Monastiraki Square, Athens

We said a sad goodbye to Santorini today and made our way to Athens by plane. What I didn’t know when booking our flights was that the plane from Santorini to Athens is a small plane, a very small plane. Brad got so excited when we checked in at the airport and asked how full the plane was and the reply was that there were only 40 people booked for the flight. He had started picturing us having an aisle of seats each for the flight, room to spread out etc. What we discovered upon boarding the plane was that it only fit 40 people!! And we had to wait on the tarmac for the pilot to casually arrive before we could board. Brad was positive he was going to die on his birthday. I didn’t mind the smaller plane as we flew a bit closer to the ground and could see a lot more. I figured there was also less distance to fall should we have any issues. Needless to say Brad was more than relieved when we landed in Athens.

Our next adventure was with our taxi driver. Brad found a mobile phone on his seat when he hopped in the taxi and our driver said it belonged to his friend. Anyway, his friend happened to pass us on the highway so our taxi driver went after him, honking his horn trying to get him to pull over. It had the opposite effect with the other taxi driver driving even faster. I think at one point we were doing close to 160km/h trying to get this guy’s attention. He eventually realised who was chasing him and finally pulled over – in the middle of the highway. And we thought the Italians thought they were indestructible on the roads. It certainly was an experience.

We somehow managed to survive the flight and the taxi ride and finally made it to our accommodation for the next couple of nights. Due to changes in our itinerary we now have six nights in Athens instead of four but were unable to extend our original booking so we booked a room at Athens’s Luxury Suites. Our room was great, spacious with a very big comfy bed and a roomy bright red bathroom. We were impressed.

After checking in and a rest we headed out for dinner and to check out our surroundings. We could see the Acropolis and the Parthenon lit up in the distance and can’t wait to visit it tomorrow. We walked down to the Monastiraki Square, the main square in the old town of Athens. This seemed to be the central spot for the neighbourhood and everywhere we visited always seemed to return to this spot. From here we made our way to a street full of restaurants, with hosts trying to entice passers-by inside with their colourful menus and iPads, very 21st century. We chose to have dinner at Efxaris, a traditional Greek restaurant. I happened to mention it was Brad’s birthday and boy did he get spoilt. We were given free drinks and desserts and the band even sang Happy Birthday to Brad, which embarrassed him completely. The food was delicious, and it is nice to try another cuisine.

We ended the night with a stroll through the area, being amazed at the ruins we were walking amongst, checking out some of the market stalls and trying our first Greek gelato. We are looking forward to hitting the streets tomorrow.Read more