As I sit outside the The Bread Factory in Athens (great little place by the way for authentic cheap deserts and sandwiches) dirty cars, mopeds and trash are blowing past me. An employee tries her best to brush in the last few bits of debris off the floor before they go flying down the street. I look away from this episode and squint at the walls of the nearby buildings covered in graffiti – reflecting on how different the islands are. Not the prettiest sight to see – so lets get into the better parts that I personally enjoyed about Athens.
My favorite part of Athens was realizing how EASY the metro is. From the airport, you take the BLUE LINE and you can get dropped off at the Acropolis if you choose. We stayed in “Karameiko” and I will provide the link to our nice Aribnb HERE just outside the metro. In total there are 3 lines: BLUE, RED and GREEN. The Blue line gets you into the city, and the green line will take you to Piraeus Port. Use Ferry Hopper to book your tickets to the islands in advance. Make sure you GO TO THE TRAVEL AGENCY at the port to get your ticket and they will tell you which gate you are departing from.
The Acropolis is obviously a must see and the food nearby was also some of the BEST that we’ve ever had. There is a restaurant called Leonidis that had THE BEST OCTOPUS EVER – according to my friend. The Greek Salad was amazing and the ladies next to us ordered so much food and all of it looked amazing. They told us that this was their THIRD day at Leonidis because the food has been great. Our waitress gave us a complimentary desert at the end – I would say it was worth a visit.
The shops of Monastiraki were interesting and we spent an entire day just exploring the shops and eating. We loved the Hippie Shop – I got a really cute beach wrap from there as well as a purple tye dyed dress which I absolutely loved and lost the next day. I left it outside to dry on the balcony overnight and it blew away. I also bought some awesome and unique jewelry here! During sunset hours street performers dance in the square for tips – I thought it was pretty interesting. That happened in the square (pictured here) around sunset. Can you see the Acropolis up there on that hill?!
So here is a crazy story! Lets say you decide to stay at our airbnb and go exploring. We came across this really cool bar with plants ALL OVER THE PLACE and comfy patio furniture with cushions to sit on. I do not remember the name of it – but based on this very vivid description that I am giving you – you should know you’re there, if in fact you are there. Anyway. The more we drank the more my friend started to itch. Unknown to us – she had sat in something awful. She had these bug bites/bumps all over her thighs and calf once we got home. They were red and inflamed – and as the days went on they got worse. Then suddenly they started bubbling and burning her legs. We ended up going to the hospital in Milos because it was BADDDD. Hospitals are free in Greece though and she was good after some antibiotics – THANK GOD.
We still don’t know what it was, she thinks it was bed bugs from the patio furniture at the bar. I didn’t get them because I was in my purple dress whose sole purpose was to SAVE me from this incredibly unlucky incident.
Picture of me and the dress for reference – seriously so cute right?! It’s now gone forever – *sigh.
