D45 Greece - Athens

We’re a short 1 hour and 45 minute plane ride from our last stop in Napoli (flying out over Mt Vesuvius) and the city feels calmer, cleaner, and safer. The language has changed, the alphabet and associated phonics have changed, and yet here I am still speaking Italian to these lovely Athenian people.

After waiting for at least half an hour to pull out from the gate in Naples, another half hour for them to dock in Athens, and then another 45 minutes for the bags to start whirling around the carousel, what was meant to be a relatively short period of travel saw us arrive at Kato Patissia metro station at 3.45pm where our B&B host’s husband named George picked us up and escorted us to our accomodation for the night. The area is north of the main centre, in what feels like a somewhat multicultural area of the burbs. The apartment is a delight and Kate has already fallen in love with it. It’s old, has relics from the 50s (like the pastel mint green powder coated bathroom) but is clean and comfortable with little modern DIY bits, like the book shelves made from repurposed cupboard drawers and window shutters (and naturally, a whitewash applied).

A quick pit stop to drop the bags off and we were back on the metro, guarding our wallets and belongings closely, as we glided along the rails to the heart of Athens. We wandered the streets around Monisteraki, strolling through the flea market featuring fake Birkenstock’s, millions of blue glass evil eyes, printed t-shirts loaded with profanities, wooden penis shaped bottle openers (don’t worry guys - you’re all getting a very small one each!), olive wood utensils and jewellers by the dozen. Following the fence lines that house the ancient ruins, we took in some of the sights such as the Acropolis and it’s imposing Parthenon from the distance. We’ll have to come back when we have more time available if we want to soak up the history in full. But for today, 60€ seemed a bit steep.

We found a rooftop bar, had a few drinks while overlooking the ruins in the distance. After a quick google session, we had located a place for dinner. Sitting down, we were both very excited by the prospect of something other than pizza or pasta (I know, I know...wash my mouth out with soap - blasphemy!). Our meal (see the obligatory daily food photo for details) included grilled meat, toasted pitas, saganaki, feta, olives and piles of tomatoes and onion. It was all going swimmingly until Kate suggested that my ‘beef’ Kabab was not ‘beef’. It looked like the menu, kind of looked like beef, but tasted like pork. After convincing myself that the ‘beef’ was ‘beef’ because it tasted a bit like ‘beef’ and why would they get it wrong, we finished our delicious meals with satisfaction. On completion, the wait staff who until now had been quite friendly, quickly cleared the table then put the bill in front of us. The waiter returned with the portable eftpos device and said ‘so how much would you like to tip the boys inside’ (referring to the cooks). I was shocked, because it’s not typical Greek culture to tip (is it?!). Interestingly, he had asked us where we were from only minutes before handing us the bill. Perhaps he’d heard American and was confused. Either way, it was a complete con and I was taken back. Not enough though to tip, because it simply wasn’t worth it. The meal was good, but not THAT good! I rounded to the nearest euro and we left without any further pleasantries. while it was a delicious meal, the final interaction left a sour taste in our mouths. Or maybe it was just me - probably the pork....Read more