Ancient Athens in a Day

Finally we are in Greece!!

On our way to the Greek Islands we spent 2 nights in Athens – we didn’t arrive until almost 1am on the first night so we only really had one full day. We had heard some average things about Athens being a pretty dirty and dodgy city so didn’t have very high expectations but I was surprised to find that I actually really liked Athens!

We spent our one day here pretty much just wandering around, exploring the city and eating cheap and delicious Greek food (this is quickly becoming our favourite food destination!). 

We actually went past the Olympic stadium by accident but it was pretty cool – I actually couldn’t believe it was a real Olympic stadium [it reminded me of Waverly Park] really, really basic and completely different to the one we saw in Barcelona! The stadium didn’t even have individual seats, just benches! You had to pay to go inside which we thought was pretty pointless seeing that we could see the entire thing from the small fence around the outside.

We then went to explore some ancient Greek ruins – these are definitely cooler than the ones in Rome (sorry Italy…). The first thing we stopped by we also came across accidentally, the below photos are of the Temply of Olympian Zeus, which is in the centre of Athens. 

 From here we headed to the Acropolis – this is a huge site of ancient Greek ruins and sits pretty much on top of and surrounding one of the highest hills in Athens, which meant amazing views.

The first set of photos are taken at the Theatre of Dionysis and surrounding area – I love all the ancient ruins of old theatres, they are always super intact and look so amazing that they give you a real idea of how people might have lived many years ago.

Next is a giant theatre called Hedodes Atticus – with amazing views across downtown Athens, it was really cool to see the contrast of ancient and modern buildings. This ancient theatre is actually still used for events today but used to be a gladitorial area!

Finally we hiked to the top of the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon, which is probably the most famous of all the Greek ruins in Athens, unfortunately it is nearly almost under construction in order to ensure its preservation. 

The Parthenon

As you can see the view from the top of the Acropolis was amazing, a 360 degree view of the big white apartment blocks and buildings throughout the whole city of Athens.

Some more photos of the Pantheon and views from the top of these ruins – the views alone made it the best ancient site we have visited. It was INSANELY hot and Athens is a really dry city with very little shade but thankfully there was a nice breeze once we were at the top of the Acropolis so it was bearable.

 The other ruins that I am in front of is called the Erecthion.

More amazing views as we were exiting the site. 

We then spent some time walking around the Agora, which is the area surrounding the Patheon and central Acropolis. There are hundreds of ruins and many different sites scattered around this whole area. I’m not completely sure how much ground we covered but we saw a lot of ancient monuments, statues, churches and other buildings.

View of the Acropolis from the surrounding area!

We then walked through the central shopping area, which was pretty hectic but the shops were really cute and really cheap! There were heaps of vendors selling roasted nuts, pretzels and other foods as well as heaps of different souvenir stores and restaurants. These photos are of a really cool jewellery/accessory store we checked out, it’s really not my thing at all but this store was really cute and full of cute jewellery and other things. The other picture is from a little cake shop – yum!

That night we decided to take advantage of our cheap neighborhood and went out to a Greek tavern for dinner – mains here were 6 euro and a bottle of wine 3 euro, this was reason enough for us to like Athens! I got a chicken souvlaki – which over here seems to mean chicken on a skewer and a kebab (or as the Greek call it, gyro) is meat and salad in a wrap with tatziki sauce (confusing…).  

Michael got some cloudy but apparently delicious ouzo and a mixed grill, which he said (and I quote), was the best meal he had ever had (in his life, not just Europe).

  

Pretty safe to say we are huge fans of Greek food!

We only one had full day in Athens before heading off to the Greek Island of Mykonos but we had a really good time here and actually really liked this city.

After two big cities (Rome and Athens) it is now time to head to the Greek Islands for some beach fun!