We left the U.S. Friday after work and landed in Greece on Saturday morning. We met Samer’s best fried Joe, and as luck would have it, we found each other in the passport line in Greece. He was flying in from Beirut, so it was a much easier flight for him. We used Airbnb to find a rooftop apartment near the National Museum of Contemporary Art Αthens (EMST). I think the neighborhood is called Neos Kosmos. It was not central to the tourist zone but had a fantastic view of the Acropolis.
Seeing the Acropolis was a dream that came to reality. When I was young, I loved reading Greek myths, which was my off-ramp to falling in love with the ancient Mediterranean in college. The ancient world seems so far away and yet within our grasp. We can touch remnants from it, yet how its society was configured seems completely alien. So, after all of these years of thinking about real and mythological Greeks, studying the language, and dreaming about visiting, there it was: the Acropolis was viewable from my balcony.
We dove headfirst into our first Greek coffee to keep ourselves from crashing. Greece gets coffee, and you’ll read later that I was seriously disappointed in French coffee. The Greeks are real libertines with their preparations. Iced? Sure. Instant frape? You bet. Freddo cappuccino? Κανένα πρόβλημα! I loved having coffee in Greece.
We grabbed a gyro from Kalyvas Family Grill after coffee. Ordering gyro made us come to terms with the fact we knew no Greek and there was much less English than we anticipated. The sandwiches were big and cheap. We were surprised at how little they cost, but we did not love them. We may have ordered incorrectly, but we all thought they were very dry. Everyone wanted more sauce or something to lube these sandwiches.
We reserved a walking tour at 6 PM, so after we showered and rested at the AirBnb, we walked to our meeting spot. The tour was okay. Nothing was super memorable, except that it felt long-winded, but it was a nice way to see the touristy parts of Athens. It was a free walking tour where you tip the guide. One of the best parts was chatting with the other tourists. We got a good tip about visiting the Acropolis through the backdoor to skip the morning rush.
Our guide walked us near many famous places we would visit the following day, but he ended the tour in the vibrant Monastiraki Square. We had dinner at Karamanlidika, which specializes in Smyrna cuisine. The food was good, but we made an error in the ordering. The restaurant is famous for its smoked and cured meat; we did not order any of them. There is a platter, but we didn’t want to over-order, so we missed their specialty. We ate well, but it felt like we missed the best Greek cuisine on day 1. I vowed to slow down, look like a fool, and try to decipher menus in the future.
We did not actually rest for a second on our first day in Athens, so when we finally got home, I caught a glimpse of the Acropolis and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.