Historic Athens

When you say the word Greece – the picture that comes to mind is of beautiful turquoise blue water, white sandy beaches, beautifully architectured islands and Greek Gods! Well based on this picture I finalized the location for our holiday!

After seeing the unbelievable and beautiful pictures of Greece we set on our journey from Lagos to Athens. By the time we reached our hotel the day was gone so we decided to chill out and had the feel of Omonia Square which is the heart of Athens and that’s where we were staying too. For the first time we experienced staying in a boutique hotel where every room was designed on a different theme. Our junior suite was glamorous with literally shimmering walls and modern décor with intricacies and delightful ideas such as a tiny shopping bag with an “out for shopping” door knob tag and a beautiful shopping list note pad etc.

The next day we were fresh to visit the World Heritage Site– Parthenon, Acropolis. It is indeed a spectacular site and surprisingly I thought that the structure was called Acropolis but it’s the cultural monument that is called Parthenon and acropolis means a high city (like on a hill) and there are many acropolises in Greece but that’s what I thought! Later during the day we took the hop on hop off bus and saw the sites of many ancient temples, the Olympic stadium, Hadrian’s Arc, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Syntagma Square and Monestiraki Square.

The third day we were ready to cruise to the islands of Hydra, Porus and Aegina. This beautiful island hopping ship had live orchestra, open decks, lunch, Greek dancers and the spirit to make your cruise a perfect one. However this is the first time I discovered that I can get sea sick… So you can imagine the excitement soon turned into a little bit of disappointment for me. I kinda kept myself excited till we reached Hydra which is a small lush island with narrow maze of streets, beautiful architecture and has dramatic landscape with traditional stone houses. While we were on the deck Aan and Aananya seem to have captured loads of attention and were invited to the Captain’s room to see the wonderful view and steer the ship. Not only the kids but we too were thrilled with the experience.

By the time we headed towards Porus, I was certain that I was getting sea sick and decided to spend time trying to take a nap in the lounge rather than the open deck. Sometimes your body surprises you; I love the ocean and the sea and never thought in a million years that I could get sea sick. Well the moment we reached the beautiful harbour of Hydra I was all set to explore the picturesque town. We explored the stone paved streets on foot since the only traditional vehicle of the island is the saddled donkey, mule or a horse. No vehicles are used in the town.

When we reached back to our ship, the table had been set for a gastronomic 5 course creation of authentic Greek food. After the elaborate meal there was an entertainer who made us laugh with silly imitations of various people from different countries and culture followed by Greek dancers who dragged some of us on the floor to break a leg with them.

We didn’t even realize how 2 hours had passed and we had already reached the docks of our last island Aegina. Aegina is the main producer of pistachio nuts in Greece and is famous for pistachio ice cream which, by the way is not very palatable to me, so while others decided to dig into the pistachio ice cream, I indulged in the chocolate vanilla fudge and then we decided to take a horse carriage ride around the town. This was the perfect way to end our trip to the islands. I will try not to remember the rest of the way back to Athens; that I spent literally sleeping in the lounge to avoid barfing on the decks. When we reached our hotel, we were tired and packed our luggage for the next day’s journey to the beautiful island of Zakynthos.