Greece: Day 1

My first Day in Athens is combined with a travel day. I woke up at 1:30AM on Saturday the 29th to get ready for my flight at 6AM out of LAX. First I washed all of my linens because I like to come home to everything clean. I got ready, and took Lyft to the airport at 3:30AM. I arrived to the airport at 4AM and checked in my luggage. I went through security and did my usual dance with TSA to clear Chris’s ashes.


I sat around and waited for the first leg of the flight to JFK. Everything was thankfully on time and away I went. At JFK, I had lunch at Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant, it was great!! Then boarded the next flight to Athens.

So funny story, on both flights I sat next to some attractive fellas and both now have my phone number (no, I did not ask for theirs, they can call if they want). As Forrest Gump would say, that’s all I have to say about that.

I arrived to Greece not so well rested ( see previous paragraph), cleared customs rather quickly and was on my way to the hotel. I am joining another tour group here and I arrived to the hotel with about 6 other people that are part of the group. We all arrived early so some were trying to figure out what to do or if they should eat because it was only 11AM and our rooms weren’t ready. I grabbed a map, figured out how to get to the Parthenon and off I went! There were some ladies that originally said they wanted to walk to the city center and we were all walking together at one point but then after two blocks they changed their mind so I was on my own.

It has been raining all day in Athens and that makes me love the city even more. I walked and walked and walked, suddenly I saw it in the distance, the Parthenon. I became giddy and rushed myself a bit. I walked around a lot, exploring and enjoying the sights. After all this exploration I came up in a little cafe and I had some warm comfort food on this rainy Sunday: Moussaka! It was DELICIOUS! Also, noticed that there is a lot of graffiti in Athens which I actually enjoy!

After lunch I found a metro station and made my way back to my hotel. The metro was easy to use and only cost 1.40 €. At the hotel I took a nap for a couple of hours, organized myself, and then went down to the lobby to have our first group tour meeting.

First we had some chips and champagne in the main conference room. We went around introducing ourselves and lo and behold, lots of Americans with a few Aussies and two young girls from Asia (I’ll get country specifics later, I’m sure). Once introductions were done, we went to the top floor of the restaurant where we had an AMAZING meal! It began with a Greek salad. Our main course consisted of delicious grilled pork. Dessert was a lovely chocolate mousse with a tarte sauce and vanilla ice cream. All of this with free flowing wine and a view of the Acropolis.

What an awesome first day!!!