Exploring Athens

I woke up early, around 7amish while my friend slept soundly until around 9amish. I have a cold and it developed into a very nose oriented one. So I showered early so the steam would help me to breathe.

Last night, I may not have mentioned, when I had a shower my clothes were on the floor right by the shower. This is an important detail, I promise! The shower curtain has about 1cm that actually goes into the shower tub-thing. Me being me didn’t even think to be careful with where I pointed the shower head. I sprayed it all over the place, including towards the shower curtain… I learnt my lesson. When I got out of the shower my clothes were in a giant puddle of water. In the moment I thought the toilet had leaked. I was wrong. That was yesterday.

So this morning, I was wondering what to wear as I’d only brought a limited amount of clothing… then I looked over at my clothes drying on a chair, I had a towel underneath them so the wood wouldn’t rot. I thought since I only have about 3 outfits I may aswell use them again. Their relatively dry and toilet water is clean right (before you use it)… I’m embarrassed for myself.

My friend reminded me not to put my clothes on the floor — I was about to put them in the same place… I pulled the shower curtain across and then it clicked! They had been sitting in shower water, they were clean! Hurrah! That made me feel a lot better about wearing them.

My friend and I then went on a walk-about to find some breakfast. I love the streets in Athens, they’re full of little shops with merchandise pouring onto the street, usually with someone on the street trying to intice you in, that bit is a little annoying. We walked past an empty place down a little tiny side street that could’ve been mistaken for a corridor as the buildings are pretty close together and the top was covered in leaves and tree branches. We went down there and took a seat under the shade of trees, the place was completely empty except for us. My friend ordered the must try Greek food for the both of us and I was on my own for deciding on a drink. My friend ordered a Greek yogurt with honey and caramelised nuts. I’m not a big fan of yogurt so I was interested to see if the dish could win me over. My friend also ordered a stuffed eggplant and “giant beans” big white beans in a salsa type sauce and olive oil. I wanted to try an iced coffee I’d heard about but I didn’t know the name of. I described what I’d heard (on YouTube) to my friend and he said it’s called a Frappe. That was a little embarrassing considering we have frappes in New Zealand so I should’ve remembered the name. I ordered that drink and they asked if I wanted sugar “no” do I want milk? “No” they walked away surprised. I thought “oh no! I didn’t do it the Greek way!” And then my friend says to me “you’re very Greek, that’s the way the Greeks have it.” He explained that the waiter was confused because Europeans always get milk and sugar. I was very proud of myself!

My friend ordered himself a hot chocolate and said it was the best hot chocolate he’d tasted in Greece.

My drink came and it looked like a layer of coffee and a layer of milk but what they’d done is froth up half the coffee so it looked like milk. The waiter explained to me that you must stir the coffee and taste, stir and taste, until I like it. When I get near the end that is when I am supposed to add water. I stired and tasted, Yum! So I just drank it. When I got near the end I thought it was silly to add water and then bing, bang, boom the coffee all of a sudden got very strong and I happily filled my glass back to the top with water. The very last tiny bit I couldn’t finish because of the strong taste and I didn’t want to fill my glass to the top again. Another name for this drink is The Day Long Coffee. People sit in cafes for hours only having ordered that one coffee. And that one coffee can last a full day and still be good thanks to the caffeine and preservatives according to my friend.

We also had Greek yogurt, honey and caramelized nuts. I’ll give anything a go in a new place so I took a spoonful.

It. Was. Incredible!

The texture was a little bit tougher than the yogurt I’m used to — it held it’s shape on the spoon (the texture is a big reason I don’t like yogurt) and the dairy intake too. My friend said Greek yogurt (not the brand, the yogurt that’s actually made in Greece) is a cross between yogurt and ice cream. If you got a hazelnut on your spoon it tasted like a Freero Rocher. It was incredible! The honey sweetened the yogurt and the nuts added an extra texture and flavour. It was just amazing. It was a big bowl and we shared it. That was good for both parties, my friend said, when he shared it was good because he ate less, I said sharing is good because I don’t have to eat as much and over stuff myself!

Next we tried the beans. These did taste nice, they were also quite beany and I think beans are an acquired taste (as I’m sure everything is to some degree). I liked them but not enough to eat a plateful. Did I mention my friend and I were sharing everything? I had a couple of beans but not too many. My friend says they are one of his favourite! At the moment I think I’m going to stick with Greek yogurt, Greek salad and Greek frappe. Anything with Greek in the title is my favourite so far.

We also had stuffed eggplant. This was nice! I love eggplant!! I’m not sure what was inside it but I could definitely taste onion.

Next to the taverna (bar/restaurant) was a beautiful shop of different paintings this one man had painted. The artist sat outside sunbathing in his chair, I took particular note of this because it meant I couldn’t snap a sneaky picture. The paintings were incredibly beautiful!! There was one particular one that was of a boat, lots of people were covering their ears and rowing the boat, one guy was tied to the mast and like, 7 demon angels looked like they wanted to eat him. The artist explained it was based on the Greek myth about Sirens (women who live under the ocean) and if you hear their call/singing you would be placed in a trance (mostly men) and willingly follow the Sirens into the water. My reaction to this story was “Doctor Who has an episode of that!” It was a good episode too! With Amy and Rory.

Anyway, in the painting the guy tied to the mast did that himself as he wanted to hear the sirens but he didn’t want to die. I nodded my head “relatable.”

After the excellent feed we decided to head to the acropolis to get a ticket and head up it. My friend had his google maps out and that was guiding our way. I learnt the acropolis is the big area of land and the Parthenon is the government building on the top. We walked around the path on the bottom, past some buskers playing saxophone and madelin. Past painters with their work ready to be sold and they were painting their next picture, people trying to sell you bracelets etc.

We walked around the bottom and stopped at a park bench where my friend continued to check the map on his phone and I snapped pictures and created back stories for the passes by to entertain myself. I’ve never been able to follow maps so I’ve stopped trying to, hence why I wasn’t trying help my friend with directions. The map instructed us to take a left and a right and a round about. We walked past a group of guys selling bracelets and they claimed they were free but we kept walking. That was down a really skinny path and they got rather close.. I got really nervous I’d be forced to take a free bracelet!

We walked down little side streets and alleyways with lots of shops, some shops even had birds in cages hanging from the wall! The sound was really nice but I just hoped the birds were being looked after well.

We walked and walked until we recognised where we were. Right back where we had started. We looked around and headed up a little rocky path and past a big museum. My friend and I decided to stop and have a look. We went in and looked at all the different Greek things on display, we saw Bronze swords with a little plaque that said “Bronze swords.” We saw a little figurine of a girl and it’s plaque said “figurine of a girl.” It was a very informative museum. We spent most of the time laughing! Some items did have a proper description but most just stated the obvious. A woman also followed us around and stayed in the corner of the room we were in, it was very strange.

Next we continued up the path towards the acropolis. Some graffiti said ‘acropolis’ in the direction we had just come from, and said ‘hooligans’ in the way we were going. I thought that was pretty funny! We walked up a hill and then down a curvy path that had homes and houses with doors and gates right on the edge of the path. If you looked down over the edge of the walk you could see roofs, so easy to just walk on — but they looked pretty flimsy. The path is hard to explain. On the right the houses where right against the path. On the left you had to veer left and go down a couple steps to get to a home.

At the bottom of the path was a car park. How interesting. A couple was there and got my friend’s attention by saying “excuse me.” I have a vague memory that they were from Canada but I also feel like they had a European accent. We chatted for a bit, well, my friend and the dude chatted. Turned out they’d just come from the way the GPS was telling us to go and they were lost. Well, now so were we. My friend and the dude decided which way to go so we went that way. The couple had done a lot of walking that day and: “She says she’s in the wrong shoes.” The dude said.

I looked down and his partner was in Jandels, just like me! ‘Perfect shoes’ I thought.

We walked down a path with the nice couple who introduced themselves. But I can’t remember what names they used. We then saw something that showed we were in the right place — a looooooong line. My friend and I decided to skip it as it was for tickets and we didn’t want to wait for hours to get some. The couple had bought their tickets earlier so we departed company.

My friend and I walked on, we came across what looked like an old ruin but was actually a stage! Or, the outside of a stage. That was cool.

We stopped off at a nice looking place for lunch that was also empty. Bond wanted Calamari and I wanted a fruit platter, so we got both and shared. The calamari was amazing! It tasted fresh and delicious and soft. It wasn’t in rings or anything, it looked like they’d gotten a squid, pulled it apart and fried it. It tasted good but it was very chewy! The fruit platter (called a fruit salad on the menu) was delicious. It had melon (the green one), water melon (the red one) and Cherry’s (the purple one’s). I LOVED it!!

And then the rain poured down.

And so did the thunder.

When the rain stopped we headed to a park with a couple statues but the descriptions were in Greek so we had no idea who they were. We also walked past a pond of turtles! That was pretty cool. We also walked passed a fenced off area of ducks but no pond! They did have room to fly out. There was a big lake for guests of the park. To look at. Not swim in. And a cute little bridge.

The rain started up again so we headed back to the hotel, through major streets with lots of traffic. The roads here are interesting, the pedestrian crossings all have their own lights. In New Zealand some of them have pedestrian lights (red man, green man) but not all of them. I keep forgetting and go to cross, my friend has to put his hand out to stop me — on the opposite side of the scale, when my friend J-walks I’m way too scared to! The driving in Athens is ah, first in first served is the best way to put it. And since mopeds and motorbikes are small and can squeeze through little gaps they are always in front. Although… some cars do try to squeeze through little gaps to get through traffic faster. The driving does not seem as polite as in New Zealand.

We made it back to the hotel in time for a siesta until morning!

So technically a sleep.