Let's Greece 🇬🇷

Oh yeah, let's Greeceeee!! I went on a long-awaited trip to Greece this summer and had the best time of my life. Let me walk you through the splendid time we had, the food we tried, bars, nightlife and more.

We stayed in 3 places, Athens, Santorini(my favourite) and Mykonos on our 10-day long trip. I will take you through our experience in Athens in this post and the rest will follow.

Greece was pretty much my wife, Disha’s dream destination and I had no clue about Greece except for its historical importance and the Acropolis. One fine afternoon, I checked the tickets to Athens and told her it was now or never :). We were so elated that we booked the tickets, and we will be going to Greece in... 6 months :(

Even though the wait was longer, we stayed focused on fitness and did a whole lot of shopping. After a few hiccups with the VISA process, we included Germany also to our list and everything was set.

After a long wait, it was July 28th, the day to start our spectacular vacation. Took the train from Union Station, Downtown Toronto to YYZ airport which was a short 20-minute ride. I flexed my AMEX Aeroplan reserve card by going through priority security and taking Disha to the Air Canada Lounge. We thoroughly enjoyed the spread, and had some glazed chicken, sliders and some delicious beer.

Time to board, got in time, again had priority boarding, all thanks to AMEX Aeroplan card, seated and ready to fly. It was a not-so-great flight journey, took about 9 and half hours to land, but took a whole 1 hour to get to the gate. We arranged the pick-up prior, so once we completed the immigration, went straight to the car and off to the city.

I was so impressed at the scenery from the airport and there was one point where we could see the packed city from atop. It was a breathtaking view which got better and better over our stay in Greece. Our driver kept giving us a lot of tips on what to do, and where to eat. We reached our place after a 45-minute ride and the moment I got out, that’s when I realized the burning, intense heat. Oh my God, it was sunny as f**k, around 38 degrees Celsius.

We booked a cute little Airbnb in Plaka, close to the city center and Monastiraki Square. The host walked us through the property and I must say it was so much better than what we were expecting

We were so hungry but did not want to fill up too much, so walked a bit to find a cute little cafe “THIRD PLACE”. Had my first Greek espresso, a Freddo cappuccino with a chocolate pastry. We thoroughly enjoyed the dark and flavourful coffee. I am one of those who has no trouble sleeping even after drinking a strong coffee. We headed to our Airbnb for a quick nap.

Once we got ready, we found a couple of spots to try their famous gyro and souvlaki. The best spot that everyone recommended was closed, so we tried another option called “Bouloukos Kebab”. We tried their chicken and pork gyro, it was so amazing and juicy. I fell in love with the sauce(I believe Tzatziki sauce) and pita. We had our hearts full, and I went on to pay with my Wise card.

For payments, instead of carrying a lot of cash, or using a home credit card with steep forex rates, we found using Wise to be streamlined and safe as well. We loaded about 2000 euros in Wise VISA card, so I assumed it should work in 99% of the shops accepting a card. When I tried, it didn’t go through, tried again and the result was the same. I carried some cash anyway so paid them in cash and went toward the Monastiraki square. I was a bit scared that the Wise card did not work, it worked in the cafe earlier, but I was completely unsure why. This caused a lot of stress for us, as we did not carry enough cash and we already had 2000 euros loaded in it.

With all this, we went to an electronic store to buy a converter for the Dyson hair dryer, which we later realized did not work. What worked however was the Wise Visa.

We went back to our place and got ready for our rooftop reservation at the Attic restaurant. The view was breathtaking, it had a majestic view of the Acropolis and the city. Ordered a couple of drinks and a pita board, which was amazing as usual, keeping true to the trend. We took a lot of photos of the stunning day view and waited a bit longer until sundown for a stupendous night view.

The Attic - Rooftop restaurant

This was already an amazing evening, but we still had another place to go, which was called “Baba Au Rum” which you can guess from the name, specializes in rum cocktails. The menu was so elaborate, and we were tipsy, which made it even more difficult to order. After a lot of reading and deciding, we started with Spicy Baba and Guadeloupe tiki punch drinks. I loved the drinks so much, it was rich, flavourful and a whole lot of rum.

We also ordered some subpar food, but as for the drinks, it was very good, making us order another drink.

Very drunk and in dire need of some sleep, we headed back to our Airbnb along the well-lit beautiful streets of Athens. Found a pizza-by-the-slice shop called “Sinner’s Pizza”, which I did not want to miss out on. We tried their “Pepperoni” pizza which was cheesy and all the gluten goodness.

We called it a night and got to our room, to get some rest for an interesting next day to the Acropolis.

Day 2

Woke up early, made some coffee and got ready to visit the Acropolis. We wanted to get there early to avoid the morning rush and be there around 8:30. We got the normal passes prior, saving us some time.

To our surprise, it was full around 8:45 AM, with long queues lining up just to enter, however, the line moved pretty quickly and we were inside the premises in 20 minutes. It was again a 20-minute crawl(no walking as it was packed) to enter the Acropolis.

It was a visual treat, we took a ton of shots and headed back to our Airbnb, drenched, dehydrated and hungry.

We crossed a beautiful yet bizarre-looking restaurant called Little Kook or Kookland.

On our way, we found a popular breakfast spot which was not so crowded, got us two coffees and ordered a chicken club sandwich and Kagiana. The food was spectacular and so fatty ( and that’s why it was spectacular).

Had our hearts full and went back to have a short nap before heading out again at 4:00. We had pre-booked the museum tickets at 5:00 so we had about an hour’s time to have a quick lunch. I so wanted to try the gyro and Greek salad again so went to a famous place called, O’Thanasis which served some of the juiciest kebabs and gyro. I had major FOMO so we ended up ordering more than we could handle with 1 kebab with 2 Pita and Chicken Gyro with some tzatziki sauce. Again had a minor issue with the card payment, then found out that some card machines have the issue of not accepting Wise cards, not a problem with the card itself.

We walked another 20 minutes to the museum, and like a portal, we were taken back thousands of years, witnessing the lives and tools used by ancient Greeks. It was a fascinating tour that took us through time starting from BC to early AD. The sculptures and the excavation site were unreal. Here are some of the photos that we took inside.

The agenda for the evening was to pub hop and get ourselves mildly drunk, so started out to find a nice cozy place with some amazing cocktails. Moved to another pub, had another drink and chilled for another 2 hours before calling it a day. We then walked back to find a long queue in front of the Lukumades which is donut balls with honey or toppings of your choice. We got the cinnamon and honey which was pretty good satisfying the sugar cravings. Went back to our Airbnb and packed all of the items as we had an early flight to catch.

The driver was on time at 4:00 AM in the morning and drove us to the airport. The flight was on schedule and we checked in and had a chicken sandwich with a coffee. It was time, next stop - SANTORINI :)

Quick Tips and Links

Cash/Card	Wise Visa card	Best way to carry money, with the best exchange rates.
Airbnb Stay	Plaka Filotheis Condominiums	A very good place for two and an even better host
Cab to Airport	40 Euro	Buses in Athens are punctual
Average Cost of a Cocktail	10-13 Euro	They give you free mixed nuts with every drink :)
Things to carry	Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, small towel, charging adapter, water	Carry some emergency cash
Tipping	5% - Average service 10% - Exceptional	Unlike North America, tipping culture is not predominant and 10% is on the higher side.