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Published: November 15th 2011
Moma - our first meal in Greece
Steve, Michelle & Rachel in AthensWe waited a really long time for our luggage to appear on the baggage carousel and I was beginning to think it hadn’t made the connection in Zurich but eventually all the bags showed up. Rachel and I stayed with the luggage and Steve went and found Dimitri from Fantasy Travel at the other end of the baggage claim area. Dimitri led us outside to an awesome Mercedes mini bus! And we were the only passengers – cool!! The mini bus was especially cool since there was a taxi strike going on in Greece.
Dimitri filled us in on all our travel arrangements for the Athens and islands portions of our trip on the ride from the airport to the Hotel Attalos on Athinas Street in the Monastiraki area of Athens. We had vouchers for each item in our itinerary as well as the actual ferry tickets to and from the islands. I love Fantasy Travel; going through them makes everything so easy. We got all checked in to room 205 which overlooked Athinas Street and had a balcony. The only downside to our room was that it was long and narrow and there really wasn’t any place to put
Thissio
Michelle & Steve in Athens the luggage except to line it all up against the wall at the foot of the beds. Then you had a walk space of maybe 10-12 inches wide between the luggage and the beds. I think we all stubbed our toes multiple times. I resorted to walking across the beds most of the time which worked because they were very low to the ground. The bathroom was nicely renovated though and the water pressure was awesome. This room was much better than the one Steve, Alice and I had back in 2007 at this hotel, the balcony was key!
We immediately headed out to grab something to eat as we were all famished. We walked down Athinas Street past the Monastiraki Metro station and crossed Ermou Street to Monastiraki Square. We passed by Hadrian’s Library to an area to the right of the square where there was a whole row of restaurants with outside seating. We picked a restaurant named Moma at random and it ended up being a great choice. We had a bottle of their house wine (white) which was just delicious and some village salad, potatoes, and a meat platter.
After we ate we walked through
Thissio
Rachel & Michelle in Athens the Thissio area and then back to the hotel since it was getting dark. On the way we were looking for a Vodaphone sim card and minutes for my unlocked gsm phone I bought in 2008 in Scotland and walked into a really sketchy area. We did however get the sim card but no minutes. I’m pretty sure we were near Omonia Square which is known for drugs and prostitution after dark. Argh! I hate it when you wander into a unsavory area especially at night.
We met Anna who is Steve's cousin on his mom's side, which means Anna is not related to Rachel because Steve and Rachel are cousins through Steve's dad's side. Well actually Anna picked us up at the hotel, and she took us to a really cool bar/night club call Apolis which is way up on a hill high above Athens. We sat outside on the deck of the relaxed and chill bar area with a great view. We had a drink and talked and talked! It was after 1am Athens time when we got back to the hotel so we just crashed as at this point we had technically been up since Monday
morning Boston time and this was Tuesday!
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