Hi there! I’m starting to fall behind a little bit on these as we spend time in places that don’t have trains between them or we are busy in the evenings! I’ve decided to split Greece up into two sections. The first will be Athens, and the second will be the islands. So, to begin, here’s Athens.
Athens
We arrived in Athens around midday after a pretty good flight from Dubrovnik. The weird thing about our flight was that they served us food! It was only a 1hr 50min flight but they served us lunch and a drink. So good because we had been up early for the airport!
Once in Athens we took the train to our accommodation. It was a struggle to find, but we got there. We were staying with Jordan & Tristin in a loft-type apartment above a seafood restaurant. In the listing it had a double bed on each of the two mezzanine floors, but when we got there one of the mezzanines had a single, and the other had a double with the couch folded out in the lounge. We flipped a coin and J&T got the mezz room which ended up being pretty warm even with the aircon blasting! Miriam and I took the couch.
We didn’t do much in the afternoon other than walk around and find somewhere for dinner. We found a pretty busy place that had a table available and had our first experience of gyros. Gyros is pretty much a wrap made out of a pita style bread with chicken or pork, tzatziki, tomato and fries! It is amazing.
After dinner we just headed back to our apartment to get some needed sleep!
Day One: Corinth
On our first day in Athens we took a train out to Corinth to see the ancient city. It was about an hour and we have spare travel days on our Eurail passes so it was a pretty cheap day trip.
On the way out there we went over the Corinth Canal which was started in 600BC and properly excavated and finished in the late 1800s. It was a pretty cool glimpse down the canal as the train sped over it! The cliffs on either side are extremely high so it’s amazing to think they began such a project so long ago.
Once at the Corinth train station, we had to work out how to get to the ancient city. There is a line of taxis at the train station but we didn’t have any cash so we walked over to the supermarket to find an ATM. We then had to walk all the way back to the train station and then jumped in a taxi which took us where we wanted to go. He offered to take us to all of the sights in Corinth for €70 or just take us to the ancient city for €12. We decided we only really wanted to go to the ancient city so just like every other taxi driver, he got us there as fast as he possibly could.
It was another very hot day but we enjoyed walking around the excavation site at Corinth. Corinth was the city that Paul wrote 2 letters to which now makes up 1st & 2nd Corinthians in the Bible. There wasn’t a whole lot of information about this, but it was cool to visit.
In the city there were remains of temples, houses, shops and public baths. There are drain systems and water carrying systems which are incredible considering the time they were constructed.
A lot of the structures have been rebuilt with what is there. Most of the temple pillars were pulled down and have been stacked back up to show what it would have been like. It was pretty cool walking through such an old city, but it was also hard to imagine some of it.
Once we had walked around it all and seen all the pottery they had excavated in the museum, we headed out into the town. We had a look around some shops where everyone told us they handmade the exact same pottery as the last shop. Seems legit. We bought a little pot to remember our time in Greece. Hopefully it makes it home!
We then took the train back to Athens and relaxed a bit in our air conditioned apartment.
In the evening Miriam and I headed up Areopagus Hill (or Mars Hill). This used to be the site of a court building in ancient times. It is here that Paul gave a sermon to the council as written in Acts 17. The sermon is written on a plaque in Greek near the bottom of the steps going up the hill.
From the top of the hill you get an incredible view over Athens. Looking out to where the sun sets are some mountains and behind you is the Acropolis. To the sides are buildings spread for miles across the city. We had wondered if the area we were staying in was a little bit old and run down with buildings all crammed together but when you look out at the rest of Athens, you can see it’s the same everywhere.
The sunset was very cool with loads of people up on the hill to see it. It was a nice relaxing end to the day!
Day Two: Athens
Our second day in Athens we had a bunch of archaeological sites to tick off. We had purchased a pass which gives you access to the Acropolis and 6 other sites. You only have to go to the Acropolis and two others for it to be worth it.
We started with the Ancient Agora which is a central community square that has been excavated from Ancient Greece. The main buildings on the site are the stoa and the temple.
The stoa has been completely rebuilt to show what it would have been like and it is now a museum for the agora. It holds loads of pottery and statues from the ancient times.
Over the other side of the agora was the Temple of Hephaestus. The temple remains largely intact and has stood on the site since its completion in 415BC. It’s crazy that a building has been able to stand for that long!
The next stop on our way to the Acropolis was the Roman Agora. This is another community area except that it was built by the Romans. There was an original Greek Agora there, but much of it was built over.
Our biggest stop of the day was the Acropolis of Athens. You can see the Acropolis from most parts of Athens as it’s built at the top of the biggest hill. The Acropolis is an ancient fortress that contains the remains of several ancient buildings. The most famous of these buildings is the Parthenon.
We climbed our way up the hill and the first site is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This is a huge amphitheatre set into the edge of the hill. It is still used today for performances but unfortunately there was nothing showing while we were there.
We continued up the hill walking through the gates and towards the Parthenon. The Parthenon is currently being reconstructed so there is a lot of scaffolding around it, but it was still pretty stunning to look at. From the top you get amazing views all around Athens.
It is really hard to comprehend the age of these buildings. The fact that they were in constant use 2000 years ago seems weird considering we just look at them now!
The rest of the day was spent inside with some aircon to cool us down! We found a place along the road for dinner which was nice.
Day Three: Athens
Our final day in Athens was spent ticking off a couple of other sites on our list. Miriam was pretty full of a cold (that I had given her) so we took it slow.
First stop was Hadrians Arch which is at the entrance to the area of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The arch is pretty much intact and is built in Roman style. The temple doesn’t have much left of it and is currently covered in scaffolding for repairs. There was one of the pillars which fell down in a storm during the last century and has been lying there ever since.
Our biggest stop for the day was Panathenaic Stadium. This is the stadium which held the first ever modern Olympics. It was first built around 500BC and has gone through various stages (including mostly ruins and used as a farm) until it’s most recent renovation in the 1800s. It remains the only marble stadium in the world.
It was extremely hot but I decided that I really wanted to go in and check it out with the audio guide. I really enjoyed walking around the stadium and walking up and down the seating area. There are some very steep steps to get into some sections!
You can walk on the track and lots of people were even running around. If I were wearing shoes and it wasn’t over 30° I would have done a 100m sprint! Instead we took some photos pretending we were running and then stood on the podium.
It was pretty cool to be in a stadium that signifies over 120 years of history. I love the Olympics and hadn’t actually considered the fact that we were going to be in Athens where it all started! It was a cool experience.
That evening we ate dinner at the seafood restaurant which our apartment was on top of. It was good food and a nice way to finish off our time in Athens.
We went to bed ready to leave for the airport the next morning to get to Crete!
Our final memory in Athens was our taxi driver who got us to the airport in record time with average speeds of 150km/h. In his defence, it was pretty hard to read the 70 speed sign when it went past us so quickly.
That’s all for now! Next is the Greek islands. Bye for now! 👋🏻
