Wednesday 3 December 2014

Trip to Athens – part 1

When I got to know the destination of my Erasmus, I was sure I would visit Athens at some point. I think it would have been stupid not to go there because it is so easily reached from Thessaloniki by a train, a bus or an airplane. Besides, Greece is famous for its long history, which is well show-cased in Athens. These are the reasons why I went to Athens at the end of November. Of course, one reason is that I like traveling and discovering new places! 




The trip started with an early wake-up in order to get to the airport on time. I'd say I was there way too early, but I didn't mind waiting. It's always better to be at airports early, as you can't know how busy it's there beforehand. This time I flew with Aegean Air, which was my first time with this company. I was pleased with their service! Even though the flight was very short, they offered candy, quite large a biscuit and something to drink. Over all, I was positively surprised how easy it was to travel with only a hand luggage.

After arriving to Athens, I had some spare time there because my mom's flight arrived about 3 hours later than mine. It was a perfect time to find a tourist information desk, which wasn't very easy to find actually. The signs could be clearer at the airport! 





When my mom finally arrived to Athens, I was happy to see her – it had been two months since the last time! We headed straight to the center of Athens by an airport bus number X95. It took over an hour to reach the destination – Syntagma Square, but at least it was possible to see some of the city while traveling. I'm sure most of the people would have taken a bus, a metro or something similar to find their hotel after arriving to Syntagma Square, but we didn't. I had a map and I knew, where the hotel was situated, so we decided to walk there. It was only about 2.5 km, so walk-able.

We stayed at Pergamos Hotel Athens, a 2-star hotel. I believe this hotel delivered the quality, which you can expect based on the location and the price. I will write more about the hotel later on.





Quite soon after arriving to the hotel, we started to hunt for a good restaurant. We ended up eating at pretty much the first proper restaurant we saw next to the Ermou street, because of being rather hungry.  The food wasn't anything that flavorsome, except a Greek salad, which was good.

On the same day we didn't do much else. We walked around a bit, trying to find a super market without being successful with the search. We ended up buying some water from a kiosk, and drinking some coffee at a nice café before heading back to the hotel. It was nice to sleep after a day full of traveling and walking! 




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