Athens Travel Blog

Like many of you will do, I’ve traveled away from my home in Athens to visit family for the holidays.  I must admit that I’m sorry to miss the plates of Greek Christmas cookies that appear on the counters of shops, hotels, or are offered by generous hosts over coffee. The tradition is to...

Funny fact about Athens: Christmas just wasn’t that big of a deal until King Otto came along in the nineteenth century, bringing a whole sackful of Bavarian customs and traditions along with him, like a Christmas tree just outside of the palace. It took! Every year the lighting of the Christmas...

Should your eyes rest on a gentleman in Athens of any age who is in a state of deep conversation, heavy thinking, sitting, waiting, or watching, (common activities for anyone in Greece) it’s likely that he’s complementing the activity with a long string of beads and a graceful flip of the...

As it goes with most everything in Athens, the quality of toilets can run from looking like something that belongs in the archaeological museum to a sleek, streamlined contraption with lights and buttons, so complex you suspect it might score higher than you on an IQ test. Rest at peace knowing that...

The afternoon was wearing on and the weather was changing, so it was time for the sailing school to put an end their open water course. They tacked their boats and pulled them into the harbor at Flisvos Marina under the watchful eye of Greece’s most formidable armored cruiser of the 20th century,...

Ho-ho-ho-boy… you’re stuck in Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos for six hours. Well, lucky you. Born for the 2004 Olympic Games, this airport is modern, clean, and chock-full of ways to while away your layover. There’s so much, I’ve compiled an awards list to...

This morning the cannons on Lycabettus served as an alarm clock for the whole city. October 28th is a special day in all of Greece because it signifies the neutral territory’s entrance into the Second World War. The legend goes like this: 70 years ago on October 28, 1940, the Greek Prime Minister,...

APAGOREVETE. It means “forbidden.” And if I had a European nickel for every time a security guard has walked over, waggling his (or her) finger at me and said that word while I’m snapping a few harmless photographs, I could buy a kilo of Greek honey for all of the accordion players...

The man behind Tom’s Garden, the colorful corner of Sotiros and Ipidou Streets in Plaka, was quoted in an article “I’m a bit of a philosopher. I tell people to live for the day and not to worry about tomorrow … Good comedians hide their sadness with laughter.” Tom was once a political...

The “periptero” or kiosk in Athens is a dependable source for nearly everything when you’re on the go in Athens. On a hot day, you’re likely to see person after person taking a bottle of water from the cooler and chunking fifty cents toward the owner without even stopping to exchange...