Athens - Day One

My first day in Athens! I hopped on the Metro in Piraeus for the quick ride in and wandered around a bit before meeting Pamela at her hotel.

We decided we were hungry, so headed for Plaka and found a taverna. Two salads later (one Greek, one Cretan) we were off to the National Botanical Gardens.

The gardens were a bit smaller than we'd expected and not nearly as green as we thought. We had a very pleasant walk around, though, and saw the "collection of birds and animals" which consisted of chickens, ducks, geese, a couple mules, a cat in with the aforementioned birds (!), and a couple of parakeet-sized birds in a very large enclosure.

Next, we headed to Brettos, a liqueur maker in Plaka. When we arrived, we were the only customers, and the proprietor was very generous in giving us tastes of the various flavors: ouzo (2 kinds); banana, pomegranate, mango, and blue liqueurs; rakomelo; and mesticha. We each got a glass of liqueur - I had rakomelo - and chatted with the proprietor and a couple guys from San Francisco that came in. By the time we left, I was feeling very mellow!

We then went looking for the Ouzo King, and finally found the shop, but were disappointed to discover samples were not offered. After a snack, we headed back to Piraeus to meet Charlotte and change for the evening.

Then, off to the Hilton Galaxy Bar for drinks and a view of the Acropolis at night. It was fabulously beautiful, but I was glad I had mentally prepared myself for the drinks - some of them were as much as 25 Euro! We savored the drinks and the view then went to dinner in Kolonaki. Next - off to a bar, Belafonte, that was in Conde Nast. Unfortunately, it was closed for filming of something for tv - which was really disappointing, it looked like a cool place!

We hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a fun bar. We had no idea where he was going! but we ended up in Psyrri, which is a very cool area with lots of restaurants and bars. We chose a hookah bar, but didn't get a hookah for the table - although I did get a lesson in smoking a hookah from one of the staff.

After finishing our drinks, we headed home.... another night of getting to bed at 3 am!