Athens Travel Blog

If your plans in Athens involve a hostel, apartment, camper, charter yacht or sailboat, you’re going to be happy about the new addition to the Arrivals level: a traditional “pandopoleion” stocked with locally made dry goods, American cereals, fresh fruit, cheeses, meat, olives, beer, wine, herbs,...

Another Easter come and gone. Athenians are using this last night of the official Easter holiday to digest generous portions of lamb and finish the last of their “Chronia Pola” phone calls. It’s sad to say goodbye to Pascha but visitors are surely going to enjoy the refreshing sight...

The best and worst thing about Athens is you just don’t know what to expect when you turn a corner. Walking through Plaka today the surprise was for the best: a woman preparing to become a human statue (and being filmed in the meantime) framed against a heavy paneled door and yellow stucco facade...

Easter is coming and Athens is getting ready. The almond trees are getting showy with their pink blossoms, the streets are perfumed with neroli and incense wafting from church windows, and the shops are putting up fairytale window displays: a rainbow of Easter candles called lambathes suspended from...

This morning the bell towers of the city churches are clanging like wind chimes in a hurricane; the welcomed sun is warming the flat roofs and countless balconies of Athens. Independence day in Greece is a day of deep national pride. In spite of the bitter winter, with hostile exchange between citizens...

The Greek Revolution from the Ottomans started with a series of insurgence fighting, mostly from wild-eyed mountain men with the handlebar mustaches called “Kleftes.” The official, legendary start date is March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised a flag on Agia Lavra in Kalavryta...

It’s the second Sunday of the Great Fast here in Athens; we’re still trucking along down the highway of penitence called sarakosti, forty days of blood free meals until 12am Easter morning. It’s true that practicing a perfect lenten diet is waning with modern times, but everyone...

Walking through Plaka today I spied the oxidized sign of Brettos Distillary, the centenarian drinking hole that’s made it into every Athens guide that’s worth reading. But what was this? I wasn’t at 41 Kydathineon Street in front of the dark, crowded bar, lit solely by the rainbow of...

There’s a cumulative sigh of relief coming from cows, sheep, goats, chickens and fish all over Greece. The period of Carnival is over; this week started with Καθαρή Δευτέρα, Clean Monday, when all of the Orthodox-approved foods were rolled out onto long banquet tables and shared with...

I’ve said it a million times to a million people- the best time to come to Athens is in the spring. Flowers are bursting from the trees lining the streets lending a sweet smell to the city; the calendar is littered with holy feasts and observances, people seem to be on their best behavior- even...