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!

A Day Trip to Delphi

I arrived at the Athens airport, collected my bags and grabbed the metro into town. The AirBnB I lined up is coincidentally about one block from the hotel Paul, Christina and I shared in Athens almost exactly 10 year ago. Thinking back to that trip, I don't recall feeling that Athens itself was a particularly exceptional city, overall...but it was the first trip I made to Europe as an adult so I'm curious if my opinion will be different this go around. Also, since I'm half Greek I've committed myself to coming to Greece every so often to try to get some sense about the people and places here which define half my heritage. This between jobs Mediterranean city hop seemed like the perfect time for a repeat visit.

Getting off the train at Monastiraki I was instantly reminded of what a chaotic city Athens is. It's so densely packed, has narrow streets, and there are people, cars and motorbikes everywhere. Athens can be a bit overwhelming. I'm also instantly treated to a view of the Acropolis at sunset, which is a beautiful site. At this point I'm feeling pretty good about being back and I'm eager to settle in and work out a plan for the next few days. In total, I'm in Athens for 4.5 days. My friends Peter and Janice are coming from the UK for about 48 hours in the middle to keep me company. :)

Athens from above.

Monastiraki and the Acropolis at sunset.

First meal in Athens - Souvlaki.

After some internal debate on what to do the first day, I decided a day trip to Delphi would be a great opportunity to see more of Greece. Last time we visited, I ended up getting pretty sick and we had to skip Delphi. I didn't want to miss the opportunity again. I ended up getting my AirBnB contact to line up a private driver for me for the day, instead of waking up at 5:30 am to catch a super early 3 hour public bus there and then having to remain at the site for 6 hours before the return bus arrived. This was obviously more expensive, but the time and price difference seemed fair to me.

My driver's name was Dimitris. He's a mid 50s Greek man who speaks only a little English, but we had nice short conversations and he went out of his way to show me things he thought were interesting, including adding a "secret gift" side excursion to the day trip because he said he likes me. Dimitris used to be in the marines, studied at the academy and stopped doing extreme sports after being deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo. I didn't ask why, but I could speculate. He used to run Marathons, including the famous namesake run in Greece. Fun fact, when I told him that my family was half Greek and half Italian he told me they have a saying in Greece that Greek and Italian people share the "same face." This would be the first of two times today people commented on my face...

The drive to Delphi is half on the highway (boring) and half on a smaller road that winds through mountains and villages (awesome). Since it's winter, many of the mountain peaks are covered in snow and picturesque villages cling to some of the cliffs. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Don't worry, the dog is sleeping. There are dogs and cats everywhere in Greece.

Ski town at the base of Mt. Parnassus called Arachova.

Looking up to the snowy mountains.

Dimitris was eager to show me this monument to WWII victims.

After we arrived, Dimitris left me to wander around the ruins. Afterwards, I toured the small museum which holds artifacts unearthed in Delphi. To wrap is up, Dimitris and I both walked down to the Athena Pronaia Temple to see the Thalos. Delphi is a really cool archaeological site, with a really dramatic backdrop with the mountains behind and river valley below. Most of the site is destroyed, but there are a couple notable somewhat remaining buildings and signage along the route does a good job in describing what was here some 2,000 years ago. The museum also hosts interactive exhibits that do a good job in helping fuel your imagination on what a trip to Delphi must have been like to ancient people (Greeks, Asia minor peoples and Romans all visited the Oracle here for advice). 

Ancient Greek text on a stone tablet.

The sun is trying to peak through.

The best preserved building on site - the Athenian Treasury.

It's the great valley! I found it! ;)

Unfortunately, most of Delphi is rubble with the exception of a few column fields.

The site itself is as captivating as the ruins, like a mini-Machu Picchu.

Shot looking down at the Temple of Apollo where the Oracle would make prophecies.

Panoramic shot of the amphitheater, which held up to 5,000 people.

Eventually the sun came out and my pictures got better.

The front approach to the Temple of Apollo.

Artsy fartsy.

A group of columns.

These guys didn't skip leg day!

Me in front of the Thalos.

The Thalos money shot.

This was a perfect time to visit. There were hardly any people here and the weather was nice. I've heard it's a madhouse here in summer so if you're thinking of when to go, don't be afraid of coming in the winter! 

After wrapping up sightseeing in Delphi, Dimitris asked if I wanted to stop in Chalcis on the way back to Athens. He said it's just about 15 km out of the way and is on a spot where tides force water to rush in and out of a narrow opening in the bay with great force. He offered to take me on the detour for free. I think he just didn't have much else planned for the day and wanted to visit his old stomping grounds - he went to school here at the marine academy. But, not being one to turn down local suggestions on things to see I agreed and off we went! Chalcis is a really cute city on the island of Euboea at the Europis Straight. There's a nicely developed waterfront, cute houses and lots of restaurants. At the spot where the straight is very narrow you can see how quickly water was rushing through. People would kayak in that spot and be pulled through quickly for fun. Some men were trying to paddle against the current (perhaps for exercise) but were unable to make headway. Nature is fun! Dimitris and I watched the kayakers for a bit while I ate a gyro and we called it a day, returning back to Athens.

Europis Straight

Pinch point where the tide forces water through with bonus velocity.

After thanking Dimitris for a great day, I returned to the AirBnB to find it had flooded! Something went awry in the bathroom while I was gone and there was 1/2" of water covering the kitchen and bathroom floors. I called my host and he and Dimitris came to check it out. They seemed pretty shocked themselves, and we never determined with certainty what the source of the flooding was...maybe the toilet or washing machine. Either way, I'm on flood watch! While waiting for a plumber to return his call, the AirBnB owner, Sakis, asked me where I was from. I told him I was American, but had Greek and Italian parents. He gave a big "ahhh" and said I have a Mediterranean looking face so it made sense to him. Comment #2 about my face in 24 hours.

After the commotion, I took a stroll around Athens in the evening and found a place that sold open-faced Greek calzones. Yummy! Janice and Peter come tomorrow, I'm looking forward to eating in some actual restaurants. :)

Dinner! It's like an open-faced calzone.

Adios Barcelona

After a late night out, I slept in a bit and then headed to the Plaza Epanyol to visit the Museu Nacional d'Art de Cataluyna. Thomas was still sleeping it off, so I toured the art museum on my own. The museum had a large collection of medieval and modern Catalan art. I don't think there were any pieces I recognized, but the highlight for me was the collection of Romanesque church frescoes and carvings. Like all European art museums, come prepared to view room after room of pictures of Jesus and colonial atrocities. Yay! Western civilization!

The approach to the museum is very dramatic, and the building is very attractive.

Looking back towards the city from the terrace.

Jesus looks pissed.

The disciples are giving Jesus a real WTF expression here.

This 900 year old carving was really colorful.

I'm not 100% sure what's going on here, but I assume these are lots of ways the devil could kill you.

I thought this more modern pieces was very lovely. It was inspired by western contact with Japan in the middle 19th century.

And of course, Europeans glorifying their colonial conquests. 

By about 1pm Thomas was ready to meet up. He came to the art museum and we grabbed a cab to a nearby seafood restaurant called Terraza Martinez for some paella. This place was on the eater 38 list as well. The restaurant was part way up Montjuic (the mountain on the southern side of Barcelona), so it offered great views over the city and the Mediterranean. With no reservation, there was only one table available and it was in the blazing hot sun...but our waiter was very accommodating, opening some windows for us, and now I've finally regained vision in both of my eyes. ;) The food was very good. We got a seafood paella and there were mussels, shrimp, clams, etc. 

Seafood paella.

After lunch, we strolled down the block to the cable car station, which connects Montjuic with the beach at Barceloneta. We bought a ticket and took the rickety car on a 10 minute trip across part of the bay. The views of the city are amazing from the car, and it's worth the money just to see the city from this vantage. The machinery itself is pretty old and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't planning my escape from the car when it plummeted to the sea the entire ride...but hey, I'd still recommend it!

Barceloneta from above. Yeah, there are people swimming in January! I hope the pool is heated.

View back towards the city from the cable car.

After disembarking from the cable car station, we strolled back up the beach at Barceloneta to a bakery I had marked on my travel map called Baluard Barceloneta. This bakery had tons of fresh bread, savory snacks and desserts. I bought a small piece of cake and a cannolo. We brought the treats home and I enjoyed them for a few minutes on the AirBnB terrace before it got too cold. After napping and hanging out for a few hours, Thomas and I went out for ramen for dinner. Maybe not the most Spanish last meal in Barcelona, but you can't live on tapas alone. :)

Mmmm....European pastries.

While skeptical about ramen in Spain, I was really happy with this meal.

So ends my time in Barcelona. Overall, I really liked this city. There's tons of good food, it's really walkable and there's a good mix of activities. The city feels very livable, which is a term planners tend to use for places that are just well thought out overall. My general spin on the term livable includes a notion that the city may be a little white bread. I don't know if I'd consider this city on the same level as Madrid, Rome or London but I definitely see its charm and why people tend to love it. 

There's a really funny episode of 30 Rock where Liz Lemon's character visits the south and notices that things are mostly the same as the rest of America, but slightly different. I think that's how I'd describe Barcelona in reference to the rest of Spain. Having visited other parts of Spain in the past, I had some expectations for Barcelona. Mostly these were met, but slightly different than I had in my mind. Familiar dishes are prepared here a little differently, the language is a bit different, and the people have a different way about them. After visiting, it makes it a little easier to understand why some of these people may consider themselves a separate nation (an idea that I won't weigh in on).

At any rate, with Spain under my belt it's time to head to Athens! Janice and Peter are meeting me there on Saturday and I'll have about 48 hours before they arrive to explore on my own. I'm looking forward to revisiting Greece!