Our Athenian Adventure

Athens has always held a special place in history – and it had been in our travel bucket list for very long. The historic battles of Alexander the great & Spartans against the powerful Persian kingdom in the east, the Greek cuisine and their love for sports well and truly appealed to me. We finally got chance to visit this historic place in the summer of 2024, and what an amazing experience it turned out to be. Lots of planning before the trip, lots of walking during the trip, a little bit of running (will come to this a bit later), and a lot of delicious food made it one of the best trips of our lives. Through this blog, I express my heartfelt gratitude to life for giving us this unbelievable experience.

Day 1: We had booked Wizz airlines from Abu Dhabi to Athens, great price I thought, you can book this leg for 50-60€ per person, extra for baggage. We bought a 10-kg, another 20-kg check-in luggage as extras. Web check-in was easy through their app, but seats were random and not together. But the person at the Wizz air counter helped to exchange this to two window seats and the third seat next to one of the window seats. The 2 window seats turned out to be good, as the view from high up there along this route was an amazing experience in itself.

Beautiful views over Saudi Arabian desert:

Beautiful views of the red sea, into Egypt (no pyramid sighting though!):

Over the mediterranean and multiple Greek islands:

We arrived at Athens airport right on time, and in general we liked the Wizz experience overall. As we approached Athens, there was this incredible sense of anticipation from everyone on board and the expectations of a historic vacation was palpable. As soon as we landed on the Athens runway, everybody clapped with excitement. We too joined the fun and it was truly one of its kind landing experiences for us!

Immigration at Athens airport was the smoothest I ever experienced in my life. The officer at the counter looked young, we gave our passports, he quickly checked the visa and stamped us into his homeland in a jiffy. Baggage took a while but got it in due time. To catch the metro, we had to walk out of the airport, cross a street, take escalator up and walk a bit to reach the station. It was all well marked, so no problem whatsoever. There was a counter to buy metro tickets, we bought two and half tickets, it was 9€ per adult, total 22.5€. We took the M3 line until Syntagma square, transfer to M2 and another two stations and we arrived at the Syngrou-Fix station. To our luck, we somehow got out in the right side of the road, and it was an easy 5 mins walk to our BnB apartment on the Dimitrakopoulou street (https://www.booking.com/hotel/gr/sofia-urban-acropolis-appartment.en-gb.html).

The BnB host shared the details on how to pick up the keys from the main entrance, it was easy and smooth. The 1-bedroom apartment was very nice. It had a small bed in the living room, perfect for our daughter.

The bedroom was very neat with comfortable bed and pillows for good night sleep.

Toilet & Bathroom was very clean, kitchen was well stocked with salt, sugar, coffee, utensils, ketchups, provision to cook, refrigerator, washing machine, basically very comfortable for longer stays.

The place has decent eateries nearby, and we started searching for a good place for dinner, it was already 9:30pm. Thanks to google, we found this restaurant called “Dyo Dekares“, walkable from the apartment. It’s a family run restaurant with great food and service, we had a great dinner here. Greek Salad, eggplant and Oyster Mushroom dishes were phenomenal.

We then walked back to our apartment and went to a convenience stores, bought 1.5L * 6 water bottles for 2.2€, good value I thought. Returned back to the apartment & called it a day, a wonderful start to our Greek adventure.

Day 2: We started from the apartment by 7:30am, nice walk along colorful streets. Quick stop at local bakery for breakfast, we bought cheese pie and 2 twisted croissants, total 5€.

I didn’t enjoy the cheese pie as much as I imagined, it was quite cheesy, lol. By 7:50am, we reached the south slope entrance of the acropolis, a small queue had already built up. Tickets can still be purchased at the counter, but after buying they need to join this entrance queue which kept piling up. My advice is to buy the tickets online via Getyourguide app to save time. I bought this Acropolis and 6 other sites Combo ticket: https://www.getyourguide.com/athens-l91/athens-acropolis-and-6-archaeological-sites-combo-ticket-t400152/, Acropolis has to be done in the specified time, other sites can be done in the next 4-5 days. There is another package without audio guide, you can choose that as well.

It was very nice climbing the slopes of the Acropolis, it’s well maintained.

We first saw the Theatre of Dionysus; it was quite nice.

Next was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a fantastic amphitheater:

We passed by the temple of Athena Nike, and then reached the Parthenon, the symbol of Athens. We clicked lot of pictures, walked around the complex.

There is a point where we get a glimpse of the city from above, brilliant views.

Crowd was not so much as I expected, so I would definitely recommend visiting this place as soon as the gates open in the morning, pick the 8am slot. By the time we left at around 9:30am, it was getting quite hot and very crowded. We took the exit through the Northern entrance, walked towards the Ancient Agora.

There were some restaurants along the way, quite inviting but we had other plans for lunch. Just before the entrance of the Ancient Agora, we bought 3 marble magnets from street vendor for total 1.5€. At the entrance, we need to scan the ticket QR code and enter the complex. We walked to the Stoa of Attalos, a nice enclosure with many pillars, housing a museum, lot of historic artefacts kept there.

There was a lot to walk and see inside this huge complex, but the heat was relentless.

The Socrates-Confucius section is particularly interesting. This place, this right place where we were walking around was the birthplace of democracy, a great feeling.

Agora in ancient Greece was a gathering place to discuss ideas and thoughts. The sun was scorching, so my family decided to take a break in the shade. I wanted to visit the Temple of Haphaestus, it was a good walk up in the sun and was well worth.

Next was the Roman Agora, it was good, but nothing remarkable. It had some ruins. Although historic, there wasn’t much to see right now.

After this we reached the Hadrian’s library next to the Monastiraki square, again some ruins but interesting for me as it was related to books! The Monastiraki square is very vibrant, we sat down for a while at a Gelato shop and bought two scoops for 7€. After this, we walked to the Restaurant Scholarhio, recommended by one of our favorite Youtubers.

Although we had to wait for 45mins, the place turned out to be fantastic choice. The ambience is quite unique. The highly recommended local dish Dolmades (right picture below) was incredibly tasty. We also enjoyed their Greek Salad and Deep-fried Squid along with some drinks, in total it came to 40€, and I thought it was completely worth it.

After lunch, we walked along the beautiful alleys of Plaka and Anafiotika.

Nice and interesting Graffiti’s all over, but the street seems safe and open to all.

We would bump into fellow tourists who have been influenced by the Insta posts too. We then walked back to our room and took rest for a while. Then we took the metro, 3 stops with one interchange back to Monastiraki square. Shwetha had found this interesting dessert shop called Little Kook.

We had this interesting dessert. I highly recommend visiting here if you have young kids. We walked around and around, and it turned out that we were hitting the same path more than 3 times, and when we reached this point 4th time, I thought it was destiny that we had dinner at the restaurant here – Xenious Xeus, another serving of Greek food. It was already 9:30pm, but it was quite crowded. The old gentleman who (eventually) took our orders was very welcoming and friendly. Another round of great dining experience with Tzatsiki (Greek Yogurt), Zucchini flower with rice & herb filling (this was fantastic), their Xenious Xeus salad which was quite nice and some house wine.

It turned out to be bit pricey though at 43.5€, but great experience overall. We had the long walk back to our apartment, we reached well past 11pm, passing by cute alleys, safe with no dogs, some cats, well-lit all over, great views and ambience. We were starting to like Athens a lot, with its amazing food and welcoming people.

Day 3: Today we woke up leisurely, I got up at 7:20 am, family woke later. After freshening up, we walked towards the Temple of Olympian Zeus. First stop was a coffee shop for breakfast – they have two options, you can dine-in or take-away. Take-away works out much cheaper, but I wanted to do a leisure breakfast today, so decided to dine-in. It turned out to be too much leisure as the orders came late. Aishani enjoyed her maple syrup pancake and ham sandwich. In between there was a small fight between an old man and young woman who had taken our orders. Later when I went to pay the bill (came to 8€), the man asked with concern “Was your kid scared? Sorry for that, it’s part of the game“.

A short walk brought us to the entrance of the temple of Olympian Zeus. Quite historic, but nothing much stands here today, with 3-4 pillars standing, and one pillar fallen down. Aishani curiously asked me what we came to see here :-).

We then walked to the Parthenaic stadium, this was definitely the highlight of the day (and the Athens trip) for me. Birthplace of the modern Olympics – hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896. Entrance was 10€ for adults, 5€ for kids. We clicked a lot of pictures, bought one coin (2€) and a London Olympics poster (15€) as souvenir at their museum shop. The running track was so inviting that me and Aishani did some runs, though it was very hot.

We walked towards the Monastiraki square. Syntagma square comes along the way, it seemed quite a nice place, with the parliament building and all that. We passed by the shopping streets, Shwetha enjoyed shopping few clothes at Zara. Thanks to google, we got a nice street food shop called Tylixto Greek Wrap.

The line was long, that meant either it was touristic (insta friendly) or really good. It turned out to be the latter. Amazing chicken Gyros at 3.9€ each was unbelievable tasty – Great introduction to Gyros for us. We tried Gyros in other places in Greece, but nothing came close to this one. If you are around this area, don’t miss out feasting here.

Next up was our trip to Sounion. Ever since I saw pictures of the Temple of Sounion and the landscape around it, I was hooked and really wanted to visit this place. There is a very convenient way to explore – book a group tour for the sunset views at Cape Sounio. I booked this: https://www.getyourguide.com/athens-l91/temple-of-poseidon-cape-sounio-sunset-tour-with-audioguide-t436940/, for 7K INR for the three of us. The tour leader Maria promptly messaged me quite early in the day about the meeting point: Stadio 13 near the National Historical Museum. We met her by 4pm, and although boarding from this place was scheduled for 4:45pm, she let us board by 4:30pm (it was nice as it was quite hot outside). The next pickup was at Plaka. Based on the direction of the route, I knew that we had to sit on the right side of the bus for best views. It was a nice drive, with brilliant sea views.

The bay of mediterranean was so beautiful, turquoise blue with dry mountains. Maria had provided us the audio guide, and she kept announcing the important places along the way. The bus also stopped at 2 locations for some quick photoshoots (below a private lake).

We reached the temple of Poseidon by 7pm. Maria explained that the sunset was at 8:50pm, and we must enter the temple vicinity before 8:20pm. There is a small restaurant, and we had some food and drinks here. Our tour didn’t include the entrance ticket to the temple, it was again 10€ for adults and 5€ for kids. Brilliant place though, we all loved it.

Stunning landscapes, and one of the best sunset views we ever saw.

We started from the place by 9:10pm and reached Plaka square by 10:30pm. So, overall, it took 6 hours, a very nice and memorable trip.

This was our final night in Athens, and we had mixed feelings about it. Sad to leave, but excited to hit the Islands. We missed visiting museums, but we believe we visited most of the important tourist sites. Overall, the experience was very nice – Clean & neat city, tourist-friendly, warm and welcoming people, great food, good looking young policemen & immigration officers.

We woke up next day early morning 5am, checked-out by ourselves, put the key to the main gate box, started by 6:10am and took the metro to reach the Piraeus Ferry terminal – our ferry was at 7:30am to Paros. Just one change of line at Syntagma and then all the way to the Piraeus port, it was convenient to find the boarding gate (pretty much everyone is going to catch the ferry here, so just follow the herd!). Please do check the ferry, the names and the departure time will be marked at the gate, you will see a long queue at each gate, just join them. Until next time, Athens! Over to Paros and Santorini next. Please tune in to my next blog on the wonderful Greek Islands.