When adventuring on soil once trekked by Olympians, waste no time! I can't believe it"s only been day 1 of Europe in this gorgeous capital of Greece. The weather was perfect-hot but with a cooling breeze, the day was off to a good start-early, but full of new discoveries, and nothing was stopping us, not even jet lag!
Arriving at 10:20am meant having and making the most of the day ahead of us. so after checking in with our sweet Air B&B host,we quickly freshened up and were ready to walked the path of the Olympians. Living in the
Acropolis station area meant exceptional convenience and access to all the major tourist hubs via walking. We didn't have to metro once, we literally walked almost a whole section of a subway line in one day. There is so much to see whereever you go that boredom and tiredness is the last of your worries.
We started off wandering around the Acropolis area which was lined with open air restaurants, cafes, and of course souvneirs. The
Adrinou Shopping Street here is prominent for the latter and it's best to compare prices before an impulse buy because things start looking the same really fast and cost does vary from seller to seller. Another thing you notice is that no matter what time of day or which cafe /restaurant you sight, it is always 80% occupied if not full. The waiters are great at luring you in with their compliments, but make sure to compare and check over menus to see what you are interested in as it can get overwhelming. Food is obviously a big part of Greek culture though and having a meal can become a leisure activity span over several hours! With the endless selections, it may take a while before you settle on a decision hah!
As it was our first day, we fixed our hunger quickly with the first spotting of a souvlaki sign (so stereotypical
I know). The crowd outside reassured us of its standard and it didn't disappoint! At 2.7 euros (~$4), it was delicious and filling and a good size to share between two if you are just looking for a snack like my friend Thy & I (souvlaki shops are everywhere and around the same price). After, we kept walking north from the Acropolis area and ended up in
Monastiraki Square, an open public space which hosts a flea market every Sunday (lucky us for arriving right on a Sunday, but the flea finds were closing by the time we got there at 4pm) and musical performers. There were also lots of cafes and little shops tucked into the alleyways of this area. What made this square mesmerizing was the beautiful backdrop of the
Parthenon-what a beaut!
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| Monastiraki Square |
Across this square is a street full of furniture, decor, and lots of vintage finds. A must for the treasure hunters! Thy & I loved this area for the amount of photo-esque hipster spots it had calling our names. Athens is loaded with graffiti and it's so awesome that the city embraces this graffiti culture and ghetto cool vibe it gives off... or perhaps it's just too hard to cleanup over the years (lol), regardless, we loved and took advantage of it!
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| Hunting for vintage treasures! |
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| One of the many hipster streets |
From there, we wandered further north and arrived
Omonia, a touristy shopping central area. We didn't spend much time here as the stores and brands were similar to back home so we explored on to find the
National Library and
University of Athens east of this. There's no doubt about why Greek columns and architecture are so commonly sought after because the beauty of it is jawdropping. The lines and design of these buildings and so many others are worth a photo shoot alone. To cap off the day, we spent some time here admiring the sun's slow setting and casting a lovely glow on the parliament.
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| National Library of Athens |
On our way "home," we passed
Synatgma Square and realize the parliament with the guard change was happening. However, our bodies weren't keeping up with our energetic minds any longer so we called it a day and saved the rest of our itinerary for another wonderful time tomorrow. In between all this walking and photo taking (seriously, everywhere you go is such a photo opp spot), we tried Greek coffee (the espresso was too grainy for me towards the end, but I loved the sugar-mint flavour turkish-like delight it came with (apparently served with coffee)) and also a delightful sandwich and dessert from
Kimbo, one of the many exquisite bakeries & sandwich shop franchises in Athens.
Overall, I am so satisfied from my first day on Greek soil. The Greeks are very friendly and always ready to give directions. We were aware of the multitudes of theft and scams forewarned to us by previous travellers throughout Europe, but we felt really safe and comfortable where ever we went. Being Asian, we thought we also get the sense that we would get the minority vibe and questioned often, but other than some tourists we met being skeptical that we weren't from Canada, we felt right at home. We figured with the diversity of tourists Athens receives, the locals are probably use to it. So thank You Greeks for being so welcoming, we can't wait to discover more!
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Arriving at 10:20am meant having and making the most of the day ahead of us. so after checking in with our sweet Air B&B host,we quickly freshened up and were ready to walked the path of the Olympians. Living in the Acropolis station area meant exceptional convenience and access to all the major tourist hubs via walking. We didn't have to metro once, we literally walked almost a whole section of a subway line in one day. There is so much to see whereever you go that boredom and tiredness is the last of your worries. 
We started off wandering around the Acropolis area which was lined with open air restaurants, cafes, and of course souvneirs. The Adrinou Shopping Street here is prominent for the latter and it's best to compare prices before an impulse buy because things start looking the same really fast and cost does vary from seller to seller. Another thing you notice is that no matter what time of day or which cafe /restaurant you sight, it is always 80% occupied if not full. The waiters are great at luring you in with their compliments, but make sure to compare and check over menus to see what you are interested in as it can get overwhelming. Food is obviously a big part of Greek culture though and having a meal can become a leisure activity span over several hours! With the endless selections, it may take a while before you settle on a decision hah!
As it was our first day, we fixed our hunger quickly with the first spotting of a souvlaki sign (so stereotypical I know). The crowd outside reassured us of its standard and it didn't disappoint! At 2.7 euros (~$4), it was delicious and filling and a good size to share between two if you are just looking for a snack like my friend Thy & I (souvlaki shops are everywhere and around the same price). After, we kept walking north from the Acropolis area and ended up in Monastiraki Square, an open public space which hosts a flea market every Sunday (lucky us for arriving right on a Sunday, but the flea finds were closing by the time we got there at 4pm) and musical performers. There were also lots of cafes and little shops tucked into the alleyways of this area. What made this square mesmerizing was the beautiful backdrop of the Parthenon-what a beaut!
Overall, I am so satisfied from my first day on Greek soil. The Greeks are very friendly and always ready to give directions. We were aware of the multitudes of theft and scams forewarned to us by previous travellers throughout Europe, but we felt really safe and comfortable where ever we went. Being Asian, we thought we also get the sense that we would get the minority vibe and questioned often, but other than some tourists we met being skeptical that we weren't from Canada, we felt right at home. We figured with the diversity of tourists Athens receives, the locals are probably use to it. So thank You Greeks for being so welcoming, we can't wait to discover more!
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