The Great European Adventure, Day 10: Athensfeatured

We were already docked in Athens when I was waking up, and as much rest as I’d gotten over the previous two sea days, I still had trouble rubbing the sleep out of my eyes when the alarm went off.

Our excursion didn’t meet super early (our call time on our tickets was 8:00 am), but it was early enough to need an extra cup of coffee with breakfast. The Windjammer was packed (again), which forced us outside (…again), but this morning was gray and overcast. No rain in the forecast, just a lot of clouds. So as I nursed my second cup of coffee, I took a moment to look around at Greece.

We were docked in Piraeus, which was about a half hour drive outside of Athens. Piraeus was definitely more urban than the ports we docked in during our time in Italy, which opened up a world of DIY touring. The port had plenty of duty free shopping, tour operators and taxi’s and even a Hop On Hop Off bus stop within walking distance. And a short walk outside the port was plenty of restaurants and some shopping. We had no plans to wing our port time (at least, not this time), but it was nice to see there were options.

Visiting Greece on this trip was a bonus. We didn’t choose this itinerary for Greece and our primary focus in planning had been the Italy ports, but Athens was the best kind of bonus. Who wouldn’t want to visit the Parthenon, or take in some Greek mythology? And a day in Greece had to include some Greek food, right? We didn’t choose this itinerary for Greece, but I was so excited for the change of pace and to see what this country had to offer.

Walk Like…A Grecian (Snail)

There were dozens of tours to choose from through the ship. We ultimately settled on the Exclusive Taste of Athens tour, which offered a visit up to the Acropolis and a few hours of free time for us to explore on our own.

Set out on a intimate tour of Athens, then cap it off with several hours for independent exploration. Your narrated coach ride takes you past the Corinthian Temple of Olympian Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium – site of the first modern Olympics, Hadrian’s Arch, and Parliament Building, formerly the Royal Palace. At the Acropolis, disembark and climb the steps for a guided visit. Conclude with approximately three hours to enjoy the city at your own pace.

Our tour met in the Some Enchanted Evening lounge and once our bus and guide had arrived, we were led down to the gangway to disembark and out through the terminal, where we met with our guide, Alice.

Alice was hilarious and engaging, a perfect guide for this excursion. As we left Piraeus for our first stop, Alice introduced us to the concept of the Greek pace, reassuring everyone that though it was a bit of a climb up to the top of the Acropolis, we were in Greece, so we’d go at a Greek pace – or at the speed of a Greek snail.

The drive to Athens was much different than our drives through Italy. Quicker, but much more urban. Italy was full of rolling green countryside. Greece was full of cityscapes with street art and graffiti plastered everywhere, with crumbling modern facades on tall buildings. Athens is very much a modern city, which made the centuries of history we were driving through on our visit even more fascinating.

The first stop on our tour (and really the highlight of our visit to Athens) was at the Acropolis, an area of ancient ruins that date as far back as nearly 600 BC. The Acropolis sits at the very top of a hill (nearly 500 ft above sea level!). You can’t drive to the top of the hill – you have to climb your way up via a series of inclines and steps – so at this point, we were thankful that the sun was hiding behind some very fluffy, gray clouds. That said, we had people on our tour of all age groups and levels of physical fitness (we even had someone who was walking with an oxygen tank) and everyone made it up just fine because Alice insisted we all walk at that Greek pace. Even the feral cats walk around at the pace of a Greek snail in Athens!

It’s about 150 actual steps up to the Acropolis. Towards the bottom, the steps are newer and less steep, but as you get towards the top and the original ancient steps, they get steeper and more slippery. In all honesty, though, it wasn’t bad or difficult by any means. I thought the walk up to the ticketing area from the bus depot was worse than the walk up the steps.

Alice made a deal with our group as we ascended to the top – if we gave her our attention as we made our way up, we could take as many pictures as we wanted on the way down. Who could say no to an offer like that? So as we climbed up and took our first steps towards the Acropolis, Alice gave us the history of these buildings. The work of Pericles in coordinating the construction of so many of these monuments. The Old Temple of Athena, a shrine to the Goddess of Wisdom (whom the city of Athens is named after). The Erechtheion, a temple built in honor of King Erechtheus (who, according to Greek legend, was killed by Poseidon, God of the Seas). There was the Theatre of Dionysus and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and, of course, the most well-known structure in the Acropolis, the Parthenon.

I hung on every word of every story Alice told us. The history and mythology behind each structure so storied and fascinating. This was a complete change of pace from the touring and history we were exploring in Italy. And even though it was crowded (like, really crowded), I was so distracted by where I was and what I was seeing that I didn’t even notice the hoards of tourists and schoolchildren around me.

We had a bit of free time to explore the site once Alice had given us the full tour. The views from the top of the Acropolis are unparalleled to any other vantage point in Athens and even on a not-so-clear day, you could still see out for miles.

A few things to note about visiting the Acropolis:
1. You cannot (and should not attempt to) touch anything. If you so much as touch a pillar, someone will be screaming at you in Greek.
2. Make sure you walk the entire perimeter – the view is different from each corner.
3. As treacherous as the climb up can be, it’s almost more difficult going down because the steps can get so slippery.
4. Pictures are deceiving and I’m a patient girl who can wait for people to clear out of a shot to get a clear one. It was p-a-c-k-e-d when we visited, not only with tourists, but many school groups of local children. If you’re on a tour, give yourself extra time to get to your meeting place to account for the time you’ll spend trying to drill through large crowds of people.

Once our group was accounted for, we headed back to the bus. As we pulled deeper into Athens, it was amazing to see just how high up we had climbed.

Our second stop was a quick one at the Panathenaic Stadium, home to the first modern Olympic games in the late 1800s. The Panathenaic Stadium is the only one in the world to be constructed completely out of marble. We only took in the view from the outside, but we had a few minutes of free time to take pictures, buy souvenirs or grab a frappe (an iced Greek coffee drink – highly recommended by Alice).

Our final stop on our tour would be a downtown stop for our three hours of free time to explore. Alice had the driver do a full circle of the downtown area from our drop off point so she could show us the major points of interest, and I kept my eyes peeled out the window for any fun places we could hit up later, but I was distracted by the graffiti splayed across the building facades. Greece (Athens, in particular), has been a hotbed of unrest and protest as the economic collapse has unfolded the over the past six years. This has inspired colorful messages of protest and peace across the downtown area.

I’ve probably mentioned it before – I’m fascinated by graffiti. It’s such a raw form of art and a powerful medium. In Athens, these bold colored drawings and thick-lettered messages stand out on top of the shuttered buildings and walls they’re splayed upon, and the contemporary protest art against a backdrop of historic sites that are hundreds or thousands of years old makes for a truly unique juxtaposition.

As our tour bus circled back to our meeting spot for pickup back to the ship, Alice gave us a few last tips before we parted (the tour ended here for her, and she wouldn’t be with us on the ride back to Piraeus): English language is required learning in Greek schools so a language barrier shouldn’t pose an issue, our ticket stubs from the Acropolis would grant us access to other sites across the city if we wanted to delve further into Greek history and mythology, and seriously, we had to get a frappe. We said our goodbyes to Alice, who was truly a fantastic guide for our intro to Athens, and headed off to see what Athens had to offer.

The bus dropped us off a few yards away from the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and since we had free entry (thanks to our Acropolis tickets) and it looked like the rest of the groups and tourists hadn’t visited yet, we decided it would make a good starting point. The Temple of Olympian Zeus is a ruined temple built in 550 BC (and took more than 600 years to complete!) built in honor of Zeus, the King of the Gods. The temple fell in the Herulian invasion in 267 AD. 15 columns still stand today, and a sixteenth column lays where it was knocked over in what had to be one hell of a storm in the 1800s.

Part of what was so unique about Athens to me was that it is very much a big city, with a modern, bustling downtown, but within that downtown are artifacts and vestiges of such a deep and profound history. The city was quite literally constructed around these locations instead of at a distance from them. It was such a different feel than the sites we’d visited in Spain and Italy. We’d cross the street and pass by a park with these grandiose sculptures. We’d walk past a train depot and find the excavations of an ancient Roman bathhouse. It was immediately clear that three hours to get lost in all Athens had to offer would never be enough.

We walked along the downtown perimeter for awhile, not on our way to any place in particular other than knowing we wanted to visit Plaka at some point, just looking around.

We spotted a small bakery from across the street and, on a mission to get a frappe, we headed over to get a snack.

Orange Bakery is located off the main street in Athens, in a busy area that seemed to attract a lot of business people. Freshly baked breads lined the top of glass counters displaying handcrafted pastries and desserts.

Despite Alice’s confidence that language would not be a barrier, my knowledge of the Greek language didn’t seem to be much worse than our server’s knowledge of the English language. After a minute of failed attempts to order a frappe, the server finally understood what I was asking for, only to tell me they didn’t serve frappes here! So we ordered a round of cappuccino freddo’s and, to this day, I’m still not entirely sure what a cappuccino freddo is, but whatever it was, it was the most delicious coffee drink I’ve ever had. Our server also brought over a plate of fresh croissants, courtesy of the bakery, and though language may have posed a slight barrier, the hospitality we experienced was top notch.

We headed back to the streets after our snack. Downtown Athens was pretty easy to navigate (the city is, like most major cities, just a large grid) so once we figured out what direction Plaka was in, we decided to take the long way and enjoy the walk.

You don’t need a specific purpose to be able to enjoy Athens. Bars, coffeehouses, shops and cafes line every street, and I could have made a full day hopping in between each. The shopping, in particular, was strong in Athens, and we stocked up on gourmet goods (honey, sea salt and coffee, in particular) and soaps.

Our final destination of the Plaka was near where the bus had dropped us off. We walked almost a circle around the city, and it was interesting to see the shift of the city. Plaka is a neighborhood of Athens that’s kind of the main tourist hub. There’s a high concentration of restaurants and shopping, but it’s a little grittier than the business area we walked through when we stopped for coffee earlier. We spent so much time wandering around that we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked in Plaka, so our priority was finding a restaurant to have a good, authentic Greek lunch in.

We didn’t do as much research as we probably should have before we arrived in Athens, and we had no idea where to eat when we arrived, so we just kind of walked towards the busiest place figuring that the place with the most people would be the best. It’s not the best tactic, but when you’re pressed for time, it’s sometimes the most effective. We found ourselves dining al fresco at a restaurant with an extensive menu and a courteous staff that spoke impeccable English. Stephanie and I split a half carafe of wine (€6) and the three of us settled in to people watch while we waited for our lunch.

The only thing you really need to be careful of in Plaka is the beggars and children that will come up to you and pressure you to give them money. A firm no will send them on their way, but if you make eye contact with anyone begging, they will hound you, even if you’re sitting at a table at a private restaurant, enjoying a meal.

Because the restaurant was so busy, it took awhile for our meals to come out from the kitchen and we were really pressed for time by the time they arrived. I all but inhaled the best chicken souvlaki I’ve ever tasted and Stephanie, a Greek cuisine fiend, had nothing but praises for her chicken gyros. Mom’s salad looked nice and fresh but she thought it was unremarkable. I suppose that’s what you get for ordering a salad in Greece – go for the chicken!

We only had a few minutes to do some last-minute shopping before we had to meet the bus, so we hopped in and out of a few shops. If you’re looking for souvenirs and small trinkets, Plaka is your place.

I grabbed a bag of nuts from a street vendor for €2 just before we boarded the bus. The drive back to Piraeus was a short half hour, but it dragged on a bit without Alice’s commentary to liven up the drive.

The port area at Piraeus was much more like the Caribbean ports we’re used to visiting, with plenty of shopping right at the terminal, so we took our time in browsing as we went back to the ship.

αντίο Athens

Unlike our other port days where we got back to the ship at back onboard time, we had a few extra hours before the ship departed for Kusadasi, so we dropped our shopping bags back at the room and changed into our swimsuits before heading up to the Solarium.

We swam for a bit but once we saw what looked to be a used tampon on the bottom of the pool, it kind of killed the swimming buzz and we all headed for the showers.

Later on, we were still docked and I was getting restless sitting in the room watching television in a language I didn’t understand, so we spent some quality time on the promenade before it was time to head to dinner.

We talked about our day in Athens with Marc and took in all of Lloyd’s recommendations for Kusadasi as we dined on another terrific dinner and set out to sea.

Savory Bite + Cheese Roll

Oakwood-Smoked Trout Filet

Thai-Style Chicken Salad

Mediterranean Spinach Pie

Chilled Golden Delicious Apple Soup

Split Pea Soup

Roasted Beetroot Salad

Linguini with Pomodoro Sauce

Baked Sea Bass

Steak Diane

Coffee Cream Mousse

Gateau Cardinal

Berry Cobbler

The views as the ship sailed out of Athens were stunning, so we didn’t linger over dessert and coffee as we usually did, opting to head back out to the promenade instead.

And the sunset? Spectacular.

We seemed to conk out early every night, but Stephanie and I were determined to make it out to the White Party, so we distracted ourselves by wandering around the ship and shopping the Greek wares they put out at the shops.

The party started at 10:00 (it’s almost embarrassing to type that we had trouble staying awake until 10:00 pm — I plead time difference) and it drew quite the crowd up to the pool deck. There was a flash mob performance by the dance squad and 25% off drinks – both of which provided the perfect kickoff to a really fun dance party.

We ended the night back on the promenade, watching the lights twinkle in the distance, teasing the lands we were passing along on our way to Turkey.