Pláka

Day 1 in Athens! We had a massive sleep in after our early morning yesterday and also we're an hour ahead 🤯

We eventually started our morning with a trip to the market to try a Greek (read Turkish but #politics amirite) coffee that is brewed on hot sand. Except it was too hot so I got a cold coffee called a Freddo instead which has foam that was about as thick as shaving cream - glorious. After that we bought many lemon olives from a man who is just so passionate about his olives and would have let us try all of his 20+ varieties if we had wanted.

We then hit the Kerameikos Ancient Cemetery which was also home to part of the old city walls. When the Spartans attacked, they used the headstones from the cemetery for some hasty repairs which greatly confused archeologists. It also had a funky museum with some cool Greek stuff - I liked the dinosaur chickens the best.

We went home for lunch and to avoid the heat and the crowds before heading up to the Acropolis in the evening. Thanks to Rick Steves we learnt about the illusions employed by the architects to make the Parthenon so imposing including slightly slanting pillars and a slight curve in the base! The view down the mountain was also spectacular and it was hard to know which way to look!Läs mer