Epic Honeymoon - Day 04 - Athens

Gazing up at the Acropolis.

After two days in Dubai and a lavish afternoon in the Emirates First Class Lounge, we boarded our flight to the birthplace of democracy and the home of the Olympic Games. I had previously visited Athens in 2011 at the end of my Contiki Tour, but we only had a quick bus tour around the city and the obligatory trek up the Acropolis. On this occasion, we opted to only overnight in Athens and spend more time at one of the infamous islands: Santorini.

Touching down at 8pm, we emerged from the airport and followed the signs for the metro which is just across the pick-up area. A ticket to the city will set you back €9 (one way). Our plan was to spend the night, then leave our luggage at our accommodation the next morning while we explored before returning for our flight to Santorini. This plan was hampered a little by our AirBnB host asking us to be out by 12pm, and advising there was nowhere for the luggage. This almost made it not worth going to the city, but we made the most of it anyway.

Syntagma Square, buzzing with activity at 10pm.

Arriving to Syntagma Square, the area was pumping with activity at almost 10pm. We wound our way through the backstreets and alleys of Plaka, eventually finding Kidathineon Street. This strip was alive with cafes and restaurants with plenty of late night diners enjoying the warm Greek evening. This definitely made us wish we were staying longer to sit and enjoy the atmosphere on another night. Our AirBnB host had left the key at Cafe Kidathineon; we had a few dramas with there being multiple sets of keys and originally being handed the wrong ones... but we eventually got inside and called it a night.

Kidathineon was alive with late night diners.

Monday morning, September 18^th, was spent meandering through Plaka and Monastiraki. We traced the south side of the Acropolis but didn’t bother to go up as we only had a few hours - €20 to get in and not properly experience everything didn’t compute. We admired what we could see of the Parthenon from the street (which was in 2011, and still is, covered in parts by scaffolding) before continuing north along the eastern side and diving into Plaka.

A sleepy Taverna.

Passing the Roman Agora and various other ruins in the area, we arrived to Monastiraki Square where fruit vendors were selling their goods – we could not resist nectarines for €0.99 / kg (they’re about $9 / kg in Australia!), and also picked up some figs; 12 for €1.49. Continuing up the main drag which heads back to Syntagma Square, we stopped off at a small shop called Oven Sesame for an oddly happy pita bread, covered in sesame seeds and stuffed with your choice of fillings. It was very tasty, but once you eat the filling part, the “chin” under the smile is a bit dry and chewy. It was a nice brunch, nevertheless.

Roman Agora.

A tasty brunch at Oven Sesame.

We wandered back to our AirBnB to rest for 30 minutes before checking out and dragging our bags back to Syntagma Square. Our flight to Santorini wasn’t until 19:50, so we chilled at Syntagma McDonalds for a while with iced coffee and free wifi (a traveller’s sanctum!) before taking the metro back the way we came.

Check out a pristine volcano island on Day 05!