Athens Day one

I'm a little late in writing up this entry as a lot happened in the space of 1 day.

We flew in over the sea and many Greek Islands before approaching Athens over Aegina, the island 30 miles off the coast where we will be spending most of our time in Greece. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky even from 36000 feet up and a crystal blue water without the fainted ripple on it's surface. The city of Athens stretched out like a blanket over the Greek countryside encompassing all but the highest mountains and most sparse plains with beautiful terraced white houses as far as the eye could see.
Navigating the airport was quick and simple; customs was as much a joke as it was non existant .. same with Singpore: not even a security guard to be seen.

The taxi ride was long through the city and to our hotel, including stopping for "gazolini", but we weaved our way through the tight compact little Greek streets with no trouble. Checking into our hotel was easy and our rooms are lovely: top floor looking over the pool area and - although at a stretch on the balcony - the Acropolis and Parthenon. We also have long view across Athens with houses piled one behind the other seemingly endlessly. We were greeted with iced water and plesent air conditioning, which we quite some relief from the 35 - 40 degree heat.

We left our hotel to wander around the markets and find a bite to eat. After a long peruse over many shoe, clothing, spice, souvenir, incense and bead shops we found ourselves in a large Greek taverna. We ordered food, a simple moussaka and some stuffed vine leaves, and proceeded to have a near hour long raised and heated argument about how much money we were spending and how everyone was contributing.. it ended very badly and I nearly walked out, packed my bags and booked the first flight home no matter the cost. It was awful. Everyone was left with a sour taste and a foul mood afterwards. It was hard to admire the stunning Byzantine churches that we explored and the bustling city afterwards whilst everyone was fuming and forcing bitter conversation.
The obvious answer to this of course was to find the most expensive and beautiful bar in the most expensive and beautiful hotel looking over the whole of Athens from the highest vantage point, excepting the Acropolis, and order the strongest and most expensive cocktails I've had in my life. The mood after that - coupled with jetlag - made everyone just have to go straight home and to bed but after half an our or so of stewing in my room, I decided to leave the hotel and have an evening to myself.

I wandered down the road and found the first taverna I could, immediately went through the menu, ordered food and beer and indulged. It was glorious. Just myself with lovely service, lovely food in a lovely place.
I had deep fried squash balls, filled with flavour and aromatic herbs, beautifully seasoned with a generous portion of tzatziki on the side, followed by a prawn dish (which I cannot recall but with try and locate) in a kind of thin stew with capsicum and tomatoes, garnished with delicious feta and with a perfect Greek feel to it. This was accompanied by delicious complimentary bread, and finished off with a free palate cleansing plate of watermelon. BELLISIMO (or the Greek equivalent). The food as excellent, just what I had imagined and desired the food to be: nothing tacky, nothing over or under done, nothing just to appeal to tourists and nothing over priced. Less than 13 euros for a very filling and delicious meal with drinks was perfect. I could live here very happily.
From there the night ended, I returned to my room and slept, waiting for a new - and hopefully better - day.Read more