23 - 28 July 2013
Day 1: Transport
I tried to sleep on the ferry from Sifnos but it didn't really happen. Once in Piraeus, the port, I had an easy time finding the metro because I simply had to follow the hordes of people streaming off the ferries. The trains were interesting because they were almost completely covered in graffiti and it wasn't just one, it seemed to be all of them.
Did someone say rooftop bar?
Checking in at the hostel was easy but the two things that stuck in my head from the welcome spiel were "rooftop bar with happy hour" and "free shot". The hostel I was staying at actually owned a few buildings so I had to walk over to the other one that had the bar and on the way I stopped at a souvlaki place for something to eat. They served one of the better kebabs I've had on this trip, so good in fact that I went back to this place at least once a day for the whole time I was there. The bar was awesome for a few reasons: cheap (and good) beer, lots of people to talk to, a killer view of the Acropolis and a nice breeze (very important when it was that hot).
Day 2: Recovery
I caught up with some Welsh girls I'd met at the bar and as we'd all overdone it a bit, we dedicated the morning to recovery and generally feeling sorry for ourselves. The worst part for the girls was the 7 hour ferry they had to catch that evening out to the islands; definitely glad it wasn't me.
Exploring
I spent the afternoon wandering around the streets of Athens with a Canadian, an Aussie and an Englishman. We window shopped in the various market-ey streets, enjoyed pieces of fresh coconut and found an out of the way cafe to have a refreshing beverage while talking about the typical backpacker topics; what do you do in the real world, where have you been and where are you going.
Winning formula
When you've got something that works, why mess with it? This was pretty much the idea behind this rooftop bar for me because I went to it every night I was in Athens. So, after a kebab from the great shop, I headed back up to rooftop bar to do it all again except with some more self control this time. I met a Canadian girl who told me a joke that I have to share:
*A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel sticking out of his pants*
Bartender: What's with the steering wheel?
Pirate: Yaarrr, I dunno but it's driving me nuts.
It also turns out that she didn't know how to find her way back to her hostel so being the gentleman I am, I helpfully escorted her home. Gotta keep good karma when you're travelling.
Day 3: Actually doing stuff
So today was the day I actually started doing some touristy stuff. I teamed up with an Ottawan (Canadian) to tackle a bunch of the major sites. The first stop was the Parthenon museum where we saw a bunch of bits that'd broken off of the Parthenon (one of the busted buildings on the Acropolis) and saw a video about the history and restoration plan of the site.
Acropolis
After the museum we went up the Acropolis and saw the many dilapidated buildings on display. It was good having seen the museum first because we actually had some idea about what we were looking at then. I was amazed by the fact that they managed to build something so accurately and so big that long ago. I'm sure lots of people died in the process but it's still awesome they managed to do it at all. There was also a great view out over the whole city from up that high too.
On the walk back down we diverted and climbed up a rock that gave a good photo opportunity of the Acropolis. We'll call this rock the slippery rock of death and anyone who's been on it will testify as to how slippery and hot this thing was; definitely not a place to look elegant as you walk across it. We did meet two Aussies on the rock though so there's a silver lining there.
Zeus temple
The four of us then made our way over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was fairly anti-climactic because it's just a bunch of pillars with a few fallen over. Still, we had a chat and took some photos.
Restaurant fail #1
The two Aussies took off to do other things and the Ottawan and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant. The guy who tries to get you to come in was nice at the start but as soon as you sit down it all turns to shit. Basically, the food was crap, the service was terrible and it was expensive. This definitely wasn't the case out on Sifnos but then Athens is obviously different. I should've just got back to the souvlaki shop :P
Segway tour
So I've wanted to ride a Segway for a while, apparently my Ottawan friend did too, and there was a dude promoting exactly that; job done! We had a brief orientation where they taught us how to ride the things and then we were off for about 90 minutes of tearing up the city. The tour took us to quite a few places we'd already seen but the guide had some cool stories and we did check out a few new places too. The most important thing though was that the Segways were FREAKIN AWESOME. You can get them moving fairly quick but mostly they're just an easy and fun way to get around. Coming through all the pedestrian streets is great because everyone looks at you (and moves out the way) and you don't get hassled by any of the hawkers.
Rooftop bar
I was back again but nothing noteworthy happened. At least not that I could remember the following morning when I was making notes for the blog.
Day 4: More touristy things
I met two Canadians at breakfast and together we went to explore the remaining sights that we hadn't seen. We went to the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, the ancient Agora, Kerameikos, the Temple of Olympian Zeus (second time for me) and finally to the...
Olympic stadium
I didn't know what to expect here but the photos looked cool so we paid our 3 euros, grabbed our audio guide and wandered around the stadium. It turned out to be really good fun which I attribute to a few things; it was cheap, the audio guide was quite good but most importantly, I was doing it with great friends. We climbed up and down the stairs, wandered through the entrance tunnel, saw the room of Olympic torches (Melbourne and Sydney were in there) and ran around on the running track. I'd definitely recommend this if you go to Athens.
Restaurant fail #2
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant during our travels but the experience wasn't any better than the previous time. We had terrible service again, stale bread and food that wasn't anything worth mentioning (I know I just did, ssshh). Athens just couldn't give me a good restaurant experience. The souvlaki shop never let me down though :D
Rooftop bar
Yep, back to the bar again. The difference this time was instead of going to the sports bar round the corner after the rooftop closed, we decided to gate crash a local party on a nearby rooftop. It was good fun because we had free drinks and got to mingle with locals, something that's actually quite hard to do when you're travelling (or so I've found).
Day 5: Loner day
All my friends had left so I used the day to go buy some more clothes, do some washing and book whatever it was that I was doing next. In my wandering I saw the Parliament building; it's nothing special but I can tick it off the tourist list. I also wandered down some seedy looking streets and saw some interesting things. The first was a bunch of dodgy looking guys dressed as ninjas, superheros, etc running away from something in a way that seemed like they'd just robbed something or someone. The second was a guy with a cricket bat and a crowd of people throwing fruit at him so he could smash it back at them; I'm not really sure what was going on but I decided to take a different street instead.
Rooftop bar, again
Same thing again but this time, after the Sports bar we headed over to Gazi to hit some clubs. There was free entry and the music was ok but the indoor smoking killed it for me. I managed to lose the group so I decided to walk home, which isn't hard at all once you can get a view of the Acropolis because you just keep walking toward it until something looks familiar.
Day 6: Leaving
I wanted one last kebab from my favourite shop but it wasn't open :( I found some food at another shop and then caught a very hot and sweaty metro to the airport for my flight to Istanbul.
Thoughts about Athens
Thoughts about travelling in general
Day 1: Transport
I tried to sleep on the ferry from Sifnos but it didn't really happen. Once in Piraeus, the port, I had an easy time finding the metro because I simply had to follow the hordes of people streaming off the ferries. The trains were interesting because they were almost completely covered in graffiti and it wasn't just one, it seemed to be all of them.
Did someone say rooftop bar?
Checking in at the hostel was easy but the two things that stuck in my head from the welcome spiel were "rooftop bar with happy hour" and "free shot". The hostel I was staying at actually owned a few buildings so I had to walk over to the other one that had the bar and on the way I stopped at a souvlaki place for something to eat. They served one of the better kebabs I've had on this trip, so good in fact that I went back to this place at least once a day for the whole time I was there. The bar was awesome for a few reasons: cheap (and good) beer, lots of people to talk to, a killer view of the Acropolis and a nice breeze (very important when it was that hot).
Day 2: Recovery
I caught up with some Welsh girls I'd met at the bar and as we'd all overdone it a bit, we dedicated the morning to recovery and generally feeling sorry for ourselves. The worst part for the girls was the 7 hour ferry they had to catch that evening out to the islands; definitely glad it wasn't me.
Exploring
I spent the afternoon wandering around the streets of Athens with a Canadian, an Aussie and an Englishman. We window shopped in the various market-ey streets, enjoyed pieces of fresh coconut and found an out of the way cafe to have a refreshing beverage while talking about the typical backpacker topics; what do you do in the real world, where have you been and where are you going.
Winning formula
When you've got something that works, why mess with it? This was pretty much the idea behind this rooftop bar for me because I went to it every night I was in Athens. So, after a kebab from the great shop, I headed back up to rooftop bar to do it all again except with some more self control this time. I met a Canadian girl who told me a joke that I have to share:
*A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel sticking out of his pants*
Bartender: What's with the steering wheel?
Pirate: Yaarrr, I dunno but it's driving me nuts.
It also turns out that she didn't know how to find her way back to her hostel so being the gentleman I am, I helpfully escorted her home. Gotta keep good karma when you're travelling.
Day 3: Actually doing stuff
So today was the day I actually started doing some touristy stuff. I teamed up with an Ottawan (Canadian) to tackle a bunch of the major sites. The first stop was the Parthenon museum where we saw a bunch of bits that'd broken off of the Parthenon (one of the busted buildings on the Acropolis) and saw a video about the history and restoration plan of the site.
Acropolis
After the museum we went up the Acropolis and saw the many dilapidated buildings on display. It was good having seen the museum first because we actually had some idea about what we were looking at then. I was amazed by the fact that they managed to build something so accurately and so big that long ago. I'm sure lots of people died in the process but it's still awesome they managed to do it at all. There was also a great view out over the whole city from up that high too.
On the walk back down we diverted and climbed up a rock that gave a good photo opportunity of the Acropolis. We'll call this rock the slippery rock of death and anyone who's been on it will testify as to how slippery and hot this thing was; definitely not a place to look elegant as you walk across it. We did meet two Aussies on the rock though so there's a silver lining there.
Zeus temple
The four of us then made our way over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was fairly anti-climactic because it's just a bunch of pillars with a few fallen over. Still, we had a chat and took some photos.
Restaurant fail #1
The two Aussies took off to do other things and the Ottawan and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant. The guy who tries to get you to come in was nice at the start but as soon as you sit down it all turns to shit. Basically, the food was crap, the service was terrible and it was expensive. This definitely wasn't the case out on Sifnos but then Athens is obviously different. I should've just got back to the souvlaki shop :P
Segway tour
So I've wanted to ride a Segway for a while, apparently my Ottawan friend did too, and there was a dude promoting exactly that; job done! We had a brief orientation where they taught us how to ride the things and then we were off for about 90 minutes of tearing up the city. The tour took us to quite a few places we'd already seen but the guide had some cool stories and we did check out a few new places too. The most important thing though was that the Segways were FREAKIN AWESOME. You can get them moving fairly quick but mostly they're just an easy and fun way to get around. Coming through all the pedestrian streets is great because everyone looks at you (and moves out the way) and you don't get hassled by any of the hawkers.
Rooftop bar
I was back again but nothing noteworthy happened. At least not that I could remember the following morning when I was making notes for the blog.
Day 4: More touristy things
I met two Canadians at breakfast and together we went to explore the remaining sights that we hadn't seen. We went to the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, the ancient Agora, Kerameikos, the Temple of Olympian Zeus (second time for me) and finally to the...
Olympic stadium
I didn't know what to expect here but the photos looked cool so we paid our 3 euros, grabbed our audio guide and wandered around the stadium. It turned out to be really good fun which I attribute to a few things; it was cheap, the audio guide was quite good but most importantly, I was doing it with great friends. We climbed up and down the stairs, wandered through the entrance tunnel, saw the room of Olympic torches (Melbourne and Sydney were in there) and ran around on the running track. I'd definitely recommend this if you go to Athens.
Restaurant fail #2
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant during our travels but the experience wasn't any better than the previous time. We had terrible service again, stale bread and food that wasn't anything worth mentioning (I know I just did, ssshh). Athens just couldn't give me a good restaurant experience. The souvlaki shop never let me down though :D
Rooftop bar
Yep, back to the bar again. The difference this time was instead of going to the sports bar round the corner after the rooftop closed, we decided to gate crash a local party on a nearby rooftop. It was good fun because we had free drinks and got to mingle with locals, something that's actually quite hard to do when you're travelling (or so I've found).
Day 5: Loner day
All my friends had left so I used the day to go buy some more clothes, do some washing and book whatever it was that I was doing next. In my wandering I saw the Parliament building; it's nothing special but I can tick it off the tourist list. I also wandered down some seedy looking streets and saw some interesting things. The first was a bunch of dodgy looking guys dressed as ninjas, superheros, etc running away from something in a way that seemed like they'd just robbed something or someone. The second was a guy with a cricket bat and a crowd of people throwing fruit at him so he could smash it back at them; I'm not really sure what was going on but I decided to take a different street instead.
Rooftop bar, again
Same thing again but this time, after the Sports bar we headed over to Gazi to hit some clubs. There was free entry and the music was ok but the indoor smoking killed it for me. I managed to lose the group so I decided to walk home, which isn't hard at all once you can get a view of the Acropolis because you just keep walking toward it until something looks familiar.
Day 6: Leaving
I wanted one last kebab from my favourite shop but it wasn't open :( I found some food at another shop and then caught a very hot and sweaty metro to the airport for my flight to Istanbul.
Thoughts about Athens
- I loved the hostel with the rooftop bar: Athens Backpackers. The bar is a great place to meet people because you know everyone is there to chat and not like in a common room where they might just want to be alone with the wifi.
- Athens is a very slippery city; there were lots of times where we almost went ass up on smooth rocks, mirror finish footpaths, tramlines or gravel covered streets. I'll admit it was the first time I'd worn my thongs out and about and they aren't exactly doing well in the tread department.
- Mikinos and Ios are breeding grounds for colds. Every person I met who'd come back from there was sick and as an added kick in the pants, they were all put into my dorm room :(
- You can feel the crisis; there's not much cash around and most shops want exact change and can't handle 50 euro notes or bigger
- The metro is clean and easy to use
- The town centre is small enough to walk so don't bother with a multipass metro ticket
- There are heaps of Aussies
Thoughts about travelling in general
- My focus has definitely moved toward meeting people, the sights are just a bonus
- I feel like I'd rather hang out with good people in a crap/mundane place because it's much better than being in the best spot (great sight, special monument) on your lonesome. This is definitely my extroverted side coming through
- Two Aussie words that Canadians/Americans love/hate are thongs and sunnies
- I've found it quite interesting to see how differently people value things. I've met some that always carry their passport on them to keep it safe, others who never carry it because they're worried it'll get pick pocketed and then those who just ask "who'd want to steal a passport". Some people are trusting and leave stuff everywhere whilst others lock everything all the time.
- I've been really lucky because I haven't had to endure anyone snoring or having sex in my room yet. I have heard horror stories though.
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| Dirty feet after a run on the track at the Olympic Stadium |
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| Enjoying the audio guide in the King and Queen seats with a Canadian friend at the Olympic Stadium |
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| Photo op on the podium at the Olympic Stadium |
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| Jump shot at Kerameikos |
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| Crikey! That's a big croc! |
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| Climbing on the Roman Agora with the other Canadian friend (they don't care) |
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| On the Segways with my Canadian friend (yet another one) |
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| Selfy on the slippery rock of death with the Acropolis (just) in the background |
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| 3 Aussies and a Canadian at the Temple of Olympian Zeus |
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| The Parthenon |
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| Being thoughtful at the Theater of Dionysus |
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| Healthy street food; coconuts |
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| Panorama looking into the Olympic Stadium |
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| One of those awesome kebabs |
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| Panorama of the Acropolis |
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| Looking out over Athens from the Acropolis |
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| The infamous rooftop bar |
Love your updates Tom! It was so wonderful to meet you and to have had our awesome (and very full!) day together. I miss you bunches - it's amazing how much of a friendship you can begin to develop in just a couple days, isn't it? Lots of love from Canada! And CRIKEY... that IS a big croc! Hahaha. - Lauren
ReplyDeleteA month late is better than never right? I love how fast you can make friends and you two definitely contributed to my great memories of Athens. I'll look you up when I finally make it to the land of the maple leaf...and mooses...and ice hockey. I can send love from Venice atm :D
DeleteTom