Athens

Friday, August 26

We landed in Athens at about 9:30pm and got a taxi to our hotel. We decided not take bus/metro because we had heard that pick-pocketing has become a problem on public transport in Athens, and it was late, and we were tired.

When we got in the cab Carl said, “Orion hotel” and the driver said he knew it and how to get there. We were a little skeptical because we’d found this budget hotel through Booking.com and didn’t think it would be that well-known. We watched the drivers route and compared it to google maps.

When we were in downtown Athens the driver started pointing out historic sites. He slowed down and pointed, “see there?! Hadrian’s Arch! And behind it?! Temple of Zeus!” He pointed out some other important buildings, like embassies and universities.

He seemed really excited to be showing us his city so it was hard for us to convey to him that we were all of a sudden going the wrong way. We said, “Oh-Rye-On” and he said, “yes, yes, almost there!” So we let him drive. He pulled up in front of Royal Hotel which looked like a 5-star hotel. We laughed and said, “We wish we were staying here but we are actually at a cheaper hotel, further from the center”

We could tell he felt really bad for mis-hearing so we just laughed it off. He still couldn’t understand the name of our hotel so Carl just gave the driver his phone with google maps directions pulled up. Instead of looking at the address, the driver just held up Carl’s phone in front of his face as he drove. Somehow he kept touching the screen so he kept having to hand the phone back to Carl to recenter the directions. There were several times his eyeballs were 100% on the phone and 0% on the road and it was terrifying.

Luckily no one was run over or into, and he figured out where the hotel was. He dropped us off at the bottom of a steep hill. We paid, said thanks, and walked up.

The front desk woman was very cheery. She showed us to our room and we passed out not long after.

Saturday, August 27

We enjoyed breakfast on the terrace with a lovely view of the Parthenon in the distance. The ‘continental’ breakfast was actually very good with fried eggs, bacon, and lots of Greek foods like olives, hummus, salad, and feta.

Then it was time to venture to the main event. We walked through town toward the Acropolis. We had bought combo passes online the day before so we were able to skip the ticket line. There wasn’t much of a ticket line to skip but the entrance line went quick anyways.

It was 10am and already so hot and there were so many people. We felt like we were being herded up the switchbacks. But, as we approached the Propylaea (gateway), we could feel the awe and grandeur.

Besides the Parthenon, there are several other ruins on the Acropolis. Most notably are the Erechtheum, which has a section of pillars carved to look like women, and the old temple to Athena.

We did our best to read the descriptive signs, of which there were several, but it was hard to concentrate with all the humans buzzing about and the sun bearing down on us like it hated us. We made our way to the Parthenon viewpoints and snapped a ton of photos. Feeling satisfied, we meandered back down the hill.

Our combo ticket included entrance to several other archeological sites. As we walked back into town we walked into the Roman Agora which was really not much to consider. Then we headed toward the Ancient Agora which was much, much larger and had a museum. We wandered around the site which was like a large unkept garden. It was nice to walk ‘in nature’ a bit, under shady trees.

Then we went to the museum. There were tons of artifacts from the area, and a lot like things we had seen already in the Crete museum. But they did have good overall descriptions of Athens throughout the time periods starting from Neolithic until the Roman period. We knew a lot of this from our Wikipedia searches but it was helpful to see the rooms separated according to the time period.

We were trying to leave when we found the museum also had an upstairs. The main event upstairs were replicas of paintings done by European explorers in the early 1800s. This was during the Ottoman Empire. The paintings were coupled with descriptions and quotes pulled from their travel journey that really shed light onto what it would’ve been like in Athens back then (very different than now!)

Then we left and decided we needed something cold to drink, or even food. We had just picked a well-reviewed restaurant and found an open table when it started to sprinkle rain. About the time we got our salad it was pouring rain and we felt very lucky to be sitting under a strong-looking awning. We sat next to a group of young adults with English accents and got to eavesdrop on their conversation. There was also a (Greek?) couple sitting behind Carl and the woman talked and laughed SO loud the whole time we were there while the man never said a word. They were drinking Ouzo out of tiny frosted glasses.

We ordered Greek salad, dolmas and moussaka. They were all so, so good. The dolmas kinda tasted like they were from a can and not homemade like the others we’d had, but they were delicious. We also got some house rosé that was some of the best house wine we’ve had. We were especially surprised with how good the food was because the restaurant is located so near the ruins sights, right in the heart of tourist land. Despite being a tourist spot, it was not too pricey and so good.

By the time we’d finished, the rain had totally dissipated. We tried to do one more site on our combo ticket. We walked to the Kerameikos Ancient Cemetery. This site also had a museum so we figured we’d start with walking around first, then go cool off in the museum. There weren’t many signs and even fewer identifiable landmarks to look at. Perhaps if we had a guide it would’ve been cool but it was just too, too hot to be wandering around a field with old rocks that meant nothing to us.

So we went to the museum. And it was closed. Since June. So we leaned against the museum wall in the shade to try and reset our temperature before walking home.

On the way home we bought some cold sodas and beers. When we got back to our hotel we were so hot and tired that we didn’t want to leave the air conditioned room. So we had two cold beers for dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday, August 28

Delphi

We had an early start to meet our tour group at a hotel down the street at 8am. We got into a bus and were a little confused when, at the next stop to pick up more tourists, they moved some select people to another bus. We were given a brochure with a code to get an app and audio guide on our phone but then a real person started talking over the microphone.

Stavos, our guide, was great. He chatted to us as we drove out of Athens toward Delphi. He had a lot of interesting things to say but he would take long breaks between his stories so there were a few we missed because we had fallen asleep.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant to use the bathroom and get drinks. Carl and I shared the largest donut we’ve ever seen, and two hot coffees that we had to choke down in order to get back into the bus on time.

One of the passengers with us was a middle-aged woman wearing pants, a big, baggy sweatshirt, a scarf, and a big straw hat that had “Aloha” written on it. She had been talking on the phone (on speakerphone) when we’d first left Athens. Now that it was time to get back into the bus I overheard her trying to borrow a phone charger from one of the kiosk workers. She was the last one on, but only a couple minutes late.

Stavos continued telling us things all the way to Delphi. When we got there he first showed us around the museum. We had felt a little burned out on archeological sites and museums but having a really great guide there made it all so interesting again. He explained the meaning of the statues we were looking at.

He also told us that even though most of the statues we see today are marble, the majority of statues back in the day would’ve been bronze because this allowed greater detail. But, bronze can be melted down and reused for other art, tools or weapons, so that has become the fate of most of the old statues.

There is one large bronze statue that is on display at the museum that was likely saved from being recycled because a rockslide had crushed and covered the building and the surroundings. The bronze statue is of a man riding a chariot and other pieces -like horse legs- were found nearby to confirm that the whole statue would have been massive.

Then we walked into the site itself. Stavos tried to stop in areas with shade but it was still ridiculously hot. He led us up a switchback path to the spot where the oracle’s temple was. On the way up we spotted someone we recognized. Rudy- our guide from Krka park in Croatia- was walking down the hill. We didn’t say hi (and now regret it!) but it was definitely him. Small world!

We got to the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle saw her clients, and Stavos left us here. Carl and I decided to walk the rest of the way up the hill, curious to see what was up there. It was a steep hike but eventually we got to the top where there is an old stadium. We tried to imagine what kind of games would’ve been played there. Then we hiked back down, took a bunch of photos, and met up with our group again just in time.

The bus then took us all to a restaurant for lunch. We had decided not to pay for lunch ahead of time, in case there were better or cheaper options around. But, we ended up at a restaurant that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere so we accepted our fate. Carl and I got house wine, green salad and lamb. All of it was really good.

We sat at a table with other people who had not paid for the lunch ahead of time and were ordering ‘a la carte’. There was a South African woman who was in Greece for a work conference. She worked for some kind of international bible organization and said her job involves helping to write sermons for specific groups like abused women or for new pastors. She was very nice and at one point on the tour revealed that she had lent her phone charger to the Aloha woman, who had mysteriously lagged behind. We wondered if she would ever see that charger again.

Also at our lunch table was a couple who are living in London. The woman was from Ukraine and she said she has family there in the safe areas and dangerous areas but that all are safe and accounted for now. Her partner said he was from a part of the country of Georgia that is still disputed territory. He said the name of his country several times and even spelled it for us once, but all we know is that it’s in Georgia somewhere on the coast of the Black Sea.

The other person at our table was a younger woman from Pennsylvania. She told us she is about to go to NYU to study in a masters program for Animal Studies. When we asked what that meant she said, “like Gender Studies, but for animals” which did not, in any way, give clarity. Later on in the lunch she told us she is vegan and that she would “never ever be a vegetarian”. When bible studies lady asked what was meant by that, the girl responded that she could never eat products from animals that were tortured and abused. The five of us looked at our plates of pork and lamb and the conversation died there.

Besides that one tiny awkward moment, we had a good conversation the rest of the time. And then it was time to get back on the bus. We made one more pit stop at another ruin of a temple. There wasn’t much to see but the base of what used to be one of the few round shaped temples. Then we had to hike back up the hill to the bus and I honestly wasn’t sure our whole party was going to make it.

It was about a three hour drive back to Athens. When we got dropped off near the city center we realized it was almost 7pm and we weren’t hungry at all. So we got some cold sodas and beers and hiked up the hill to our hotel.

Monday, August 29

Our last day of the trip!!

We slept in, knowing we had a tiring 36 hours ahead of us. Then we went to the rooftop to have breakfast. This time we got a table right on the edge of the balcony so we had the best views of the Acropolis. The woman who runs the breakfast is so nice. Again we ate eggs, bacon, salad and this time some Greek yogurt with honey. We watched pigeons fight over some bread and then left to start our day.

First on the agenda was a hike to a nearby hill. The hill has sweeping views of all of Athens. The trail to get up there was steep and in the sun, but it was a short walk to the top. The hillside was covered in cactus and most of the cactus plants had juicy looking prickly pears growing out of them.

We navigated to the top and enjoyed the views while sitting in the shade on the steps of a church. There was a little breeze.

When we walked back down Carl found a prickly pear that didn’t look too prickly and had recently fallen from the cactus. He squeezed some of the juice into his mouth and said it tasted like sour pomegranate. Later I noticed he kept spitting and touching the roof of his mouth. Somehow he’d gotten a couple little prickly spikes in his mouth. He was able to get rid of the first and then I pulled one out of his cheek. In case you needed a reason why not to eat prickly pear found on the side of a hill.

At the bottom of the hill we started our path to cross the city and see the other archeological sites included in our combo pass. We ended up walking through the National Garden which is a little park with different garden areas. We walked next to ponds with koi and turtles to the small lake. There was also a whole area of the park dedicated to birds, but it was temporarily closed. The park was wonderfully shady and cool like a jungle. I could’ve just stayed there all day.

Not long after leaving the park we came to Hadrian’s Arch. The arch is impressive, and right next to the modern day road. Then we went to the Olympieion. The main attraction in this area is the temple for Zeus which was built during the time of Hadrian. The temple used to have 104 marble columns but many fell over or were purposefully repurposed for other marble buildings.

From here we crossed the main road to get into the neighborhood of Plaka. Our taxi driver from the first night had been really insistent that we visit this area. It was nice, with lots of shops, restaurants, etc. But it did feel weird to us because it wasn’t that old. After looking at Ancient Greek ruins all day it almost feels like you should be walking on ancient cobblestone alleys to get to an ancient market. But Athens wasn’t the capitol of modern Greece until 1834. And the paintings we’d seen from about 1800 showed that there just wasn’t much around the ruins besides huts.

Still, the area was nice and vibrant. We found a cute bar that advertised ouzo, flavored licours, and wine tasting. So we split a wine tasting of the best white wines in Greece. The bartender left a book for us that explained all the wines so we could take turns sipping and describing. They were all good but we determined our favorite was the last one, a blend of Assyrtiko and Semillon.

Then we walked north along Tripodon, one of the oldest streets in Athens. Carl found an old family run restaurant with good reviews called Ristorante Scholarchio. We sat outside, on the first level, underneath a terrace covered in very ripe grapes. On some bunches it looked like all the grapes has turned into raisins.

We ordered Greek salad (duh), moussaka, and fried pork with balsamic vinegar and honey. The moussaka was served as a slice, like lasagna, and the top of it was so fluffy and delicious it was unbelievable. The fried pork was tasty and very different from anything we’ve had in Greece. It almost tasted like something from the Philippines. Again, another great meal in Athens for relatively cheap.

We had mostly finished eating when we noticed a bunch of little birds were having the feast of their lives in the grape vines above us. It was cute to watch them but, do you know what happens when you sit under a bird? Carl felt one poop on him and as he was wiping it out of his hair I watched as another one did it again.

Carl was a good sport about it and didn’t mind because he planned to throw away his entire outfit at the end of the day anyways (perk of last day of travel!). Still, he got up to go to the bathroom to wash off his hair and hands. The second he left, a bird pooped into my water glass. I laughed maniacally and then decided it was time to get out of there.

We walked back up to our hotel. Very kindly, the hotel had let us store our bags there all day. And they even let us use the shower in the hallway bathroom which was absolutely necessary because we were drenched in sweat and about to go to the airport. They even gave us towels. Eleven out of ten stars for Orion Hotel!

After we had showered and gotten all packed up, we talked to the front desk woman for a little bit while we waited for our taxi to the airport. We explained our life story- quit our jobs to travel for 8 months, around the world, during COVID, with just carry ons- and she listened patiently. I don’t know if she actually cares or if she was just being polite, but it was such a nice closure to tell our story to someone just one last time.