5 Days in Greece: Day 1 a Taste of The City
Tags: Traveling, Athens, Travel, Greece, Travel Writing

Never in my life have I seen such an empty airport. I guess that was the first sign suggesting to us that January is the perfect month to visit Greece.

But Athens remains a crowded city all months of the year. Probably, not because there are too many people living here, but because they are all over the streets. Everyone in this city seems to prefer the busy streets rather than the comfort of their house, probably because this is where life takes place.

But let’s start from the beginning. We bought our flight a couple of months in advance. As usual, out of the blue. But how can you resist a 10€ flight that brings you directly to the hearth of the Magna Graecia?

From Catania, Sicily, it takes about an hour, and before you even realize that you’re leaving your hometown at your back for the umpteenth time not knowing when you’ll be back, you’re already landed in a foreign nation. A country that you know only from history books, postcards of romantic islands, feta, and the current economic crisis.

Just outside the airport, you can buy a ticket to the city centre. Bus 95 will bring you directly to the heart of Athens. Every 15 minutes there is one, so no stress! It costs about 6€, which may seem expensive, but trust me, this is the only expensive purchase you will have.

Try to take a seat, the bus is always crowded and it will take about an hour to reach the city in the busy, noisy streets of the periphery of Athens.

As soon as we get off the bus we start looking for our Airbnb. It’s only half an hour away from the bus station and we decide to walk.

We soon realize that here it is not as warm as in Sicily. We are indeed surrounded by mountains and a jacket is indispensable. Especially at night, when the sun disappears behind the mountains, it gets really cold!

We get a glimpse of the majestic Temple of Olympian Zeus but we decide to keep on walking. We’re starving and we first want to leave our luggage in our Airbnb.

Few steps ahead we run into a nice little church surrounded by a cute garden. In between the ancient Greek ruins and the crowded busy roads of Athens. We wonder how this church ended up here.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church — Photo by the Author

This time we decide to get in. It won’t take too long. It turns out to be St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The inside is extremely colorful. We are surprised by the huge hanging chandelier and by the big image of Jesus that occupies the entire dome.

We will soon discover that Athens is full of small churches. Even though, we just visited one of the few, if not the only, Anglican one.

It’s now time to reach our Airbnb. The apartment is quite small. But there is a table where we can eat and a clean toilet. There are no hotplates, but a cattle to warm up tea, a few plates, and glasses and a sink to wash our dishes.

But the real gem is the access to the roof. From here we can see the Acropolis in front of us but unfortunately, it’s too cold to dine here. The apartment is definitely worth the 10€ per night that both my travel partner and I are paying. During off-season months you will find hundreds of cheap Airbnb not too far from the centre.

We leave our luggage and run to the city centre as we’re starving. We eat in one of the many restaurants that face the busy pedestrian streets. A Greek salad, tzatziki, pitas and two pints of Alphas (typical Greek beer) for only 17€!

Our first lunch in Athens for only 17 euros! — Photo by the Author

After a break, we decide to go to one of the local markets in Kerameikou (only opened on Tuesday) suggested by our host Alexander. Unfortunately, it is closing time, but we succeed in getting five tangerines for 0.50 cents. At least we have a snack for our trip.

We then walk to another area suggested by our host. The square delimited by Kolokotroni-Perikleus-Voulis and Aiolou street. Here you can relax by drinking a cocktail or smoking the shisha.

But at this point we are dead! It’s time to go back to our Airbnb. As our budget is small, tonight we won’t eat outside. We decide to buy local food at the Bazar, a local supermarket. It turned out to be one of our best decisions and the beginning of a tradition!

Here feta, olives, and tzatziki are super cheap! In each Bazar, you will find an area where to buy fresh cheese, tzatziki sauce, and olives! These are much cheaper and much much tastier than the pre-packaged ones!

And this is how for the four remaining days we spent at least one of our meals eating feta, pita bread, olives and tzatziki, sometimes Melitzanosalata (another dressing made up of yogurt and eggplants).

It’s now time to go home and enjoy our amazing home-made dinner. This time we also spoiled ourselves with some good red wine (well.. maybe not only this time).

Exhausted we lay on our bed and think for a moment of how lucky we are, to be in this new amazing country, the cradle of the western civilization, of our own civilization. We fall asleep, in one of those warm and deep dreams that you can have only while traveling. Knowing that for those five days you will not be available, for anyone. When your only duty is to soak up the culture around you, so to bring it with you for as long as your memory will allow.

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