Athens, Not Georgia

It was an easy 1.5 hour flight from Istanbul to Athens with a tasty lunch included. (Note I said lunch was included). A nice cab driver took us to our apartment In Athens. He was shocked that I knew what avogolemono soup is, but he told me it was “mama food” and should not be in a restaurant. It is funny how many cab drivers love talking about food….which is great because that is what I love talking about.We got tips on where to get Pakistani and Guatamalan food in Brooklyn,too. I think food is its own language. . The apartment Brant found was perfect—-right down to a balcony with a view of the Acropolis… easily accessed in the “go find the lockbox somewhere “ routine that we have perfected. I think the region was Plaka and it was really a perfect neighborhood. Very quiet at night, easy walk to the Acropolis, great restaurants, shops, and grocery stores steps from our building.

It was a beautiful day when we got there, but decided to check out the laundromat and the grocery store and hold off on tourism until tomorrow. Unfortunately it was too beautiful to resist walking up to the Acropolis. Then we couldn’t resist a drink while seated on the walls of the Acropolis while the live theater performance began. Then we could not resist hiking up to Aerophagus as the sun began to set. Unfortunately, very sadly , someone could not resist pickpocketing Brant. We have traveled many places famous for pickpocketing (Rome, Cuzco, Paris, London, Guayaquil, Mexico City) and as a result do all sorts of stuff to protect our “valuables”. Sadly it only takes one golden sunset on a warm sunny day to let your guard down and have someone notice. No one should ever grab someone else’s stuff, but they do and we will just leave it at that. Fortunately we have expected this to happen after many decades of travel so we did have copies of everything. We did our best to not let it color our view of Athens but…..and the laundry did not get done that night…and we were a bit weary and wary the next day,

So in summary: we enjoyed Athens. It was easy to get around, the people were helpful and friendly (except one), the prices were reasonable (unlike Rome) and like Rome (though not as majestic) it was always fun to see scattered ruins through the modern city. There were very few crowds except while walking up to the Acropolis which was a pretty easy walk. We enjoyed exploring the neighborhoods (even if it included doing a police report)—by the way, don’t skip this because it’s a hassle because you may need it in unexpected ways. We had to present it with the international drivers liscence to allow us to rent a car. We also had a great tour of the city and out to a beautiful temple of Poseidon by the shore.

We ended our stay with a wonderful dinner at an excellent restaurant on the terrace top of a building, The Balcony restaurant. Definitely worth a 20 minute cab ride….fortunately it was just 3 minutes from our apartment. Afterwards we went to a bar that was mainly outside on the sidewalks. Young people,some with prams, enjoying the warm summer night.

We always ask ourselves at the end of each visit, would we come back here? Well I think we would for some sort of special event—concert or one of those destination weddings but now that we have been in the more rural parts of Greece I think we would just head out to those beautiful old towns and sparkling water. More on that later…..

I could add an absurd number of pictures as it is truly a photo every 5 steps but trying to limit to a few favorites. We have learned in Greece that it’s also common here to say “Bye bye!” I did not realize that when I said that in Turkey but now have heard many many times in Greece. Soooo I found a way too large tablecloth or bedspread that I wanted to buy because it had elephants on it, It seemed however to be much too large for my carryon. He offered me one much, much smaller for 10 euro, I offered 5 euro, he said “Good buy!” I reached for my wallet thinking he was impressed with my bargaining skills, but realized in fact he was saying “good bye”. He took the fabric and tossed into the pile and turned away from me. Hmmm…perhaps bartering not common in Greece—I think he meant good by! I said, “Bye bye”