30 Hours in Athens, Greece
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Originally written September 12th, 2019.
We arrived in Athens later at night and once we got settled in our Airbnb we set off on foot to find dinner for Roxy's birthday. We eventually ended at a spot in the middle of all of the touristy shops in Athens called Eat at Miltons (it was just OK). We enjoyed strolling along the shops and checking out all of the wares before and after dinner. The shops all stock a variety of the same things but it’s fun to check them all out once.
The next morning Drew and I woke up and headed off in search of breakfast (or maybe more like lunch because we had had a late start) at iFeel. We enjoyed our first Greek coffee along with a great but pretty American breakfast. We then went on to explore, looking for a rooftop cocktail bar, and ended up at 360 cocktail bar. We enjoyed the awesome view of the Acropolis and were only slightly disappointed to learn we hadn't ended up on the main outdoor floor but one indoor floor below it. The only problem was that the Greeks still smoke inside... but we still enjoyed the view! We eventually met up with Roxy and Michael to climb to the top of the Acropolis. The climb was very steep, and it was suuuuper windy at the top. The view of the city and the sea was great. It was really neat to finally see the Acropolis in person, especially after seeing it from afar all day but they were doing a lot of work on the structures (and the area) so it was covered by a lot of scaffolding. It is exciting to see that they are working hard to preserve these pieces both in Rome and Athens and that your $10-$30 ticket is going towards something, haha!
After we made our way down from the Acropolis we stopped for a quick snack and a glass of wine at on tap Athens before making our way back to the apartment to shower and hangout. Dinner was back down along the same streets we'd be through before although we somehow ended up seeing some new spots we hadn't yet run into. We enjoyed dinner al fresco on the street watching people pass throughout dinner at Lithos Tavern. By this time it was already 11pm and knowing that we had to get up at 5am for our Santorini flight, we all decided to call it a day.
Overall Drew and I both loved Athens but definitely felt the 30 hours we had scheduled for it was plenty. There was not much else except for eating and drinking more around town.
Pro tip - the rooftop of the Athens Gate Hotel has an amazing sunset Parthenon view without the insane amount of tourists, and you don’t have to stay there to be able to go up!
