Arrival in Athens, Greece

It was finally time to leave Australia and I didn’t get off to a great start, dropping my boarding passes twice, but we made it through security and immigrations and all that was left to do was wait to board.

Soon we were up in the air on our way to Singapore. The flight was smooth and uneventful, as was our 3 hour stop over at the airport.

We found our boarding gate and hang there until we had to board again for our 11 hours flight to Athens. Even though it was a long flight a few movies in Danika was asleep and I was dozing.

Around 7.30am we finally arrive into a rainy and overcast Athens. The airport was easy to navigate and we got our first stamp in our passports! Whilst waiting for our luggage, my case came round first, so in my half zombie state I thought I would hang my duty free vodka bottle on the handle so I could help Danika with her case. SMASH! Right in the middle of Athens luggage terminal i smash a bottle of vodka I had carried from Australia and was so looking forward to opening. It smelt soooo good.

Bye Bye vodka.

On the taxi ride into the city of Athens, I passed out and left the navigating to Danika.

We got dropped outside of our hotel, checked in and went to our rooms. It was a nice cosy room with a small bathroom and a nice street view. And if you lent out over the balcony you could see the Acropolis to the left. Then heading up to the very top of the hotel was a rooftop balcony with an amazing view overlooking the whole Plaka area and the Acropolis is full view right in front. We were in Athens.

We decided on a quick 3 hour nap which was very welcome. Coming too, we hit the streets of Athens, wandering through the maze of markets making the Monastiraki Flea Markets.

After hearing about the problems that were occurring in Greece atm we were both a bit scared about being here and kept telling ourselves before we came that it was only one night before and after the tour we had to be in Athens.

I am so glad we had such low expectations because we couldn’t have been more wrong! Athens was beautiful. The beautiful streets filled with markets with blocks of ruins resting in between for you to explore while the Acropolis overlooked all that you did was just magical. Each stall we went in, the people were kind and courteous and the streets were clean and filled with history. Sure it was a touristy area and the shop items were repeatitive, butwe had a blast going from one to another. Then Danika found a shop that did cheap ear piercings so decided, whilst in Greece. Haha

 One of our greatest finds was a fruit stall selling fresh strawberries an cherries you could smell streets away. We couldn’t say no, so brought a kilo worth of each, a new bottle of Vodka and headed back to the Plaka hotel for a quick treat and toast to Greece.

We still had a few hours to kill and few clothes stores we wanted to check out so left the room to run into Brent and Richie from Melbourne who we had been chatting on the contiki forum. Turns out they were staying in the room next door and had arrived an hour ago. We had a quick chat as we headed down into the street and pointed them to the market street while we headed to the clothes stores.

A few hours later we had our purchases and I decided there were some ruins that i saw from the hotel rooftop that I wanted to see. I thought i had my bearings but as the street became less filled with tourist and more filled with broody men of mixed cultures with a spine tingling stare we figured we were not in the lovely area of Plaka anymore. Not wanting to end our trip before it had even started we kept our eye out for the Acropolis, and headed down the first street we could see it from! We made it out, had a laugh and walked back though the familiar settings of Monastiraki before heading back to the hotel to get changed for our meeting.

At 6pm we headed to the restaurant to meet the others that would be joining us on the Mykonos Island and Cruising Contiki tour. Our tour manager was Paola who was absolutely wonderful. Always so cheerful, happy and ready to help. There were 3 from brazil, one Canadian, 10 Americans, one from Singapore and 4 Aussies being Danika, Richie, Brent and myself. After giving our details and being told that we had a 5.30am wakeup call tomorrow morning, we all went to get ready for our first dinner as a group.

Into the slopes that lead to the Acropolis was a street of restaurants were we were to eat. While a greek dance was performed thought the meal, I had my first taste of greek food. And boy was it delicious! The fried Zucchini, White beans in sauce aaaahhhh I was hooked. It was such a lovely setting and a great way to meet some of the group. Once we were back at the hotel a couple of us went up the the rooftop for a night view of the Acropolis and take some photos, have a chat and a drinkand wonder what we were to experience in the coming days.

Whilst standing up there it finally hit me. I was in Athens..... I cant describe that moment, nor how I felt, but one thing I did know was that I was incredibly blessed to be there.

Danika and I called it a night, packed our new additions and set the alarm for our early wakeup to sail to MYKONOS!