in Bethlehem built over Christ's alleged birth place.
We came across many beautiful churches as we explored the streets that day.
At the end of our day, as we walked home via the shopping streets, we came across Adele's favorite store in Europe. We spent over an hour walking through the inexpensive goods. Adele bought a bag worth of treasures and gifts for herself and others.
Our travel partners arrived that evening, and we had two full days to explore Athens.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know the difference between the Acropolis and the Parthenon before this trip. The acropolis is a huge, majestic rocky outcrop that was an ancient citadel. It held temples to the Gods, one being the Parthenon.
Ruins are kind of hard for me to imagine, but the bits of magnificent architecture felt otherworldly. Sami took any of the pictures that actually look really good in these posts. She captured things beautifully.
The views were amazing from the top. In the distance below you can see the Temple of Zeus on the green field, as well as the ancient and modern Olympic stadium nestled between the two small, green hills. (Close ups of those later.)
This is The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a theater completed in 161AD and renovated in the 1950s. They have shows here. Wish we could have seen one. This was one of the first "theaters" ever.
We did A LOT of walking. Luckily there were snacks and good street music along the way.
We spent a couple hours exploring the Acropolis museum, which was fantastic. Did you know the beautiful Greek statues were painted in rich colors and wore metal jewelry? I didn't.
We passed by the Arch of Hadrian, which went over the main road from the center of ancient Athens to the different structures on the Eastern part of the city.
One of those structures is the Temple of Zeus (with the Acropolis in the background). Incredible.
We made our way through the Plaka neighborhood, which has lots of restaurants and shops. Athens has a bazillion feral cats, and people feed them. Piles of food went along the wall below, and there were at least 20 cats enjoying their meal.
The Acropolis at night.
A shopping street in Plaka.
Let me pause here to say that the shopping in Greece is surprisingly good. There were stands everywhere selling beautiful and inexpensive jewelry. Adele and Sami share a love of shopping and fashion, and I would say we stopped at pretty much every stand and stall selling jewelry in between our historical stops.
We explored Agora, the ancient marketplace of Athens. This was a peaceful place. Most ruins aren't complete or restored, except for The Hephaestus, a temple that stands mostly as it was built.
This is where Socrates would have taught, and maybe Paul, the apostle of Christ, would have taught here too.
They have restored another Agora building to look as it did, the Stoa of Attalos. Graffiti is plentiful in Athens, but never on the ancient buildings. That's cool. This building also had a bathroom. That was cool too, as public ones are hard to come by in Athens.
We went to the Panathenaic Stadium, which was built by the Romans (entirely of marble) over the site of the original Olympic games. It is still used today for large competitions.
I didn't think I would like Greek food as I'm not a fan of olives or cheese, but oh.my.deliciousness! Every meal we ate was amazing.
A few of our favorite spots:
Falafel House
The Greco's Project
A fresh juice place called Xumopoieio
And all gelato places we tried
YUM!
Before leaving Athens, Sami and Colete got a tattoo. I've never been to a tattoo parlor before. Another first.
Sami and Colete took the ferry to Santorini, and we were flying later in the day, so Adele and I took a taxi out to the coast to see the Temple of Poseiden and the ruins of the village there. Stunning setting, but COLD. We did not take warm enough clothing on this trip!
Santorini coming up in Part 2.
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