Aegina

This post is not titled Hydra because the ferry to Hydra was sold out! After a momentary panic at the pier – our hotel assured us that it wouldn’t be an issue to get a ticket the day-of – we re-grouped and decided to catch a ferry to Aegina, another island nearby. Turns out this island is much closer but offers pretty similar attractions so neither of us were all that disappointed. We walked onto the ferry with two minutes to spare and headed out to sea.

Pulling out of Piraeus, the harbor in Athens…

…and into the port at Aegina an hour later.

The harbor in Aegina was very charming – there were rows and rows of boats bobbing in the water and numerous cafés lining the coast. We decided to grab a quick breakfast at Nisos, one of the busier places we saw. The coffees were good but the standout was Sarah’s order of Strapatsada, a mixture of eggs, tomatoes and sausage…I definitely had order-envy. After we ate, we walked around the harbor for an hour or so to take in the views.

Really nice day to be by the water!

Looking out past the harbor to the Aegean.

Once we’d watched a few fishermen pack up their boats and set sail, we headed inland a few blocks to see the rest of the town. We didn’t have much company as we strolled around the streets but that was fine with us!

The church we saw from our ferry when pulling into port. It was decorated with these flags for Easter.

All of the houses were painted bright colors but I think this one was Sarah’s favorite.

Walking back towards the water.

The main attraction on Aegina is the Temple of Aphaia, an isolated temple on the top of a hill dedicated to the goddess Aphaia. Interestingly, this is the only temple where the ancient Greeks worshiped her - seriously nowhere else.

The temple is about seven kilometers from port, all uphill; we decided it would be a better idea to take a cab rather than try to get there under our own power on a rental bike. This was definitely the right choice - not that we couldn’t have made it, but we would’ve been exhausted by the time we got to the top of the hill!

The Temple of Aphaia.

It was hard to capture both the views down to the water and the temple in a photograph – but once I stood on some rocks I was able to get a better perspective for this shot.

One more of the temple.

After we’d seen the temple we took our cab back down to the port to get some lunch. Greek salad and gyros again? Yes, please. We ate at a very leisurely pace, taking in the views of the harbor as the boats came and went. Before long though, it was time to get back on the ferry to Athens. We could’ve taken a later one, but we wanted to be back to see the sunset at the Acropolis rather than at Aegina.

Before boarding the ferry we had to stop to check out this beautiful little church in the harbor.

Our destination for the rest of the evening was A is for Athens. We’d seen this rooftop bar from the Acropolis so we thought the views looking up would be good. The service was terrible, it was overcrowded and the drinks were twice what they would’ve cost elsewhere…but it was all worth it for the views!

Fortunately we were able to get a seat on the edge of the roof that faced the Acropolis.

The Temple of Hephaestus was lit up as the sun set over the hills.

Dusk in Athens at the Acropolis – what a sight!

We woke up this morning to another day of perfect weather and figured a lazy stroll around the city would be a great way to spend our last few hours here. We wandered to Liondi for our last meal in Greece – mezzes and chicken souvlaki – before heading to the Temple of Zeus. There isn’t actually that much to see within the grounds of the Temple of Zeus (we kind of got the same experience walking by on Monday) but it was nice to sit around and people-watch for a little bit (some tourists take the most ridiculous photos!).

The Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis looming in the background.

We took a different route back to our hotel and stumbled upon the Academy of Athens, which might as well be a tourist attraction in itself.

The Academy of Athens.

We have a flight to Budapest tonight – on Ryanair, our first experience on this cheap but notoriously lousy airline – and are looking forward to exploring the city for the next couple days.

Athens

Our flight to Athens at 6am was super easy - I wish all our flights had been this painless! Well, navigating the airport was painless (because we were the ONLY departing international flight) but we were pretty tired from our early wake-up. We made it to our hotel, the Victory Inn, before 8am and (to our great surprise!) they were able to give us our room right away! So we both decided to take a nap before setting out to see Athens.

By the time we were both ready to re-start our day, both of us were starving so we headed to O Thalamis, the first restaurant we saw advertising Greek Salads and Gyros. And that’s exactly what we got. And it was delicious – so happy to be back in Greece!

After lunch we decided to walk off our big meal and explore some of the areas around the Acropolis. We couldn’t go inside because the park was closed – it was Orthodox Easter on Sunday so a lot of things were still closed on Monday – but we were just as happy to lazily stroll around all afternoon.

Strolling through the National Gardens.

The Zappeion, a building in the middle of the National Gardens.

Looking in at the Temple of Zeus…we’ll return another day when it’s open.

Halfway up the Acropolis, looking out on Athens.

Later in the afternoon, tired of walking, we settled at a café and sampled Ouzo, Greece’s version of Raki, before grabbing some Greek food to take back to our hotel. We never really woke up from our morning naps so we called it an early night in order to rest up for the rest of the week.

We woke up on Tuesday to sunny skies so we set out for Athens’ main tourist attraction: the Acropolis. It was pretty busy with other tourists but we really enjoyed walking around some of the oldest ruins we’ve seen so far on our trip!

View from the top – looking down on Athens from the Acropolis.

Got another couple to take our photo when there wasn’t a huge tour group blocking this great vantage point. (Then I returned the favor for about four other couples!)

It’s not the Parthenon, but this other temple dedicated to Athena is still very impressive.

After about an hour we walked down the hill to a nearby restaurant and had a relaxing couple hours munching on mezze plates and enjoying the view from our table.

Not a bad table for lunch!

Full of food – our light lunch turned out to be not-so-light! – we strolled over to Ancient Agora, a village at the base of the Acropolis. It had a lot of really well-preserved buildings that we spent an hour or so wandering through.

It’s not on a hill overlooking Athens, but the Temple of Hephaestus is in much better condition than the Parthenon!

A church in Agora.

Looking up at the dome inside the church.

We’ve seen a lot of columns since we’ve been here – reminds us of our elementary school lessons on Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles.

We took a break from the ruins for the rest of the afternoon. Sarah decided she needs some more cold-weather clothes for the rest of our time in Europe so we walked around the local shops in search of another sweater and some boots. Once I was tired of shopping (Sarah has endless energy for it!) we stopped at Heteroclito for a glass of wine then moved to Karamanlidika for dinner. Sarah found the latter on TripAdvisor and we were so happy that she did – the food was excellent, a must-do when in Greece!

Sarah whipped out the camera and caught this pigeon mid-flight in front of a church on our walk to dinner.

This morning it was a little cloudy so we decided to spend some time in Athens’ famous museums. We grabbed cappuccinos and headed for the new Acropolis Museum. This was only opened a few years ago so Sarah hadn’t seen it when she was here in 2010. It is a beautiful building located right on top of some ruins – but built in a way that didn’t disturb the ground layers – so when we weren’t looking at the ancient statues we could look through the glass floor at old building foundations. Definitely worth a visit to learn more about the Acropolis and see some of the statues that have been removed.

After the museum we headed to Falafellas for some street food. The falafels were great, and these guys added eggplant to their pitas…something we haven’t seen before with falafel, but definitely a solid addition! Sarah decided to do some more shopping because she didn’t find everything she needed yesterday so I headed back to our hotel for some rest – I came down with a little cold and wanted to try to nip it in the bud while it was still in its early stages.

We met up for dinner at I Kriti, but weren’t really impressed. Hard to compete with some of the excellent meals we’ve had in Athens so far! Tomorrow we’re taking a ferry to Hydra, a nearby island, to explore somewhere new. The weather forecast looks good so hopefully it’s smooth sailing!

Top Takeaways (Twenty One) - Turkey & Greece

Like the last time we came to Turkey and Greece, we are sad to leave! We didn’t get to do any proper island-hopping this time around so I know we will definitely come back at some point. Below are our top takeaways.

The magnificent Celsus Library in Ephesus, Turkey.

1. We love the food in this part of the world! Besides Japanese, Greek / Turkish is definitely one of the most unique and delicious cuisines we have enjoyed. Alex and I can always get down with a Greek salad, kebab or mezze platter washed down with a glass of Raki or Ouzo!

2. Sadly, the dishes we love so much are not as healthy as we remembered. The amount of olive oil used during our Turkish cooking class was scary and it was impossible to avoid massive portions of (admittedly delicious) bread served alongside every meal.

3. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, potentially the world’s oldest mall, is a fascinating place. We had fun wandering through the maze of shops (well, at least I had fun!) for a couple hours. I even made a few purchases...which always involves an interesting negotiation process on price. (Alex had more fun with that part I think!)

4. April still feels like winter in Turkey! We definitely expected warmer temperatures given our proximity to the Mediterranean but Turkey was just as cold as New York would be during this time of year. The weather improved as we moved into Greece, but it was still too cold to hit the beaches and islands we had been planning on visiting!

5. It’s easy to be awed by the historic ruins and artifacts scattered throughout both countries. Walking through the ancient town of Ephesus and exploring the Acropolis were definitely highlights of our trip.

6. Tea drinking is basically a required pastime in Turkey. The small, tulip-shaped glasses containing Turkish tea were easy to find during any time of day – on café tables, in restaurants and even on trays being delivered to shop-owners in the Grand Bazaar!

7. Both Turkey and Greece have locally produced wines – who knew? While darker and dryer than some of the wines we are used to, we definitely enjoyed being able to try something local besides Raki / Ouzo!

8. People are pretty friendly. While the language barrier was more difficult in Turkey than Greece, we had a pretty easy time getting around and everyone we spoke to was very helpful. Even the hawkers who tried to sell us trinkets or convince us to eat at a specific restaurant left us alone quickly after a simple “No thanks.” Many even told us to have a nice day (as opposed to some of the less friendly hawkers we ran into in India and Southeast Asia...).

9. Unemployment is bad - really bad - in Greece. Despite a 25% overall unemployment rate and a nearly 50% youth unemployment rate, we didn't notice many adverse impacts in Athens. There weren't any protesters or an abnormally large number of homeless people. We were prepared to see some effects of the country's perilous economic position given a nearing debt payment deadline but the touristy areas have largely been isolated from the rest of the country's woes.

10. Athens had WAY more tourists visiting than Istanbul. I think a lot of people still view Istanbul as an incrementally exotic destination, but we find them to be more similar. Didn't matter to us though - just meant we had a shorter wait for our kebabs than our gyros!

Peak: Ephesus (Turkey) and the Acropolis (Greece) - hard to decide which one we liked better!

Pit: Cold weather in Turkey - we weren't ready for temperatures in the 30s!

Next Stop: Budapest, Hungary