Our Strange and Unpredictable Backpacking vacation in Greece ! During The COVID-19 Pandemic ( Athens Day 1 & 2 )

Date: 10/3 to 24/3/2020.

Meteora, Kalambaka has always been in my bucket list for long as I can remember. 

The opportunity to visit the Meteora arises when my daughter Eva, joined Scoots as a cabin crew late last year, as Scoots flies direct to Athens twice weekly. Using Eva's staff traveling benefits,  my sister Emily and me enjoyed substantial saving on the air fare plus we got to travel on Business Class on the return journey! 

Santorini has always been Emily's dream holiday destination plus it's her ideal photo takings bonanza. Having decided to visit Athens, Santorini, Mykonos and lastly Meteora, 5 days before our journey, its took me about 3 grueling days to plan and book hotels, Airbnb, hostels and ferry tickets for this shenanigan of ours, braving Europe during this period of time. 

Situation in Singapore before 10/3/2020 : We have family members and friends commenting of how brave (or maybe mindless) both of us to embark a journey to foreign country during this intense period with the COVID -19 virus popping almost all over the world. Scoots was still flying to Athens, no travel restriction on both Greece and Singapore even thought some European countries; especially in Italy, the virus spreading was on the rise. 

Our mother, who is 83 years old told us not to go, she even went to the extend of volunteering to reimburse us all the expenses we had incurred so far. With our minds made-up, adamant to start our journey, we decided: 'Come what may', we will deal with it as we progress throughout our journey. Bearing in mind "We will always be mindful and practice personnel hygiene and social distancing" and brought tons of face masks and Hand Sanitiser with us.

We were prepared to embrace any unforeseen circumstances and chalk it-up as another "life learning experience" or "Adventure"

I was thinking very positive ..........maybe this is the ideal time to visit Greece mainly because there will be less crowd and tourist, meaning we could be capturing great photos without lots of bodies and heads blocking our views. Yes! We did took great photos throughout the whole journey. 

Day 1 (10th March 2020)

Departed from Changi at 3.00 am Tuesday morning, the flight was about 90% full, majority Caucasian and European only a handful Asian. It's an 11 hrs flight, we slept all the way.

Arrived at  Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International about 9.30 am, immigration was a breeze as I had anticipated. 
We took the Yellow line train to Doukissis Plakentias, changed onto the Blue Metro to Syatagma then changed onto Red line to Akropoli, as we were staying at the Plaka district;  Athens Backpackers Hostels. 
Situated 200 meters away from Acropolis Museum and only 5 mins walk from to Akropoli Metro, and  within walking distance of Roman Agora too. The total train fare from the airport to Akropoli Metro was 10€ 

As we were way early for our check-in, we stored our bags with the reception and decided to start exploring the area, first up was for a good Greek Breakfast/ Brunch! We found a small Greek Restaurant called Piato, El Greco, meal was delicious and price was as reasonable about 17.50€ for both of us. 

With our tummies filled, we walked around the neighborhood and finally stumbled upon the Acropolis!

I was so surprised that we stayed so near the Acropolis, when booking this hostel, I knew we were staying around this area but did not really imagine was right at our door-step!! I was dumbfounded when I certainly sighted the ruins of the Parthenon up above the rocky hills, even though it was quite a far distance ahead, I could see it so clearly. 
Reality checked; I am really here in Athens and am looking at the Parthenon for real!!, not from some TV travel shows or pictures from a travel magazine.

I am really looking at History, way-back older than 500 BC!!

A bit of history here; Athens - Birthplace of Democracy which we, majority mankind enjoy today, started some 8,000 year ago: Neolithic Period (before 3000 BCE) . It started from this Hilltop of Acropolis which also sits the temple of Goddess Athena named Parthenon came from the Greek word 'Virgin'

We had planned to visit the Acropolis, walking among the ruins tomorrow morning, when  not so sunny with the afternoon sun.

Hanging around the entrance for a while we then wonder off to those many restaurants and souvenirs shops and we came across the OpenTop Hop-on-Hop-Off bus, and decided to take the '2 days pass' @ 16€ each for tomorrow. The customer-service girl from the Blue-Bus was so competitive cause there were another two bus companies offering the same route. She insisted we purchase the tickets today and gets whatever left of today for FREE and the Pass will be valid for tomorrow and day after.

So the whole afternoon we were on bus-ride looking at all the Touristy-sights till 6pm. We even went all the way to Piraeus the sea-port.

We went back to our Hostel to check in, we were up-graded to the Suites apartment for 4 pax, instead of 6 bedded which we originally booked (due to renovation of the sister Hostel), which was quite nice with en-suite bathroom, small kitchenette and a living room with balcony. Sharing our apartment was another pretty young lady from Canada.

Dinner was deliciously good - Greek cuisine of Moussaka, Grilled Octopus and Greek Salad. Total cost : 18€. This restaurant is just right across our Hostel called Opos Palia

This Restaurant was always full as early as from 4 pm onward, lots of locals were found eating here too. I highly recommend ***** the foods was very good and the portion was HUGE!.

We turned in an early night, tomorrow our adventures awaits us.............Honestly we forgot all about wearing masks cause in Athens life goes on as usual, did not see anyone wearing masks around us or practicing social distancing. We did washes our hands regularly plus using our hand sanitiser too.   

Day 2 (11th March 2020) : Athens Acropolis & Monastiraki

At about 8.30am, after a hearty breakfast which was included with our stay in this Hostel; breakfast consists of assorted breads, scramble & hard boiled eggs, sausages, hams, tomatoes, zucchini, cakes & fruits and of cause with coffee, tea and fruit juice too, we walked to the Acropolis
The entrance fee was only 10€ per adult from 1st November to 31st March ie 50% discount.
Once we crossed the entrance gate, I was in awe, as I realised,  'I am stepping into ancient history and walking among those ruins dated back.... like at least 2,400 years!!.'

 

     Dionysos Theatre; during its former glory....could sit at least 14,000 people!!
We took our time slowly walking towards the Parthenon from the Southern Slope which will take us passes by the Odeon of Herodes Atticus . pix below:

In its hay days, this theatre could sit 5,000 people.

After passing the Theater we walked towards to the Propylaea, an ancient gateway to the Acropolis, we climbed up the staircases which are made from the same marble that was used to build the Parthenon.

Upon reaching the top, it opens up to the rock plateau, here... I saw The Parthenon on the right and on my left is the foundation of Old Temple of Athena & Erechtheion.                                                                               This gateway is actually a collection of impressive buildings that were built from 438 to 432 BC. Today, I could only see two large structures with a smaller one in the center, but this is because most of the center structure is missing. Many tourists were posting and taking photos along the staircase.

The Erechtheion, ancient Greek temple named after the demi-god Erechtheus, the mythical Athenian king, was build around the earlier 400 BCE to house the ancient wooden statue of Athena.

 As I walked further down, I came full view of the Parthenon, OMG! This is for real.... I am right in front of the Parthenon! One of the most iconic building in the World!!

It was as Spectacular and Magnificent as I have visualised it for as long as I can remember.

The only pity was that I could not touch it, for it was roped away from tourists from going near the Parthenon. The Parthenon was build in 447 BCE is dedicated to the patron saint of Athens—the goddess Athena. A small shrine to the goddess has been excavated inside, located on the site of a previous sanctuary. Infact what we are looking at now, was the new Parthenon, there was an older temple which was destroyed during the Persian war in 480 BCE. After laying in ruins for 30 years, the Greek rebuild the current Temple

As you can observed in my photos there were very few tourists here, of cause this was mainly due to the pandemic which deter people from travelling especially to Europe, still nobody were wearing masks here! 
I could spot a group of Japanese, a few British and a handful of assortment of European walking around the Acropolis. 

We hung around and explored the Acropolis till mid afternoon. On the left is the main entrance to the Theater Odeon of Herodes Atticus.                                           Below are some for the photos I took at the surrounding hillside of the Acropolis.                                                                                The weather was perfect today, but I saw dark clouds looming at the side, its might rain maybe later on in the evening.                                                     

Phillopapou Hill

The Arch of Hadrian & the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Lycabettus Hill photo taken from the Acropolis

Monastiraki Square

After exploring the surrounding of the Acropolis, we decided to make use of our 2 days pass on the Hop-on Hop-Off Blue Bus. 
First stop is to the Omonia Square, to get our ferry tickets printed out from the Blue Ferry Office near there. We wandered around for a bit.....its was so busy and crowded there, we decided to walk over to Monastiraki Square for lunch. 

It was drizzling a bit when we arrived there, the above photo was taken the next day, when we went back again after we visited Ancient Agora

All these photos are taken during our walk from Omonia Square to Monastiraki Square. There is also a Flea Market right there, we took a walk around the Flea Market for any interesting things, found out that most goods; except Greek souvenirs came from or made from China!!...... HA HA HA.... I found the exact hat on me, which I bought from Changi Village (while visiting my brother Felix) for SGD6.50 were sold here at 10€??!! 

At Monastiraki Square is also the home for The Library Of Hadrian, was also known for "One Hundred Column Library" was build during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132 AD as a Library. 

We decided to head back to our Hostel at about 5pm cos ie. the last Blue Bus schedule going back to Plaka area. Had our dinner at Sauvlaki for Gyrus, Kebabs and Beers. Total meal costed about 22€.

Another early night cause tomorrow morning we will be heading out to other parts of Athens & Piraeus Port. 

.......to be continue to Day 3 Athens & Piraeus Port & Day 4 Lycabettus Hill