That’s one of the oldest cities in the world, and it’s named like that because of a bet that Zeus won over his brother Poseidon, and he inherited those lands afterwards. It’s an amazing metropolis, which tells all of its history through the most graceful monuments that still exist in the center of the city. Let’s tell you a little more about that place, and what we visited in that city of the gods.

Combo 7 Attractions

In our first day in the city, we visited the most searched touristic attractions, and getting to Ancient Agora, we checked to buy a combo to visit 07 attractions for 30 Euros (135 Reais), which are: the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Hadrian’s Library, the Kerameikos, the Roman Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Archeological Site of Lyceum. It’s due to expire until 5 days.

We’ll comment a little about the most interesting ones:

The Acropolis – That mount has a lot of temples, dedicated to many gods of that time, and the Parthenon is the biggest one and the most imposing, seen from all over the city, and it was dedicated to the goddess Athena, built in 447 B.C. The other temples are the Propylaea, which is the access gate, the Erectheion, temple of the gods of the field, the temple of Nike, winged goddess of victory, and there’s also a beautiful theater at the hillside of the mount, great place to take some pictures.

The Ancient Agora – At the entrance of the archeological site, following the path to the right, you can see some temples, and the main one is of Hephaestus, which is on a small hill and is well conserved and very beautiful. Whomever goes to the left of the park will find the Stoa of Attalos, a museum that has a lot of pieces found in the region. It was totally restored in 1950, sponsored by the family Rockefeller. That monument was built in 160 B.C.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus – There are few columns left, but they remind us about the magnitude of the temple that time, and it was dedicated to Zeus, as he was the king of the gods. It’s a huge area where can be seen a lot of diggings and has a lot of history to be told. It’s quite close to the main square of the city, named Syntagma, where you can find the access to the subway station.

National Garden

It’s located in the center of Athens, where we can see a lot of people riding, having a picnic, smoking their hookah, and tasting some delicious tangerines of the innumerous trees of the park. There’s also a small zoo, where you can see about 10 species of regional animals, another detail we thought it’s a great idea is the canals of water, which are spread through all of the land, irrigating a lot of trees, and the sound of running water makes you relax even more.

A great tip is to buy some candies before at Beneth bakery, which has thousands of options of sweets and savories for you to enjoy, I myself bought a lot of ones and I had to taste some ones of the other stores, once there are a lot of options, sweets with prices starting at 0.80 Euros.

Parliament and changing of the Guard

Whomever is close to Syntagma square and the National Garden will absolutely drop by the Parliament and come across the tomb of an unknown soldier and guards dressed in historical uniforms who keep vigil for the cenotaph, and we, lucky, got to the monument at the moment of changing of the guard. That’s when the soldiers make movements like slow motion, very funny and interesting at the same time, as it seems very hard to do that, we saw some guards trembling while making those movements, dressed in skirts and pom-poms on their shoes.

Beaches

Athens doesn’t only have the most beautiful monuments, but we also visited some beaches such as Floisvos Beach, Batis, Palaio Faliro and Edem, which are located between the marinas of Flisvos and Alimos. Beside the marina of Flisvos, there’s also the park Floisvos, where you can have a good time and enjoy a very beautiful lawn, a cafeteria, an amusement park for kids, and you can go there by tram, but get the subway first at Syntagma Square and get off at Neos Kosmos station, and then get the tram and the ticket costs 1.60 euros (7 reais) and is valid for 1h and 30 minutes.

Central Market, Athens Flea Market, Syntagma Square, Mary Poppins Street and Goodies

Those are some places for you to go for a walk, learn a lot about the local culture, and enjoy the day. Go there with time, see the lifestyle and the customs of the people from that city. Have a nice time and enjoy the moment.

At the Central Market, you’ll find spices, sale of meat, vegetables, and seafood. They speak loudly, talk among the tents, that’s crazy! At first, when you get into the area of meat, you think it’s weird, once they hang the entire skinless sheep by hooks, but it’s ok, it passes.

At Athens Flea Market, you’ll see a lot of tents selling fruits, such as strawberries, bananas, apples. It’s also a place with stores, restaurants, pubs and ice cream parlors, there’s even a Hard Rock Café.

Syntagma Square is the main one in the city, it has a subway station, a parliament, a street with designer stores, an environment with a huge flow of people, and it has a green area for resting and a central fountain.

Mary Poppins Street is a special landscape, it seems that you get into a movie. The place is all decorated, colored. They serve coffees, candies, ice cream, and it’s nice that people who work there dress up for it, it’s worthy to check it.

You’ll absolutely see, in the streets, some confectionery stores with delicious candies in the display window, and the smell is wonderful, when you pass in front of it, don’t help tasting them. We recommend to go to Beneth, one of the oldest ones, where there’s everything you need (lol, seriously). The prices start at 3 euros per candy.

Where to stay

We chose to stay in Airbnb, and we found a great location, only 2 kilometers far from the main touristic attractions such as the Parthenon, we stayed right in downtown, next to the stores, restaurants, touristic attractions and we had total attention from our host.

Here is our Airbnb link, where you can have a discount too!

https://abnb.me/e/goNilApbcU

Means of Transportation

The city has excellent public transportation, such as subways, trains, buses, and trams. There are also lots of taxis in the streets. They’re usually effective and safe.

To go and come from the airport via subway, we paid a fixed price of 10 euros (45 reais), because it’s very far from the downtown, and it would be much more expensive by taxi. We also used a tram as mentioned in the topic about beaches, we paid for the ticket at an ATM, with a credit card, but it also accepts currencies. The system of tickets in the city are integrated (you can use all of the means of public transportation), except the route of the airport, and it’s valid for one hour and a half from its printing.

To make it easier, here’s the access link to the means of transportation of Athens, with routes, lines, hours and prices: https://www.ametro.gr/

Safety of the city

We thought it’s very safe during the time we stayed there. We saw some cops in the streets, and guards in all of the touristic attractions. We walked a lot through all over the city during the daytime and it was very peaceful, the people are super friendly and helpful.

Travel Insurance

For you to travel in peace, it’s important to have a travel insurance which keeps you safe and has a comprehensive coverage. We always ensure with April Brasil Seguro Viagem, which covers all around the world, it has an app that is easy to access, for you not to keep all that paperwork when you need to use it, the best part, you can access it from everywhere in the world with service in our language.

So, don’t waste time and hire something safe, and we have a discount coupon, we’ll leave the link below too! Run and use it.

DISCOUNT COUPON: COUTRIPS10%

https://www.aprilbrasil.com.br/coutrips

Internet for your trip

To keep your connection during all the trip, you need a great SIM card, with a worldwide coverage, internet 3G and 4G. For that, we used Easysim4u, the best internet SIM card in the world for your trip. And see that we have been through some countries and we always had the coverage of the plans of Easysim4u. Don’t waste time, run and hire your SIM card for your next trip.

Here’s the link for you to access and ensure your connection to the internet in the world.

https://www.easysim4u.com/?sourceCode=coutrips

Kind of currency

The local currency of Greece is Euro, in the exchange in dollar for April/2019 is $1.00 to 0.90 Euros. We recommend to exchange the currency in a safe place such as an airport or at Exchange, a bank in the city. It’s always good to have the local currency.

Expenses in Athens

Our expenses in currency (REAIS) in Athens during 6 days for the couple were the following:

Feeding: R$260.00 (market, candies)

Tours: R$245.00 (Combo 7attractions)

Transportation: R$407.00 (flight, bus, subway, tram)

Lodging: R$403.00 (Airbnb)

Visiting Athens was very interesting. It’s a huge city, but it can keep so precious monuments, it’s a pity that a lot of ones are damaged, but the archeologists, who still have a lot of work to finish their restorations, will absolutely make them much more beautiful. Walking through the streets of that city was very fine and surprising, we always found new places and saw the local culture. It was awesome to visit Athens and learn much more about the history of the gods!