Greece Travel Journal / Day 1
Read my Greece travel blog
Hello there! Stay and read my Athens, Greece travel diary. This is day 1.
Day 2 can be found here
Day 3 can be found here
Day 4 can be found here
Day 5 can be found here
Day 6 can be found here
My daughter and I took a two week trip, and in the first week we travelled through Romania, then we took a flight from Bucharest to Athens for the second week. We travelled in July, and needless to say, it was quite a hot experience! But so worth it.
I hope you enjoy reading about the trip as much as I enjoyed visiting!
After our disastrous day yesterday travelling from Bucharest to Athens, the alarm felt like it went off way too early this morning. I get out of bed and go to have a shower but I soon realise that there is no hot water coming through the tap. I contacted our host and asked them if there’s a switch for hot water because I noticed that the hot water system is not on. They tell me that yes there is a switch that I need to turn on. That information would’ve been handy earlier!
So we leave for the tour without having showers, which probably isn’t a problem because I know we are going to get so hot and sweaty, as our tour goes for four hours and it’s looking at be least 35° here today!
Along the way to the meeting point we try to buy some breakfast. The first place we go has a long line and we’re worried we might miss the start of the tour, so we find another place.
The second place doesn’t even acknowledge us to serve us, so we keep moving to find somewhere else.
Down a side street, we find a little shop that is selling some spinach and cheese pastries. They look great and are cheap so we pick one up each for breakfast. Delicious!
We get to the meeting point and check in with the tour company. Our guide arrives shortly after and we start chatting about where we’re from and where we’ve been on this particular trip. His name is Alex and he works as an archaeologist during the week on the new Metro project. On weekends he moonlights as a tour guide.
The tour that I booked for today is more focused on the mythology of Athens and Greece as opposed to just the major sightseeing spots (we still see those too, just in a different context). We start near to Hadrian’s gate and Alex tells us a very interesting story about Zeus‘s temple and Hadrian‘s Gate.
For anyone interested in architecture: everything that is triangular is Greek and anything that has arches or domes is Roman.
Hadrian’s gate has Roman arches on the bottom, but Greek triangles on the top.
This was an act of defiance by the Athenians because they did not wish to be ruled.
Athenians were the originators of democracy – the power of the people.
Our group starts to walk towards the Acropolis now. The Acropolis is not the building on top of the hill, as that is the Parthenon. But the Acropolis is the hill on which everything is built. Luckily, the tour group is able to go straight to the front of the line and enter the Acropolis immediately due to the timeslot on our tickets. We are greeted with the most amazing views up towards the temples and buildings on the Acropolis.
It’s definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment!
The first building we look at is the theatre of Dionysos. This is the first theatre that was ever built. Our guide tells us that many actors visit this site to pay homage to the birthplace of their craft.
But Dionysos didn’t just focus on the theatre. Oh no. Dionysos is the god of wine making! Bless him and his agricultural skills!
The next temple we look at is the temple of Asklepios. Now this temple was also a medical clinic. Asklepios is depicted usually with a sword and a snake curling around it.
This sword with the snake will go on to become the symbol of medicine around the world. Upon excavations here, there was found a very early set of medical instruments for operations. I wonder if they looked like any of the gynecology instruments from the clock tower in Sighasoara.
Now, Asklepios has some daughters. One is called Hygieia and another is called Panacea. He has some others but it’s these ones in which we associate the word hygiene and panacea. Alex, our guide, would tell us many Greek words which are still used today as part of our normal language conventions.
Alex tells us that the Greek people were some of the original colonisers. That’s why there are cities dotted around with very Greek names, such is Odessa in Ukraine, Napoli in Italy and there was another one but I’ve forgotten it.
He also tells us that because of this colonisation, that’s how the Olympics started. Because the motherland didn’t want the Greek colonisers to assimilate into the other culture, they would send for them every four years to come back to Greece and partake in events.
We then see the second theatre here, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Our guide tells us that a lot of famous people have performed here, including Coldplay recently filming a music video.
The theatre of Dionysos is not used because it is too fragile. So people use this one instead. The arches are absolutely stunning at the back of the stage. I can only imagine what this would have looked like with its high arches and covered roof.
All this time our guide has told us a lot of information about Nike, the goddess of war and victory. Nike has a temple up on the top of the hill at the Acropolis.
There are four buildings on the top of the Acropolis: the entrance gate that humans were allowed to pass through, the Temple of Nike, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheion, which only the gods can enter.
Our guide said that the Erechtheion is probably the most important temple on the Acropolis. It is where Athena and Poseidon had a battle and Athena won. There is a hole in the ground where Poseidon is meant to have struck his trident.
Outside the temple is an olive tree which Athena planted after the battle. I don’t remember all the story but it was the growing of the olive tree that helped her win over the people of Athens.
And then of course we move on to the real reason why we are here, the Parthenon. The Parthenon is such a splendid building. It is not near as big as what it appears. Our guide tells us that the Greek people implemented optical illusions to make the building look much bigger than it actually was. A lot of the Parthenon was damaged in the 1700s. It is undergoing restoration at the moment and I for one can’t wait to see it in its former glory.
Our guide told us about all the pieces that the Ottomans sold to Britain while Greece was under Ottoman rule. Greece is still trying to get back many pieces from the British museum. One of these items includes one of the six sisters that is on the Athena and Poseidon Temple. The British have also taken all the friezes that were on the Parthenon that displayed normal human activities (as opposed to the God’s activities).
At this point we get to have a bit of a break on the tour. There is a place where we can refill our water bottles which is super handy as it’s stinking hot by now being midday.
Our guide tells us that the price of water bottles for 500ml and 1L bottles is regulated by the government. So 50c for a 500ml bottle and 1€ for a 1L bottle of water. Not bad at all!
After 10 minutes or so of free time we start to leave the Acropolis. One of the things you have to be really careful of when visiting is your footing. Everything is either marble or built out of marble in Greece. The marble makes it very slippery to walk on. So going downstairs you really need to be careful. Luckily no one on our tour slipped!
After we leave the Acropolis, we then go to the Ancient Agora of Athens. The agora was essentially the market of Athens.
One of the buildings has been reconstructed over the years. The Americans have been very instrumental in the excavations and reconstructions here. Now, I for one love a reconstructed building because it gives me a much better idea about the functionality of the building and also how it looked.
Throughout the four hour tour our guide wanted us to remember six important things about Greece:
1. democracy
2. philosophy
3. science
4. something that I can’t remember
5. sports
6. classical art.
It is at this point that our tour is finished. We’ve spent the past four hours with an extremely knowledgeable guide who has endeavoured to tell us everything he knows about Greece, especially Athens, and Greek mythology. I can’t remember even one 10th of what he’s told me today. It was such a fascinating tour and I am so glad that of all the tours I picked the mythology one.
Book the tour I went on:
When the tour group dissipates, Amy and I go into the museum at the ancient Agora. The museum has some pretty fascinating pieces. One of our favourite things is the cat rattle. It’s a bit ugly cute. In addition to the fun things, there’s also a jury duty tablet on display. This tablet randomised people being selected for jury duty. It was pretty neat!
Once we finished in the museum, we then go up towards the temple on the hill, the Temple of Hephaestus. It is very similar to the Parthenon in looks. It is original and the friezes have not been taken by the British.
When we’re finished in the ancient agora, we leave the archaeological park and peruse the nearby restaurants. We choose a restaurant that looks like it has good cooling because of the heat, and we decide to have lunch there. I order chicken souvlaki and Amy orders Pinsa caprese.
My chicken is cooked to absolute perfection, it is so tender and juicy and flavoursome Amy‘s pinsa is equally delicious. With full tummies we decide to head back towards our accommodation to rest for the afternoon.
Our walk takes us through the neighbourhood of Plaka. It’s a quaint neighbourhood in Athens that is below the Acropolis. Along the route, there are lots of souvenir shops that we look in. From my travels, Greece has, so far, the best souvenir shops that we have seen. An interesting piece of information from our guide tells us that some excavations were completed and they found ancient souvenir shops in the ancient markets near the agora. So it seems that souvenir shops are a very important industry in Greece.
We finally arrived back to the apartment about eight hours after we left it. We are hot and we are tired. I set an alarm for 30 minutes so we can have a power nap. After the alarm goes off, we slowly drag ourselves out and start to get ready so we can go out again. This time to soak up some atmosphere and to get dinner as the attractions are all closed for the day.
We head back towards Plaka. We find a cute little restaurant that seems to have some nice items on the menu. Amy orders linguine and I order a variety plate. The variety plate has four different types of dips one is a Tziki, the second is a beetroot salad, the third is a fish roe salad and I can’t remember what the fourth thing was but it was really delicious nonetheless.
It is such a lovely evening and the atmosphere is lovely so we decide to continue walking around the neighbourhood and enjoy the evening. After a while we had back towards our accommodation.
Next door to our building is a small store selling drinks and food. The guy who runs it is lovely and always greets us when we go in and out of our building. So we decide to stop here and have a drink as he had no other customers at the time, I have a glass of wine that is the size of a bucket and Amy has a Coke zero.
Our drinks are drunk we then head into our building for showers, a rest, and hopefully, plenty of sleep.
What an incredible introduction to Athens.
And if you would like to see how this day looked, head over to my YouTube video
More journal entries from this trip
Greece Travel Journal / Day 2
Greece Travel Journal / Day 3
Greece Travel Journal / Day 4
Greece Travel Journal / Day 5
Greece Travel Journal / Day 6
More posts you might like
Perfect Rome itinerary for first time visitors
Spend an amazing long weekend in Jordan
Four of the best cities to see in Uzbekistan