First morning in Athens after a good rest overnight. Plan today was for all to hit the hop-on hop-off bus and see the sights of Athens. Except for PCB who had booked an in-depth tour of Acropolis and other key sights.

First stop , coffee / quick breakkie at Monastiraki Square – directly opposite our hotel. We had found an amazing Italian coffee place with pastries and the works the prior day. VenettiGo! was the name of the place, it was a takeaway only location , however everything they had was amazing, from pastries, crossiants, cookies, sandwiches and coffee. All grabbed a bite to share and it was breakkie on the go in the sqaure.

Just after 8:30 am we were on the Hop on Hop off bus.

First stop for our group was the Acropolis.
Early morning start was great , not too busy & no queues , got our tickets and we were through in a flash. Highly recommend all to get this done as early as possible in the day. (On our way out, we saw the queues to get in were super long !)

The Acropolis, a great structure and just impressive to think about how they built this place in the years gone without modern machinery…. all these large stones brought high up and assembled.
Whilst the place is being restored, it is a massive effort, this place is huge and they have only just scrapped the surface with the restoration…. still it is going in the right direction.
Acropolis done, now time to walk down to hop on hop off bus for the next stop.
Walk down was much easier than up, reaching the front entrance, the queues were now much much longer, it was only 10:30am. Highly recommend all to get to Acropolis by 9am to beat the rush and the heat.

Back on the bus , next stop was PLAKA – no idea what that was, however Meeta was our private tour guide and super amazing she was. Meeta had done a ton of research and listed key sights to see – super glad she was on top of that, it was now a matter of simply following her ;). It was only about 10:45am but the roads around acropolis were packed… our bus was moving super slow :(. We decided to get off a couple of stops earlier and walk it, was not too far and great opportunity to see the local areas.

Plaka had a some great laneways with food options and lots of it , found a place with great cocktails/mocktails – needed that for hydration after all the walking, however just interesting to come across these stores just randomly. Walking by we found a local herb store, picked up a bottle of chilli oil with chilli flakes, ladies had been complaining on how blend the food here was , this was a great find and hoping it would be useful.

We found a local Greek place for lunch, not the most amazing food but was a good break for the legs! Post lunch there were no more sights to be done which was great, everyone was now free to roam about and do what ever.
Evening was to meet up at another rooftop bar.

We all headed in different laneways, ladies were having a fun time. Along the way back to the hotel, Nita and I stopped over for coffee fix, it was a icecream place with good pastries and ofcourse coffees. Here we got to taste the best orange cake to date!! Wow, so moist and just yumm!
Highly recommend Kayak for its cakes and Gelato !

Coffee fix done, back at the hotel to rest a bit and then it was out again just after 6:30pm to head to our rooftop booking for 7pm @ Thea Terace Restaurant.

Me and Cheeky were the first to get to the rooftop place, slight problem – it was still bright and sunny outside with the sun directly coming onto the rooftop area where we were to be seated :(.
We changed the booking to 8pm, and headed out again – no point getting a tan , already had one ;).

On the way back, we met PCB and Yogita – they had not read the msg about us shifting the booking, but the reschedule dinner worked better for them, they had been super busy shopping and this gave them a chance to head back to the hotel to drop off their shopping and quickly freshen up. Ofcourse Nita being the kind one, helped Yogita carry the shopping….or rather carry some special bags 😉

Back at the rooftop bar just after 8, it was dark and yay!! no more sun! This was much better, however much cooler than last night. Still not bad, the views to Acropolis from were amazing,
The food here was very good and a welcome change from last night.
The chilli oil we bought earlier today was in big hit, everyone was adding that to their meals…. food here is not spicy at all…. travel tip to Greece for spicy tongues ….. bring some spicy oil/sauce or chilli flakes with you.
Great night, great company, just catchup and talk about how the day was and what to do tomorrow on our free day plus learn from the little master – PCB on the history of these rocks…. It was a great finish to the first full day in Athens!