Wednesday/Thursday, May 8-9, 2024

Mark and I booked tickets from SFO to Frankfurt, then on to Athens via Lufthansa. Ticket prices had gone up to their pre-pandemic pricing, but still we splurged for premium economy. We dropped Sookie off at the petsitters, and I inadvertently and very stupidly let Boozie escape outside and he refused to come back in. Bummer.

We arrived at SFO courtesy of Lyft, fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic anyway so we didn’t need to use the carpool lane. Checked in and boarded the plane and admired the way we actually had room and also we got a welcome glass of juice (business class got champagne but regular economy got nothing). While we were onboard Mark checked to see how much it would be to upgrade on the return flight home and it was a very affordable $172 so we did that. The flight to Frankfurt was long but uneventful. In the airport we had a fine enough breakfast and then boarded our plane to Athens. This one was not so great for us because we were seated in the exit row which would have been fine except 1) the flight attendant and then a woman were seated in the jump seat in front of us (there must have been something wrong with the woman’s intended seat), and 2) the young women behind us in a row of three (we were a row of two) went around our row to the right and crossed in front of us every time they wanted to get out of their row because the guy sitting next to them wouldn’t budge. And they got up a lot to talk to other friends on the plane. Just a bit irritating. Word to the wise, do not say okay to the exit row on a Lufthansa short-haul flight! But it was only three hours so we survived.

Arrived in Athens, and found the correct cab line after trying unsuccessfully to use the FreeNow app. The driver was very personable and interested in the fact that we’d been to Greece 25 years before and wanted to know what was different. A lot actually! The new airport is nice (but farther), the new highway built for the Olympics in 2004 is nicer than our highways, and I really liked their light rail that looks like the Luas in Dublin. Why does our light rail look so clunky in comparison?

We arrived at our apartment rental and successfully got inside and got our almost 50lb suitcases up the steep marble stairs.  The place was nice and as described, always a good thing. We picked which room we’d have of the three available (not the largest but the one with the best storage) and headed out to the nearest grocery store to get the basics for breakfast the next day before the store closed.  After that, we went to the central Plaka district for dinner. We found a nice place with an overly chatty man sitting next to us and the food was good but we ordered way too much. It took forever to get the waiter to pay the bill but we got that done, walked around for a bit, and headed back to the apartment for a much-needed good night of sleep.

Friday, May 10, 2024

I got up before Mark but for the life of me I could not get the stove to work to cook eggs for breakfast. I finally resorted to calling the manager of the AirBnB and they sent a guy over. He came up the ELEVATOR that opens directly into the apartment. This would have saved us quite a workout the day before lugging those heavy suitcases! It turns out the City of Athens had shut off the gas to the neighborhood to replace the gas lines. No eggs for me! By now Mark was up and so we went to breakfast at a cool place across the square from where we ate the night before. My first Greek yogurt of the trip! After breakfast, we went through the tourist shopping area because it was just so cold and I needed to buy a sweatshirt. So now I am the proud owner of a very warm lavender sweatshirt that says Athens on it. Genevieve and Charlotte had gotten a crazy early flight from Dublin to Athens, and so we headed back to the apartment and read on the balcony while we waited for them to arrive. Once they arrived and we got their suitcases into the apartment (using the elevator!) we went out to a very nice and fancy lunch, near a cool archeological site. Next, we went to get tickets to tour the Acropolis. Despite the ominous clouds, it was still pretty crowded and I can’t imagine how busy it was going to be later in the summer! We spent way too long trying to get this app to work that theoretically would show you what each temple would have looked like when it was new, and we did get some great photos but truth be told I like the Greek Acropolis in Agrigento, Sicily, better. Maybe because it isn’t as crowded but it seems to have more context. But the Athens one does have more cats so there’s that.

By then it was of course Aperol Spritz hour so we found a likely bar and had our drinks. Charlotte and I returned to the apartment and Mark and Genevieve headed out to the Hamam to get massages. Charlotte and I went to a low-key family restaurant, Victory Cafe, near our place and then texted Genevieve and Mark to come meet us because the owners were so sweet and the food was good. We walked around a bit after dinner and then headed back to the place to watch Bridgerton Season 3!

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Charlotte and I got up before everyone else (no surprise) and so we walked to get breakfast (pastries which we brought back to the apartment). We returned to the apartment and Mark and Genevieve were ready to go so we headed   out again this time to see more of the Plaka starting with the Mansion of the Benizelos, which is one of the last remaining houses of ancient Athens. It was pretty cool to see how people might have lived although I have to be honest it was hard to picture how it would actually have worked. There were public rooms and then one room for women to sleep and one room for men to sleep? Next we stopped into a church because what would a trip to a European city be without multiple church stops? This one was the Church of Theotokos Gorgoepikoos. Rolls off the tongue. Then the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, and then a stop for a nice lunch at a little cafe. Then we continued our walk to Hadrian’s library. By now Mark and Genevieve were feeling tired so they went back to the apartment and Charlotte and I toured the Agora.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that’s a really cool site, sure is a good thing they decided to put the subway right through it. I guess the tracks were laid in 1895 and the site wasn’t excavated until 1931 so it wasn’t really their fault. Next Charlotte and I stopped for an iced coffee (frappe) at a cool coffee bar. 

After our jolt of caffeine, we went to the Acropolis Museum which was really well done and a good museum. Just don’t try to take photos of some statues for reasons… (you will get yelled at for taking some pictures but not others so don’t ask me what the difference is. I think the Greek museum guides just like randomly admonishing tourists). We returned to the apartment and all went out to dinner. Now refreshed from his nap Mark was a bit put out that we saw all this stuff without him (Genevieve appeared to understand the tradeoff between nap and sightseeing) and took us all on a three-hour tour around the Acropolis loop, which encompasses the entire old part of Athens. So a very long day.

 

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Genevieve had found us a bougie place to have brunch, The Makers. Good food and good people watching too. Next we went to the flea market where Charlotte found some teacups at a bargain price. She asked how much one would be and next you know she’s got three teacups and four saucers fro 10 euro. We got them back to the apartment without breaking them!

We then took an Uber to the ferry dock for our trip to Aegina, an island close by famous for pistachios. The ferry was nice, always good to be out on the water. Aegina is a pretty small touristy island, but we enjoyed the shops, the kitty cats and the historic buildings. And the pistachios were in fact delicious. We tried them from many vendors and they were all good so we bought a few from each.

A lot of the stuff that was supposed to be open, like port tasting, wasn’t but that’s okay we did find a good oceanfront restaurant. The ferry back was also very nice with great sunset photos. Once back we watched SNL on my phone, which turns out not to have been the best idea ever as it used all my high-speed data for the trip leaving me with snail speed the rest of the trip (which I did not figure out until we got home, I was just wondering why my phone decided not to work).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 13, 2024

Today we started out right with a Greek tortoise at the Temple of Zeus. The ranger was a little skeptical of our intentions as we made a beeline over to the little guy but we only wanted to get a video so all was okay. After that, we went to the Tower of the Winds on the backside of the Agora for some good photos. By now it was lunchtime so we went to Ya Zhou for Thai food in a slightly different (and grittier) area of the Plaka, We stopped for iced coffee and then sent Genevieve off on her way to the apartment for an interview (for a job she got and accepted as it happens!) and the rest of us walked to the Archeology Museum. This took us past some of the Plaka we recognized from our trip 30 years before, particularly the meat market where Mark had gotten one of the best photos on the trip.

After a very long walk, we arrived at the museum and were able to irritate this Scientologist tour guide giving a private tour because we dared to TALK in a museum. And then Charlotte and I got in trouble from the docent for trying to take a photo of Poseidon while standing in front of it in a Poseidon pose which I guess is not allowed for reasons. It’s clear we were all just raised by wolves, can’t behave to save our lives.

By now it had started to rain so we took an Uber back to our Apartment to freshen up for our fancy dinner at Varoulko Seaside, a Michelin-starred restaurant. It was the first (and only) Michelin-starred restaurant Mark and I had ever been to (Genevieve and Charlotte had been to one in Ireland). Genevieve was still in her interview so we stalled by stretching out our ordering and telling the wait staff that she was in an interview. I think they thought she was some kind of famous person and it was a publicity interview by the way they were very attentive when she arrived. The food was excellent, fancy but in an accessible way. No Always be my Maybe vibes! Towards the end of the meal, some actually famous people came but we didn’t recognize them at all. Maybe some kind of a rap band?

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Charlotte and I set out on a quest to get a box and packing materials for her Greek vintage teacups and saucers. DHL told us they don’t sell packing materials but we could go to this other store and she gave us directions but of course, directionally challenged me can’t find anything ever. Fortunately, we stumbled on a couple of stores that sold boxes etc. so whether that was where she told us to go or we got lucky we’ll never know. Found a box and bubble wrap envelopes that were perfect, so we boxed everything up and then met Mark and Genevieve for breakfast at a place near our apartment. Then Charlotte and I walked around the National Gardens of Athens looking at the old ruins, a greek tortoise, and also of course the parrots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By now it was time to go on our Athens half-day sailing and sunset tour and so we returned to the apartment and all got a cab to get back to the same harbor we were at the night before. We got there a bit early so we walked around the dock a bit and then our guide was ready for us. Very personable (and really good-looking) young guy who was happy to tell us all about growing up in Greece, and answered all the questions we had about everything.  His eyes were such an intense blue it was distracting and when he went below deck the girls and I said as much to each other. When he came back out he was wearing glasses! I don’t know if he heard us or it was a coincidence… The weather wasn’t great but we still went off the boat and into the water, and it was a really good excursion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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