Athens is the perfect mix of city life and still having history ooze through every crack of the city. But even in May, the heat gets pretty unbearable between 1-5:30PM while we were there, averaging about 26-27 degrees. 

We landed on our first day at about 12:30PM. The trains were really backed up with delays so we decided to take a taxi. Which ended up costing an arm and a leg. I missed our driver back in Santorini 😦 From the airport to our hotel Parea Athens near Monastiraki, it was €70. That’s like $110 Canadian. 

Our hotel in Athens was cute! It’s a boutique hotel and fairly big given the mixed bag of places we’ve stayed at over our trip. We both felt like this was the perfect hotel to end our honeymoon on. We even had a patio! 

First stop for us after we unpacked was To Kati Allo. We got there at almost 2:50PM, but they were still busy in general. There was one free table and we were sat down. The owner said to us “the food is good, but the service is shit”. That was a lie because while the food was indeed very good, the service was great too. The owner had to do everything except cook and plate up food. Otherwise, he has a system: he’ll ask you to go with him up to the counter and he’ll physically show you all their offerings of the day. He has some recommendations, and he also helped us make some adjustments as I wanted both the stuffed zucchini and the grape leaves, but he knew we wouldn’t be able to finish both. So he gave us a half order of both and charged us accordingly. We also got their lamb and their moussaka. Everything here was so delicious. I wanted to come back every day. I don’t usually like lamb. Upon ordering it, he told us “if you don’t like the lamb, I’ll give you everything you ordered free.” We ended up paying for our meal because the lamb was heavenly. 

They also have a list outside of what Rick Steves (American travel writer) recommends from their restaurant. But I say talk to the owner because you’ll get some good tailored suggestions! But I also feel everything is probably pretty solid, no matter what you order. 

After this late lunch, we had to head to the Acropolis for our timed ticket entry. We booked our visit for 4PM. Which was killer because the sun was absolutely unrelentless at that time of day. There’s almost no shade cover up there too and at one point, I Googled to see if people have died up here from the heat as I hid under a rare tree shadow for cover. It turns out there are times they shut down the Acropolis to avoid tourists and people going up there when it’s excessively hot. Understandable. But I also wish they made some shade covers or seating to help alleviate this 😅

We did our rounds eventually and I really liked the replicas of the six sisters: caryatids who help to hold up Erechtheion. Apparently, you used to go all the way up to the Parthenon but now they’ve roped it off. 

After our visit, it was about 5PM and I really wanted to try my luck and visit Melissinos Art. Pantelis Melissinos is a poet, but also a 3rd generation sandal maker. He’s made sandals for folks like the Beatles, Joe Biden’s family, King Felipe of Spain, Leonard Cohen and more. If you visit him, you can also sit down and he’ll custom make you your own sandals! 

He can take up to 2-3 hours for a pair depending on the intricacy of the model you’ve chosen. I already knew what I wanted, and it was between two styles: either the Aeolian One or Aeolian Two. It turns out these were their most popular styles so they agreed to help me customize it within the hour and took me on. During my stay there, 2 other ladies and their families came in for sandals but had to be turned away as they were already busy with me and there wouldn’t be enough time left before they closed at 6PM. 

Melissinos and his coworker helped me figure out which parts hurt and where to punch holes for the straps. They filed down and softened areas that I felt were bothering me. And then they finished the shoe when I was satisfied by hammering in the sole of the sandals. I was instructed not to use it for 24 hours as the glue and sandals set. But I was also told the leather will eventually further soften and mold to my feet. I can’t wait! But I will say that on our last full days in Athens, I ended up walking 17k steps in these new sandals and I didn’t get a single blister. 

For dinner that first night, I initially had gyros planned, but I felt more like seafood so we swapped some plans around. We went to Atlantikos, a local seafood joint. We ordered a few dishes and the sea bream was pretty good! The fried seafood platter was good too but with all battered fried foods, I often get bored of it after a while. 

After dinner we walked from Monastiraki to Thiseio. It’s such a beautiful walk at night since the Ancient Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus are partially lit at night. And lining its sides are restaurants with fairy lights and outdoor seating. It’s a shame Vancouver can’t quite set up outdoor stuff like this for much of the year. 

We also ended up walking to Chillbox, a Greek froyo chain. I’ve been trying to chase the high of the frozen yogurt ice cream in Santorini and haven’t yet been able to find a replacement. We took the froyo to a local church square and ate it there. 

The next day, we spent much of the day at Hydra! Until we went back to Athens at about 6:30PM. We went to a pretty popular place called O Thanasis for dinner. They have several blocks of seating and they were STILL fully packed. We were lucky to get a seat right away but we could see people struggling to get seated after us. I didn’t love it here. I was excited for the yogurt kebab, but it tasted too gamey for me. And the moussaka wasn’t as good as To Kati Allo’s. 

After dinner, I was really craving some cooked vegetables. So I went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered stir fried tofu and veggies to go. We also went to Lukumades for some donuts, but they were super busy at night and over fried our loukoumades. Again, I ended up missing the ones I had at Santorini. 

We took both the veggies and the donuts back to our patio since we lived quite close. For some reason, I wanted to go out again after we ate and we checked out more shops and S got to feed some treats to stray cats. ICYMI, he bought a bag of cat treats at Hydra for the island cats and he had leftovers he brought back to Athens. Was super full by the end of the night and we had a good night’s rest. 

The next day was our last full day in Athens. We started it off with walking about 20 minutes to Stani’s, a place that served pretty authentic Greek yogurt. We got a breakfast combo to share, loukoumades, and of course, their Greek yogurt with honey. The donuts were quite fresh here. And mixing the Greek yogurt with the honey was delightful. The breakfast came with a slice of butter drenched in honey and I asked if I was supposed to spread it on the bread and they told me yes. Also delightful. 

After breakfast, we hit up an olive wood shop to buy one of my cousins a wooden top. And then I needed a break from the heat and we napped for an hour at our hotel. 

Waking up, we decided to go to the Acropolis Museum. I wouldn’t be able to be outside a whole lot during this time of day (as we learned from day 1 in Athens) so an air conditioned museum seemed great. I was also eager to see the real caryatids in the museum. It was sad to see them missing one of their sisters, who now sits in a museum in the UK. The museum itself had a free audio guide app which was very helpful. We ended up slowly making our way through the museum over 2 ish hours. 

It was cool to see the Acropolis from the museum! We could even make out the tree where I had hidden 2 days ago atop the hill. I much prefer the view from down here if I’m being honest. It was just so so hot up there! 

For our last dinner in Athens, we both wanted to go back to To Kati Allo! It was just too yummy. Anywhere else and we would’ve been reminiscing and comparing what we got to that first meal we had here. We got much of the same things except we also added the sea bream. The lamb was as good as it was the first time, and the moussaka is going to be my bar for how all moussaka should be for the rest of my life. We were super full afterwards, but very satisfied.  

We had a bit of time to burn after dinner. We bought tickets for an 8:45PM showing of “Young Hearts” at the outdoor Cine Paris cinema. We really wanted to go watch a movie there because the experience itself was neat, but you also get to see the sunset on the Acropolis from the cinema. So beautiful seeing it change from how it looks in the daytime to it slowly standing out in the night from the lights that have turned on at the historical site.

The movie itself was pretty decent. It was in Dutch but had English subtitles. After it ended, we stopped by Chillbox for some froyo and we ate it while we walked back to our hotel. And that was our last night in Athens! 

Next morning, we woke up at 8AM and walked to a nearby pie shop called Bougatsadiko Psirri. They sell handmade bougatsa, and we also grabbed some other foods for breakfast. Then it was time to pack up one last time and head to the airport to make a long trip back home! (We’d have to take a 5-hour flight to Heathrow first, and then an almost 10-hour flight to Vancouver from there). 

Some last notes I wanted to leave on Athens: so many of the places we went to had super smooth rock floors, which if it was in the US, it’d be a lawsuit waiting to happen. This includes the well-trodden rocky roads leading up to the Acropolis and even just in various streets in general. 

I also felt out of all the cities we went to this trip, Athens had the most number of houseless people begging for change. They also (I really disliked this) utilized children a lot in the common tourist scams that we’ve become used to. This included offering girls roses and asking for their partners to pay for it, or playing random instruments in front of you and asking for money. Except in Athens, it was kids doing it and it felt sad. 

Our luggage is super full from all the stuff we’ve bought on the trip—which wasn’t a whole lot. But it’s just that we each only brought a backpack and a carry-on luggage. A joke I kept saying about our souvenirs is that “I got this from Italy/Greece, but they got it from China”. If you flipped some of the souvenirs around, you could see the truth. But I hope it’s the thought that counts to our friends and family 😅

Overall, our honeymoon was a lot of fun. I always feel trips are wonderful for inspiring us and of course, helping us to see beyond our own little circle. There are so many ideas and recipes I’m excited to bring back to Vancouver! Grateful for S, and grateful we got to take this wonderful 2-week trip together ❤️ Super lucky we got to take a break and things are taken care of back at home!