In Athens next week: recommendations?
My team at Automattic is meeting up together in Athens, Greece late next week. Never been to Athens or Greece before. As a philosophy and history weenie, I’m psyched.
Any advice or recommendations? Much appreciated.
Hi Scott,
First of all, as a long time WordPress developer currently living in Athens, I would love to help you organize a meetup (or at least meet you for drinks!)…
And a few recommendations (other than the obvious such as the Acropolis, etc) :
– walk around Exarchia, the student/anarchist/alternative district that manages to escape gentrification
– and Plaka, whose architecture is traditional, compared to the modernity of this city (some of its streets really look what you find on Greek islands)
– go for mezze and ouzo at a greek “taverna”
– and for drinks at one of these :
http://www.boozecooperativa.com/
http://theartfoundation.gr/en/theartfoundation_index.htm
http://www.spottedbylocals.com/athens/bartesera/
– if you love Jazz like Matt:
http://www.halfnote.gr/eng/index.php
– and if you feel like dancing :
http://www.bios.gr/
http://sixdogs.gr/
If you have any questions, let me know!
Hi,
I was few weeks back in greece and as u said psyched i totally was too !!
Go to acropolis and you can take a 12 EURO ticket, which lets you view most of the major destination you should be checking and it is valid for 24 hours, and all of these places are close by
Do visit the monarch it is amazing view there, bit far from acropolis but worth visiting.
The old Olympic stadium and new Olympic stadium are awesome specially they let you on the tracks on the new on and u can even stand on the podium with the Olympic rings behind u amazing for photo shoot after this long trip you can come near the sub-train station there r lot of eating places on the road side the best was Everest ( coffee was good )
and if you want to explore greece further take the train to Thessloniki a old town but amazing and like 10 to 15 places to visit there, and has a tourist bus which will show u all the places stay there for 2 days atleast if you have time
oh if you dont know greek
words like
tikanes ( how are you)
parakalo ( dont mention ( its like when someone says thank you )
ehfarshito ( thank you) they like using it a lot i think this is like in all european countries
filakia ( kisses) like a good bye
and sagapo :D ( i love u ) ;)
I hope you have a wonderful time, hope my small info would help you .
Cheers
Robin
Make sure you go to Plaka :) and not just the touristy market area, poke around the area, there is some really neat stuff there esp. if you are looking for old stuff ;]
Go to a music concert, Greek style!
You can pay as little as 15 euro to get into see the best singers in Greece… it’s a bit different to the concerts we go to here. They go nuts, if you’re not dancing on the tables by the end of the night, there’s something wrong with you!
I recommend Notis Sfakianakis or Paschalis Terzis. Quality acts if you can get in to see them!
I’d also recommend a frappe, down in the trendy suburb of Glyfada. As they say, when in Rome… or Athens, as the case may be! ;)
I’m jealous – have a great time!
Yes, apart from visiting the Parthenon itself, consider the Acropolis Museum ( http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr ) and the National Archaeological one ( http://www.namuseum.gr/wellcome-en.html ) if you have time.
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panathinaiko_Stadium
Some nice places to walk around are in Plaka, Monastiraki, and Thisio. There’re Starbucks everywhere but you should try the local cold “frappe” cofee.
You can get around by the rather cheap taxis or you can beat the traffic using the underground ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Metro ).
Enjoy!
And what to eat:
First you’ll want to go to a kebab place (you’ll spot them by the giant kebabs spinning around on vertical grills) and order a “Souvlaki”. Just order a Souvlaki with everything in it and Tzatziki. “Everything” usually means: Mustard, Ketchup, French Fries, Onion and Tomato.
Then you don’t want to miss out to a classic dinner in a Greek Taverna (classic old fashioned restaurants). Best of them are in Plaka area (I believe). You’ll spot the places by the wooden chairs around wooden tables dressed with cloth tapestries. Order Greek Salad, Tzatziki, Feta Cheese, and much much grilled meat: Souvlaki, Steak, Soutzoukaki (a type of spicy meatball) and Greek Sausages are a must. You should get these by ordering “a variety of grilled meat for X people” so that everything’s included. Drink Retsina and Ouzo.
If you happen to find a cook-room restaurant order some Mousaka (Moussakas). You won’t be disappointed.
Of course you’ll find McDonalds, KFC etc in every other corner, but you should give the above a try first if you’re a good-eater.
If you happen to also visit Thessaloniki (2nd major city, 500km north of Athens, 30 minutes by plane, 5 hours by train) give me a shout on twitter, I’ll make arrangements with the huge WordPress base over here and show you a good night life as well.
Have fun.
Hi Scott,
First of all, as a long time WordPress developer currently living in Athens, I would love to help you organize a meetup (or at least meet you for drinks!)…
And a few recommendations (other than the obvious such as the Acropolis, etc) :
– walk around Exarchia, the student/anarchist/alternative district that manages to escape gentrification
– and Plaka, whose architecture is traditional, compared to the modernity of this city (some of its streets really look what you find on Greek islands)
– go for mezze and ouzo at a greek “taverna”
(NB: I submitted another comment with a bunch of links to nice places, but I recon it went straight into spam).
If you have any questions, let me know!