Greece: Part 1 - Athens
We’re going to break our trip to Greece down into three sections, one for each location we were in. Each area was so unique that they deserve their own little write up. But, we were only in each area for a few days so we’ll keep our updates brief with tips and tricks and lots of pictures.
Landing in Athens at 5am was exhausting. But it was easy to get a cab (via Uber, Uber Taxi?!) and he was going 140 km/h on our way so we made it quickly. We noticed fully dressed riot police all over also, which was our first concerning site for being in Athens.
Once at the hotel, we crashed, hard. And afterword we met with Nancy in the lobby!! Reunited again. As you may remember she was our trusty mother hen while we were in Antarctica and now, she was here to visit Athens and island hop with us.
Here’s what we learned in our time in Athens:
Police really do make a city feel more unsafe: Like I had said, we passed some police in riot gear on our way to our hotel. Which we did each morning we left, all day and all afternoon while we walked around the city. I was on edge the whole time assuming they were going to call me on something, like j-walking, and beat me down. It did not feel great walking around and even though our taxi drivers told us it was to keep us all safe, it just felt icky.
Pass the busy restaurants on the main street and find the lil’ old man who runs a shop on his main floor two blocks off the main road: The food and company will honestly be life changing.
Don’t schedule your tours for the wrong day: Like I did twice. But they still let us in because they are the nicest people around! We ended up staying well after the cooking class to chat and get to know our incredible host – Thanos. Also, he makes incredible art - check out his work here.
Eat everything: I do not care for seafood, like I sometimes tell people I’m allergic so they don’t put it in front of me. But we went on a food tour, where we tried like 18 different things, and I promised myself I’d try everything. So, I did, and it was great, and no I do not like seafood. But watching the white-haired Americans on the tour just deny a local delicacy or scrunch their nose up at it was embarrassing. Never be those travelers.
Ruins are great but go with a tour: Wondering aimlessly around the Parthenon without a guide was, well, exactly that. We were looking at this huge, incredibly old, incredibly beautiful structure but had no idea what it was or what it meant. Along with the crowds, the rude/entitled people and the selfie sticks, it just turned into a really hot, loud, frustrating event.
Instagram is really ruining the world: I love museums. SO MUCH. If left on my own I would spend every single day from open to close of a vacation in different museums looking and reading at everything. I was absolutely heartbroken to see so many people just taking pictures of pieces or info boards and not stopping to actually look with their own eyes before moving along. Treating the Parthenon like the backdrop for their new album cover, in the middle of the day, was just gross to see. Getting yelled at to get out of someone’s picture because I’m reading the information placard or just enjoying the beauty really fired me up. I had the worst culture shock of the trip coming to Greece, and it honestly makes me hate IG for turning the world into a photo backdrop instead of an incredible immersive experience it (obviously) should be.
Find the weird, quirky events and go all in: A game like history show of Greece led by a person dressed up as Socrates? Yes please! Find the weird events, and you’ll likely find incredible people there (Hi, Liz!).
