Staying In Athens, Greece 2022

When people think of travelling to Greece, they normally think of the Greek Islands. The blue roofed houses, large drawn out arch ways of the buildings, cobblestoned roads, crystal blue waters and beautiful green lush gardens. This is how I have always pictured Greece as well, however as our lives have changed and our travelling style with it. We got to see a side of Greece that may not look as beautiful in a picture, but will forever make me smile when I think back to it.

We were supposed to stay in Athens for 4 weeks, however due to VISA issues we had to cut our stay short by a week. To be honest, we were not disappointed by this. Athens is loud, smelly and busy. The buildings (depending on the area) are a bit more run down, grey and dirty. There are a large number of parks and squares to walk around or sit in to enjoy the green space. If you plan on going to Athens to do sightseeing you will only need 3 days or 4 days max (if you want a hangover or weather cautious day).

We stayed on Koumoundourou road, close to Omonia Square. This area is about a 10 - 15 minute walk to any of the major sites or tourist districts. This road and square are both listed in the top 20 roughest parts of Athens. Omonia Square we found a lot of people selling drugs and just acting a bit sketchy, we just made sure we were aware of our surroundings in these areas. We got the full experience homeless ness in Athens on our road. People sleeping on our doorstep and doing drugs in front of us on a nightly basis. We also had to step over people a few times, while they slept in our doorway at night (which is a really uncomfortable feeling). From our 6th floor balcony we watched drug deals go down, a couple of fights break out and the police make a few arrests. Photo Credit: V.Gray The chaos would clear up during the day, however once 4 o'clock hit it was best to keep your wits about you when you went out.

Our AirBnB was listed as a "Pent House on the 6th floor" of the apartment building ( https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/40667922? source_impression_id=p3_1643992277_6gBLJNiZtBe9X7qo ).

However a pent house is not the best description of this apartment at all. It is a one bedroom apartment with a living room, a decent sized kitchen, closed in porch area and 2 balconies (1 off the closed in porch and 1 off of the bedroom). It is nicely furnished with a mix of modern art and classic furniture. It did have a smell of smoke and you can only use two appliances at a time (hot water and kettle, stove and a/c, heat and kettle etc) or else you will pop a breaker, not a big deal but slightly inconvenient. Honestly this place is in a good location if you want to be around local food but because of the atmosphere outside and what was going on we did not venture out at night often.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

I would highly recommend to anyone looking at booking a long term stay in Athens, to do the research on the neighbourhoods prior to booking and really listen to the reviews online. We read there was homeless ness in this area, the reviews all put a positive spin on it and really downplayed how bad it was.

We found a My Market and nice bakeries about a 10 minute walk from our place in Omonia Square. However this time we did not end up finding a well priced local shop for fruits and vegetables so we did all our shopping at the My Market. There are a lot of local restaurants in the area selling souvlaki and gyros to find any other sort of style of food you have to walk into the tourist areas (which does tend to be more expensive).

There are lots of sights to see in Athens and you can purchase different tour packages starting at 29 euros a person and going up to over 60 euros a person. Then there is the hop on/hop off bus as well but traffic is pretty busy and we found walking throughout the city a lot more enjoyable. There are many squares with statues and fountains and beautiful neighbourhoods, while also finding the occasional bar to stop in for a beverage. It is very pretty and worth spending the time walking.

The cost ranges between 8 - 10 euros per tourist site to go into; The Tower of Wind, The Acropolis, Hadrian's Library, Panathenaic Stadium, Olympieion - Temple of Olympian Zeus etc. We had a map (that we picked up at the airport for free) so each weekend we would pick a different area to walk through or sites we wanted to go see.

Paying to go into each of these sites can add up quickly. You get closer to the attraction however you do not get to walk through most of them. It is really just a path a little bit closer to the site, you still have a fence or rope between you and the site.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We saved a lot of money by picking 2 or 3 sites that we wanted to go into, the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, getting closer to them and seeing them first hand. The rest of the site we walked around by the fence and saw from above, looking into the ground and still seeing a majority of the attraction. One excursion I highly recommend you do while in Athen is to have drinks or dinner on a roof top bar to watch the sunset over the Acropolis. You will pay a bit more for this, nevertheless it was worth it. The view is extraordinary and people watching from above is hysterical.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

Living in Athens was a different experience for us, seeing sides of the big city that we knew existed but back home we do not see. Going from Saronida as a small beautiful coastal town to Athens, a big city. Both are beautiful in different ways, offering different activities and polar opposite ways to experience Greece. We can now happily check Greece off our bucket list. If we do decide to return to Greece, it would be to see friends or go to the islands.

Cheers!

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray **