Busy day in Athens

Busy day in Athens

Athens, Greece, Europe

Today was a busy day, but a really good day. I’m glad I decided to spend another day in Athens. This city is nicer than I remember it being. This morning was a bit of a rough start at Zeus Hostel. It was really cold last night and there was no heat in the room, so it was pretty uncomfortable to sleep in. I got up at 7:30am to get a sharp start to the day and was forced to have an ice cold shower. Being cold all night is not fun. But then trying to warm up with a freezing cold shower is even less fun.

I packed up my stuff and got the heck out of there as soon as I could. I made my way down the street to Elite Hotel which I booked last night and it was immediately better. It’s still nothing amazing, but for €18 per night, in the middle of a big city, you can only expect so much. This place allowed me to check in at 9:30am. I have my own bathroom (with hot water) and the wifi reaches my room on my computer, but not on my phone. That’s definite progress from Zeus Hostel!

I dropped my bags off in my new room and headed out for the day. I had read about a New Acropolis Museum that opened a few years ago, so I decided to check it out. It was pretty impressive. I spent about 2.5 hours in there just wandering around and checking out the view of the Acropolis and Parthenon from just below it.

I grabbed some chicken suvlaki just outside of the museum and then headed to the gardens surrounding the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was a beautiful day in the city, so it was nice to just wander through the gardens, people watch, and just enjoy the nice parts of the city I don’t remember seeing a few years ago. I started heading uphill to check out Likavittos Hill. It’s the tallest point in the city and you get an amazing view of the Acropolis, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the stadium, and the sea. It was a heck of a walk getting up there, so I stayed for about an hour before heading back down. I also realized when I got up there that I think I had already come up here before with my dad. The scenery looked very familiar, but that’s ok, it was a nice day for a walk anyway.

I hiked back down and made my way slowly back to my hotel. I needed to just rest my legs for a few minutes, so I went back and had a short siesta. I headed out to grab some dinner and realized that EVERYTHING is going to be shut here tomorrow for Easter. Including the bus company that I was hoping to get a lift from to go to Delphi. So that means I could either spend another night here tomorrow and head to Delphi on Monday morning, or leave here tonight, lose the money for the hostel Needless to say, I’m going to stay in Athens another night. I’m really okay with it because I don’t mind this city at all. It will be weird being in a city as religious as this for Easter. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, or better yet, what I’ll be able to do. It might be a good day to read a bit more of Harlan Coben and catch up on some movies I brought with me. Either way, I’m glad I gave Athens another shot. I’m enjoying it much more than I expected to.

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