For our honeymoon, we decided to head to the beach directly south of Athens, Greece for some sun and delicious food. It did not disappoint. Most of the time, we stayed on the resort; however, we did venture into Athens for one day and wanted to capture a couple memories.
The Athens Riviera itself is incredibly beautiful – we’re located near the Astir Palace beach, which is situated alongside the Aegean and houses a variety of super- and mega-yachts (one of which was throwing an incredible party with a live DJ set we could hear from shore!).
Yesterday, we decided to venture into Athens itself to see a couple sites. We started with the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, which was fabulous and included a variety of ethnographic, artistic and historical pieces from across Greece and Asia Minor. The collection was phenomenal, including some fascinating pieces like a covered “newlywed” bed, beautiful clothes from across the Greek peninsula and incredible artwork from the Byzantine period.
We then migrated over to the Byzantine & Christian Museum, which had a similarly impressive collection of artifacts, including a variety of early Christian, Coptic, Byzantine and more modern works of art (as well as ethnographic items, such as lamps, statutes, etc.). Especially compelling was the collection of cloth, including needlework and tapestries from the early Byzantine period (~500-800 AD). Be warned: online it appears that this is part of the Benaki collection, but the tickets are not included if you get the 5-museum pass. We learned this the hard way after purchasing the 5-museum pass and realizing it was only good for 2 of the museums we wanted to see throughout the day.
Then, we started the real “touristy” part of our venture, heading towards downtown Athens and the Acropolis and the surrounding neighborhoods. Our first stop was the amusing Holy Church of Hagia Dynamis, which is amusingly located literally under a hotel’s awning, where the valet parking occurs.
Then, we walked a couple blocks more to the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, which is centered on a beautiful square.
Inside, it was unsurprisingly spectacular; there is also a small chapel to the side as well.
The church was situated next to the start of the Plaka neighborhood, which is recommended on all the blogs, so through we went. It was… honestly not someplace I’d recommend. Super touristy, all Americans acting a fool everywhere, very little culture or ambiance.
Of note was the “Oldest House in Athens” aka The Benizelos Mansion (House of Saint Philothei), which was lovely but a bit austere. It was in a similar Ottoman style to many of the homes I’d visited in Sarajevo, so certainly worth seeing if you wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to the culture, but perhaps not as exciting as some of the other extant options.
From there, we decided to cut our losses and head to something we knew would be great: souvlaki at Kosta. It did not disappoint – they offer pork, beef and chicken, and it’s all delicious and delightfully well priced.
From there, we meandered through the Psiri neighborhood to the next stop of the day: the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art. The Psiri neighborhood is similarly touristy, although this time in a more faux-bohemian kind of way.
That said, the museum did not disappoint.
Fascinatingly, they even had a “Transylvanian” carpet – i.e., one of the carpets I’d seen displayed in the fortified churches in Transylvania during my travels there last year; the Islamic communities had to fulfill their religious requirement to tithe, but in the absence of mosques in the area, provided gorgeous rugs to the local church as a proxy for their offering to God.
All of the displays were incredible, highlighting artifacts from across the Middle East and from across periods stretching from the 10th century to 18th century.
After the Islamic Art Museum, we wanted to take in some of the panoramic views of the city. Sadly, we hit major traffic as there was a soccer game, so it took us about 20 minutes to get to the bottom of Lycabettus Hill. We did catch a glimpse of the Acropolis, though.
Our ventures took a turn for the worse upon arrival. We tried to take the Funicular to the top of the hill (about a 3 minute ride), but of course had arrived just after the most recent trip and had to wait 28 minutes for the next shuttle. Then, once atop the mountain, there was extremely limited ability to see the Acropolis from above (SO MANY TOURISTS), so we settled for a snack at the top. Then, the heavens decided to unleash on us, with an outpouring of lightning and thunder. Overall, not the greatest experience, but certainly memorable. We had an ouzo while waiting for the next funicular down the hill (which smelled of fish, as the hilltop restaurant got a shipment on the way up!) and then spent the following hour in a taxi back to the resort.
Because the resort is located so far from Athens, it didn’t feel worth it to go in for another day; however, next time I’m in Greece I’d definitely stay at a hotel within the city and spend a bit more time actually wandering around / seeing more of the ancient history.
That being said, we’ve still tried to embrace Greek food culture where possible – one of the restaurants at the resort has made regulars of us, especially as they offer “Mezedes” aka, small share plates for trying. Apparently this is a tradition that has fallen out of practice, but they’re trying to revive. It’s allowed us to sample a variety of incredible dishes included:
- Dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with deliciously flavorful rice)
- A variety of traditional cheese spreads, including tzatziki, taramasalata, tirokafteri, etc.)
- Htapodi Ksydato, aka delicious marinated octopus
- Melizanosalata, aka smoky eggplant spread with walnuts
- Gavros marinatos, aka marinated anchovies
- More hearty dishes, including lamb hunkar (rich lamb curry), lobster orzo pasta, and of course, more gyros / souvlaki style meat, plus plenty of Greek salads
- Tsipouro, which is essentially the Greek version of the Cypriot “window washing fluid” – our waiter was joking that elders in Greece enjoyed their Tsipouro for multiple functions during COVID-19, including sipping it, chugging it to sterilize their bodies inside and out, and even washing their faces with it (not sure if he was kidding, but it would probably get the job done!)