As any 6'3" person can understand, my legs were overjoyed when we landed in Athens at about 9:30am, Greece time. From the plane, we began our 2-week journey of deciphering the Greek alphabet and finding our way around Greece. Surprisingly, we realized that I had somehow retained my sixth grade knowledge of Greek mythology, including the alphabet! So instead of just praying for an English translation under the Greek symbols, we were able to navigate relatively quickly through the airport.
As expected, Julie had perfectly researched all of the travel elements, and after a stop at the ATM for some euro, she guided us to the Metro ticket office to get us on our way to our hotel stop, Monastiraki. The metro ride was about 45 minutes long, and as Julie spent that time checking out the town from the window, I spent it staring down every sign I could find, practicing my Greek symbols and pronunciation. The metro is a great place to do it, because you look at the names of the stops, and then when you get there, the intercom voice pronounces them, so I could check my work. Yes, I know I'm a dork.
After passing it once, we backtracked to find our first hotel stop in Athens - Hotel Cecil. A renovated old-timey building, Hotel Cecil boasted a lobby with an old-school elevator lift, a winding marble staircase, and a bedroom that featured three (yes, three) beds! But the most noteworthy part about the hotel was their three-man shift of front desk clerks. When we checked in, a very gruff, no frills, less than amenable man checked us in by only saying two words and a number - "Hello", "yes", and "106" (our room number), and never even hinted at breaking a smile. Later in the day we met the clerk with the afternoon shift, who was much nicer, not great with English, but was extremely helpful and had some nice suggestions of where to go in Athens. And later that evening, we met the final member of the hotel three-headed monster, who was incredibly nice, very well-spoken, wearing an O'Neill surf shirt, and made sure to carry our bags for us, give us information we didn't even ask for, and never stopped smiling. We definitely ran the gamut of hotel clerk attitudes over the course of 12 hours.
Since it was 11:00am, we decided to not waste a day, so we set out to see the town, and then just plan to crash that night (after being awake for a LONG time). So once we had time to drop our bags and inspect our three little pigs hotel room, we immediately hit the streets to go get our first taste of the local Greek cuisine. We stopped by a small restaurant well before the lunch rush (we would realize very soon that lunch is eaten at 3pm, and dinner at 10pm...so we needed a couple days to adjust), and immediately gobbled up the bread and olive oil, followed by a healthy portion of moussaka for Julie, and a cheese pie for me. I don't want to ruin some later posts, so just know that this would not be the last cheese pie I ate on the trip...
Once we had some food in our bellies to hold us over until the dinner hour, we decided to walk the local flea market in Monastiraki Square, just blocks away from our hotel. The market was set in some dark, shaded alleys, with all the store-fronts having metal roll-down cages and doors that opened directly onto the street. My very first observation was that for every local Greek shop, there were at least five American shops, like Adidas and Reebok and H&M. The flea market was crowded with tourists and locals alike, and we quickly realized this would not be the place we'd be buying our Greek souvenirs for the trip. We passed a few strips of restaurants, all of which had employees hovering like vultures, trying to convince the lost tourists to stop and have some food. This would be a common thing across all our honeymoon stops, as the tourism industry is the what keeps the shaky Greek economy afloat these days, and all those waiters know it.
As we left the flea market and into the main open square, we looked up and got our first glimpse of the Acropolis towering above the entire city of Greece, with the Parthenon front and center. It was an incredible sight, being by far the highest point in the town, and had an extremely commanding and magnetic presence, causing many second and third looks. Julie and I just stood and took some photos, and realized that this was something that the locals looked at daily, and held in the highest regard. History was oozing from that peak. We could not wait for our next day's trek to explore all the Acropolis ruins and see it all up close.
As expected, Julie had perfectly researched all of the travel elements, and after a stop at the ATM for some euro, she guided us to the Metro ticket office to get us on our way to our hotel stop, Monastiraki. The metro ride was about 45 minutes long, and as Julie spent that time checking out the town from the window, I spent it staring down every sign I could find, practicing my Greek symbols and pronunciation. The metro is a great place to do it, because you look at the names of the stops, and then when you get there, the intercom voice pronounces them, so I could check my work. Yes, I know I'm a dork.
After passing it once, we backtracked to find our first hotel stop in Athens - Hotel Cecil. A renovated old-timey building, Hotel Cecil boasted a lobby with an old-school elevator lift, a winding marble staircase, and a bedroom that featured three (yes, three) beds! But the most noteworthy part about the hotel was their three-man shift of front desk clerks. When we checked in, a very gruff, no frills, less than amenable man checked us in by only saying two words and a number - "Hello", "yes", and "106" (our room number), and never even hinted at breaking a smile. Later in the day we met the clerk with the afternoon shift, who was much nicer, not great with English, but was extremely helpful and had some nice suggestions of where to go in Athens. And later that evening, we met the final member of the hotel three-headed monster, who was incredibly nice, very well-spoken, wearing an O'Neill surf shirt, and made sure to carry our bags for us, give us information we didn't even ask for, and never stopped smiling. We definitely ran the gamut of hotel clerk attitudes over the course of 12 hours.
View from our room in Hotel Cecil
Three beds!
Since it was 11:00am, we decided to not waste a day, so we set out to see the town, and then just plan to crash that night (after being awake for a LONG time). So once we had time to drop our bags and inspect our three little pigs hotel room, we immediately hit the streets to go get our first taste of the local Greek cuisine. We stopped by a small restaurant well before the lunch rush (we would realize very soon that lunch is eaten at 3pm, and dinner at 10pm...so we needed a couple days to adjust), and immediately gobbled up the bread and olive oil, followed by a healthy portion of moussaka for Julie, and a cheese pie for me. I don't want to ruin some later posts, so just know that this would not be the last cheese pie I ate on the trip...
First meal in Athens.
Once we had some food in our bellies to hold us over until the dinner hour, we decided to walk the local flea market in Monastiraki Square, just blocks away from our hotel. The market was set in some dark, shaded alleys, with all the store-fronts having metal roll-down cages and doors that opened directly onto the street. My very first observation was that for every local Greek shop, there were at least five American shops, like Adidas and Reebok and H&M. The flea market was crowded with tourists and locals alike, and we quickly realized this would not be the place we'd be buying our Greek souvenirs for the trip. We passed a few strips of restaurants, all of which had employees hovering like vultures, trying to convince the lost tourists to stop and have some food. This would be a common thing across all our honeymoon stops, as the tourism industry is the what keeps the shaky Greek economy afloat these days, and all those waiters know it.
Storefronts in flea market
As we left the flea market and into the main open square, we looked up and got our first glimpse of the Acropolis towering above the entire city of Greece, with the Parthenon front and center. It was an incredible sight, being by far the highest point in the town, and had an extremely commanding and magnetic presence, causing many second and third looks. Julie and I just stood and took some photos, and realized that this was something that the locals looked at daily, and held in the highest regard. History was oozing from that peak. We could not wait for our next day's trek to explore all the Acropolis ruins and see it all up close.
Julie in Monastiraki Square (Acropolis on the hill)
After much more meandering around the streets, we went back to the hotel for a quick shower and rest, and then it was time for dinner. We found a local taverna (the local term for casual restaurant or dine-in eatery) that looked to have good, home-cooked dishes on its menu, so we plopped down and ordered a bottle of wine and began our feast. After (again) blitzing through the bread and olive oil, we ordered some baked feta cheese to start, and then it was my turn to order moussaka, while Julie ordered some amazing roasted peppers stuffed with rice and herbs. It is no secret that Julie and I are avid food lovers, and this meal officially set the tone for what would become one of the most epic eating trips in history of the planet. But I'm jumping ahead...
After gorging ourselves to a point that guaranteed uninterrupted sleep (not that the travel day hadn't already ensured that), we peeled ourselves off our chairs and trudged our way back to the hotel, where Clerk #3 (aka Mr. Nice Guy) politely held the elevator lift for us, as we had zero energy left after a travel, fun and food-filled 30 hours of being awake. We opened the door, threw down our cameras, and did the only thing that comes naturally to two smitten honeymooners on their first night....
We passed out.
***Tune in for the next post, where we explore the Acropolis, meet many cats, and realize that being in Athens on a national holiday may not have been the best planning...
