Greece Travel Blog

When I visited the popular Syntagma Square, where I regularly stopped to eat lunch with my travelling companion, people were throwing crumbs for the birds. They have since upgraded to hurling firebombs, marble and other objects at police, who have used teargas and baton in response. The violence came on the first anniversary of the death of 15-year-old Greek student Alexandros Grigoropoulos, allegedly shot by a policeman in Athens on December 5, 2008, following a confrontation between youngsters and security forces.

Having earlier lived in Greece for nine months and visited numerous times on holiday, I can confidently state the riots are symptomatic of the hatred towards the police – and all forms of authority! The negative publicity surrounding the latest riots should not distort the truth about Greek people, who I regard as the most hospitable and philanthropic I’ve met.

During our four-day stay in Athens in October, the streets were calm and peaceful. One of the great things about the city is the continuously developing metro system, which provides a clean, quick and reliable service almost everywhere. It also means those arriving by plane at Athens International Airport no longer need to sit on a bus for an hour or pay a fortune for a taxi to reach the city centre. The underground is beautifully clean and decked in marble and many stations showcase archaeological finds and relics that were built around during its construction.

No visit to Greece would be complete without taking in the country’s most famous attraction, the Parthenon – one of the wonders of the world. It was built in honour of the Greek goddess Athena in around 438BC and has survived numerous earthquakes, wars, foreign occupation and pollution to proudly remain as a symbol of democracy from the country were it was born. Despite visiting the site several years ago, it was still able to captivate me as I showed my travelling companion around and memories came flooding back of my first trip to Greece in 2004.

Almost as impressive as the Parthenon was the Theatre of Dionysos, where Sophocles, Euripides and many other Greek playwrights rose to fame during the 5th Century. The site also offers an amazing birds-eye view of the nearby 6th Century Temple of Olympian Zeus, which some say at one time hoped to become the greatest temple in the ancient world.

Next to the parliament is an enormous park full of trees, plants, birds, ducks and other wildlife, creating the perfect refuge to escape the noise of the traffic. The National Gardens was once the preserve of Greece’s previous royal families, but is now a haven for tourists and Athenians to unwind and relax. Several times after exploring we would collapse on one of the benches and eat lunch, admiring the views and feeding the birds.

Equally breathtaking is the nearby Lycabettus Hill, which rewards those who take on the 270-metre walk up its winding path with a 360-degree vantage point of the entire city and surrounding mountains. All that exploring meant we needed regular pit stops to refuel and while Greek cuisine may never win international acclaim, in my view it ranks among the best in the world. Most ingredients, especially in the islands, tend to be home grown – making everything taste distinctively fresh as it melts in the mouth.

Among our favourite dishes were moussaka (an oven-baked casserole dish), yemista (peppers stuffed with rice), souvlaki (spit-roasted kebabs), fresh fish (including grilled octopus and fried squid), keftedakia (meat balls in tomato sauce) and Greek salad, washed down with frappes!

Next Step: Visiting Santorini

There are three options to get to Santorini from Athens: by plane, a 10-hour ferry journey or a high-speed boat ride in half that time. I’d forgotten how beautiful the Caldera was (having visited five years earlier). This was the place where a cataclysmic volcanic explosion around 3,500 years ago split the island in three, creating the feature that helped make it the most popular island in Greece.

It was these dramatic views from the balcony of a traditional cave house built into the rocks that helped us finally settle at Chelidonia Villas – despite it being four times the cost of the place we were moving out of! It came with a beautifully decorated living room, fully equipped kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom with a bed so soft you felt like never getting up.

There are a host of attractions to explore once on the island from its famous red beach, the incredibly preserved archaeological site of Akrotiri and volcano cruises, but the view from our balcony was too difficult to prise ourselves away from and we stayed in Oia during our entire four-day stay.

Most of the houses in the village are painted blue, white and many other colours, adding to the flavour of the village. This is usually done to keep them cool in the summer and, during our visit, temperatures on the island were a constant 30C.

All this makes Oia one of the world’s most romantic destinations and many weddings take place in the village, leading one hotel to proudly claim it was: “The Most Popular Site for Marriage Proposals” on a sign at its entrance.

Many of the village’s hotels and apartments have been rated among the globe’s best by travel magazines and their prices reflect that, with most charging several hundred euros for a single a night – even during the off season!

The best things in Oia (the outstanding views) are free and we enjoyed nothing better than going to a bakery and stocking up on local delicacies such as spinach and feta cheese pies and finding a quiet spot to admire the caldera’s beauty. On most days we failed miserably to prise ourselves from the balcony and would spend hours watching the enormous cruise ships, yachts and fishing boats passing through the caldera in the company of a chilled bottle, as the smell of fresh fish from nearby restaurants wafted over us.

From Bahrain Daily News; excerpts, edited by Greece Travel Blog

Related posts (automatic selection)

• Experience the Culture of Greece
• Wandering in Athens with my dad
• Travel Agents visit the New Acropolis Museum in Athens
• Touring the Greek islands and Athens
• The start of a healing process in Acropolis
• Sunbathing in Athens and Santorini
• Really enjoyed just walking in Athens
• Prime Minister of Greece tours Acropolis Museum construction site
• Nothing more exciting than the approach to Athens from the sea
• New Acropolis Museum: It just conquered our hearts!