Greek Vacation 2017 : Part 1

After a hectic school and work year full of battles big and small, this vacation was something all three of us greatly looked forward to. Though KK and thangam prefer the Cyprus version where all they did was laze around the swimming pool and get up only for food , for my sake, they agreed to go for Athens, Mykonos and Santorini – the ‘active’ vacation  and boy was it active!

We were thrilled to have been lucky enough to be allocated business class fares for the onward trip for economy prices. Little did we know that the only reason was because Lufthansa did not provide special meals on short haul trips unless you are booked business class and since we had 2 vegetarian meals selected and it was not yet peak season, we were prioritised and given business class( Birmingham to Munich and Munich to Athens)! This was not the case on the way back (Athens – Frankfurt- Birmingham).

We landed in Athens and stayed in the Athens Avenue hotel in Syggrou square. This was about 15 minutes ( 4 euros by taxi)from the famous Plaka district which is just around the corner from the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Syntagma square etc.

The rooms were fantastic, with the marble tiled deep bath being the highlight. However, the hotel was not where we were expecting to stay and there was no swimming pool which was a disappointment to the young one who was looking forward to a swim.

The first thing that stuck me about Athens was that it had a general run down look especially due to the graffiti that defaced every wall there was, even the walls of private homes. However, on a closer look, for such a crowded and touristic city, the city was spotless. I have been to Rome, Edinburgh, London, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris and Singapore and while all these cities looked richer, Athens was definitely cleaner.  The graffiti though spoiled the entire look and feel of the city.

We explored a side street and found a quaint bakery and generally roamed around till it was time for the night tour of Athens.  After a short tour with the tour guide giving us some info on the Acropolis, Hadrian’s arch, Lord Byron’s statue, changing of the guards etc we stopped at the beautiful marina Alimos for a look-see and a selfie J

This was all through key tours and as per their itinerary,  we next walked through the fantastic Plaka to a greek tavern where we had a traditional meal overlooking a stage where there was a continuous stream of dancing going on. The music and dancing was great fun and many from the audience joined in. It was as fun as a Bollywood show if not more. Most in the audience knew the greek lyrics and joined in lustily! All that we did was join in whenever the crowd went ‘Opa!’.  (Bravo?!)

What impressed me was the general comfort level of women and the gallantry of the men. Even at midnight there were lots of young women dressed for a party, walking the plaka  and I did not notice even a single man behave in an untoward manner.

Especially in the Taverna, while the audience joined in the dancing, the DJ, invited random people and paired them off together. He even asked the ladies to kiss the gentleman thus selected on the cheek. Without exception, all the men behaved gallantly and with decent charm. One particular gentleman was very tall and he was paired with a short lady. The lady was asked to kiss this guy’s forehead. She shook her head and was wagging her finger at the DJ. Cutely the gentleman knelt down to enable the lady to give the requisite kiss and then took her hand, kissed it and walked away.