{"id":170,"date":"2014-07-05T23:50:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T20:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/?p=170"},"modified":"2014-07-06T00:55:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T21:55:32","slug":"acropolis-and-glyfada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/2014\/07\/05\/acropolis-and-glyfada\/","title":{"rendered":"Acropolis and Glyfada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Parthenon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the great things about being in the city with an unlimited travel pass is that I can get almost anywhere I want to relatively quickly. I’m going almost everywhere on the underground, which is very reliable and convenient.<\/p>\n

First thing this morning, I went to the Acropoli<\/a>s \u2013 10 minutes away on the underground. Free entry for EU students with a valid university ID card. (Hooray! Mine\u2019s valid until the end of the month). I enjoyed the views over the city, and down towards the coast at Piraeus.<\/p>\n

Returning to my hotel, I spent a bit of time using the Internet downstairs; the owner had his grandchildren here and asked me to show them how to access games on the computer: The perfect test for my Greek, as they weren\u2019t yet of school age and didn\u2019t speak English (the owner, by the way, speaks to me in English).<\/p>\n

After my daily siesta (which I took earlier than usual today) I headed to Syntagma on the underground, from where I could jump on the tram. The tram is covered by my travel pass \u2013 so no need to pay for new tickets. There are two lines: one line goes to \u03a3.\u0395.\u03a6. (the Peace & Friendship Stadium), and I took the one heading to Voula.<\/p>\n

Not far before you get to Voula lies the Athenian suburb of Glyfada \u2013 home to quite a few Greek celebrities (including two of my favourite Greek singers). There\u2019s the main beach which has it\u2019s own tram station; but I stayed on a little bit longer and jumped off at Palio Dimarcheo (\u2018Old Town Hall\u2019) station after seeing a nice quiet beach with a taverna on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Glyfada\"<\/a>This beach is West facing and the sea calmer than on Tuesday; there was no wind here. I had a longer time at the beach today and swam more than once as well. It\u2019s strange to think that both Glyfada and Voula have beaches packed with foreign tourists; and in between, less than 5 minutes walk from Glyfada\u2019s main beach, lies a very quiet spot full of mainly Greeks!<\/p>\n

For dinner, I got the tube to Acropolis Station and wandered round the pedestrianised streets there; heading towards Theseio Station, which is on the other Metro line to mine. The route took me right through the heart of Athens\u2019 tourist districts (the sort of places we\u2019d probably stay if we were here on a package holiday). As nice as it was to walk through in the evening, I wasn\u2019t to stay and eat here. I wanted something more Greek.<\/p>\n

That Greek experience I found just round the corner from Acropolis Station<\/a> \u2013 but outside the pedestrianised bit. I\u2019d walked past it when I first arrived earlier in the evening and made a mental note to return if I couldn\u2019t find anything else. So I returned.<\/p>\n

\"Dinner\"This was a restaurant with a few tables on the pavement outside, and a small number inside. There was no menu: the food was on display, and I simply was able to say to the lady (the owner I assume) which dish I wanted. For \u20ac8,50 I had moschari me rizi (beef with rice) and a Fanta orange. It was a lovely little place \u2013 not hidden away, but much quieter and much more relaxed simply because the tourists stick to the pedestrianised street just over the road.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my last day in Athens tomorrow. Heading to the flea market at Monastiraki in the morning, then to see the changing of the guard at Parliament (they get the army band out on a Sunday), then I plan to walk Mt. Lykavittos.<\/p>\n

Bye for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about being in the city with an unlimited travel pass is that I can get almost anywhere I want to relatively quickly. I’m going almost everywhere on the underground, which is very reliable and convenient.… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,135,28,47],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athens","tag-acropolis","tag-athens","tag-beach","tag-glyfada"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fred-hart.uk\/greece2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}