Day Twenty| Wednesday 22nd August 2018
City: Athens, Greece
Accommodation: Athens Novatel
Weather: 32
Photo: Panathenaic Stadium
Both of us had a pretty broken sleep last night, the bed at this hotel isn’t overly comfortable, and neither are the pillows. But we still got up at 7am, and then headed to breakfast at 8am.
Our first activity today was a ‘Traditional Greek Food Tasting and Culinary Walking Tour of Athens” which I found and booked on Viator prior to leaving Australia. I like to do a food tour when I travel, and this seemed like the perfect one. We caught a taxi to Syntagma Square, which is about 2km from the hotel. This was the meeting place for the tour. While waiting we had a scammer come up to us, he was American, and went on to tell us a story that he got out of a cab and the driver took off before he could get his suitcase from the car boot, and that had his phone and wallet in there too. All he had was his passport and a city map. That made no sense that he did not have his wallet, as how would he have paid for the taxi. He wanted €20 to supposedly catch a 3hr bus to some bus station. Nothing of what he told us made sense. We told him we don’t carry cash and we could not help him, and we’re about to commence a tour. He wandered off, surely about to attempt his scam on another person.
Our tour guide was Tania, she was born and bred in Athens, and is in her 20’s I would guess. There was one other person on the tour in additional to Anthony and me, he was an Indian guy who lives in Berlin now. I cannot recall his name. The tours can have up to 15 people, but will accept a minimum of 1 or 2 from memory. The tour commenced with a short walk to a traditional bakery which predominantly sold a selection of baklava. I took photos of all the items we had, except for this as I forgot. I’ve probably had baklava before, but do not recall when. This one was delicious, it was a smaller version of the ones I see in Greek restaurants or fish and chip shops at home.
During the walk to each destination, Tania told us more about the history of food in Athens, what orginated here, or what was a spin-off of another countries delicacy, such as Turkey. She also told us a few Greek mythology stories about the origins of the food, such as the origin of the Olive tree by Goddess Athena, who Athens was named after. She also went on to tell us more about the food we ate, and how people eat traditionally eat them. I didn’t get to catch all the true Greek names of the foods we ate, or the names of all the places, but here’s my interpretation.
- Baklava (no photo)
- Barley & Oat Bread (no photo)
- A selection of Kalamata olive oils, olives, olive spread, a condiment like honey but made from the resin of a certain tree, herbal tea. We used the bread to dip in the oil, and use for the spread. (from Olive House Mykonos)
- A bread shaped in a ring and coated in sesame seeds, somewhat a Greek version of a pretzel
- Greek Coffee
- Custard flan, served warm and topped with cinnamon and icing sugar
- Dolmades, Goats Cheese, Fetta Cheese, Pastroumas, and Water Buffalo Pressed Meat platter
- Pork Souvlaki (from Hoocut)
- Deep Fried Donut Balls
Towards the end of the tour, as we headed to Hoocut for the souvlaki, we wandered through their farmers market, which had fresh fruit at such cheap prices, way cheaper than a supermarket, or Adelaide’s farmers market at Wayville. We also went through a fresh fish hall, and meat market. I didn’t see it, but Anthony saw an entire pigs face for sale, not the actual head, the face.
The food tour went for almost 4 hours, but it did not seem that long. At each location we spent time sitting down to eat and chatting about various things. Our guide was great, very friendly and interesting. I would definitely recommend this tour for Athens. Another great thing was that Anthony and the other participant are not fans of sweet foods, so I got extra donut balls and the custard flan!
Following the tour, it was almost 2pm. Anthony and I headed back towards the Plaka where we started yesterday, and once through there, we arrived at Hadrian’s Arch. The arch is not as significant in size as say the Arc Du Triumph or the one in Washington Square park in New York. We stopped for a quick photo.
About a 10 minute walk from here, we arrived at Panathenaic Stadium, it’s a stadium build for the 1896 Olympic Games, being the first of the modern olympics. These says the stadium is used for ceremonies and special events, like concerts. The cost to enter is €5 each, which is reasonable. We entered and walked up the steep staircase to the first level, and then continued to the very top once we were at the centre of the stadium. I first heard of this place when watching an episode of The Amazing Race, as the contestants had to perform one of their tasks here. Under the stairs is a small museum which houses the official posters for the last 100 years of Olympic Games events, as well as the Olympic torches for many of those events.
After leaving here, we walked around for a while, with no real destination, we wanted to get closer to an area where we could catch a taxi. We happened to pass by the Presidental Palace opposite the National Gardens. We made our way back towards the Plaka, and caught a taxi back to the hotel. This time, it was €18, and we are sure the driver was ripping us off, because usually it is closer to €6-€11. It may be that it did take a little longer which we didn’t notice, or he added extra to the total. They don’t have visible meters in the car like other cities, so you have to go by what they say.
Once back at the hotel, we went to the pool area for a drink and a little more sun. No matter how much sunscreen Anthony uses, he’s still getting very red. Where I am just getting darker with no real burn or redness. He think it’s because of the Irish and Dutch in him which causes him to burn and not tan.
We had dinner at the hotel again tonight, we’re both tired from the lack of sleep for the last couple of nights. We also have to pack ready for our departure tomorrow, we fly off to Budapest. It’s a late afternoon flight, so hopefully even if we don’t get a good sleep, we can at least lay in for a while.
tomothy travels 