Athens, Greece

I left Kuwait to fly to Bahrain, then from Bahrain to Athens. It was around 6:30 pm when I arrived in the city. Then it was onto the Athens metro to get to Syntagma Square which was the closest place to my hotel. Luckily, my hotel was easy to find. it was a straight shot down one road. I checked into my room and then I hit the road to find dinner and drinks somewhere.

Before I get farther though let me tell you about Greece. Don’t listen to the prices in the guide book, they have changed in the few months or year since publishing. You need a special metro ticket to or from the airport that costs 10 Euros. If you want something a little cheaper you can take the bus for 6Euros. There are a number of buses with the X9_ label that takes you to different places. They take a little longer but you get to see more of the city as you travel through it rather than under it.

As I walked down the street I could see the Acropolis Hill all lit up on my left. The roads on either side of my hotel were pedestrian streets. They had lots of shops and restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating. I found a place with wine and WiFi and had a seat outdoors. I had a traditional pasta dish and a glass of wine and a bottle of water. Dinner cost 15euros. After I wandered around for a bit before getting back to the hotel around 11 pm.

I usually saved a lot of money by eating a large (free) breakfast at the hotel, usually a little late (9:30 am). Then I have a second large meal around 3 as both lunch and dinner. This meal I usually budgeted about 20euros for meals and drinks. There were many places where you could find a meal for much cheaper though. There were places with 3Euro sandwiches and the bakeries had cheap options for eating. I also paid attention to the price of water (.5E for a small and 1E for a large) and would move on from kiosks that have other things.

In the morning I went for a walk at 8 am to find the post office. The sign said it opened at 7:30 am. So I went back to the hotel and had a quick breakfast. Then I took my large suitcase full of things I didn’t need in Kuwait anymore to the post office to ship home. In Kuwait it would have cost me about 1000$-1500$ to ship the one 17KG (40lbs) suitcase home. That was ridiculous. In Greece, the suitcase cost me 105Euros.

The ladies at the post office thought I was crazy for wanting to ship my suitcase. We had one hell of a hard time trying to understand each other. I had to walk up the road to a book store and buy brown packaging paper to wrap the suitcase in. I couldn’t find what I needed but the back of the wrapping paper the store sold was just what I needed. Then I needed packing tape because the post office didn’t have any…. So I went back out and bought some. Then it was wrapped, weighed, and ready to ship. Off to Canada, it goes.

I was mailing the suitcase to my mom and used her name but couldn’t ship it to her address because I needed a street address and she has a PO Box. So I used her name at my Grandma’s address. I don’t know if she can pick it up when the address and her ID will be different. Oh well, I’m sure they will figure it out. Maybe I’ll be lucky and the Post Office will deliver it to the door of Grandma’s house and not keep it as a parcel at the Post Office.

After that, I felt so light, both in wallet and physical weight. I began my journey through the streets of Athens to see if I could find my way up to the top of the Acropolis hill. I made my way up eventually. Things are currently open from 8 am to 3 pm. So I recommend getting an early start if you want to fit all of Athens into one day.

By the time I got up to the ticket gates of the Acropolis, the line was over an hour long. So I waited. When I got to the front you could buy a ticket for the Acropolis for 20E or you could get a ticket for 30Euros that lasted for 5 days and allowed you entry to 5 other sights. You need to be sure that you are going to visit those sights and also that they are currently open. A number of ruins in Athens were closed in February due to lack of funding. Now you can only stand outside the gates and take pictures in places like the Roman Agora.

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By the time I had my ticket and was in the gate it was about 11:30. I wandered all around the Acropolis sight and made it to a secondary entrance at the bottom of the other side of the hill. I tried to find the entrance to the Ancient Agora but couldn’t find it so I stopped for lunch by the closed Roman Agora. Near where I was eating there was a man playing the accordion, it added nicely to the atmosphere. After lunch, I kept walking around and found the entrance to the Ancient Agora but it was 2:50 pm and they were escorting people out to close at 3 pm. So I wandered around the fence to see what I could see.

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After that, I wandered around the area to see what was in the area. Lots of shops and small museums that were all closed for the day. Your best bet in Athens is to start early. Have a siesta around 4 pm and then go out again at night when the atmosphere has changed. There are many places that will pull you in with free drinks or other offers. You can also look for a hostel that has an event each night like bar hops or wine tasting.

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I went back to the hotel for a siesta and to organize what I was going to do the next day. I was looking at taking the public bus up to Delphi (16E each way and a 12E entrance for the site and museum). There was also the cost of getting to the bus station (by taxi if you want to get the first bus). In the end, I found a day tour through Viator for 120$US that included everything including lunch in Delphi. Shortly after I filled in my info I got a call at my hotel from the tour operator. They were telling me where the bus pickups were or I could walk to their office a couple of blocks up).

After getting my next day organized I rested in the hotel room for a bit before heading back out to see what was happening in my area that night. Then it was early to bed for my early morning bus to Delphi.

After Santorini

Once I was back in Athens at 9 am, I decided to take the bus into Syntagma Square. It was only about 20 minutes extra but was only 5Euros and not 10Euros. It also drove through the city rather than below it and I was able to see quite a lot of Athens.

I took my bags and was able to find the hotel. It’s was only 10:30 though and not close to check out time, so my room was not ready. I was planning to leave my bags at the hotel and go for a walk to find breakfast/lunch when the lady at the desk made a room change so I could go directly to my room. This was nice because I was ready to have a rest.

After getting into the room I freshened up and then hit the road to head into the Monastiraki Flea Market. This is mostly shops with local craft items; olive oils, soaps, olives, spices. There are also tourist shops and other general shops. I took the afternoon to get myself lost in the streets.

Eventually, I had wandered most of the streets and decided to follow one to see where I would come out. It ended on one of the main roads, a bit farther down than I was expecting. It worked out well though because it came out across the road from the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Zeus. I was able to spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around the ruins.

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I decided that I wanted to find a curry place for dinner. It turned out that just down one of the side streets near the hotel was a few places to choose from. I pick a place that had a small outdoor seating area and enjoyed a spicy dinner. The only thing I hate (but am used to from Kuwait) is that smoking outside happens, admittedly a lot less than Kuwait but still enough to irritate.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel. Spent a bit of time packing my bags and some time on the internet before it was off to bed.

Day 8 – Back to Kuwait

For my last day in Athens, I had a lazy morning. I took advantage of the nice buffet style breakfast. Then I had a long pre-travel shower. I put off to check out a bit because I knew I would have to wander around the city for a few hours.

My bags stayed at the hotel when I checked out and went to the Flea Market area. I bought the last of the touristy items that I planned on giving to friends and family when I eventually make it back to Canada.

Lunch was late and on a small side street just to take in the atmosphere of Athens and Greece one more time. I had my last glass of wine before I headed back to Kuwait, the land of illegal alcohol.

After I went back to the hotel to get my bags. I packed the new items I bought and changed into my travel clothes. Travel clothes add layers to both lighten the suitcase and to provide comfort if the airplane is unbearably cold. Then I caught the bus to the airport.

I checked in and headed to the seats with plugins to use the bad wifi until my flight. Waiting in the departure lounge I saw a co-worker of mine. We were both headed back to Kuwait before work on Sunday. We chatted until we boarded the plane.

When we transferred in Bahrain it was almost midnight and the airport was quite empty. No lines at the security points, not many people in the departures area.

When we finally made it to Kuwait it was just after two in the morning. Areas of the airport were under construction. There were only 3 people taking non-GCC passport, which is 90% of the people. The line was this long snaking thing and there were at least 2 planes full of people in front of us. I passed customs back into Kuwait around 3 am. Then it was off to get an expensive taxi to go back home.

I say expensive taxi because the airport taxis are the only taxis run by Kuwaiti people. They have a set price depending on where you are going. To my home, it is 8KD or 35$CA. A taxi from my house to the airport is 3-5KD depending on the driver and how you haggle, or 14-20$CA.