Greek Independence Day, Beaches and Sunsets

Wednesday was Greek Independence Day so there were no classes. I woke up a little later to cloudy skies, wind and some light rain...so I lingered in bed for a while. Eventually, I heard the sound of loud machines on the street below and saw them setting up for the parade. I was warned by Mary and my AirBnB host that this wasn't the "fun" type of parade with dancers, floats, and Santa Claus - but instead a military parade. Not being keen on military-anything I delayed going out until the weather improved. Eventually, I got curious and walked down to the street and towards Syntagma to see what all the fuss was about. After a few minutes of soldiers marching and rockets being displayed on truck beds in an attempt to one-up the Turks, I decided to roam around Plaka and the city center instead.

Cute kids (and an adult) getting ready to watch the parade.

Meh - kinda boring.

The city center was very lively and there were many people wandering around enjoying their vacation or the national holiday. Later in the day, I had a cooking class planned so I only spent a couple hours wandering around before heading back to my AirBnB to clean up and make my way to Omonoia to meet the instructor and other students. I popped into the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary (try saying that three times real fast) to check out the interior (and to avoid the noise of the very low flying patriotic jets circling the city). Oh! I almost forgot! Have a cocktail with me in celebration of Greek independence while listening to the song Κοκτέιλ (Cocktail) by Nalyssa Green. It's my Greek song for this blog post. Υάμας Ελλάδα! (Cheers Greece)

From there I ran across the oldest house in Athens - the Benizelos Mansion - and wandered around and read more about Turkish occupation of the city. From there I wandered around Plaka with its cute, winding, narrow streets and looped back through Monastiraki where I found some Bubble Tea on the pedestrian street Aiolou (where the first hostel I ever stayed at in Athens with Paul and Christina was located). There were some buskers singing American rock which I listened to for a few minutes before making my way back towards my AirBnB along the shopping street Adriano. I popped into some shops and settled on some souvenir packaged olives, soaps and snacks as gifts for people back in America. I grabbed a small pizza from a store across the street from my AirBnB for a snack - I would end up working on finishing this very average pizza for the next three days.

Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary.

The Benizelos Mansion - the oldest remaining house in Athens. Dating to the Ottoman period around the early 1700s. 

Bright and sunny Plaka street.

Looking over the Roman Forum towards the acropolis.

Some rocking buskers.

Roma Pizza is apparently the Greek Dominos - but at $6 I'm fine with that.

After chilling in the AirBnB for a bit with my bargain pizza and homework assignments, I took the metro and met up with the instructors and 6 other students for a Greek cooking class. I'm fairly familiar with Greek food - but I thought this would be a fun excuse to chat with new people and maybe learn a thing or two. The company running the class was called "Eat with Your Greek Cousin" and it was a family run affair. The instructor was named Dionysia Katafygi and her assistant was her brother-in-law and 10 year old niece. The other six students were from America - with one younger woman studying abroad in Athens and the rest mostly off a cruise ship for a day or two. So much for meeting "new" people. That said, everyone was very nice and the class was tremendously fun and delicious - check them out if you're ever in the mood to take a cooking class in Athens. Opening this class was a dream of Dionysia's while she was working a corporate job, which included international travel every month in a management position - earning only €1,000 per month. Now she and her family all work together in this cooking business - give them some support.

It didn't take Dionysia long to figure out I was part Greek - with family from the Peloponnesus - so she liked to jab at me as her family was from near Constantinople (Istanbul) and her perception of people from my family's region was that we were very particular about our food, which is generally not the case for me. While talking about olive oil, she explained to me that the Peloponnesus generally has the best and that the worst, by far, is from the island of Corfu. Apparently, the Greeks there were forced to grow the olives by the British to use as lamp oil, so they never cared for the trees and never bothered to harvest the olives still on the tree - instead letting them fall to the ground and then collecting them. These habits never changed and here we are. This story would matter more later in the trip, stay tuned!

In the class, we prepared pork and chicken souvlaki, homemade pita bread, tzatziki, tirokafteri (spicy feta dip) and a little self-serve quick freeze cheesecake. I was most impressed with how straightforward it is to make very delicious pita - something I will work on at home in the future.

Souvlaki was easier to make than I expected - but I'm lacking a home gyro spit!

The gyro spread - onions, fries and tomatoes.

My homemade dips. I made the tirokafteri a little too spicy.

Yum! Look at that yummy pita bread!

I walked back from Omonoia to my AirBnB - which took around 40 minutes - partly because it was so nice outside and partly because some of the other Americans were walking that way and we were trash-talking American politics. When I got back to the AirBnB it was already dark and I wrapped up homework and called it a day.

On Thursday classes resumed, as did my new habit of waking up early, finding some matcha and a snack and getting ready for class - which lasted until 12:30. Today was very nice and sunny, so I decided after class I'd take the tram down to the beach near Flisvos. There were lots of little shops and cafes tucked down the side streets and a nice promenade along the water front that led through some parks and up to a posh marina. I strolled for a bit and then sat at a restaurant along the marina to have an aperol spritz, some salmon (meh) and some really great feta-cheese stuffed pepper. 

The beach at Flisvos - there were people swimming in mid-March! Scandinavians?

I lost count of the number of Aperol Spritzs I had this trip...which in my opinion is a good indicator of a fun trip.

Delicious feta stuffed peppers.

From there I walked to the Stavros Niarchos Park (a large new park in Kallithea that houses the opera) and strolled a bit before grabbing a bus and heading back towards the city center to visit the Museum of Cycladic Art. This museum housed a great collection of art from the main central set of Greek islands (the Cyclades). Bronze age civilizations sprouted up here first among Greece, dating to around 4000 BCE. From the museum I wandered up into the nice Kolonaki neighborhood, on the foot of the Lycabettus Hill to look at some fancy food shops before wandering up the hill itself for sunset - something I have done on almost every trip to Greece dating back to 2009. From there it was back to the AirBnB to complete homework and chill for the evening. 

The Greek National Opera - I debated going to a show but decided it would be "too Italian."

Typical early Cycladic statute.

A room dedicated to bronze age civilization on Cyprus.

Sunsets on Lycabettus really can't be beat.

If it's not clear to you that I love a good non-motorized path, we probably aren't really friends.

Athens, mountains, sun and the sea in the distance.

Sunset in Athens.

Delightful.

Only 1 more day of class and one free day to go before I leave and head back to America.

Goodbye Greece: 36 Hours in Athens

Continuing our Greek road trip, when we were looking for attractions to stop at on our way back to Athens we saw an odd site on Google Maps that wasn't far out of the way - the Church of Agia Fotini Mantineias just north of Tripoli. This church is literally an amalgam of materials from other churches and sites in a mish-mashed style that was both impossible to look away from while being obnoxious to look at. Oddly, it was built between the 1960s and 1970s. While we were here, we made a dog friend that followed us around the church grounds (there was no one here) and also when we walked across the street to the archaeological site of Mantinea (another set of ruins of a classical era Greek city that is mostly gone at this point). While we were looking around the site, our dog friend waited patiently at the gate and greeted us as we walked back to our car. We gave him some snacks from our trunk. 🐶

Interior of the Church of Agia Fotini Mantineias.

Little bit of every possible style in one column.

The phrase "tone it down" clearly meant nothing to the people making this church.

Our dog friend eating a cookie.

The archaeological site across the street - Mantinea.

Not much left, but cool atmosphere/vibe to this abandoned site.

After leaving Mantinea, we drove directly to the Athens airport along the very nice toll highway, and returned our rental car. We put 1,392km (865 miles) on the car during our road trip - how very American of us! To get to our AirBnB in central Athens, we took the M3 train into the city, which is convenient but unfortunately only runs every 30 minutes since it operates more like a commuter train. Luckily, we only had to wait about 10 minutes. We checked into our AirBnB in the Psyri neighborhood, then had dinner at the nearby Bandiera restaurant, sitting outside on the narrow street. David had sea bass and Paul had stifado. The Psyri neighborhood is bustling with tourists; a big change of pace from the leisurely and un-crowded Peloponnesian road trip portion of our trip. There is no shortage of bars and restaurants in this area of Athens.

That evening we walked around, including going up the Aeropagus Hill for some great dusk views among the tourists crowds. Athens has developed a reputation as a great cocktail city in recent years - with 3 or 4 of the globally top 50 rated bars in Athens as of 2025. So, after sunset we grabbed a cocktail at Bar in Front of the Bar (yes, that's the name of the bar) and then at Baba au Rum. Most bars in Athens aren't quite our (middle-aged) style because they are cramped and loud, or if you sit outside you're bound to be surrounded by smokers.

Our AirBnB was great. We has planned on getting a hotel but the prices were astronomical.

Our neighborhood.

Grilled veggies and cheese.

Sea bass at Bandiera.

There are classical Greek and Roman era ruins throughout central Athens.

We love a  nice graffitied metro car running in front of the Acropolis!

Evening views.

David made a Kenyan friend.

Woo! Athens!

Looking out to the Lycabettus Hill.

Panoramic views.

As night fell, the sites lit up.

Lots of great cute streets in the Plaka area near the Acropolis.

Great street scenes in central Athens.

Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Greeks aren't short-winded when it comes to naming their churches.

Inside the church.

Bar in Front of the Bar. Yes, there was another bar inside it so the name technically makes sense.

Our exes were probably not here yesterday, actually.

Back in Psyri - it's hard to miss Little Kook with its over the top holiday theming. You should see their Christmas set up!

On Friday morning (our last full day in Greece) we started with coffee and a pastry at Third Space, then we parted ways until lunch. David set off for an appointment at the immigration lawyer's office. Meanwhile, Paul walked to the Parthenon museum. This museum wasn't open when we first visited Athens in 2009, but David visited with Janice and Peter back in 2019. So David didn't feel any FOMO about skipping out on the museum and it was Paul's first time. It's a very impressive modern museum, an appropriately grand site to house the treasures of the Parthenon. Now if only the Brits would return those marbles!

Paul then walked around a bit and took the bus to meet with David, but his meeting was running long and he had to go to the notary to sign over power of attorney for immigration issues. So instead Paul walked to get a cocktail at Line, which is ranked as one of the top places to get a cocktail in Europe. Early in the day it was delightfully relaxed, and Paul enjoyed sitting in the small courtyard and having a unique cocktail with coffee, beetroot, and caramelized whey. 

Morning in Athens with the pigeons.

Guard in front of the parliament building in Syntagma.

Walking through the National Garden.

More random ruins.

Marbles at the museum.

Overview of the main central hall/stairs in the museum.

The museum is built atop ruins, and you can go below to see them.

More of a normal Athens neighborhood.

Interesting mural.

Decoration on a random church.

Paul came across a neighborhood farmer's market.

Cocktail time!

The relaxed courtyard of Line.

Meanwhile, as we mentioned in our opening Greece post of this trip, David was meeting with his immigration lawyers to talk through next steps on acquiring citizenship by descent. We aren't planning on fleeing America (yet), but a Greek passport would open doors and lead to potential retirement plans in Greece and the European Union in general. While meeting with the lawyers, they came to the realization that since he was there, it made sense for him to run to the notary to sign over power of attorney for immigration paperwork filing. The last appointment was soon approaching, so David had to jump on a bus then a train back to the AirBnB to grab his passport and then book it to make it on time to a scary looking old building in central Athens to meet an interpreter and the notary. Mission successful!

After David wrapped up his immigration work, we met up for a late lunch at Bouka. After navigating a confusing ordering system at the counter, we had some nice avgolemono and moussaka. We then planned on going to the National Archaeology Museum but, unfortunately it closes early (3:30pm) so instead we went to the Benaki Museum, which is a museum of Greek culture housed in a former mansion near Syntagma. David visited the Benaki Museum back in 2019, but was happy to go again and it was Paul's first trip.

Avgolemono & moussaka for lunch.

Interior of the Benaki museum.

Paul loves a good Fayoum portrait! These are Egyptian/Greek funerary portraits.

Room in the Benaki Museum.

Exterior of the museum.

A funny little add, "Roquefort" and "comfort" are similar in Greek.

Athens has a lot of murals.

After doing a lot of walking all morning and into the afternoon, we decided to head back to the AirBnB and relax a bit before our dinner reservation at Aleria. This was our splurge restaurant in Greece - the food was very delicious but the tasting menu took around 3.5 hours and we were exhausted by the end. David got the tasting menu that included meat and Paul got the vegetarian one and we shared the food. We were seated in a small Florida-room style area of the restaurant along with 3 other couples - one of the couples was from France and on their way out they told our waiter to "please provide our compliments to the chef, we are French and we love gastronomy and this was good food" (not word-for-word but you get the gist). So, high praise for the food at Aleria, but they need to tighten up the service - it's fine for good meals to take a while, but there was too much waiting between courses.

David at Aleria eating his amuse bouche.

Tomato with sorbet.

Another veggie dish.

Fish with a pumpkin sauce.

Reimagined pastitsio (this was delicious).

Lamb and fava bean puree.

Squash sticks.

A little palette cleanser before dessert.

Desserts - chocolate and hazelnut.

Another dessert. The stick on top was like a candy cigarette.

After dinner we walked back to our AirBnB (it was around midnight) and went straight to bed. We had to get up early the next morning to grab the train back to the airport to head home.

All-in-all, this was a really great trip! From Istanbul's monumental architecture, to the relaxing small-town vibe of Greece's Peloponnesian towns, the 800 cat friends we made, the 5 lbs of feta cheese we consumed, and more archaeological sites than you can shake a stick at. This region of the world is full of fun and interesting things to see and do. We're already planning our next trip to Greece!