Ich habe diesen Blogeintrag auf Englisch und Deutsch geschrieben (ich habe nämlich kein Leben haha). Lese den deutsche Teil am Ende. 😉
In dreary January, I decided I needed a change of scene and wanted to travel somewhere warm. I can’t get over how cheap it is to fly here (19 euros to Milan and back!?), and after much deliberation, I decided on Greece, because….why not!?
So as I lay in bed in January, sick and feverish with the flu, I dreamed of sunny islands, the Mediterranean Sea, old ruins, history, Greek food…. What more could you ask for? After all, this was the weather I was leaving behind:
This was my first real solo trip, and I was a bit nervous about it (you know, what if my appendix bursts while I’m in Greece and I have to go to a hospital!?! Thanks, anxiety. You really do work overtime), but those fears soon melted away as soon as I arrived in Greece. As soon as I stepped outside the airport, I had to take off my winter jacket because it was so warm. And humid! It felt great. I could smell the sea in the air and my whole body felt lighter and more free. I took a deep breath. I was in Athens. (Athens!!)
I managed to buy a metro ticket (expensive and nobody checked tickets AT ALL so not worth it if you’re a gambler and poor :P) and figure out how to get to the city center and find my hotel (it wasn’t that hard). To my surprise, there was English everywhere, which was a relief because….. it’s all Greek to me! (haha, sorry, couldn’t resist the pun).
When I came out of the subway station, I was greated by a beatiful sight: the Acropolis lit-up in the distance. (The pictures just don’t do it justice.) You can see it from virtually everywhere in Athens; it’s magnificant and impressive…. It was really breathtaking to see something in person that you’ve only read about in history classes.
The next morning I went on a walking tour with some other travellers from my hostel (ironically, also all Americans!). Our tour guide was Australian, but he’d been living in Greece for around 6 years and had a lot of good tips and insights. During the tour, I saw pretty much all of the historical sites.
At the end of our tour, our tourguide took us to one of his local lunch joints and recommended some Greek food for us to try. At the end, they even gave us free dessert–yogurt and honey (was delicious), and apparently it’s pretty common for them to serve dessert on the house (so wait to order it, our tourguide advised!).
My favorite part of my trip was hiking up Mt. Lycabettus, which I did on my second to last evening. It’s supposed to be the best place in Athens to watch the sunset, and I’d definitely agree.
The next morning I finally explored the Acropolis. The tourguide from the day before had suggested going in the morning. It opens at 8, and if you go that early, there’s hardly anyone there. It’s beautiful with the sun coming up and incredibly peaceful–would definitely recommend going early before it becomes overcrowded!
And now, a couple of surprising things I learned/noticed while in Athens!
- Don’t flush the toilet paper! This took some getting used to, haha. All toilets have trash cans by them, and those trash cans (unlike what I originally thought), aren’t just for feminine products. The plumbing system is simply not equipped to handle paper, and it also all flushes into the sea, so. Don’t flush the paper.
Don’t do it! - There are stray cats and dogs everywhere! But they’re super friendly and everyone who lives in Athens seems to know them by name. The city keeps track of them and makes sure they’re vaccinnated.
3. Avoid Syntagma Square around 2pm everyday–there’s about a demonstration everyday in Athens. (There were at least 2 while I was there!). And the metro and taxi drivers also go on strike a lot (Fortunately did not happen while I was there!). Around 3pm the demonstration will be done, because…they need to go have a coffee.
4. It’s common for dessert to be on the house (perhaps one of the reasons the Greeks have financial troubles, our tourguide joked 😉 ). Usually, this dessert is something like yogurt and honey.
5. There’s English everywhere, so don’t worry!
6. Athens was surprisingly quiet–sure it wasn’t peak tourist season, but the city center wasn’t as loud and noisy as I expected.
7. The water is good to drink from the tap (and also delicious!). It comes from the mountains.
8. Athens is 1 hour ahead of Germany (didn’t realize this when I flew there, haha).
And bonus:
All in all, I had a splendid trip. It was a lovely change of scene and I enjoyed sightseeing by myself and had a lot of interesting conversations with fellow travellers 😉
Deutsche Version 😉
Im grauen, kalten, ekelhaften Januar habe ich mich entschieden, irrgendwo warm zu reisen. Ich brauchte einfach einen Ortswechsel. Natürlich habe ich zuerst an Italien gedacht: alte Gebäude, Sonne, Strand, Meer, idyllische Musik, Eis, Pasta, mehr Pasta, mehr Gelato…. Aber dann habe ich gedacht, Italien ist ziemlich für Pärchen, oder? Und der Gedanke an mehr öffentliche, verliebte Paare zu sehen als in Deutschland, macht mir ein bisschen schlecht (auch waren die Flüge nach Süditalien ein bisschen zu teuer). Ne, danke. Ich strich Italien von der Liste.
Croatia? Noch nicht warm genug, um das richtig zu genießen.
Greichenland? Warum nicht.
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Diese war meine erste, richtige Solo-Reise, und ich hatte Angst, dass etwas schlimm passieren könnte (was mache ich denn, wenn mein Blinddarm explodiert und ich muss zum Krankenhaus und ich kann kein Griechisch!?). Ja, lächerlich, ich weiß. Danke Anxietät. Glücklicherweise, konnte ich mich entspannen (und auch hat nichts passiert).
Das erste Moment als ich aus dem Flughafen herausgetreten bin, merkte ich das Wetter: warm und feucht. Ich kaufte eine Metro Fahrkarte (muss sagen, das war ziemlich teuer und wenn ich mutiger wäre, würde ich schwarzfahren) und fahrte zur Haltestelle “Akropoli” in der Innenstadt. Obwohl es dunkel draußen war, war ich total beindruckt mit dem Anblick, der mich begrüßte: in der Ferne steht der große Hügel, der Akropolis, im goldene Lichter– deutlich zu sehen in jeder Hinsicht. Leider macht mein Handy schlechte Fotos davon. Ich bringte meine Sache in dem Hostel vorbei, und dann habe ich einen kurzen Spaziergang gemacht.
Der nächste Morgen als ich frühstückte, habe ich herausgefunden, es gab ein Walking Tour, das nun 6 euros kostete. Ich und vier andere Reisende (lustigerweise alle auch Amerikaner) haben das gemacht. Obwohl unserer Reiseführer aus Australien kam, wusste er viel über Atens und Greichenland und die Tour hat mir sehr gefallen.
Allerdings war meine Lieblingsaktivität von der ganzen Reise der Abend ich habe Mt. Lycabettus geklettert, um den Sonnenaufgang zu gucken. Das Wetter war sonnig und warm, und der Anblick von oben war total super. Es fühlte mir gut an, wieder in dem Sonnenschein zu stehen, und es bringte mich zum echten Lächeln. Die Reise hat mir gut getan.
Und jetzt, ein paar andere, überraschende, coole Dinge über Athen.
7. Es gibt Englisch überall–keine Sorge!
Sarah the Adventurer 
One reply on “Adventures in Athens / Abenteuer in Athen”
Dear Sarah,
I went out to your blog and didn’t find the usual way to make a comment there so I will respond to this email. Thank you for sharing so many neat pictures of Athens. What an experience. To think you were standing where they played Olympic games so many centuries ago and to stand in the Acropolis right there in the open. The yogurt with honey looks delicious.
Love,
Grandpa & Grandma Reedy