Once we landed we grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel Athens Status Suites. We dropped off everything in our room and went to grab some lunch. Now, I’m not a very adventurous eater. My friends joke that I eat like a five-year old and never try new things. So I was determined to try new food on this trip and I did. At lunch I had Mousaka at Tabepna. I LOVED IT!
After lunch we walked around and headed towards the Acropolis. When you’re buying your ticket for the Acropolis you can get at 30 euro pass that lets you visit any historical site in Athens for five days. I definitely recommend splurging for that pass! At the Acropolis we saw the Parthenon, Old Temple of Athena, Erechtheum, Statue of Athena Promachos, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Eleusinion, Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion, Chalkotheke, Pandroseion, Arrephorion, Altar of Athena, Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus, Sanctuary of Pandion, and a lot more.
All this walking worked up an appetite so we found an ice-cream shop called Coco’s and got some banana split ice cream and water. It was pretty late but we decided to walk around some more. We ended up at the flea market and got some snacks and a cold beverage at A for Athens. The view is AMAZING up there!
The next day we slept in since we were out late the night before and grabbed breakfast at Meliartos. We walked around and found some of the fun street art as well as saw the Roman Agora, Tower of Winds, Entrance of Athena, Hadrian’s Library and Church of the Holy Apostles.
We kept hearing that we needed to go to the Technopolis, but we got there too early and it wasn’t open. The Technopolis is a cool music/art venue and I was sad we didn’t get to hang out there for a while. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but I sprained my knee hiking in Santorini and was in pretty rough shape. We had to buy a knee brace and was I limping around. I was determined not to let this ruin our trip but I had to take frequent breaks to rest and prop my leg up. So unfortunately on this day we didn’t get to see as much as I wanted but we still got around pretty well.
Our final stop of the day was seeing the play Oedipus the King at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus Theatre. The theatre was built in 200 A.D. The play was in Greek with subtitles on a screen. The play is dark and disturbing but moving. A great experience for sure!
Our last day started with breakfast at Jimmy’s Coffee Shop. Then we started checking off the final spots on our list. We started with St. George’s Chapel at Mount Lycabettus which gave us an incredible view of Athens. Then we walked around Panathenaic Stadium (it cost money to get in so we just decided to see it from the gate).
A big highlight was seeing the Temple of Zeus. It was such a pretty day that we sat there a while and marveled at everything around us and everything we had seen.
Since it was our last day we walked around the flea market and saw some of the little shops. We went to the more ‘hipster’ area that had a lot of cool restaurants. We also saw some of the Athens nightlife. Athens is a great night-time city. The city lights up and it’s so fun to just walk around and explore!
