Exploring Europe 2013: Ancient Athens

We arrived in Athens at noon on Tuesday and took the metro to our hotel in the heart of Athens. We were upgraded at our hotel as they were out of the rooms we played for. We got a mezzanine with two floors and two decks that looked out at the Acropolis. I wish I could describe how awestruck we were when looking at something so ancient and that we've only read in textbooks. We took full advantage of the view, when we got back from our adventures that night, we spent time just being on the deck.

After we got settled in we just walked through the crazy Athens streets, being careful not be a target of pickpockets. We found an authentic Greek restaurant for dinner and had one of our best meals so far. It is safe to say that North American Greek food will never be good enough. We wandered around central Athens and picked up a few souvenirs from the small boutiques. Jordan asked me how I though of it and I said it was exactly how I pictures Greece would be. The smells, the sights, the people and the life really was the perfect Greece picture, Athens was even less dirty than I though. We walked around, trying to get a grasp of the city, before we did an audio tour the next day. We found a great gelato place and ate it as we walked the markets. It was so sunny and one of the store owners told us it wasn't usually this nice until a month later. As we fell asleep we could see the lit up Acropolis.

Wednesday we packed up our room and ate at the buffet in our hotel before we went to learn about Ancient Athens. Our hotel had a complimentary bag hold so we could leave our bags there until we left that evening. For a tour of Athens we did the Rick Steves audio tour. Jordan and I 100% recommend doing your own audio tours. Rick Steves are free to download and walki-talki tours are about $6. Both totally worth it and personally I think are the best way to tour a city. Its basically a one on one tour, where you can stop to eat, drink or wander around whenever you want.

Now Wednesday was a bit of a problem initially. It turns out that May 1st is the day where Greece has a giant petition every year in Syntagma Square, right near our hotel. The city strikes against the government, which meant that many things were shut down. This included the Acropolis and our ferry to Santorini. Fortunately, we were able to book a flight and get a refund on our ferry, but the metro to the airport was shut down because of the strike. We didn't want to spend $45 on a taxi so thank God there was ONE bus that wasn't shut down. So we were able to catch our flight, but before that, we did our tour. We started in Syntagma square where our tour began and learnt about the history of kings and parliament, communism and democracy. We walked all around Athens learning about Cathedrals and different religions that have dominated Athens. We saw many ancient ruins that have been around since 300 B.C. and learnt who was the ruler when it was built and the significance. It was truly hard to wrap your mind and around. The tour included a history of the Acropolis and even though it wasn't open, brought us around the back side of it for an incredible view and walk through an old part of Greece with the coolest feel.

Athens was everything that I wanted it to be and Jordan had his view of Athens completely changed. He was here once before and found the people rude and the city dirty but this trip he really loved the people and the city. We can not wait to experience Santorini.