It all comes out at night

Having no clue what Athens' layout was going to be like, we booked our accommodations based on 3 criteria:

1. price
2. proximity to major attractions
3. travelers' ratings/reviews

$41CAD/night just couldn't be beat, people had written they'd had nice stays, and it was only 2.5km to the Acropolis ("I can walk that far!"). Hotel Aristoteles it was.


It wasn't until after we'd booked the place that we bought our copy of The Lonely Planet and did any research on the different areas of Athens.

    "Where are we staying?"
    "Hotel Aristoteles."
    "What part of the city is that in?"
    "Uhhh, it says...Omonia, why?"
    "Uh-oh."

From the Lonely Planet Guide Book:

The area of Athens that makes up Omonia is known for its pickpockets, prostitutes, and drug-users. Women should avoid walking here alone at night.

Our flight arrived in Athens at 8:45pm. The bus ride into the city was an hour long. Shit. On top of that, we weren't even quite sure of the way from the bus stop to the hotel.

Off the bus, we got directions from a lovely girl at Costa Coffee ("If you take metro--10 minutes. If you use your legs--30 minutes.") and got as close as possible by subway. We were ejected into Omonia Square and from there, it was going to be pounding the pavement along the side streets.

Obviously massive travel backpacks on our back, obviously tourist maps in hand, and obviously the only East Asian females around for miles, we dove right into the thick of it.

Winding through the unfamiliar streets, the walk probably felt longer than it was. Whether it was me being the over-optimist that I am, or whether or not it was the truth, or whether or not I was too busy concentrating on getting to our destination, I didn't notice prostitutes nor drug-users on our route, and my pockets were definitely not picked. All the men on the street did seem slightly shady to me, but I wrote that off to not yet being comfortable in the foreign country. I did notice the Police station and the number of cops loitering outside on one of the street corners we passed ("See? It can't be THAT dangerous.").

20 minutes later, we'd made it safe and sound. We even ventured out again and back for that awesome first-night dinner. Sure, there was an overall feeling of shadiness to the area, but I was fairly convinced that the Lonely Planet's description was just to over-prepare newcomers and the more pooh-pooh type for the dark atmosphere. For me, after a night's worth of accidental exploration, Omonia wasn't so bad. The next morning, the streets were even bright and bustling with activity.

And then it was night again.

Night #2 in Omonia, all the shadiness came out of the woodwork. More familiar by now with our neighbourhood, we took the main streets to get around. One street north of the police station, we nudged each other, chin-pointing towards a group of women on the corner.

    "Hey, are those...?"
    "H-O-O-K-E-R-S?"
    "Yeah."
    "Yeah."

One street south of the police station, a group huddled urgently into a small doorway. I didn't see much, but that little was more than enough. I saw a little bit of arm, a little bit of syringe, and a little bit of plunge.

    "Did you see...?"
    "Yeah."
    "And did he just...?"
    "Yeah.

The next corner, a man brought something to this nose and snorted. Across the street, a man on a motorcycle slowed to admire the merchandise of women.

By the time our stay was up, we grew familiar enough with Omonia to know which nooks held the drug users, which side of the street had the African selection of H-O-O-K-E-R-S and which had Caucasian. We even grew familiar with the sight of the man in the matching tracksuit, zigzagging back and forth across the street, checking on his inventory.

Well, at least we didn't get pickpocketed. And hey, it's all part of the adventure. :)

Athens:1, Legs:0

We arrived in Athens late last night and after a deliciously simple dinner...


(authentic Grecian Tzatziki has changed my life; the Danforth will never be the same to me again) we came back to our hotel and I crashed hard...

"You fell asleep right away, huh?"
"Yeah. Did I snore?"
"Yeah..."

...but awoke the next morning ready to conquer the world. And we might as well have.

After breakfast down in the hotel
tavern (so simple and yet satisfying--and the COFFEE...!) we headed out on foot.

Jumping out of the metro (yes, it's also spelled "metPo" in Greek) at the Acropolis stop, we spent the early morning hours strolling the 5000(?) year old site. I was totally awed
by the architecture and carvings. I'd always heard of and learned of the ancient mythologies, but there I was, STANDING on the site!






I gotta say too: thank goodness for zoom lenses. Used it both to take superbly close-up pictures, and I could also inspect the otherwise detailed but too far away fresco carvings.




So we climbed up to the Acropolis and walked the entire site, circling each building at least once. Then we climbed back down (gawking at the crowds flocking up for the late morning shift). Just a short walk away, there was a random mini-mountain of rock.

"I want to climb that!"


And so we did.

We climbed the slippery rock to reach the top for an amazing view of the Acropolis and the surrounding views of Athens. Wow.



From there, we could spot several other churches, ginormous buildings, and another, real mountain.

"I want to climb that!"


And so we did.

But not until after walking to visit the site of the Olympic Temple of Zeus and walking to visit the Panathletic Stadium.


Finally, we wound our way through the streets of Athens towards our mountaintop goal. Without a map, we kept ourselves on track by making sure we were always heading uphill.

Oh man.

So it was uphill past (what we think was) the Prime Minister's house, uphill through the Yorkville-area of the city, uphill through some very narrow residential streets, and up some very steep stairways. Finally we reached...the bottom of the mountain.

Bottom?! All that uphill and we were only at the BOTTOM?!

Yup. And so our climb began. And it kept going and going and going. It was exhausting. But the views at the top--spectacular. When we reached the top, I forgot what all the complaining was about.



The landscape sprawling beneath us was breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking.

After we'd rested up and had taken in enough of the Athens cityscape from above, we headed over to pay for the cable car ride down (for the record, we didn't know there had been a cable car to begin with). Turns out the car wasn't leaving for another half an hour--so we walked down.

Once we were off the mountain (Lycabettus was its name, by the way), we started to make our way back to the city--on foot, of course. Along the way somewhere, we decided to hop on the Metro to see the port area of Piraeus.

Um, besides the street sellers and behemoth ferries (because there were no beaches or views to be had), it was fairly a bust. We spent 1.5 hours walking around trying to find some cruise agency to book a day on the water. Finally, a little store owner took pity on us and called the agency from his own phone and let us speak to them.

&nbsp &nbsp "Where is your office?"
&nbsp &nbsp "Behind."
&nbsp &nbsp "I'm sorry?"
&nbsp &nbsp "Behind three blocks."
&nbsp &nbsp "Behind what?"
&nbsp &nbsp "Three blocks behind."
&nbsp &nbsp "Three blocks behind what?!"
&nbsp &nbsp "Behind."
&nbsp &nbsp (oh geez)

By this time we found the right office, our feet burned...and we didn't even book the day on the water anyway. Instead, we walked back to the station and headed towards our hood on a restaurant recommendation from our Lonely Planet book.

Score.

The station we got out at deposited us into a square and adjoining flea market. My fave.





Starving, we cut our strolling short to eat dinner at Savvas. Y.U.M. But starving as we were, we couldn't even finish our plates.


On our walk back to the station, we caught a glimpse of something fantastic.


Wow. The Acropolis by night.

The rest of the night in a sentence: walk, walk, walk, pass-out, walk, coffee, walk, creepy TV, sleep.

It was the return of my angry legs, but it was worth every step.