Visiting Athens

It was my first time visiting Athens. I have been waiting for that for quite a while, as all the Greeks had such controversial opinions that I didn’t really know what to expect.

It wasn’t a vacation trip so I had just little time to get acquainted with the city and its people.

First of all, it’s a capital. And it’s quite obvious when you get out of the airport and drive a huge and wide highway towards the city center. From the first sight you can notice that the city is rather big and differs from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. But you can see new modern buildings as well as old ones. Once I even saw a skyscraper.

As all the European capitals, Athens is a big mixture of everything. The city center is marvelous. You can see a lot of different places of attractions with the remains of Ancient culture. Nice touristy places with small buildings, restaurants and souvenir shops, streets with shops. And the city is overlooked by Parthenon. The view is amazing.

As all the Greeks say, Athens is a city of rush. But comparing with other big European cities, the atmosphere is not so hactic as it could be. People run to get to the other side of the city but anyway you can notice this spiritual Greek relaxation everywhere. Even in subway people can talk and drink their cups of coffee.

Where to stay?

It was a big question, as we didn't want to be far from the city center. For 5 days we’ve tried two hotels almost in the same street. It was at Metaxourgeio square. Though the neighbourhood looks a little bit strange and there are more people from the closest countries rather than Greeks, the square is surrounded with dozens of hotels of different ranges and prices. The greatest benefit of this place is that it’s just 2 stations from the city center and 1 station from the railway station. We picked a 4 star hotel for a fair price and could enjoy the roof cafe, a small swimming pool and a wonderful view towards Parthenon.

What to watch?

I suppose that it’s a city where you can watch everything just to get acquainted with the Greek culture.  As a tourist you should visit for sure Acropolis hill, neighbourhoods like Plaka, Thisseio, Monastiraki with lots of museums and places of attractions and of course Syntagma square where you can watch the change of the guard.

If you want to watch neighbourhoods with sea, that look wealthy, you can visit Palaio Faliro, Glifada and Vouliagmeni.

A good thing is also to try Athens’ subway to watch the stations if you have time or try once a tram as it goes slow and you will have an opportunity to see the city.

The best street for shopping is Hermou with plenty of shops for different tastes.

Places of attraction

First of all, the best thing to visit in Athens is Acropolis, where you can gain some insights about Ancient culture and have a wonderful view of the whole city. I would advise to get off on Attica station and to go to the information center where you can get a free map and a list of museums. The remains are really impressive, though some of them are being restored, you can imagine the success and glory of the Ancient Greeks, while watching the whole complex.

Most of the key places of attractions surround Acropolis.

Most tourists go to the Acropolis Museum to watch the findings dated to different époques. The museum is a 4 floor building where 2 floors contain all those findings. The other 2 floors are more interactive, as in the third floor (2nd) there are tools that explain how Ancient Greeks managed to build, there is a corner for kids with lego Acropolis, some cafe. At the fourth (3d) floor you can watch a movie about the history of Parthenon and copies of things as they used to be in Parthenon.

As I can say, the museum CAN be really interesting if you take a guide. We were hoping to take an audio guide but it doesn’t exist there. Without a package of knowledge about Greek culture or a specialist, it is rather boring to watch the objects and the statues. The texts are too long that at some time you lose the topic and don’t really understand why these things started to appear at that time. They are also written with lots of terminology that is badly translated into English. The last two floors made the situation better as we watched the movie, those copies and finally got the whole point.

The other museum that we visited was Ancient Agora. Though it was three times smaller. We realized that it was more interesting though it didn’t have any interactive content. The museum shows the historical development of ancient market. After reading all this stuff it’s really wonderful to walk among the remains and imagine how it used to be.

Rather impressive are also Roman Agora, that is close to the Ancient one, Arch of Hardian, Temple of Olympian Zeus and Kallimarmaro Roman Stadium that are closer to Syntagma. All these places are impressive but without a guide or some extra reading they lose their magic.

We also climbed the mountain to watch the remains of ancient walls and ancient observatory in Theseio. But I can say that it's tiresome even if the weather is not so hot.
Of course, there are plenty of other museums in Athens that you can visit and probably will conquer your interest.

How much time do I need?

I would say that you need at least 3 days just to watch all the places of attractions without being in a hurry. If you want to visit more than the basic things you have to stay more.

Budget

Of course, the budget depends on where you are going to stay and what you are going to eat and to watch. I can say that hotels can be found for any kind of taste though I read reviews a lot before choosing any. The basic thing I can say that prices are a little bit higher than in other Greek towns, especially in touristic zone. By the way, if you are planning to take the subway a lot and stay more than 3 days, it’s cheaper to take a ticket for a week.

 

How to get there?

Of course, most of the people take the plane to get to Athens as well as me. But I also decided to try the train. Though everyone told me that it would be the worst thing in my life and with this immigrant situation most of the trains are in poor conditions now. I can tell you that it’s not true. Maybe the train wasn’t the best one that I have ever seen and the railway station itself is a mess but the train itself was clean and cozy. There was even a café car where I could get smth to eat and to drink. Though the train was late and I got back to Thessaloniki an hour later, I can tell that it was a good experience. Though the big problem for non-Greeks is that everything is announced only in Greek.