May 5, 2018
Our last day in Athens. We chose to just enjoy a quiet café and a few drinks, observing the local life. Our host recommended a few quiet places out of the main tourist area.
For today we chose the Black Duck Garden café. It has a nice shady garden, a quiet classical music playing at the background. The locals are having their Saturday morning coffee with friends and families. One thing we never liked in Europe is the smoking. Lovely gardens, quiet chattering, nice music, and… the inevitable stench of cigarettes and cigars. At least the day is not that hot, so the smoke dissipates quickly in the light breeze.
This is our first exposure to Greece. As many other big coastal cities in Europe, Athens has cruise-ship crowd overload. They flock in by thousands every morning, flood the streets and the major attractions, but excluding the occasional lunch or drinks and a few souvenirs they don’t contribute much to the local economy. Once, a few years ago, I wrote – Venetians must hate the tourists, if not they should. It wasn’t obvious then, but it is now, with all the protests against tourists, and day-trippers most of all. We personally think that a world solution has to be found for the big cruise liners.
Athens is an ancient city on every traveler’s list. The birthplace of democracy, it is one of the oldest cities in the world, so even if you are not into history, ruins and stones, this is a charming and interesting city to visit.
Our visit is part of a 7 weeks trip that started in England and will end in Bulgaria. For the first 3 weeks we followed Alex’s childhood memories in Northern England (You can check the posts in the “50 years later” storyline). From London we flew to Athens, where we had a week to dry out from the rains, warm our bones and enjoy the ancient city at a slow pace.
We rented an apartment in Plaka, a really nice part of the old city. Our friendly and chatty host had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the airport, since our arrival time was rather late. The first thing after we checked in was to explore the area and have something to eat. We were right in the heart of the old city. It was a warm pleasant evening, especially after cool and rainy England and we even had time for a few photos after our dinner. But in full spring, it was also high season.
We enjoyed our slow pace. It was meant to be spent in lazy strolling, visiting archeological sites, experiencing the local cuisine, drinking the local wine (I actually discovered the Greek mastica and a bottle ended up back home, together with 2 bottles of gin from England and a bottle of Muscat rakia from Bulgaria), and trying to understand the local culture. Perhaps for the latter we should have had a few Greek words, and stayed in the outskirts of Athens. As in Venice, the old centre of Athens is mainly tourists and Greeks who service them. Restaurants – thousands of them, cafes, souvenir shops, markets tailored to tourists (read overpriced) and attractions.
Had the feeling the restaurants outnumbered the local population in the area but they were full at lunch and dinner times. Our host, an interior designer, had lost his job during the financial crisis and was trying to run a business, sprucing up his and his relatives’ apartments and renting them through Airbnb.
Thanks to his recommendations we tried a few local restaurants and cafes, such as the Black Duck, and had a great experience. In one small local restaurant we were impressed by the fast service of the only waiter. It was a busy place on a quiet side street, with no tourists but us around.
As usual, we walked through the entire old city. During the course of the week we visited all the mandatory sites and museums (see the tips below), strolled up, down and around the hills, the cobblestoned narrow streets, through Monastiraki,
up to the Central Market (the local market of Athens), through areas with tons of graffiti and garbage right in the heart of the city. One place we did not walk to and I still regret was to the train station Larisa.
We took the metro on the advice of our host. No, he insisted we didn’t walk through the area that lead to Larisa. I have read that this was a zone of anarchists, but I think he was concerned more with petty crime. Having lived a big part of my adult life in Europe where, and probably when, it was safe to walk everywhere, there were no danger zones or areas to avoid, I was perplexed by the firm “No, you don’t walk to Larisa!” Now I wouldn’t know why, would I?
Many of the archeological sites are either heavily restored or under restoration. Some to the point of losing their originality. But that’s what happens with millions of tourists visiting this city every year.
Although we do enjoy our leisure time, all in all Athens did not make it to the top of the list of cities we have visited or to the “if we have lots of time we would like to revisit” list. We knew all about the dust and heat and the traffic, and the tour crowds of course. But maybe what turned us off was the attitude towards tourists. No, nothing like in Barcelona or Venice, where there are movements against tourists. Here in the heart of Greece, which is ravaged by economic crisis they desperately need tourism. But charging €7 or €8 (just an example from many) for instant coffee was a bit over the top.
If you go… (Travel tips and suggestions)
1. Buy a multi-site ticket. If you plan to visit more than the Acropolis, buy a combined ticket for all major archeological sites. The regular tariff for the Acropolis in May 2018 was €20. For the total of €30 you can visit 10 major archeological sites. If you have an EU passport and are over 65 the cost is €15.
2. Buy your tickets from a secondary (official) site. There was no lineup to buy it at the Hadrian’s Library site, so we bought ours there.
3. If you want to avoid the big line ups in front of the Acropolis:
a. Don’t use the main entrance; Get a map of the site – there is a second entrance if you walk up around the hill.
b. Plan to be there 10 min before opening which is 8am. This is where the buses bring the crowds from the cruise ships starting 8:30am. By then you’ll be well ahead of the game
c. If early is not an option, try after 4pm. By then most of the day trippers have left the city.
4. There are 6 days a year when one can visit for free, but you have to be there very early or late, if you don’t want to spend your time in a queue. Check for the dates online.
5. Also, one can buy skip the line tickets but often too many people had the same idea and the “skip the line” line can be as long as the regular line. During the years we have found that an early start or after 4pm works best for us.
A few words of caution:
1. Don’t buy produce in the market at Monastiraki square. If you want fresh fruits and vegetables, it’s less than 10 minutes on foot from there to the central market at the north end of the old city.
Monastiraki market is there for the tourist. It is overpriced and you’ll be taken for a ride. The displays all show great fruits in front, where you can see. However, you can’t select (as in other countries in this part of the world). You can ask for half a kilo or a kilo of strawberries for example. The merchant will take it from the back of the pile, usually full of rotting stuff and pack it in a paper bag. By the time you realise this you have already paid. And it is twice the price of the local market.
2. Unless you like the ambience (and it can be quite nice), don’t fall prey of the thousands of restaurants in the heart of the tourist areas.
There are tons of good and affordable restaurants only a few blocks away. We didn’t like the attitude towards the tourists. You are there to pay, no matter what and it is in your face. A guy at every patio trying to persuade you to pick his restaurant. Although the prices and quality vary, the menus are basically the same. One thing that really annoyed us was the lack of information on table cover.
We were brought bread (often a lot) with some dips and water without being asked. Some places charge a little for water and bread outside of tourist area goes for about 40 cents. However, many places we were charged for bread and water quite a lot. When we said we did not order any of these we were told that this is part of their cover. Nowhere in the menu was cover mentioned.
Also, we were often given a bill with total amount and no listed items we had ordered. We found drinks (I am talking coffee here, which was actually instant) to be Parisian price without Parisian ambiance or quality.
3. Be aware of traffic.
We’ve read about crazy traffic and iffy pedestrian safety even in the pedestrian areas in Athens, but after fighting with traffic in South American cities we didn’t think Athens would be even close. Well it is. For that there is no such thing as safe pedestrian areas. Motorbikes can send you running for your life in any pedestrian alley. So can cars. Those of you who enjoy playing ‘chicken’ (standing in the path of moving traffic, trains, bulls, etc.) will love the ever-present sense of danger.
You never know what is lurking (or speeding) up the alley you’re about to cross. Even on a green light. We had to run twice in 2 days; once chased by a car that had no intention to stop on a wide boulevard in a major pedestrian crossing area and another time a motorbike just zoomed around us, zigzagging between pedestrians in the crosswalk.
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