Bag Full of Rocks

Both of my parents had their 60th birthdays last year, so we thought the best way to celebrate was to have a family holiday somewhere warm. It’s incredible how difficult it can be to plan a holiday when you choose to travel from two different countries.  There was no point for me flying to Lithuania from Scotland first, just so I can take the same flight as the rest of my family. Finally, after checking hundreds of flights & dates, I found a perfect destination – Greece.

Greece has been on my list for quite a while and I was happy I would get to see it with my family. I arrived to Athens late on Saturday and headed to the hostel I booked for the night. My parents and brother were arriving on Sunday afternoon, so I had a bit of time to explore the city by myself.

As soon as I got out of the metro, I realised the neighbourhood  was a real party district. Success! Loads of people were out and about, the bars were buzzing and I loved the vibe of the place. It was nearly midnight when I got to the hostel, so there weren’t many people chillin in the common area. Well, I was a bit disappointed, I fancied going out for a drink with some new random friends, but that didn’t seem like a possibility. I got some food and a beer and chilled on the rooftop terrace instead.

The next day I decided to go for a wander while waiting for the family to arrive. I remembered the entrance to Acropolis was free that day, so I joined the crowds and explored this very iconic place. It was hot, crowded, so I had a quick walk around and headed out hoping I would come back here with my parents. I’m glad the visit was free, as I’m not sure that 20 euro entrance fee is worth paying for… It’s just my opinion though. Unfortunately, by the time my parents arrived, the Acropolis was closed, so they didn’t get to see the inside, but we stayed on the Areopagus Hill to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful experience.

The next day we left super early to get a ferry to one of the islands, but I’ll talk about our island experiences in the next couple of posts. We returned to Athens on the last day before catching the flights back and had another day to explore this beautiful city.

We found this amazing place called the Brunch Factory. The make brilliant food with incredible portion sizes (almost impossible to finish) and the atmosphere there is lovely. I’m still dreaming about their pancakes….

What I also liked about the city was that it kept surprising us. You’d walk around and almost out of nowhere some beautiful ruins would pop up, or you’d find yourself in a beautiful little streets where residents find ways how to introduce as much greenery as possible.

We also decided to go up Mount Lycabettus, since we kept seeing it from the distance and wondered what was up there. As soon as we started going up the hill we spotted a massive wild tortoise just roaming around. I’ve not seen a tortoise this size before, so I was super excited. The tortoise could not care less and strolled past me with no interest whatsoever. No offense taken.

It was hot, so going up was a bit of a mission, but the views of the city were fantastic.

I loved this beautiful city and would recommend it to anyone. Now I can’t wait to start writing about my Greek island adventures! 🙂