A bit of an explanation is needed as to how I ended up in Greece. For the final week of my trip I had arranged to meet Original Travel Companion Helen, in Romania. At the time when we made this plan, Romania seemed the perfect choice being both on the UK’s Green List and on bus routes to neighbouring countries Serbia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. My initial plan was to take the train from Macedonia into Bulgaria enroute to Romania – until Bulgaria closed it’s borders to non-EU citizens. Thanks Brexit! My second plan was to bus it from Serbia into Romania – until the bus route was cancelled. Thanks Covid! My third route was a bus from Macedonia into Thessanoliki, Greece then fly into Romania. Also cancelled. By this point we had decided we would quite like to visit Romania so my route of choice became a €10 bus from my current location of Prizren, Kosovo, back into neighbouring Albania, followed by a flight from Tirana to Athens, giving me the opportunity to spend a few days there before a flight to Bucharest to meet Helen.
All good until my body chose the one and only morning where I had absolutely no time to spare having booked an inter-country bus and a flight on the same day to sleep through my alarm and wake up at the exact moment my bus was crossing the Kosovo / Albania border. Not to worry as money solves most things in the Balkans and I was in the very privileged position of being able to take a taxi all the way from Prizren, Kosovo to the airport in Tirana, Albania. The guy at my hotel reception called his friend who is a taxi driver and assured me he was on his way, he was just stopping off to get a PCR test so he could cross the border himself… 100 euros and just two hours later I was safely at Tirana airport too early to even check in. This is a good example of why it’s a good idea to have an emergency travel fund when you’re short on time. No questions asked as to how the driver got his ‘PCR’ result within 15 mins and never mind that the border police didn’t even look at me sat in the back of the car fully masked up as the driver simply passed our documents through the window.
I arrived in Athens and checked into the strangely named Safestay Hostel where I had to change rooms 3 times and the only selling point was the rooftop terrace with it’s sunset views over the Acropolis.
The next day I hopped onto a bicycle tour of the city, always a good way to orientate yourself and see where you want to come back to. Athens is a great place for trying vegan versions of Greek food – the breakfast at Nudie Foodie, souvlaki at Veganaki and moussaka at Mamma Tierra were all amazing.
The cycle trip with ‘Athens By Bike’ was great although it included the return of the Middle Aged Americans, and the Middle Aged American Couples at that who couldn’t even deal with sitting separately from one another at the ice-cream stop (“this seat is reserved for My Wife”). I actually took delight in cycling between them and seeing them frantically try to catch up again.
I also loved stumbling upon the Remember Fashion punk clothing shop with the guestbook full of my rock heroes.
A visit to the Acropolis musem would probably be a good idea before a visit to the ruins themselves as mostly I didn’t really know what I was looking at, again wondering if I actually attended any history lessons at school or if we really didn’t learn any of this. The Acropolis is something I’ve always wanted to see so here are a few photos even if they have no explanation…
Instead of rushing off for a day trip elsewhere, I had a full day wandering around the city, browsing the ruins and the Natural Archaeological museum. It always fascinates me how jewellery made thousands of years ago is not that different to the styles made today and the hoards of treasures found in the Mycenae graves were enough to keep even a museum skeptic like me interested for a couple of hours.
I couldn’t leave Greece without a trip to the beach. Edem beach is just half an hour outside the city centre by team and was actually very nice with water over 20 degrees Celsius despite the hostel woman telling me otherwise.
And all of a sudden three days in Athens concluded the solo aspect of my European tour – final stop Romania!
Maz On The Road 