jenny zhou: Greek Week

For more photos and juicy deets, click below !

Okay. This begins my Greek Week, my dream holiday, my 22nd birthday present from my parents. AHHHHH !!!! Not gonna lie, after being encased in the concrete jungle of China was so long, I almost teared up at the beautiful sights of the islands from the plane.

Where We Stayed

King George Hotel

Pros: LOCATION LOCATION. Walking distance to EVERYTHING.

In collaboration with the lovely Grande Bretagne Hotel, you get to use all their facilities too (THEY"RE AMAZING)

The staff were SO helpful and SO nice.

Cons: Right next to Parliament, which has it's pro's too, but if there's a strike or something happening, they shut down the entire street outside and barricade the windows, just for safety measures, but it gets a bit scary.

Bathtub shower. You know what I mean.

Room is quite small compared to the other places we stayed at and no view.

Sightseeing

We walked to see the Acropolis and the Parthenon. There is a lovely strip of cafe's on the way up and you can also ride this little choo choo train looking thing. It closes at 7pm (I think) so I would definitely recommend going around dusk, as it is TOO HOT during the day, and you are in direct sunlight. If you do not like exercise, you will have to hike a bit, on rock and dirt. And BRING WATER. They don't have water in the Godly place of the Acropolis (God's apparently didn't need water), I was so dehydrated.

It wasn't as amazing or anything, actually I wasn't really expecting anything. But apparently this place is always under construction, so a lot of the monument was covered in scaffolding, and you could tell that a lot of it was new and rebuilt, etc. so it wasn't like wow I'm standing in front of this amazing ancient place.

Ermou Night Market

You walk down Ermou Street (AMAZING FOR SHOPPING) and you hit the city centre square and it is bustling and is like THE hangout for locals and tourists. It is so full of life.

In these alleys of markets you will find lots of sea sponges LOL, many leather sandal stores, souvenir stores, not so much fashion wise, but moreso pottery and Greek delicacies. And you will also be treated to a lot of ancient sites along the way. They also have strips and strips of restaurants, where all the seating is outside and the atmosphere is just so lovely at night. So would definitely recommend having dinner here.

Ermou Street

Syntagma Square was opposite our hotel, and Ermou Street was just directly connected to it. (I told you our hotel location was sickkkk)

And the shopping here OH MY GOSH, someone take me away, I BOUGHT so much. It's mostly international chain stores, but the sales were ridiculous, everything was basically under 10 euros. Believe me when I say we shopped till we dropped.

H&M, Zara, Bershka, Calzedonia, Mango, a few Greek and European chain stores that I cannot spell for the life of me, and a lot of sandal stores (but I would recommend you buy from the stalls in the market, which are A LOT cheaper - leather sandals for under 20 euros HELLO)

Mt. Lycabettus

Definitely the highlight of my trip. And MUCH better views than from the Acropolis.

I and the concierge would both urge you to take the taxi up the San Francisco-esque windy hilly roads, and then take the cable car up. We bumped into a couple on the top who hiked for 45 mins and were a sweaty mess. If you want some nice photos of yourself and the view at the top and not look like an oily roast chicken then take my advice.

An up and down ticket was only 7.50 euros so why the flop not !?

On top I also accidentally discovered the restaurant Orizontes that has been on my 'dream places to go to' list for YEARS. Unfortunately, it was already all pre booked out for the sunset dinner, but PLEASE if you go, book in advance. There are other restaurants, but the views just aren't as nice and have horrid railing that blocks a lot.

The Last Supper

...Was to be had at the King George hotel on level 6.

We initially thought we had booked the restaurant at Grand Bretagne (stunning terrace restaurant bar with AMAZING view, definitely go) but had a bit of a mix up at reception and ended up back at our own hotel.

The interior was amazing ! Felt like I was walking into a mini Palace de Versailles, the balcony area is okay, the view wasn't nearly half as nice as the one at the other hotel but THE FOOD was the highlight.

Probably had the most fancy Greek salad of my life, a super fresh and light salmon tartare, and the veal and mash potato just melted in your mouth. Desserts were quite average, but the bread basket was delightful HAHA.

It was fine dining, so quite expensive, so I wouldn't recommend if you're expecting an amazing sunset dinner on a balcony. But it was a lovely way to end our first stop in Athens :)