[[Tenebrous Dragon|Home]] / [[Trips|Travel]] / [[2026-08 Athens|2026 Athens, GR]] # 2026 Athens, GR > [!trip] > ![[2026-08 Athens cover.jpg]] > - **When** Monday 17 August to Friday 4 September 2026 > - **Where** [[Αθήνα|Athens]], [[Ελλάδα|Greece]] > - **Why** A first solo trip, to find out what I want next > - **How** [[Delta Air Lines|Delta]] through [[Boston]] out, [[American Airlines|American]] through [[Dallas]] back > - **Stayed** At [[Sophia Christoforides|Sofia]]'s place in [[Κουκάκι|Koukaki]] > - **Carried** The [[CabinZero Military Backpack 28L|CabinZero]] for the flights, and two [[Nanobag|Nanobags]] and a [[Ulvo hip pack large|Fjällräven hip pack]] for the days %% Specific and sensitive trip details available in [[Trip reference numbers#Athens 2026]] %% I went to Athens alone, on my first solo trip, to discover what I really want in the next stretch of my life. It was part vacation and part reconnaissance, because I wanted to know if I could live there, for a time or for good. I was there for nineteen days (alone for 14 of them!), and I spent the first ones doing what I would have to do if I lived there. > [!day] Monday 17 to Thursday 20 August > **Settling in** > > I landed Monday morning and went straight to a [[My Market]] for groceries. It is small, like [[Neto]] in [[Ισλανδία|Iceland]], with the basics and not much else. Staff bag and price-tag the fruit and vegetables for you, so the register never rings up items one by one, and nobody used the self checkout even though the machines were there. I tried to check out in Greek. The lady spoke so fast and I froze. D: I told myself I would try again tomorrow. > > Tuesday morning I did. I ordered an espresso at [[Il Toto]] entirely in Greek, and the man seemed surprised and asked «σκέτο;». I said «ναι.» I was still drinking it and enjoying it when I wrote about it, and I was very happy. The jet lag hit hard that day, because Athens is eight hours ahead of home and my body had not caught up, so I planned a μεσημέρι nap. > > That afternoon I went out with [[Γεωργία Χριστοφορίδης|Yeoryia]], and we covered a lot of ground. > > A jewelry store and the pharmacy next to it, the [[Athens Metro|Metro]] to [[Syntagma Square|Syntagma]], two clothing stores to return things, and a bookstore for tassels. She kept stopping at pharmacies to look at skincare, and I ended up at a bakery with good gel candy and honey desserts. > > We talked so, so, so much. I like her. > > Then I finally made it to the sea. I took the tram to [[Παλαιό Φάληρο|Palaio Faliro]], and it is quite a bit different from the ocean. Warmer, more salty, more buoyant, and more relaxing. The sea is calling to me, and I will return soon. > > We had dinner at [[Opos palia]], a Greek taverna in Koukaki, and I ate and drank a lot. I tried [[Mastica]] for the first time. > > I am so excited to come back and learn Greek here. I want to make this my home. > > Wednesday was a rest day. I slept, caught up on work and got my inbox to zero. The caffeine in Athens is a lot lower than in the [[Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες|US]]. > > On Thursday I had my first flat white at the [[Roasting Warehouse]], an Australian-style coffeehouse that started in [[Melbourne]], and it was delicious, though the servers never checked on me and I was not sure whether to flag one down. > > Then I went to [[Melissinos sandals|Melissinos]] for sandals. The Spartan pair I wanted is being reworked, so I bought an Artemis and a Hermes instead, and I like them both. > > Friday and Saturday were hot, like the rest of the trip, and I walked a lot. > > On Friday I walked from [[Παγκράτι|Pangrati]] to [[National and Kapodistrian University of Athens|NKUA]] and took the bus back. I ruled out [[Καισαριανή|Kaisariani]] as a neighborhood that day, for now. > > I also went to the beach again, and I met a nice man from [[Albania]] (great people) who was very forward. Later it went far enough that I had to decline an offer, and I removed the contact from my [[WhatsApp]]. > [!day] Sunday 23 to Thursday 27 August > **Learning the streets** > > On Sunday I walked around without staying anywhere long. I worked from a [[Starbucks]] first, then bought water and sat down at Syntagma in time for the Sunday changing of the guard. It was very emotional. There was a gentleman right next to me singing the anthem, and it was beautiful. > > I also went to the [[Monastiraki]] flea market. It was very touristy, but I saw stuff I may be able to get once I stay there more. > > Back in Koukaki, which was hot but nice, I bought my first koulouri and spanakopita. Way too good and very easy to eat, but also filling. Even on Sundays, people are still out late. It's nice. > > It was 37°C that day and the next. Monday I learned the Greek words for street from the signs, or from the lack of them. There are no street signs on posts, and the street names are on the building corners. > > Οδός is the formal word for a street, and Δρόμος is the more navigational one, and a very, very old word. > > On Tuesday I took a day trip to [[Πειραιάς|Piraeus]]. I took Metro line 2 and changed to line 1 and rode down to the harbor. To say that line one is rough is quite the understatement, and Sofia told me it is the oldest line. > > I had coffee, then walked from Piraeus Harbor to a different harbor, and I was gonna go out to eat somewhere and then I chickened out. > > I took the bus back up to the area near [[Syngrou-Fix station|Syggrou-Fix]], ate leftovers, and slept. The [[Korres]] spray sunscreen from Yeoryia had been pulling its weight. > > By Wednesday I had done groceries and supplies and I slept a lot, because I finally ate. The feta tastes so good, like a clean mild sharp cheddar but with feta, and I liked the local shampoo and conditioner more than I expected. > > On Thursday I worked at a Starbucks and then went home to work more, and I love how the train to the beach is only a 25 minute ride. > [!day] Friday 28 and Saturday 29 August > **All night with Kubrick, and a very slow cocktail** > > On Friday night I went to the all-night [[Stanley Kubrick|Kubrick]] marathon at the [[Full Moon Film Marathon]], and I stayed the whole night. I didn't drink, and I should have gotten coffee or something. > > On Saturday I made it to [[Little Tree Books]], and I bought [[The Owl]] in English, η κουκουβάγια, as a way to start learning how to put sentences together so that I can start thinking in Greek. The food and drinks were good. > > Later I walked toward the [[Areopagus]] in the evening, past the bars in the neighborhood. > > That night I went to [[Spirtokouto]], a cocktail and wine bar in Koukaki. It was very busy, but it was Saturday night so I should have expected that, and I was seated in the entryway. I could hear a lot of Greek around me, which I counted in its favor. > > I ordered a Zombie, an El chapo, a beet salad and a Mediterranean pizza. The Zombie is a passion fruit drink and it's one of those I would call dangerous, because it is so... drinkable. The El chapo is similar with a chili bite. The beet salad was delicious, and the pizza was plain, but it is in Greece, and it's hard to have a bad pizza. > > I waited about 30 minutes to get a server's attention. > [!day] Sunday 30 August to Wednesday 2 September > **Sofia comes home** > > Sofia came back on Sunday with the kids, and we got gyros, and the kids went to play at school while she and I watched. Chaos imps, those kids! :) > > On Monday the kids were away, so Sofia rested up and did school, and I took an easy day. > > On Tuesday Sofia and I went to see [[Six Women in Greek Tragedy]], an open-air performance in English at the [[Athens University History Museum]] in [[Πλάκα|Plaka]],[^ath-six-women] which was very lovely. > > Before the show started, Sofia took a video for me of a lyre playing. > > We also walked and discovered a lot of hidden graffiti that she did not know about, and we picked up souvlaki and loukoumades. > > On Wednesday we picked up the kids and went to [[Tolo]], in the [[Peloponnese]], for the beach, and then went on to [[Ναύπλιο|Nafplio]] to explore. > [!day] Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September > **Leaving** > > On Thursday Sofia had the kids and we did more chilling out, which was what I needed. > > I went to a bookstore and got another Greek exercise book to work on, and I made the best Mexican tacos I could without a grill. > > The flight to Dallas on Friday was long. I liked that there was no transfer at hour 8, but 13 hours on a plane is long, long, long. I am not a fan of the Dallas airport. > > I was very sad as I left, for complex reasons. I had gotten a taste of something that I had long been hungry for, and I didn't want to lose it. ## Where I stayed > [!stay] Sofia's place in Koukaki > Koukaki was awesome. It has a close hike to the [[Ακρόπολη|Acropolis]], it is near the tram and Fix, it has great restaurants, and it is a good walk to the rest of central Athens. > > It is where I want to settle for a while when I am in Athens, because the access is just too good. ## What I packed > [!pack] The CabinZero, two Nanobags and a hip pack > The CabinZero was my flight bag, and it did okay, but I left it at Sofia's during the day. > > For days out I relied heavily on my two Nanobags and my Fjällräven hip pack. The Nanobags carried laptops, groceries, Greek books, towels, sunscreen and the rest of what I needed. ## What living there would be like I am from [[Southern California|SoCal]] and I am no stranger to heat upon heat upon heat, so I adapted and could handle it. This dragon loves being able to warm her scales. Pangrati I feel is where a lot of people are starting to settle, and there is a lot to do there. It is not my pick number one, but I have to consider it, because I want to go to NKUA. ## Lessons > [!lessons] > 1. **The small things are the ones nobody writes down** > No amount of reading prepares you for the things nobody bothers to write down, because they're too small to seem worth mentioning. Toilet paper, traffic, tourists, those I knew about. Nobody mentioned the produce bagger. > 2. **Merino does not help in an Athens August** > Merino wool holds up fine in [[Μινεσότα|Minnesota]]'s humid summers. It did nothing for me in Athens in August. I ended up at [[H and M|H&M]] and [[Pull and Bear|Pull & Bear]] for tank tops, fast, because what I packed just wasn't cutting it. > 3. **The sea is not the ocean** > I expected the sea to be like the [[Pacific Ocean]]. I'd read about the temperature difference and was ready for that. Nobody mentioned how much more buoyant you are in a sea than an ocean. > 4. **Being a passenger in Athens traffic is terrifying** > Enormous respect for anyone who drives there regularly. > 5. **The food was excellent** > It was better than what I used to get in SoCal. > 6. **Walking there costs no effort** > Walking everywhere made it easy to hit 20,000 steps a day, consistently. > 7. **A flight bag should open where the laptop is** > The CabinZero did okay as my flight bag, but I am still annoyed at taking laptops in and out of it. ## Planning notes > [!plan]- What I planned, and the ideas I collected > I did not plan anything beyond going to the beach, and I went a lot. :) > > Before I left I had collected a long list of ideas, most of them neighborhoods to walk and places to eat, and I let the trip go where it went. These are the main ones, so you can see what I had in mind. > > - [x] Walk to NKUA from Pangrati > - [ ] Spend an afternoon in [[Petralona]] and stay for dinner > - [ ] The [[Acropolis Museum]] > - [x] The Monastiraki flea market on a Sunday morning > - [x] The all-night Kubrick marathon at the Full Moon Film Marathon on 28 August [^ath-six-women]: Sound & Picture, [SIX Women in Greek Tragedy](https://soundpicture.gr/en/video/six-women-in-greek-tragedy/), directed by Panos Angelopoulos, an open-air production in English of six heroines from Greek tragedy, in the garden of the Athens University History Museum, 5 Tholou, Plaka. That page lists the 2024 season, and This Is Athens lists the [2025 season](https://www.thisisathens.org/events/six-women-in-greek-tragedy-athens-university-history-museum-2025).