We flew from Budapest to Athens, the first of 12 flights in our last 3 months of the trip.
Athens felt very lively, with many neighborhoods and sites to explore. We stayed very close to the Acropolis visited right away on our first morning. The Acropolis of Athens is the hill overlooking the city which includes the famous Parthenon as well as more temples, theaters, and other buildings.
I rushed us to be first up the hill in the morning to get some nice parthenon photos without the crowds before backtracking to the other buildings. Afterward, we walked through an old neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis and visited a few smaller sites such as Hadrian’s library.
The next day we spent the afternoon in the Athens Archeological Museum, which houses many of the most incredible items found at sites across the country. One of our favorite collections was the extensive gold items uncovered from graves in the ancient city of Mycenae.
On our last day in Athens we visited a few smaller sites in the morning, including the school where Aristotle taught philosophy in the 300s BC. The afternoon was spent at the Ancient Agora (600 BC) which housed markets, social centers, coin minting, multiple temples and one of the world’s first law courts.
Throughout our Europe trip we had an unlimited train pass, one of our best logistical decisions because it gave us a ton of flexibility and most of the Europe train system is great. Unfortunately, the public transportation systems in Greece are almost as archaic as many of the sites. The bus system is an adventure and seems to require some luck.
Our main goal in Korinthos was to see Ancient Korinthos, just outside town. We caught the bus the next day but when we arrived, the site had a piece of paper on the gate saying closed Tuesday. This was our lesson in website accuracy in Greece. We watched many disappointed people show up.
Luckily, in Greece you are always just a stones throw from another old thing! So after staring through the fence at the ancient columns, we took a steep walk up a hill to an old castle overlooking Ancient Korinthos. This ended up being a massive site to explore and we had a great time.
After some confusing conversations with the bus station employees, we figured out how to make it to Nafplion, our final stop. Nafplion is a very pretty seaside town that I roughly remember visiting when I was 6 so I wanted to return.
Nafplion is close to ancient Mycenae (where the gold artifacts were from) which I wanted to visit but upon learning that the buses didn’t run in the low season and it would require a long walk along a road with no sidewalks I threw in the towel. Instead, we had a lovely beach day and spent a ton of time petting (and then feeding) cats.
On our last night, we returned to Athens and went to a restaurant that seemed to be a local favorite where I ate a huge plate of great calamari. We had the perfect Athens finish to our night, hanging out on the hotel rooftop with a view of the lit up Acropolis.
The story would not be complete, however, without mentioning that the “24/7, 365 day” airport bus was not running on the day we left. We stood at the bus stop waiting until a taxi driver waived his arms and yelled “NO BUS” at us. We will be renting a car next time, but we’ll definitely return to Greece to see more of the country and some of the islands.
Not Sew Fancy Travels 