Steve has a great apartment in a bohemian neighbourhood of central Athens. The photos are accurate in showing a nicely furnished and very spacious apartment which would comfortably sleep a family of four or two couples.
The description of the interior is accurate and, overall, it's a charming apartment, only about a half-hour walk from the Acropolis. Steve emailed us detailed directions, a complete, personalised guide of places to eat in the area, and an original sightseeing guide, which were very helpful.
We arrived and were able to park right outside the building. We met Steve's brother, Andreas, who was nominated to check us in. He was very helpful and insisted on carrying all our luggage up to the apartment for us.
We found a couple of small problems: the WiFi was not working and that there was some food left in the fridge by the previous guest that had not been cleaned out. We called Andreas and he came back immediately to fix those problems. Steve's mother, Vasso, followed up with an apology message.
Then she added: "Another little thing. I think that it is better not to leave things in the car. Just in case." We were a little concerned about this-- no mention of this was in the description-- but we went down and cleared everything out of our car.
The next day, Friday, Vasso messaged us again, to say: "Friday nights we regularly have some Incidents ... boys gather together at the street ... and they shout to the policemen ... the young boys throw stones ... and the policemen respond with shots of loud ... noise."
We were obviously concerned about this, as we were travelling with our infant son, not yet one year old. We were also worried about our car, parked outside in the street. We checked the cancellation policy and found that we couldn't get a refund, even if we had been able to move at short notice. However, that night passed without incident.
On Saturday evening we arrived back after our last day of sightseeing, and put the baby to bed. Then we heard an explosion outside in the street-- we went to the window and saw two men in hoods and face masks next to our car, holding flaming petrol bombs, which they threw down the street-- there were three explosions in all. It was scary for us both-- luckily our baby slept through it. We could only imagine how he might have reacted to the sight we would have encountered in the street if we'd arrived 10 minutes later than we did.
We knew that we were not the targets of these men, and of course Steve can't be held responsible for their actions-- it's unfortunate for him that the apartment is in an area which seems to have become a centre for civil unrest. We appreciated Vasso's warnings, but we feel that they came too late-- they should have been included up front, with the option to cancel/refund, rather than coming after we had arrived.