Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Athens day 2

We started each day off with breakfast at Di Cappo Café in Kolonakiou square. (It is just like a Paris café little table and chairs outside) We ate flaky croissants, pain au chocolate, freshly squeezed OJ (4 oranges per glass) and Joe had coffee.
This being the winter season for Greek tourism most museums and sites close at 2:30 or 3:00. We headed to the Acropolis grounds. The acropolis museum was closed due to items being moved from the old place to the new one. This was suppose to be done by 2007 now they say mid December (we planned this trip for Christmas but moved it up) We however did have time to check out the little section that they had open – so we will have to go back someday.

What you can't see unless you click on the photo is a huge zit right under my lip that had my whole bottom lip swollen.  
Quick stop at Elias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum. The whole second floor was dedicated to American costume jewelry who knew that stuff belonged in a museum. (From the 20’s -50’s)
I would like this dress
This I thought this was funny-he sure has a big mouth

Then we wandered to back to Monastiraki for gyros at Savvas. The waiter would not let me have a gyros sandwich because they are just for to go not at the tables. So I just sat there while Joe at his Souvlaki plate. Then Joe talked me into getting a gyro and coming back to sit at the table. OHHH man was the waiter pissed-but on the other hand it is true this place has the best Gyros in all Athens. Imagine a really good gyros and then they had some French fries in the middle. It sounds weird but it totally worked. YUM YUM.
The walk way we took - we always manage to find the most interesting routes 
The Gyros to go window. The man in the white shirt makes them for you.

Benaki Museum was open Saturday till 5:00 so we quickly buzzed through it before heading back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner.


pomegranate bush outside the museum 

Since this is Europe and they eat dinner late –the Greeks are always late and dinner here is later. We got the early bird reservation at 8:30 at Vlassi. It was a ways away from the hotel actually 3 metro stops and a walk.
Along the way there was a quick stop-under a street light in the middle of no where was a card table with a satin table cloth and lots of hand made jewelery by a cute old man. Since this was a whirl wind trip and shopping was not on our agenda it was perfect. 2 more treasure to add to my others. (FYI stores take major siesta too)

When we arrived late at the address a house? In a total residential area also with a different name then what I had – we just went in any way and they had our reservation. It was a house – layout like our in Brussels with different salons on the main floor. They had table set up in the different rooms, in our room there was grouping for 6 parities. One table already had 3 mid to late 20’s tourist that looked totally petrified by this whole thing. The waiter tells what the first course choices are (no menus just what is fresh and what the cook want to cook for the day) Then he brings out on a silver tray the options and pick what you want off the tray. Joe had some marinated eggplant with green peppers dish-some how the waiter offered to make me fried calamari and just like that he brought me hot & fresh fried calamari that was the best I have ever had.
Our main course we had baked lamb in butter with garlic for 2 people. Also wonderful the meat was just falling off the bone (1 leg piece and rib pieces on a huge platter) For dessert we split galaktobouriko a firm white custard square with phyllo down on top with honey sprinkled over it. This caught the eye of the other tourist and got the waiter and pointed to our table and ordered the same thing.
While we were enjoying our meal the room was filling up 2 tables were old Greek ladies all dressed up for their big night out. The other tables were friends and family It turned out to be a room full of loud and crazy Greeks. (Yes I included myself in this category)
Sorry no photos of this – It was totally a neighbor restaurant and did’t want to call out too much attention that we were outsiders.

One thing I would like to mention but don’t hold me to it. Athens is a cheap city. Our gyros sandwiches were 1.60, bottle water .50 Euros and our dinner Saturday night was under 50 Euros. By my standards cheap – Brussels is really expensive. I say don’t hold me to this because one time I told someone Cancun was cheap and they went there like a couple year later and were really pissed because it was more expensive then I told her. They said they had to scrape by on little food because it more then they budgeted for. Not sure what they budgeted for food vs. drinks.

2 comments:

Kate G said...

Those necklaces are great. I love stuff from street vendors.

Anonymous said...

You do find the most interesting places to visit when you travel. At least you had some idea what the Greek people would be like. Mom