Athens, Greece, it's important to remember that practically everywhere you can go, you will run into history, ranging from Olympic stadiums from only a few years ago, to monuments thousands of years old. I visited this ancient city during December of 2009, and fell in love with it. It's a great destination, and a great place to say you've been to, as it's not exactly on the big tour plans around Europe, by what I've been told. I arrived here during the evening, so there wasn't alot to see and do at first, so I went out and enjoyed some of the rather vibrant nightlife, which usually can be expected to last into the morning hours. I actually found myself having breakfast with the sun on my face after leaving a club, then going back to the hotel I stayed at, the Park Hotel, and sleeping off a few hours before getting up for some serious tourist activities. Like other places in Greece, you would be hard pressed to find an entire crowd of Greek folks who don't understand you, as quite a large portion of the populace speek English.
Something that I had just missed during my visit was a series of student riots about a student murder by a police officer, so I steered clear of the hotspots for the first day, and explored the mighty Acropolis. When approaching monuments such as these, you won't find yourself among only Americans and Europeans, but every race in the world, a giant mixing bowl of tourists that don't understand the next. Asking someone to take a picture of you is rather easy though, as most people understand the "hold the camera toward you while handing it to a complete stranger" gesture. The vistas from the Acropolis are breathtaking, as you can take in most of the city of Athens by looking in any direction, but there is a better viewpoint. The highest point that I visited was Lycabettus hill, which was quite a trek up, but offered views that couldn't be had anywhere else.
Unfortunately, during my visit up Lycabettus hill, a thunderstorm rolled in, which seriously worried a friend that was with me, but it fuzzed out, and provided a light mist all the way down the hill. Another thing that I noticed, in excess, was the trash, which was pretty much everywhere in the city of Athens at that point, for the trash services were on strike. Many times I found myself walking off in a direction in the hopes that I would get lost, and have to try hard to get back to my hotel, which considering the signage, wasn't to hard of a goal.
At one point, a friend took me to an authentic Greek resturaunt that was located underground, and was by american standards, quite ancient, and unhygenic in their food storage(on a burner for hours it looked like). Apparently, in the morning, they cook the days food all at once, and store it in a few large pots for service during the day. There isn't a menu, and you're served as much as they think you'll eat. So between the three of us, we had peas, lamb with potatoes, greek rolls, greek salad, and some odd rice-like, salsa-like dish. An interesting fact was when you're given a plate here, it's not to grab portions of the whole for yourself, but just for scraps. When I began grabbing some and putting it onto my plate, they reminded me that "we're not in America", and "we don't hoard our food". It was very delightful to share the dishes together, and to top it all off, the wine was on the house, and the ticket for the three of us was barely $40.00 which was a bargain by the standards of most resturaunts here.
Towards the center of Athens, one must find the Monastiraki, which is the central market, and best possible place to find some very good Greek made items for either gifts, or souvineers. I found a few T-shirts, a couple of books, some greek mantle pieces, and some coasters, as I am never carrying enough to go on a shopping spree. Something I really found myself having trouble controlling was my need of Greek pastries, which included crepes smeared with nutella, with an ice cream topping. Also, their idea of a donut shop has no donuts, but cakes of such richness, eating more than one is likely to throw even a hardened sugar junkie into shock. Once in awhile, I had to indulge in their wonderful waffle-like oreos, and other interesting snack items. My guess is most tourists from the USA usually have more money, thus they avoid the junk food, but I was quite interested to see how the average joes live, thus I tried quite a few. The one I loved most was likely the crossaints with a vanilla creme filling, as it went wonderful with their 3.5% milk.
Most of my nights here were consumed by the love of the club scene here, with clubs that exceed your expectations as far as drink quality, and the scene in general, for they really pay their DJ's quite well here, thus you're likely to see acts from America at even the small clubs. My best advice is to steer clear of drinking here, as they do have to pay people alot, thus you pay for it either in a high cover charge, or high drink prices, sometimes a combination of both, for one drink once cost me $20 if converted from Euros. Anyways, I held that drink until the ice melted, so not to look like as if I'm not a paying customer, and if you wanted water, expect to pay alot for it, as only bottled water is drank here. That is one thing you will notice quite often, is that the Greek people consume far more water than your average American, as their tap water isn't desirable, to say the least.
Overall, this is but a brief summary of a rich 5 day experience, but this does highlight some of the bright points, so I'll continue on later if I think of more.
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