Last month we decided to take a weekend trip up to New York City to visit our friends Alexis and Thomas. Paul had visited a couple of times for random events in the past few years, including a Sufjan Stevens musical and a Notre Dame football game, but David hadn't been since 2023. So we packed our bags and flew up to JFK late on a Thursday afternoon, and took the train into SoHo where we were staying with Alexis. We popped into a nearby Italian bar/restaurant for some late evening snacks and cocktails before calling it a night.
Friday we got up and got some coffee at Asano, met our friend Thomas, then took the subway to the Museum of Natural History. This museum recently expanded with a cavernous new hall and several new exhibits. We spent a few hours exploring this massive museum, which is a must-visit for anyone who likes museums.
NYC here we come!
They changed the metro map and it's terrible now.
The first, but not last of David's matcha experience in NYC.
The Pacific Northwest exhibit hall.
A skyline of crystals.
A great uncle of David's colleague painted this mural!
The Gilder Center addition.
The outside of the Gilder Center.
We then went to lunch at Chama Mama, a Georgian (the country) restaurant, walked around a bit and hung out at Thomas's apartment until dinner. We had reservations at Pranakhon, an over-the-top and delicious Thai restaurant. After dinner we grabbed some wine and chilled at Alexis's apartment that night.
A Georgian dips sampler platter at Chama Mama.
The delightful salad at Pranakhon.
View of Brooklyn from Thomas's apartment
Saturday morning we took the train across the east river for a day in Brooklyn. The weather was great - warm and sunny with a breeze. We got off the train near the Barclay's Center, and walked a couple of blocks to Greenpoint Park where we met Thomas and Petros. It was very lively, and we explored for a bit - walking through the street market adjacent to the park.
After a bit we walked through the adjacent neighborhood admiring the brownstones and went to a bookstore before our brunch reservation at Miss Ada, a Mediterranean restaurant. We had a variety of hummuses, various fresh and pickled items, sandwiches and some non-alcoholic drinks. After, Thomas and Petros headed home for a bit, and Alexis and us caught the train to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. With the beautiful sunny weather and the emergence of cherry blossoms, this place was thronged with visitors. We walked around and enjoyed the Japanese garden
The Barclay's Center.
Downtown Brooklyn behind Greenpoint Park.
Lots of shareables for lunch.
Cherry blossoms floating on the breeze.
David and Alexis in the gardens.
Dramatic blossoms!
The Japanese gate in the pond.
Pretty!
Inside the desert dome. It was a million degrees in the greenhouses.
After finishing up at the garden, we took the train back to Manhattan, where we met up again with Thomas and Petros, and the five of us spent some time hanging out in the Lower East Side bar hopping. First, we stopped for a cocktail at Reception Bar, which does mostly Korean-inspired drinks with soju. We then tried to go to Attaboy, a highly rated cocktail bar, but were refused because one person in our party didn't have their physical ID on them. We're all in our 40s, so that was a little unexpected. We pivoted and walked toward the nearby "Double Chicken Please" but it had a line down the block. Finally, we found "StEight behind Kuniya Hair," a tiny little cocktail bar hidden behind an equally small beauty salon. It was atmospheric and the cocktails were Japanese-inspired. We accidentally went to two Asian cocktail bars!
After our bar excursions, we hopped the train back to SoHo and had pizza and wine at Alexis's apartment.
First cocktail - with soju.
Delightful drinks and company.
These two, not so much! ;)
Second cocktail, behind the hair salon.
David's strawberry matcha cocktail.
David got a calzone...thingy.
Sunday morning we started again at a coffee shop, this time at the Bedford Studio. We strolled around SoHo and then waited for Thomas and Petros to join us at Abingdon Square. From there we walked along the Hudson River Park. There were tons of people out and about because the weather was so great! After a while of strolling we popped by a small place for a quick lunch before heading back to Alexis's place, packing up and heading home!
Friday began much like the other days this week - matcha run and wrapping up homework before class at 10am...with the added anxiety of deciding to buy my instructor a card and give him a cash tip to thank him for his help. Where do you even buy cards in Greece? It was not obvious to me. After some googling I landed on a bookstore about 15 mins away - which was not open when I arrived. A woman was waiting to enter and she informed me they did sell cards and her colleague would be arriving soon so we chatted for a few minutes. Like a handful of conversations it quickly landed on - you look Greek, but you don't speak much of it, also who did you vote for, Mr. American. That aside, and card in hand, I dashed back to my AirBnB, wrote something in Greek as heartfelt as a 7 year old could probably muster, deposited the cash and then headed off to school - card and a little peach-shaped refrigerator magnet with Atlanta scribbled along the side as farewell gifts - something to remember a half Greek Georgia boy had been there.
Class wrapped up pleasantly - no need for goodbyes because the school had booked us all tickets for a Greek Beer Festival on Saturday - more to come on that later. I skipped off from class, backpack and books in tow back to my AirBnB, reflecting on my newfound ability to conjugate verbs in simple past and simple future - which I considered worth the week in and of itself, and officially brings my grammar skills in Greek to a similar level of my Spanish skills.
After dropping off my bags, I took a stroll through the Pangrati neighborhood, east of the school and my AirBnB in Fix. This leads us to the song of the blog - Παγκράτι (Pangrati) by Marina Spanou. This neighborhood makes me think of early 20s adventures - and pops up in music about the local nightlife. This was not my experience strolling around in the rain showers on a random Friday afternoon - but the neighborhood was leafy, lively and delightful with a large forest park in the middle, the Pangrati Grove.
The First Cemetery of Athens - on the edge of Pangrati.
So many delightful places in Athens.
The Pangrati Grove was really beautiful with a dense canopy of trees.
A typical street scene in Pangrati.
When the rain got a little heavier I ducked into a taverna for lunch. I got some pastitsio and xorta. Pastitsio is the most Greek meal in my mind. I like to ask people about their pastitsio to see how it's different. Everyone has an opinion on the spices or the texture of the bechamel. Mary once asked which spices my family uses for our meat and was happy when I told her because we were on the same side of the pastitsio spice schism. I showed a picture of a recent pastitsio to Spiros on my last day of class and he looked it over and asked to see one of the inside. When I showed him he shook his head and said the bechamel was too thin.
Despite varying preferences, one general truth I experienced is that most people wouldn't tell me where to get it at a restaurant - it's one of those dishes that live in your memory and really the only acceptable version is the one made by your yiayia or mother. But I digress, so when I tell you that this particular pastitsio was not "good" you'll understand that I'm culturally required to think that way. My mom and sister make it better.
An "ok" pastistio.
With rain continuing in the near future, after lunch I decided to dip into the National Gallery, which Mary had mentioned as a nice museum that had recently underwent a renovation. The museum hosted paintings and art from 18th and 19th century Greek artists. There is a wing for 20th century art but it was under renovation when I arrived. It was a nice way to spend around 90 minutes and worth the stop if you're a bit east of the tourist drag.
Art!
Another great pedestrian street in Kolonaki.
After the Gallery, the rain started to let up so I decided to stroll back to Kolonaki to look for some more food souvenirs. While looking around I made the decision to check a bag on the airplane home - something I almost never do - which instantaneously opened up the world of olive oil, wine and honey as gifts and personal souvenirs. I ended up buying a couple bottles of wine and Peloponnesian olive oil as well as some variety boxes of honey. Worth it.
Heading back to the AirBnB I popped in a corner cafe that was closing up for the day to grab a Coke Zero run by an older man and woman. This was probably my best interaction with locals in mostly Greek. I gave a Greek hello (γεία σας) then stumbled asking for what I wanted, so they assumed I spoke no Greek and asked if I wanted a bottle or can, I replied "bottle" in Greek and that drew them in - then came the questions slow pitched to me in simple understandable Greek, my brain lit up with excitement at people making the extra effort and asking the easiest questions. Where are you from? Why are you in Greece? Are you part Greek? Why are you learning Greek? Are you in school? What do you do for work? How are you enjoying your time here? All with huge smiles and helping direct my Greek back at them if I was unsure. BAM. Check mark. A+. Worth the entire trip to just talk for 10 minutes with those kind, friendly people. Maybe I felt like I was a kid speaking to my grandparents again - chasing nostalgia has become a pastime of mine? Maybe I am just a dumb geriatric millennial that seeks a trophy at the end of a task. Whatever the reason it made my week and will likely be something I remember forever.
After hanging out at the AirBnB for a while in the afterglow of my simple conversation I decided tonight was the night to hit the town - as much as a 44 year old guy alone with limited communication skills could do so anyway. I looked up a couple bars in the Gazi neighborhood and headed out with the goal of having a few beers, maybe listening to some music and potentially chatting with some new people. This effort was met with mixed success. It was early for bars so they weren't very crowded. I plopped down and ended up chatting with an older guy from Thessaloniki. He mostly wanted to tell me about his troubles - in love and finance - and wasn't too keen on soft pitching Greek at me. After a while, I decided to make an excuse and head out to another bar - which was even more empty. As I was leaving they were opening up the dance floor across the alley so I feel like I would have had more fun if I had just gone out closer to midnight than 9pm. Notes for next time. I made the 45 minute walk back through the city center enjoying the weather and people watching and turned in for the evening.
A cute side street in Gazi full of bars and restaurants.
One of the bars I visited. There were people behind me (maybe a dozen or so). They were playing great music!
Little Kook is a holiday institution. They take over the block around them and deck it out in over-the-top decorations depending on the season. I'm not sure why it was Alice in Wonderland themed, but it was neat.
Saturday was my last full day in Athens. I started it with a stroll up the Filopappou Hill for views and exercise. I hadn't walked around this hill (just southwest of the Acropolis) in previous visits - which was a mistake because it's very lush and verdant and there are great view towards the Acropolis, the city all around and out to the sea. From the top of that hill I could clearly see everywhere I had visited that week - from the port of Piraeus to the beach at Flisvos, up to the top of the Lycabettus hill and towards the Pangrati Grove. All 4.5 million Athenians (nearly half the population of Greece) within a single 360 degree spin on a hill south of the Acropolis.
Cute cafe on the way towards the Filopappou Hill.
There were tons of trails like this criss-crossing the hill.
Looking back to the Acropolis - my family actually has a painting given to my mother from my grandfather from a similar vantage. It hung on my wall a while, then my middle sister and now my younger sister. I think none of us know exactly what to think of it.
Looking out towards the sea from Fillopapou.
I made my way down the hill on the opposite side and headed towards the Benaki Museum - Pireaus. This museum is broken into several galleries hosting exhibitions. I didn't realize you had to select an exhibit at the counter and just asked to go to the most popular one. The attendant recommended the exhibition hosting works from Alexis Akrithakis - a prominent Greek artist from the 1960s that explored psychedelic images. It was really great and worth a visit if you're in town.
I pull up this picture whenever I need to remember Greek alphabetical order.
Psychedelic.
After the museum, I wandered back towards the city center looking for lunch. I ended up at wholly forgettable little cafe with a sandwich and some fries. I looped back around the tourist shops towards my AirBnB looking for more liquid souvenirs since I broke the seal and decided to check a bag. I found a cute little shop run by a woman whose daughter went to art school in NYC. I bought some quirky items and tucked them away into my bag for gifts or souvenirs.
Ok lunch sandwich and a Coke Zero.
Back at the AirBnB I started the arduous process of packing everything before heading to the Greek Beer Festival - assuming I would be too tired (or too drunk) to want to do that after the festival. Packing was a challenge with all the items I bought!
The Beer festival was great fun. Many of the people I met at the school were there, along with several others and their friends or significant others. We met around 6pm and I stayed until maybe 9:30. My flight the next day was early and I didn't want to risk being a total zombie while having to make decisions navigating an airport and immigration. The festival featured local Greek beers from across the country along with food vendors and live music. I spent time chatting with Dimitra and Spiros as well as the Australian-Greek guy and a few Greek and English folks - including a woman that worked at a bakery. I asked her about koulourakia (Greek cookies) and why I could never find any in Athens with anise (which is how my mother makes them). Apparently, this isn't common and is a regional specialty from the Peloponnesus - we did find some last fall while visiting.
Another interesting man I spoke to - though I'm not sure how he was affiliated with the school - was from Corfu. You may recall from the previous blog that I was told that the worst olive oil in Greece was from Corfu. Well, two beers in, sitting close enough to this man to feel his breath on my neck when he spoke I decided to ask him if this was true. He looked me square in the eyes and his face went blank - at this point I was fully expecting him to punch me - but he just put an arm around my shoulder and said "you are absolutely...correct! It's terrible on Corfu!" He then gave me the same story about the British (what don't they ruin honestly) and their need for fuel oil to light lamps. He went on to explain that he makes his own olive oil and that it is better than the oil in the Peloponnesus. So 2 out of 2 Greek people agree when asked about olive oil - it sucks in Corfu!
The school-associated group started to thin out so I decided to say my goodbyes and make my way back to the AirBnB. It was another long stroll but it's always nice walking through the city center. I stopped for a late night gyro and some fries on the way back - much needed - and crashed. Lucky for me, my flight was delayed by 90 minutes - which meant more sleep - but unlucky for me Sunday was the beginning of European Daylight Savings Time...so hour lost.
Woo, beer!
The place got packed, especially after dark and when the bigger acts took the stage.
Late evening gyro and fries.
To make things easier on myself with the extra baggage in souvenirs, I opted to arrange a car to the airport. The driver arrived right on time and was super friendly - in fact he was Greek-Canadian. He grew up in Ontario and moved to Greece as an adult. His parents were both from Greece and he was fluent in both English and Greek as a result. We chatted about his experience living in Greece for the past 25 years. He had a lot to say about economic conditions and how families are scrapping by since the Financial Crisis. Hearing this soured my last few hours in Greece - but I was thankful that I was able to chat with so many Greek people this trip and to learn so much more about what life is like for people living here (both good and bad).
Overall, this trip was a great experience. I almost never travel alone (except for work). It was fun to set the pace each day, decide what to do and for how long to do it and when and what to eat. I also really enjoyed the language classes and the opportunities they presented to speak with more people than I typically would as a tourist alone.
Another observation, which I'm sure I've pointed out in past blogs to Greece is that I can tell I confuse people in Greece. Again this trip, the most frequent thing I was told by people just meeting me is "you look Greek" or "sorry, I thought you were Greek" when I would start to speak in English or broken Greek to people. This is wholly attributable to my other half (father's family) being Italian. I like feeling like I fit into more than one space, and as a Mediterranean dude living in the Southern half of American I often didn't feel like I fit in growing up. I hope some day I get good enough at speaking Greek and can wholly occupy two worlds at the same time (to some degree). Maybe I should pick up Italian too and go for the trifecta? Una faccia, una razza!
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.
