I arrived in Athens last week and it was cold, windy and threatening rain at any time. February in Greece and it was cold. Color me surprised.
Anyway, I got the 9€ blue line train from the airport to Monastiraki and walked out of the station to a familiar scrum of characters, pigeons, tourists and cats in the square. My AirBNB was just around the corner so I was there in a heartbeat. Went up on the roof to see the Acropolis glowing brilliantly in the night. Yep, welcome to Athens!
The next morning I was up early and walked around the Monastriraki area, another touristy spot that has become rather homelike over the years. I got an early lunch at Efcharis, Greek coffee, Stuffed Zucchini Flowers and Gemista. I have a soft spot in my heart for stuffed cabbage, vine leaves and/or peppers, and this one was a rather good, albeit not great, version. Not sure I will go back, though the owner was a good sort, so maybe.
Set up my food tour for the next day with Athens Walks, I do like food tours when they are small groups and they choose locals places vs tourist places. We will see.
Then it was off to dinner in the upstairs area at Atlantiko for Saganaki Mussels w Feta plus some Grilled Peppers. Talk about mussels by the kilo, the plate was stuffed with them! Very nice dish, not great but very tasty and filling. And the Mythos went down a treat, as well.
Next day I got up and hit the square to meet my group, it was just Anna, our leader, and the 4 of us, which is a great group size. All of us Americans, which was interesting. We were off immediately and Anna said we should start with a basic bread that the locals frequently have for breakfast. To Koulouri Psirri makes Koulouri and is a favorite for the neighborhood. It is kind of like a sesame seed bagel ring and it was a good start for our tour, as locals came in and got a ring, or a bagful, and were out the door in a steady stream.
We walked across always busy Athinas Road, went past my old favorite Feyrouz and then turned north and walked up an old pedestrian street Aiolou, past a store with frozen handmade ravioli’s? Not sure…
To Zarkadian Deli where we had a charcuterie board with cheese. I really wish I took notes because the dark red sausage was outstanding, the cheeses were good too.
Then we visited Krinos, an old locals hangout, for fresh made doughnuts/Loukoumades and actually hung out with the doughnut maker as he spun the dough off his hand and into the hot oil. Amazing. The chocolate covering was WAY TOO SWEET but the regular one was very nice.
We then did the tourist perp walk through the fish market, very nice! I will leave out the fresh pig heads mounted in the offal section.
But we then took a hard right and stumbled into a very nice, rather refined, Mokka Cafe for a Greek coffee. Again, Anna parked us with the head person and we watched him make 4 Greek coffees for us in the heated sand thingamabob. That is pretty cool.
It was also a lesson in “listen to the coffee maker!” We got four of them and those of us who listened to the “Gently, no shake!” had a very nice Greek coffee. Two of our party ended up with a slightly shaken coffee that was a cloudy mess and they had coffee grains embedded on their teeth for weeks afterwards, I imagine.
Then we walked down another shopping street with amazing displays of hams and plants and household wares and spices and nuts…
Next we visited a nice tiny pastry shop, Loloneta (?), again with a steady stream of locals chatting a mile a minute and buying bags of pastries. We got 3 different versions of phyllo pies, one with cheese, one with spinach and one with… Not sure.
Anna ordered way too much, and she gathered up the extras and put them into an “extra’s bag”.
We were off to the races again and our guide pointed us in the right direction and fell behind a bit. We exited the side street at the umbrella building, not sure what the umbrellas were about…
So I looked back and Anna was giving a “street” family our extra pastries. It was good to see that our extras went to someone who could use them. And the other good thing is that the amount of street people is down a bit vs 2019 in Athens. Their economy had a rough decade but it seems to be recovering a bit.
We also visited a meze shop Tis Theatrou to steki, but I cannot find a photo of all the dishes we had there. We had a lot of food and all of it was rather good. All I remember were the Gigantes, those big white beans. And chicken of some sort. I think I was going into a gluttons coma…
We then headed down to Agia Irini Square to an old favorite of mine, Kostas. Where we jammed into a tiny table and destroyed several of Kostas gyros. A very nice way to end our tour. I cannot find the photo so i will put in an evening street view of Atlantiko instead.
So the tour ended and I was off to my BNB, where very soon the Acropolis lit the night, again.
Love this city.
The next day I was off to Naxos via the Blue Star ferry. Another favorite of mine.
Plaka/Monastiraki view of the Acropolis.
I think this is the meze selection at Tis Theatrou to steki. Not sure, though.
