a guide to visiting athens on We Heart It

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Last week I visited Athens with my parents. I had never been in Greece before so I was pretty excited, and now I'm happy to be writing an article about it.

This article will be a guide to visiting Athens. I will mention various subjects and I hope these will help you if you decide to visit it one day as well.

Now, lets get started!

1 | language

The native language in Greece is Greek, but of course most people can speak a bit of English. I'll mention the pronunciation of some Greek words, just because it's always nice to know and be able to use some of them.

✓ yah-soo (hello or goodbye)

✓ kah-lee-mer-ah (good morning)

✓ eff-kha-ri-stoe (thank you)

✓ neh (yes)

✓ oh-hee (no)

2 | places

All of the places I will mention below are free for visiting if you show your student card. This is pretty amazing, because I don't know any other capital city in Europe that makes this possible.

✓ The Acropolis

It's definitely the most famous archaeological site of Greece. It's located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens (which results in a great view) and contains among other things the Parthenon Temple and the Temple of Nike.

Just below, there are two ancient theaters: the Dionysus that hosted plays written by Euripides and Sophocles, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

✓ Ancient Agora

It's located at the foot of the Acropolis and was the heart of ancient Athens, the focus of political, commercial, administrative and social activity, a religious and cultural centre and the seat of justice.

You can also visit the Temple of Hephaistos there.

✓ Plaka area

The narrow streets, zigzag stairs and old mansions remind you of the old Athens. In a big part of the area cars are banned so it's nice to walk between numerous tourist shops and taverns.

✓ Roman Agora

It's located at the west side of the Plaka area, and is built by a Roman ruler.

✓ Olympieion

Or the Temple of Olympian Zeus was dedicated to the god Zeus. Only 14 of the original 104 corinthian style columns still stand today.

✓ National Archaeological Museum

This is honestly one of the best museums I ever visited. The must-sees are the bronze statue of which experts can't agree if it's Zeus or Poseidon, the mask of agamemnon, the tombs of the kerameikos, and the horse and jockey.

aesthetic, architecture, and beige image

3 | transportation

✓ on foot

I visited almost everything by just walking around. My feet did hurt the last day, but it was worth it lol.

✓ tram

A 5 day ticket for all public transport costs 9 euros, and apparantly the tram is the easiest way to visit the places I mentionned above.

✓ hop on hop off bus

This is a handy way to visit a city! Plus, in Athens the prices of these busses aren't expensive at all.

✓ taxi

A taxi might be pretty handy to get from the airport to the center of Athens. Normally, it costs 35 to 50 euros.

4 | food

✓ Greek salad

It consists of olives, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, olive oil, red onion and so on.

✓ Souvlaki

It's a popular Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat, mostly pork or chicken.

✓ Moussaka

The structure looks like the Italian lasagne, but it consists of different ingredients as meat, tomatoes, aubergines and so on.

✓ Coffee

The amount of coffee shops and bakeries in Athens is amazing! They are the cause of my new addiction to ice coffee with caramel lol.

✓ Water

At every cafe or restaurant, the first thing you get is water. I think it's something they should do everywhere in Europe, yet that isn't the case at all.

5 | extras

✓ The Panathenaic Stadium

Or also called the Olympic Stadium or the Kallimarmaro, translated as beautiful marble. It's a multi-purpose stadium built for the first international Olympic Games in modern history. These were held in the summer of 1896 in Athens.

✓ Syntagma area

It's the center of Athens and includes the Parliament that's guarded day and night by two soldiers called evzones. Behind the Parliament are the National Gardens and the Presidential Mansion.

✓ Aegina, Poros and Hydra

There are many beautiful places outside of Athens as well, but I only had the time to do one boat trip so I can only give you information on these three Islands I visited.

Aegina has two must-sees, the Temple of Aphaea and the Cathedral of Saint Nectarios. The Island is also known for its pistachio trees.

Poros is a green Island with many traditional fishing boats.

Hydra Island is an old town without cars. It's known for experiencing a donkey ride.

✓ Cats

This might sound totally random, but I kind of saw a lot of cats in Athens. And when I googled it, it's a known thing on the traveling internet.

✓ Nature

I really loved the beautiful nature in Greece! Especially the olive trees, orange trees and citrus trees.

6 | tips

✓ Adults

If you aren't a student anymore or don't have a student card, you can buy a combination ticket of 30 euros for visiting all the places I mentionned under point two, except the national archaeological museum. This ticket is valid for 5 days. If you want to visit the national archaeological museum as well, it's 10 euros.

A helpful tip my dad got from the tourist info office was to buy your combi-ticket at a less busy archaeological site or museum, so you don't have to wait in line at the Acropolis for example.

✓ Easter holidays

It was the perfect time to visit Athens, because it wasn't too hot or too cold. The temperature was around 21 celsius degrees, which is far better to visit things than the temperature in summer.

This was a guide to visiting Athens, and I hope you liked reading it!