Athens and an Island

Late Thursday, post-Thanksgiving celebration, I flew off to Athens, Greece. There’s an hour time difference between Athens and Paris, so I didn’t land until nearly midnight and got to my hostel pretty close to 1am.

I feel like I should note that this is the first time I’ve stayed in a dorm-style hostel room and while it wasn’t a bad experience by any means… well, I’m spoiled and I like my own space, even when I’m traveling. I’ll get more into that with a roundup post on travel tips. Anyway, I tried to keep things dark and quiet as I unpacked just enough stuff for the night and crawled into bed.

I got up late-for-me (7:30) the next morning and ran to Philopappos Hill, which I had read was good for running and seeing the city.

LOL. Good for running. It definitely wouldn’t have been easy, but I probably could have handled the hill itself. When you factor in the stones on the ground and the likelihood of me tripping… nope. So, I ran to the base of the hill and then walked up it, walked around, and took some pictures, before walking back down and running back to shower and get breakfast.

And then I headed off to see the Acropolis. It was about a twenty-minute walk from my hostel, so I just turned on Google Maps and went on my way. About five minutes in, I turned off Google Maps because I realized everyone else was going in the same direction as me, and probably going to the same place. Also, I kept running into old things that were in some way notable that I had to stop at and take pictures.

{Hadrian’s Library}

{Tower of the Winds}

And from there, I headed onto the Acropolis. Turns out, Athens is really freaking hilly. 

{Odeon of Herodes Atticus… apparently there were concerts and philosophy lectures here}

{Living his best life}

There are tons of feral cats in Athens (and apparently Greece in general). They just wander around all over the place.

{Ancient temple under modern construction}

I expected to go have to go elsewhere to get to the Parthenon, but nope. It’s right there, too. Also, no good pictures of the whole thing because construction.

From there, I wandered to Avocado, where I had the most delicious veggie burger (things I don’t say very often) and chocolate tart for a late lunch.

While I ate, I listened to some pretty intense story that was mostly in English and occasionally in Greek from some guy who was probably in his thirties to a much older woman who sounded like a family friend about his family situation and his trip to Greece, which sounds like a gift to himself after his mom died. His dad died a long time ago, his parents had a rough marriage, and his sisters hated his mom, a fact that wasn’t helped by the fact that he was clearly his mom’s favorite. He loved her a lot, though, and they had a special relationship. He cried a couple times.

I felt like we were friends, but also they didn’t know I was listening intently.

I swung into a grocery store for some snacks and then walked to the Panathenaic Stadium, the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble and the home of the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympic Games.

{If you were the king or the queen, you got these fancy seats}

I intended to go to the Temple of Olympian Zeus (apparently different from the Temple of Zeus…), but it closed at 3pm and I got there around 3:15. Naturally, I just took a picture through the gate and called it good.

It’s also near Hadrian’s Arch, so I checked that off the list, too.

Then, I talked to a street artist for a bit and wandered through some shops for a while on my way back to the hostel. When I did get back, it was dark and I was tired. All the hills and stuff, you know. So, I plopped on my bed and did my French homework while chatting with a couple of the other girls in my room. They were in the military and just traveling for Thanksgiving.

I lacked the motivation to leave my room for dinner, so I had a couple protein bars. And then a couple for a snack later. And then I called it a pretty early night after I met my last roommate. So exciting.

The next morning, I had an earlyish boat to catch to Hydra.

I decided last week that I wanted the Greek island experience in addition to the Athens experience, and Hydra was the closest pretty Greek island according to the internet.

{The horses are a real thing! They carry stuff up and down all the hills because there are no motor vehicles allowed on Hydra. Except a couple little garbage trucks.}

It was still a two-hour ferry ride, and it rained most of the way there. Fortunately, it was all clear once I got there. I truly had no idea what I was going to do on Hydra, but I got off the boat, started looking for lunch, and ended up climbing up the biggest mountain in the world.

Okay, fine. I climbed 540m up to a monastery. It wasn’t a super hard hike, per se, just long and zig-zagging uphill, and given that I wasn’t really prepared for it or dressed for it or sure if it was worth it, I was probably more stressed about it than I needed to be. Recent Googling has shown me that I could have gone up even further, but I totally did not have time to do that. I was on the island for about two and a half hours, and it was just over an hour up. Probably would have been less if I hadn’t stopped several times to consider whether going up was worth it. I ran into a few people on the trail who said it was, and I was curious, so I did.

{Kitty!}

{Looking out at his kingdom}

{Look at the cute little house in the hills!}

And then I climbed down the hill and got some ice cream and got back on the ferry to Athens. I had about 10 minutes to charge my phone between that and my dinner reservation at Cinque, which is more a wine bar than a restaurant, but it was top-rated, so I figured I’d give it a try.

It was so good! I had a white, rosé, and a red, and a ham and chutney plate. One of the girls from my hostel came by for a drink and dinner, so we chatted for a bit before I headed back to the room. When she came back, she asked how on Earth I had three glasses of wine because she was really feeling the one she had. I was feeling mine, too. We both went to bed early again.

On Sunday, I went for another run, this time actually running some of the winding trails around Philopappou Hill to get up there. Then, it was time to pack up, eat breakfast, and leave.

I had a bit of a nightmarish travel experience on the way back. It started with me not using a ticket I had previously bought (I booked it wrong and realized it too late and Expedia told me it would be best to just not use it), and then consequently not being able to use my ticket back to Paris until I paid a stupid amount of money to do so. At that point, I had no real choice but to do so. Then, Air France insisted they check my bag (for free, but still), and the attendant was not nice about it. My carry-on fits their requirements, but he wouldn’t let me adjust it enough to fit into the size-tester because he just wanted to check it. And then I was seated next to an old lady who didn’t speak English but did position herself diagonally in her seat so she was also half in mine. You try a three-hour flight with only half of your seat.

I was so happy to be back in my lil dorm room. I loved Greece, don’t get me wrong! It’s beautiful and the people are so nice, and I’d love to go explore other islands. I will say that Athens is no more than a two-day trip, and doable in one. But it was lovely and stunning and fun to wander around.

And now I am back and I only have ten more days of college and seven more days of class. Crazy. All the (happy, excited) feels.

Your turn:

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

Did you take advantage of any Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals? I gave in. I also unsubscribed from a lot of email lists, but I did make a small Sephora purchase, got a planner for next year, and am currently debating whether I’m springing for anything else.