Athens Stroll and Bar Crawl

After a great day-trip to Delphi, it was time to explore Athens. The city hasn't changed much since my last visit 10 years ago. It's hard to tell if that's a result of the Greek Financial Crisis or if it's just the type of place that time forgets. Athens is sorta grimy, with graffiti scattered around most buildings, dogs and cats wandering about, and infrastructure generally not in the best condition. Look past this, though, and you'll see a city with a lot of character. Little restaurants cling to the stairways in the Plaka, vendors hawk their wares in Monastiraki, and ruins from the city's grand past are scattered about the center of town. Unlike Rome, which was always a somewhat important city even after the fall of the Empire, Athens didn't really take off until the modern era. The city offers interesting ruins from the ancient past and some modern amenity but much of the middle of its history is harder to find.

To start off my half day before Janice and Peter arrive, I decided to take a stroll, visit the Benaki Museum and the National Gardens. One of my favorite things about Athens is that nothing is more than a 20 minute walk away from the city center. Staying right in the middle gives you easy access to most everything of interest to a tourist. The Benaki museum is a small museum of artifacts from Greece's past up through it's independence in the 1800s. One floor is committed to antiquities, one to Byzantine and middle ages, and finally a small third floor is dedicated to the period in the 1800s. The museum hosts lots of examples of clothes as well, which is interesting to see change over the centuries.

Benaki Museum

Surprised looking owl pots.

Dear tiny baby Jesus, why do you look 35?

Me when my camera opens facing inside instead of outward...

After visiting the museum, I took a stroll through the National Gardens near the Parliament building at Syntagma Square. People were walking dogs and children, others were out for a jog. The garden is a nice retreat from the loud polluted city all around you. Afterwards, I went shopping in the Plaka for random Greek things. Here I got into a bit of an argument with a shop owner about how good/bad America is. I mostly do what I always do when this topic is breached; I apologize and say that the American people mean well. By the way, he also told me I have a "Greek face."

National Gardens pond.

Lots of paths with nice plants.

A few nice buildings are scattered about and lots of citrus trees.

After shopping, I headed back to the AirBnB to chill a bit before Janice and Peter arrived. I went down to Monastiraki to bring them back to the AirBnB and then we all went out to get some food at a place called Tzizikas kai Mermigas. This place had a large menu of Greek classics. We opted to share a few small plates and got some drinks. Souvlaki, hand pies, fried cheese and pork on a pita were the highlights here.

Hi Janice & Peter! First of many "pleasantly surprising" Greek beers.

Yummy food!

After a late lunch, we decided to go for a stroll and walk around the Plaka and along the Anafiotika foot path in front of the Acropolis to the Areopagus Hill to take in the vistas. From here we climbed down and started a bar crawl that lasted until about midnight. In total I think we visited four spots from the Couleur Locale rooftop bar to Beertime in Psyri followed by a Christmas bar across from our AirBnB called Noel and finally a place for snacks and drinks. Overall a fun night barhopping!

For every cat you see, there's 20 you don't.

Oh hi there Acropolis!

Surveying the city.

Beer time at Beer Time.

This place is across the street from the AirBnB and is over the top Christmas themed year-round.

Sprinkles! Why don't all of my cocktails have sprinkles?!

Deconstructed Greek food. On the left is pastitio and on the right is dolmas. Not what we were expecting, but still good!