Athens - Love it or Hate it?

My main focus in Greece was Santorini.  The plan was to spend 2 nights in Athens, 2 nights in Santorini, 2 nights in Mykonos and 1 night in Athens.  I didn't spend too many times on planning a trip around Athens.  I figured since Athens is a big city, and I would know what to do and where to go once I got there.  In hindsight, I wished that I had prepared a little bit more.

We arrived in Athens on a Sunday.  Athens' airport was an average airport.  Going to TAXI stand, I saw signs about flat taxi rate - 35 euro from the airport to anywhere in the city center, which is relatively inexpensive.  And the taxi ride to the city center was long - almost 45 mins.  35 euro flat rate was applicable only during day time.   We found out the next day that the flat rate is 50 euro during night time and early morning.  We also found out later that the taxi driver in Athens drove like crazy, asked for tips and not that different from NYC cab driver.  Also after the third cab ride, we realized that most cab drivers tend to avoid toll road, which would have made the trip much shorter, in order to save money.  

Renting car in front of the hotel in Athens

During our 2 nights in Athens, we had one full day to do all the touristy things.  And we planned to stay at Hotel Illisos for the first 2 nights and Hotel Areos in a different part of town on the last night after Mykonos.    I was not impressed at all by Hotel Illisos.  The hotel was run down and it was situated in a different part of city center, which I was not impressed of.  The room rate was 162 euro for 2 rooms for one night.  Hotel Areos is slightly more expensive (about 10 euros more), but the rooms are more modern and the breakfast was much better.  The two hotels are located in opposite sides of Acropolis.  Hotel Areos is in a much better location as it was closer to tourist attractions. The only good thing about Hotel Illisos was the roof top view, where you can see the main attraction of Athen, the Parthenon.  

Our first day in Athens, we spent walking a good 15 minutes near the hotel looking for food.  Surprisingly, that part of the town was very quiet.  As we came to know later, this side of the town was not the tourist center.  Not knowing what to do, as it was pretty late in the day and too early to rest, I impulsively decided to rent a car ( as we saw the car rental brochure in the hotel lobby) and drove by Athens' coastline.  Car rental experience was great.  All we had to do was called the rental agency and tell them when we want the car.   A person come and drop the car off at the lobby and pick up the next day.  Also, it was 90 euro for 24 days including insurance with 1000 euro deductible.  My family was excited to sit in the car with A/C on as the weather in Athens was pretty hot. 

Beach along Athen's Aegean Coast

So, we got out of Athens.  The rental guy recommended us to drive along the coast to Glyfada and to Sounion, where the temple of Poseidon is.  The drive to Glyfada was very pleasant and the view was good.  Since my phone battery was pretty low, we were not able to get to Temple of Poseidon, as we drove past Sounion without knowing.    And even on the way back, we were lost, and had to stop and asked around as to how to get back to the hotel.  Also, in this trip, I learned that I should always take an iphone car charger on every trip, as it turned out I needed a GPS and did not want to rent a GPS.   This caused as some inconvenience during the trip as my phone battery ran pretty low. Oh, and one other surprising thing I found out was that T-Mobile has this great plan where I can use unlimited text and data in 50 countries, and most EU countries are included.

Beach club

If I ever plan a trip to Athens again, I would love to stay in one of those beachside town instead of Athens.  They are not that far from city center, so you can rent a car and drive. Also some towns are really pretty and seem to have a lot going on.

The next day, we planned to visit Acropolis and Plaka.  A car is definitely not needed in Athens as they have a very good public transportation.  However, we decided to drive close enough to Acropolis, as our hotel is a mile away.  But parking as hard to find and we decided to pay for parking.  Luckily, we came across this parking inside a gas station which charges us only 8 euro for full day.   I  have read some reviews online that the rate could go from 15 euro for full day so I was happy to have found this place.   

View of Athens from Acropolis

Parthenon

Personally, I do not find Acropolis to be that interesting.  It houses a lot of archaeologic sites, most notable one being Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Goddess Athena and is one of the must see of the world.  The entrance fee was 12 euro per person and it was full of tourists.  If you do the math, you can see that it generates massive revenue.  Yet, I find that the spot to be too touristy and very chaotic. Parthenon was pretty much close off and all we can do was walk around and get a nice view of Athens.  We spent about 3 hours walking around Acropolis and then walked to Plaka.  
After Acropolis, we headed to Carrefour.  My father wanted to go to Carrefour and I needed to look at car charger.  Carrefour is a super market chain like Walmart but based in France.    Yet, Carrefour in Greece reminds me of one of the supermarket in my home country.  Everything was so expensive and I was very surprised that they didn't even have iphone 5S chargers, and Carrefour is supposed to be Walmart equivalent.  After that futile search, we planned to stop by at a beach, but due to not having enough phone battery, that did not happen.   

Neighborhood Near Piraeus

After that, we drove to Athen's Piraeus neighborhood, where there is a big port for cruise ships.  The neighborhood is about 20 minutes drive from the city center and is dirty and dingy.   But we came across this little seafood restaurant place, which seemed to be  a local joint.   As we do not speak Greek and the owner did not seem to understand us, we walked in, and pointed at the other table and asked them to cook exact same thing. (It was funny, as the people from the other table took out their phones and took pictures of us).   The fishes were fresh, as they were picked from the next door fish market.  There was a live music and the owner was really nice.  In the end, they brought out raki and cheered with us.  I was very excited to try raki, which tasted like a more alcoholic version of Tequila.  

Seafood Restaurant

Our experience in the last day was much better.   From Hotel Areos, we walked down 28 October street to Plaka.  It was a good 25 mins walk and full of interesting sites along the way.  We stopped by at Athens' meat market, where they sell both seafood and meat.  We also got a chance to do a little bit of shopping.  I had seen all the advertisements about Honda Center, and thought it might have something to do with the Honda car.  But it was a huge cosmetic/beauty store where they have everything you can imagine for beauty related.   I scored some 'Made in Paris' perfume for 6 euro and some Olive Oil products.   

I am not really a fan of Greek food in general, but two things that I came to love; the anchovies and their feta cheese.  Greek salad is so different from what you would normally get in US.  It does not have any lettuces, just tomatoes, onions and feta cheese.  And I LOVE their feta cheese. 

In my life, I have known no more than 2 people who is from Greece.  From my personal experience, I find that Greek people are easy to be friends with.   As I was preparing to apply for my visa at the Greece Embassy, I started reading people complaining about how laid back Greek people are and how impolite they can be.  A trip to the Greece Embassy in the Upper East Side supported the statement.  (That's why I like going to embassies.  I know that visa applications are requires time and money.  And some visa are more costly than the other.  But for a person holding a passport where almost every country on this earth requires visa, I do not mind doing so.  I feel that you can always get a sense of what a country or its people will be like by going to its Embassy).  In some way, visiting Athens made me realized why Greece went bankrupt.  I couldn't help but wonder why cities like Athens and Rome, where there is a lot of culture and history, could not go as far in advance like other cities.    Athens left me with a not so great impression, but our next part of the trip, Santorini made me fall in love with Greece all over again.  

Tips:

Honda Center near Omonia station has a cafeteria at the top most floor, which has a perfect view of Parthenon.