A is for Athens

So because of the flight delay debacle from yesterday, today was our one and only day in Athens. It turns out it was just enough time though to pack in everything. I love Athens!  It's small and walkable and while it definitely has the urban griminess of a city with tons of graffiti and all, it's also super cute and quaint and beautiful.  It's a really neat mix of both European and Persian culture.  This morning we started with a walking food tour that my friend Megan Trulock got me for my birthday. It was awesome!! While Will and I are adventurous and will try anything when it comes to food, it was awesome to have a guide show up the local best spots and explain what was in everything and the history behind it.  We tried all kinds of stuff and everything was pretty tasty except for the olives since Will and I hate olives!

Although we were pretty full from the tour, we decided to go to lunch anyways because it was another food opportunity and our time in Athens was limited.   We walked around Monastiraki square and found a restaurant that the AirBnB host recommended.  It was delicious!  Seriously!  I wasn't even that hungry but it was the best gyro and kebab we had ever had.  And the owner who was this cute old man was so nice to us.  He smiled at us a lot and patted my head and even when we said we were too full for dessert, he gave us the most delicious yogurt with honey and peaches, on the house.

After lunch we walked around the Monastiraki flea market and saw all of the cool shops and vendors.  However, since our apartment was in the perfect location to everything and just around the corner, we decided to stop in and drop off some purchases.  This ended up being a 2 hour nap which was just what we needed after a long morning walking in the heat.

 After getting rejuvenated and letting our sweat dry, we headed for the Acropolis.  It as a hot day so it was a short, steep, and sweaty climb up to the top. Here we saw the Parthenon.  I am not a huge history buff but it was definitely cool to see!  After that, we walked around the Plaka which is the cutest area of cobblestone roads and beautiful shops and alleys. There are so many cute restaurants and bars and dessert places and they all look so delicious and all have really cool outdoor seating.  We had some awesome gelato too!! Will had the pistachio and I had mascarpone cream with figs!  Yum!

After walking around, we weren't quite hungry since we ate so much on our walking tour and we had a really late lunch. So, we decided to go to movies.  Yes, it may seem weird to go to the movies but Greece is apparently known for open air movie theaters and we love the movies.  We went to CineParis which is a really cute theater.  The movies are actually new movies on the same schedule as American movies and they are in English with Greek subtitles.  Unfortunately the movie that was playing was Hercules but we figured it was fitting since we were in Greece.  However, we normally would never have been interested in it but we figured we would go see it for the experience.   It had the coolest view of the Acropolis which made the whole thing so fun.  We even got popcorn and wine.

Now I don't even know if it is because The Rock is unconvincing as a Greek god or because we were exhausted from the long day, but Will and I both fell asleep multiple times so at the intermission, we left.  At this point it was around 11pm and the restaurants were super hopping.  According to our food tour guide, Greeks eat late and she was right.  We stopped and shared a gyro and sagnaki (flaming cheese) and it was delicious.  Then we stopped and had dessert before heading back to our apartment to shower, pack up, and get some rest!

We really loved Athens!  Don't need a whole lot of time here but loved the food, loved that everything was walkable, and just thought everything was really cool.  Next: the islands!