Greece is highly rated by the travelers I met through the grapevine, and so I thought it would be a good idea to work it into my trip before some of my other plans.
It’s a detour from Italy – I took a flight from Venice to Athens and I’ll be using this amazing city city as a bit of a base to plan the rest of my adventure from. It’s a little weird coming from Venice and Mestre because I didn’t really have to get oriented to those places, so I had to figure out the basic layout of the town by starting a walk around the vicinity of my hostel.
Its strikingly hot here in Summer, but there is also a beautiful atmosphere to the streets, with so many unique little cafe experiences to try. Where Italy tended to have a concentration of tourist-centric traditional restaurants, the center of Athens and around Plaka was in a full embrace of vibrancy and diversity in its possible dining experiences.
These were not to be discovered until after dark however, and while the hot day sun still shone through the marble swept streets I made my way through the center of Athens to find the whereabouts of its famous landmarks and lookouts.
I located one of the famous lookout spots, the Areopagus Hill, which offered some good views. I know I can do better than this though!
Athens really comes to life at night, with amazing dining and unique bars and cafes littering the various backalley streets. It’s bustling with activity and its famous landmarks line the horizon illuminated with spotlights as you make your way through to your bar of choice.
Here’s some shots of the streets, as well as some from Philopappos Hill, which is a very popular lookout spot here in Athens for sweeping city views by sunset.
Very positive first impression of a truly vibrant city. The lack of familiarity faded very quickly here to be replaced by the excitement of the possible adventures and dining experiences that Athens has to offer. Stay tuned to see how things go there.