Yes, we love Athens. We loved it, but we felt so ‘at home’ in Thessaloniki that we wrote at length about that small but beautiful Thessaloniki here.

Now we can move on to Athens.

How shall we go?

We went to Athens from Thessaloniki and it was quite eventful.. If we don’t tell, we will crack. As we mentioned in the Thessaloniki guide, Greece was our first trip as a couple and since we set out on the road with a very sudden decision, we made some nervous plans without realizing it.. One of them was to think that we would buy our 6-hour Thessaloniki – Athens train ticket for the last train, 12 at night, and arrive in Athens at 6 am and immediately settle in our hotel.

What an ideal plan. it seems, doesn’t it? Since you spend the night on the road, you get rid of the hotel fee for 1 night and there is no waste of time (supposedly)! But we bought tickets for such a train that it was the day of sending off soldiers from Thessaloniki to Athens, and the train we were going to take was a train that would carry about 1000 soldiers and only a few seats were reserved for passengers! Think of our military farewells, now multiply that by 10 and add torches and horns and all sorts of insane outbursts.. As a matter of fact, since the soldiers could not be sent off for a long time, the train got up 2 hours late and we came to Athens until the morning (by the way, the only woman on the train was Asya) with various marches and slogans in the train.. If you decide to take the night train from Thessaloniki to Athens, there is a one in a thousand chance that something like this will happen to you, but let us warn you! Sir, it would be beneficial to take our train to a normal time during the day, lesson one for us!

There is also the part of crossing from Turkey to Athens, of course.. If the plane tickets of well-known companies are expensive in your eyes, check the tickets of the Greek company ‘Eagen Airlines’.. In general, the tickets are both cheaper than other companies and it is a reliable company.

If you want to travel from Turkey to Greece with your own car, its procedure is a bit garish.. If you want more detailed information, we mentioned it here.

Where to Stay in Athens and Is Athens Expensive?

Entertainment in AthensPlaque and its environs revolves around, Omonia is another lively square and we chose this part to stay.. We were satisfied with the location of the hotel we stayed in, but we were not satisfied with the hotel at all.. That’s why we can’t recommend it (it was called Cosmopolit Hotel). If you say we want to be active both day and night, and we would like to return to our hotel on foot in the evening, the Plaque area is perfect.. Omonia is also not bad, but it takes on a slightly Izmir-Basmane atmosphere in the evenings, and you can feel uncanny when returning to the hotel.

Athens’ metro line is simple, there are three lines.. So you solve it immediately.. But if you stay around Plaka, you may not even use the metro except to go to the Acropolis (long live walking until the black waters descend!). That’s why if you ask us, you don’t need to buy a weekly or daily ticket.

Places to Visit in Athens

Athens is not a classical European city in terms of architecture, in fact, it is more like Ankara in terms of architecture. looks like. But there is the Acropolis and a few other areas, which more than saved Athens from being a monolithic city! Then let’s start with the famous Acropolis.

Acropolis:

As you know, the Acropolis is a region where the temples of the Ancient Greek Civilization were built for the Gods they believed in, and it was considered very sacred for its period.. And today, this area serves as the area that tourists come to Athens to be curious about!

Although it is a bit of a hassle to climb to the Acropolis area, it is really a beautiful place because it is literally ‘on top’ of Athens. there is a view and if you take your water and your hat with you, you will climb, who will hold you!

Famous building on the hill of the Acropolis Temple of the Parthenon. And next to the Parthenon there is Temple of Athena Nike, Erekhthenion and Proplaia which is the entrance gate. The famous Herodos Theater is also located to its south.

We must say that while the Acropolis is already a complex and hilly area, it got mixed up with the endless restoration of the Greeks.. Especially if you go in the summer, you are already tired until you go up the slope and it is difficult to understand what is what.. Therefore, before you go, it is useful to do some research on the pre-Roman Greek architecture and the Acropolis area.. Otherwise, when one comes back, one can say, what did we see there, or something. Also, if you intend to tour the entire Acropolis area well, be prepared to spare a long time, don’t make plans thinking it will be over in an hour.

When you go to the Acropolis. , if you want to pass through the streets with white stone houses, so to speak ‘Greek’ areas, we will pass the ‘Anafiotika Zone‘ alone.. The area is a bit uphill and you get tired, but the coffee shops and houses around it are so cute that if they said ‘let’s take you by taxi’ to the door of the Acropolis, we think we would choose to go through this area again!

Oh, and Acropolis Athens. Since it is the most touristic place of the region, the restaurants near the exit of the region are a real ‘Tourist Trap’! Both scumbags and insincere. You go through here without going anywhere, we will suggest you much more beautiful places at the end of the guide..

Acropolis Museum:

The Acropolis Museum is located on the slope of the historical area and you can easily find it after exiting the Acropolis.. This museum was opened in 2007 and was built on historical ruins.. Thanks to the transparent floor of the building, you can see the ruins below.. Well, as you can guess, the museum also exhibits what has been found in the Acropolis for years.

Because the museum was built in 2007 and with modern architecture, some Greeks criticize this situation and say that it is incompatible with the ancient architecture of the Acropolis, but if you ask us, we liked the museum and In fact, it is one of the important structures for architecture, designed by Bernard Tschumi, one of the architects whom Umut admires very much.

Temple of Hephaestus:

This temple, dedicated to the god of blacksmithing, is also the best of the Greek temples. It was the preserved one and the design of the temple belonged to Iktinos, one of the most famous architects of Athens, who also supported the design of the Parthenon Temple.. It also entered our list as the first place among Athens’ must-see places!

Athens has three main squares and all three are close to each other.. An important part of the places to visit is around Monastraki Square, and some are around Syntagma Square.

Monastraki Square:

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This square is kind of the center of Athens.. When you say the center, don’t let a huge square and big buildings appear in your eyes.. Think of it like a fairground between buildings. It’s crowded every hour of the day, and people are living happily in this square while watching the street performances with their frappes. Also, since this square has a view of the Acropolis, you can capture very nice photos if you come in the afternoon just as the sun is setting. You can examine the drawings on the walls while entering and leaving the coffee shop and restaurant.. Greek young people have really excelled in street art and you can see the traces of this on almost every street in Athens.. The streets of Monastraki are also places where street art ‘balls’ in Greece.

There’s also a flea market (aka Flea Market) just parallel to it), but we We didn’t like it as much as the one in Thessaloniki.

Syntagma Square:

This square, which is called ‘Constitution Square’ when translated into Turkish, is the most touristic place in Athens and because it hosts protests, it is ‘important for locals’. ‘ square. You can think of it like the old and free times of Taksim Square (!). We think the reason why the protests are held in this square is that the Greek Parliament Building is also in this square.. Of course, there is the unknown soldier monument in front of the Parliament Building and a million tourists watching the changing of the guard in front of the monument. ‘National Gardens’ (the notorious National Gardens) starting right next to the square and reminiscent of Gezi Park in our country. These gardens, like Gezi Park, are in the middle of the city, but fortunately, no one thought of dismantling the garden and building a shopping mall or attaching an “replica antique” building, and people hang out freely in these gardens.. Some are listening to music, some are solving puzzles, some are hanging out with their girlfriends.. In this respect, we say it doesn’t look like much of a place in Istanbul, and we close the subject.

Omonia Square:

We came to the third square, which we don’t like very much.. Omonia is a bit uninspiring next to the other two squares we mentioned, but it is very preferred for accommodation because there are many low-budget hotels in its side streets.. The good thing is that it is 10-15 minutes walking to Syntagma and Monastraki Squares.

National Archaeological Museum of Athens:

This museum, which is very close to Omonia Square, consists of 3 floors.. This museum, where you can see many things from prehistoric pottery and tools to statues and tombstones placed in chronological order, is highly likely to be interesting even to someone who has no interest in archeology. You’ll definitely like it!)

The cafe on the ground floor is also very cute, unlike most museum cafes, the prices are affordable.

Exarchia District:

Just above the Archaeological Museum This area is an important center for the Greek ‘Left’ and is also the square where 16-year-old Alexandros was killed during the protests in Greece in 2008. It also shows that it doesn’t have to have great architecture or reflect a ‘baroque’ style.. The young people here are beautiful and they know how to have fun.. Lots of places to have a beer and Greek teenagers are everywhere.. In this respect, Exarchia is by far our favorite area in Athens.. There will be those who say, ‘Oh shit, it’s dangerous’, but frankly, we didn’t see any danger.. We invite those who say Exarchia is dangerous to Omonio Square at night (or we don’t give up)!

Ermou Street:

The easiest recipe for this place is when you cross the street in Syntagme Square and leave yourself to the crowd. , you come to Ermou Street. This street, which is closed to cars, is a beautiful street with lots of lively, street artists, coffee shops, cafes and restaurants.. At the end of the street, you already find yourself in Monastraki Square (We said that the roads always lead to each other.)

It is possible to find all kinds of brands in Ermou, which is also a ‘shopping street’.. But don’t expect a lot of different stores. For those who live in countries with ‘shopping malls’ like us, the shopping part may not be very interesting.

Plaque Area:

This place is located right on the outskirts of the Acropolis. The area consists of long narrow streets, two-storey houses with bay windows lined up in rows, and ‘cuteness monument’ taverns lined up on these streets.. After we got out of the Acropolis in Athens, we spent the afternoon and the whole evening hanging out here and loved it immensely.. In the evening, these streets get so crowded that you can even see people sitting on the stairs and ordering from taverns.. We likened this place to the good old times of the French Street in Taksim.. (Since we are a voracious couple, we keep the eating and drinking advice part separately, we have listed the favorite places at the end of the article!)

Let’s talk about Psiri. Psiri is also a lively part of Athens at night and there are both alternative places for young people to hang out and nice taverns playing classical Greek music.. We spent our second trip in Athens here and loved it so much, you can even come just for dinner.

Lykavittos Hill we couldn’t go because of lack of time.. This is out of the center and where you can see Athens from the top.. Next time, no more.

Well, we talked about so many taverns and Greek restaurants, it’s okay not to skip to the food and beverage part!

Food and Drink in Athens:

Athens It is a city very similar to us in terms of food and beverage and you are not likely to go hungry.. We can even guarantee that we will get past the satiety part and return with 3 kilos (It happened to us). We ate so much in the 4 days we spent in Athens that we were ashamed to write it all down! Are we the best, let’s write our favourites.

Sholarhio Restaurant: This is where we had lunch in Plaka and the food is simply amazing. If the weather is nice and you can find a place outside, don’t bother! Both the appetizers are delicious and you can drink your beer at the tables on the sidewalk and watch the passersby.

For dinner, we can wholeheartedly recommend ‘O Geros Tou Moria’.. Here, you can spend a ‘Greek’ evening with good food and live music playing local songs.

Thanasis Kebab: This Greek ‘Kebab Shop’ around Monastraki is a bit more expensive than other places. Although it is expensive, it is definitely very good in terms of price-performance and they surpassed it in ‘Greek Salad’. If you don’t want to eat kebab, you can only order mezze-greek salad and uza.. High score from us to Thanasis!

If you can’t find a place here, you can go to the place called ‘Diodos’, we had a lunch there and we thought we hit twelve. They even have Turkish menus.

We will suggest one last tavern before you conclude that we are obese, that’s the end! Again, ‘Lithos Tavern’ near Monastraki is also extremely beautiful and they surpassed it in meat.. Thanks to the friendly and Turkish-speaking waiters, plus good food and music, this place got full marks from us.

‘Meliartos’ and ‘Just Made 33’ very nice for coffee, snack and breakfast. They both have very good sandwiches and desserts. We had our breakfast here for two days.. ‘Café Dioscouri’ is a real ‘Frappe’ place.
Socialista: This is in the Gazi district, a little far from the center of Athens.. Although there is not much to see in Gazi during the day, the streets are full of people in the evenings and there are too many bars, especially where young people hang out.. Socialista is one of them and it opens at 11 in the evening and is open until 8 in the morning. So what we’re saying is, if you’re looking for a place to end the night, not start, let’s get you here! (Lots of Greek Pop Music guaranteed)

Small notes:

Food and Drink is not that cheap, yes Greece is in crisis, but prices have risen at the same rate as taxes are too high (Turkey logic ).

Our favorite beers are mythos, alpha and fix.. We did not like the Gum Ouzo very much.

Most of the souvenir shops are closed on Sundays.. If they are in crisis, don’t think that they should earn more, because they cannot open it by law

Souvlaki, the Greek equivalent of our wrap. How is it that we have burrito everywhere, and Souvlaki in Greece?. Instead of lavash, they put doner kebab on a thicker pita bread.. The taste is of course excellent and it is impossible not to stumble upon it on the road.. Don’t be sorry, just get one!

Islands Near Athens:

Can we go all the way to Greece and return without swimming? As you know, there is no swimming in Athens and if you want to swim all the way to Athens and you do not have plans to go to Halkidiki, you can go to the islands close to Athens by going to the Pirea Port in Athens and taking the ferries departing from there.. This is how we spent our last day in Athens.

We chose Aegina Island because it was close.. Ferries to the island depart from Piraeus and the road takes about 1.5 hours.. It should be around 10 Euros per person one way.. We can’t remember the exact times, but the ferry leaves every hour during the day.. We loved Aegina Island very much.. The sea was beautiful and it had a calmness and atmosphere reminiscent of a small Aegean town.. It was a more friendly place rather than touristy and expensive like Mykonos, and we swam, sunbathed and drank beer.. So we can say that we got the full benefit of our one-day island tour.
What we can say is that we loved Athens and Thessaloniki very much.. Yes they are in crisis, yes the streets and lives are not as orderly as a Stockholm or Oslo (or even irrelevant), but the Greeks are very nice people, happy people. They know very well how to chat, have fun, look people in the eye and smile while talking.. They are like Turkish people, they are friendly, caring, hospitable.. In this respect, Greece gave us a perfect holiday and it has a special place in us both because it is the first holiday we went to, and because Greece is an extremely friendly and humane country that makes you feel ‘at home’.

Greece has treated us very well, We hope it treats you very well too, have a nice holiday in advance!

Loves!

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