Our First 24ish Hours in Athens

Our plane landed on Friday, around 10:30am, and after a quick 30 minute taxi ride to the city centre (35 euro) and our hotel, we settled in to our hotel and prepared for the day. Our hotel isn't bad; it is about what you would expect for a budget double-twin bedroom with it's own bathroom and AC.  One of the perks is actually that I have my own bed...and somehow, even in a tiny twin, I have more room there than in our queen bed at home ;)

We didn't stay in room too long, however, as we didn't want the jet lag to set in, so we left for lunch.  We were on our way to find a Sim card for our phone and found a tiny restaurant nearby, so stopped for some food.  As you can see, the portions were quite big, and neither of us finished our food, but it was good! (and I still don't have diarrhea).

We then grabbed a Sim card for the phone, took the "Athens Happy Train" for a quick tour around the city and up to the Acropolis.  The 12 euro for the train was not money well spent, as it wasn't that great.  There are many other tour buses available, and I'm sure any of the others would have been better.

At the Acropolis we paid the 12 euro each for our Acropolis pass, which also allowed us to enter many of the other sites in Athens.  The Acropolis is really quite cool.  There are some great stories and signage explaining not only what the ruins are/were, but also some of the back story of the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon, and their epic battle for the city of Athens...needless to say, the myth says Athena won (hence "Athens") and there are many tributes and monuments dedicated to her Deity.  The picture at the top of this post is from the top of Acropolis, some 400ft above sea level.

We finished walking the Acropolis, and Mars Hill (where Paul preached to the Greeks, above the Ancient Agora) and walked back down the grand hill to the base of the South Side of the Acropolis.  We walked down one of the streets towards the Plaka, and stopped in at the Acropolis Museum, a new museum built just in 2009.  It is a beautiful museum, costing 135 million euro to build.  It sits atop many ancient ruins, and has glass floors throughout so you can see the ancient streets below you.  The museum reflects the same shape of the Parthenon, and is even adorned with many of the ruins from it, having been cast, brought down, and re-imported from the British Museum.  It was about 7pm when we finished at the museum, so that meant time for dinner.

We walked down into the Plaka, the North-Eastern side of the Acropolis, found a great little cafe...which we believe Rick Steves has sat in many times during his Athens videos...from here, we wandered around the Plaka a little bit more, before heading back to our room, around 9pm.  We spent the next couple hours planning the next week, booking a flight, and reserving a car rental.

A great first day, jam packed with memories!