Tuesday May 23rd
Sad to say goodbye to Crete again. We left the village very early to catch a 9am flight from Chania. All went smoothly and we found Sue at the airport as well as our driver with a van large enough for the 9 of us and all our luggage. The apartment I had rented from Vasilis was perfect, close to the Acropolis and the Plaka touristy area, with lots of space and a coffee maker. We had the afternoon to wander the Plaka and look for a place for dinner. We ended up making reservations at Avessinia on their rooftop with sunset views of the Acropolis. We have been there several times before and the views can’t be beat.
After dinner, Bill, Laurie, Eleni and Taylor and I walked around Psyrri and found a little corner taverna (Oraia Penteli) playing Bouzouki music. Good place to sit and people watch and have a couple of drinks. These guys were good and a couple of groups got up to dance.
Wednesday May 24th
Everyone except Bill and I went on a tour of the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum. Bill and I walked all the way to the Archeological Museum which in itself was interesting but the area in Excharia where its located was looking rundown. The college next door was desserted and the grounds of the Museum were very unkempt.
We bought a Samsung J3 phone for my Greek sim card – the phone I’d brought from the US was still locked by AT&T. This phone and the cheap SIM card worked quite well. The 1.5GB data lasted more than 3 weeks including tethering for our other phones to use the data.
The group all met back up at Xenia Zeus, a restaurant at the top of the Mniskleous Steps in the Plaka. It was decent lunch but not the best food we had on the trip.
We had a lovely last evening in Athens with a girls’ happy hour on the rooftop bar of the Athens Gate which is next door to our apartment. Then everyone got dolled up and we strolled around the Acropolis, through a park and ended up for dinner in the garden of Stamitopolous Tavern in the Plaka listening to a bouzouki band play old Greek folk songs. Food is good everywhere we go, but I’m getting tired of eating out every meal and it’s only the first week.
Recommended Restaurants in Athens
from a variety of sources – Rick Steves, Matt Barrett website, travel books and Tripadvisor. Those with a * are ones we’ve been to.
- Kati Allo near Acropolis Museum
- Old Taverna Stamatopoulos * – Live music, good food, in Plaka, eat outside in a garden
- Daphne Restaurant
- Cafe Avyssinia – rooftop dining with view of Acropolis. Make a reservation for sunset. *
Thursday May 25th
Said goodbye to Brian and Patsy who are heading back to NOLA. The rest of us are up early to take a bus to Volos and then a boat to Skopelos. This early in the season (May) the boats were not running from Agios Constandinos which is a little closer to Athens than Volos. We had the best spanakopita on the trip from the bus station in Athens! The bus took four hours but it was a beautiful drive North along the coast with very little traffic. In Volos we had just enough time to buy the boat tickets and pickup some takeaway lunches. Lots of sleeping on bus and boat ride.
We were all glad to arrive in Skopelos and decided after all it was worth the hassle to get there. It was about .8 KM around the paralia from boat dock to our rental villa. It was worth the schlepping of bags when we saw the pool that overlooks the water. It is a 100 year old house that had been somewhat modernized for tourists. The yard was large and we had sunset views every night. The beds were hard and the kitchen very basic but the outside areas were great.
