On our first morning in Athens we woke up and went to our rooftop to check out the included breakfast and the views.
The breakfast was a buffet style with lots of variety. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, pastries, salad, olives, and drinks made to order.
From the rooftop of our hotel we could see a perfect unobstructed view of the Acropolis hill and ruins of the Parthenon. We sat there and enjoyed our coffee and soaked in the view and city sounds.
After breakfast we wanted to go visit the Athens Central Market. We got ready and headed out onto the street. We started heading out towards the market and passed by lots of interesting things. At one point we passed by the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We went over and took some photos through the gate and over the fence. It was a large space and there were some people who paid to enter walking around inside.
We continued on the same road and came upon the Arch of Hadrian which used to be a road through the city center of Athens. We kept walking up the road and only a few minutes later came up on ruins of the Roman Baths By The Zappeion. We spent some time really looking at these ruins closely from the balcony above them. The entire display was really cool to see and makes you visualize what the area may have looked like back in it's prime.
While we were standing there the sky seemed to open up and start dumping rain. Luckily we were now under the covered roof of the bath ruins. The roar of the rain on the roof was deafening. I took a small video of it and continued taking photos of the river of water as it grew in the street gutters. We waited in the safety of the bath roof for what seemed like 30 minutes and the rain somewhat slowed down. We decided to make a break to head back to our hotel. We had umbrellas but the rain was so intense that both of our backpacks were drenched along with our shoes and legs. Not long after we left the cover the rain picked back up and we were in some very heavy rain.
We ran from tree to tree trying to get more cover from the downpour, but it didn't help much. When we reached the area by Hadrian's Arch, there were huge puddles we had to traverse. We carefully chose a path and hopped from place to place until we could make it back to a sidewalk and continue on our way. We made it back to our hotel and took some time to decompress and dry off from that walk.
We did some research on places to eat nearby and settled on a place called Smile. We went outside during a break in the storm and made our way to the restaurant. We were immediately greeted by a lady with a smile and eagerness to welcome us. We sat down, ordered some drinks and food and then the rain started again. Dish after dish came out and we just sat there enjoying the rain, the good service, and the good food. It was a nice consolation prize for not making it to the Central Market earlier in the day.
After dinner we went for a stroll through the neighborhoods at the foot of the Acropolis hill. We walked through narrow roadways lined with trinket shops and restaurants. We looked at some souvenirs here and there and constantly had to jump on the sidewalks to avoid the speeding cars or motor scooters that were heading through these roads. This area was really cute. Even with lots of tourists and walking traffic it was still fun to see and explore.
After walking awhile we came upon some additional ruins that were on display. We were now looking at Hadrian's Library. The lighting on the ruins were nearly perfect as the sun was dipping off in the distance, so we took a couple photos before continuing our walk. We kept on down some narrow shop walking streets. We kept on beyond lots and lots of restaurants.
We started to get hungry so we went back to one restaurant that had some festive band playing. The host was very excited to help us and a bit pushy, but he seemed nice enough. We were aware that we were in a very touristy food zone. We ordered some food and what came out was pretty good. But then we were waiting for our main courses to come out and it seemed like they never would. We waited about 30 minutes for them to come out until we told our server to cancel them and bring our check. We wrapped up and left because we had to wait so long and also we were a bit full from our appetizers anyway.
Our walk home was even more enjoyable as the Athens air cooled a little. The lights also turned on at all the sites we had past by earlier in the day, so the new perspective was great. We enjoyed our walk and went back to our rooftop bar for a drink and some snacks.
We finished the day on top of our hotel enjoying the well lit acropolis from afar while sipping on our cocktails.
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| Oldest Byzantine Church in Athens |
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| Deanna and the Acropolis |
What a nice start to our time in Greece.
That is the end of Day 10.
Remember all photos will be linked here: Full Photo Dump