Dah lah… after spending 3 days 2 nights in Rome, we were heading to the next destination - Athens. We spent 4 days 3 nights there.
When I think of Athens, I would think of the origin place for Olympics, Acropolis, as I studied that in high school history subject, then also a place which is in economy turmoil recently. I was pretty nervous before visiting the place.. However, it turned out to be – ‘I love Athens’ I will definitely revisit this place!
We were leaving on 13th July morning after having our breakfast at the hotel. The
Leornado Express wasn’t too impressive. It was hot inside and just too crowded. The ticket is 13 euro per way from
Roma Termini Station to
Rome Fiumicino airport. Another thing that annoyed me a bit was when I was trying to get a ticket, there was an Italian man came near me offering me ‘help’ in getting the tickets. Then he was trying to ask me for ‘coffee money’. I refused and quickly walked away after I purchased my tickets.
We were actually arrived at the airport 3 hours early. Therefore we couldn’t be bothered to check in early and turned out that we thought we nearly missed the flight.
Parents were sleeping in the airport…lol
It was a pretty dramatic situation really. The
Easy Jet check in counter was flooded with people when we started queuing 2 hours before the boarding time. Same to the security check. We the trio, together with another Brazilian couple had to cut queue as we were just like half an hour to the boarding time. When we finally arrived at the departure gate… dah lah, the boarding time was first delayed for an hour…
Then we finally allowed to board. The pilot made a turn on the airport lane and announced that due to the technical failure; it wasn’t safe to board this flight. We were asked to wait in the terminal until further notice. This was where they kept us waiting for hours and hours.. You can actually see the boarding time was updated every hour to the next hour but we were wondering when this will come to an end. The Brazilian couple was very nervous about not getting to Athens by end of the day as they had to board on a cruise. They told us that they had spent thousands of dollars on the cruise.
Well, good that we were provided with free dinner. A pizza and a soft drink, which made us not feeling that bad. We met with a young Canadian. Quite like his positive attitude towards this unpleasant circumstance. He acknowledged that this was just an unfortunate event and not blaming others. In fact, he was hoping to get the fresh made pizza. Lol.
These scouts were cheering while waiting for the flight updates. I guess they are from Greece.
Finally we were boarding after four hous delay. The captain was making the announcement. He was cheered by the crowd though.
And finally we arrived at Athens safely at night.
As it was late, we had decided to take taxi to hotel -
Airotel Alexandros. Please read my reviews to the hotel
here.
Below is the taxi information and charges in Athens, if you would like to take a taxi to the city centre. I think the rate is very good compare to other cities in Europe.
The journey from the airport to the hotel was absolutely pleasant especially my parents tried their very best to communicate with this non English speaking taxi driver. However, this taxi driver was still trying to communicate with us.. Haha… When we spoke to the hotel reception later, he told us it was pretty unlucky for us meeting with a non-English speaking taxi driver, coz most taxi drivers here speak English. Haha… 炸到！
Although we had free pizza earlier, still we were feeling hungry…and we took our humble late dinner again.. or supper I supposed!
In the next morning, after having a humongous breakfast, we started our journey. First stop – the amazing
Acropolis. This is a must see if you are visiting Athens. It costs 12 euro per person, and you can visit 6 places with the ticket. These places are: Ancient Agora, Theatre of Dionyos, Roman Agora, Kerameikos, Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Hardian Library.
Let’s start hiking
Theatre of Dionyos
Taking this footage in the first sector of Acropolis
On our way to the top of Acropolis, to see the Parthenon
Athens city view from the top
On the top of Acropolis
Part of the Ancient Agora
The Hardian Library
Do bring loads of water with you. You may need them hiking to the top of Acropolis : ) here I really want to applause my parents hiking effort. I bet they never walk that much in their life. Lol… See, I made them to again…Although we were stopping along the walk, for them to rest, drink some water and eat some food. Lol..
See Acropolis from far..
We then spent the whole day around Acropolis area. We walked into the street that sold Greece made souvenirs
Another thing I love about Athens is you can easily access to free maps everywhere in the city
The happy train … love the name of it…
My poor dad wasn’t too adaptive to the local cuisine, therefore he was the one who kept asking for KFC or oriental food. He was blasted by the tourist centre agent about him not trying the local cuisine..lol… still he wanted KFC that day… So we were having KFC (near Omonoia station) that night for dinner…lol
We went to Syntagma Square before closing our day one in Athens. The Changing of the guard ceremony at Syntagma Square was pretty amazing! Me and my dad ended up 'praticing' this when we were free...lol..Great fun!
Day Two and Day Three… To be continued…hehe
Click here for more pictures
Second stop, we went to Athens 2004 Olympic stadium. The stadium design is awesome. It wowed me when I saw the whole stadium from far. However, when we got to the stadium, we saw the place seemed like being ditched for a long time, with graffiti every where. It is a shame! I do not want to comment on current Greece economy situation, however, wouldn’t be better if the country takes initiative to preserve the place and make it to be a proper tourism spot?
Have a guess what is this?
Of course stopping for coffee – Greece Coffee for sure. I quite like the cutlery for my coffee…haha
One thing that annoyed us was the we were told by a tourist couple that be extra careful in this area. They were chased by some drug addicts. After taking a few shots, we just quickly left the place..
Mom was pretty shocked by the size of her salad…She kept moaning that we shouldn’t order too much food…haha
Dad with his honey chicken or whatever… look at his expression…I tasted his food afterwards. It was very good..However, I think he still prefer oriental food :p
