It’s late Wednesday afternoon. I’m sitting on the balcony of our apartment building in a suburb of Athens called Pagrati. It’s a huge 2 bedroom apartment right amongst the locals and we love it. From the very end of the balcony we can see the Acropolis, in the opposite direction a small chunk of coast and on Hamish’s bedroom balcony, Mt Lycabettus. We are 1 minute from the bus and supermarket, and a few more minutes to the main local street Filolaou, which is loaded with shops, bakeries, cosmetic stores, hairdressers and cafes. We are the stand out ‘non – locals’ in this area, but everyone is super friendly.

Since arrival, we’ve been busy busy busy! Here’s a day by day overview of what we’ve been up to.

Saturday 5/10 (Hamish’s 14th Birthday)

We wake up early and pack the last of our things before our host Nico (the friendliest host we’ve ever met!) bids us farewell and packs us into his wife’s Hyundai. He tells us she doesn’t work (she does, she cleans the 3 apartments) so will drive us to the airport for a fraction of the price of the taxi. She is a lovely young woman, originating in Poland and has been in Crete for 5 years married to Nico. She chats about her new and old life on the trip to the airport. They both have told us life is tough in Greece: wages are low, he says people need to work two jobs to get by and he is not lying. I see him in one of the restaurants (he was leaning on the bar having a ciggie, but tells us he worked that day) – he also works in a hotel about half an hour from Agia Pelagia. Her cosmetics background is not useful in Agia Pelagia. They go to Poland every year in the off season with their cat. He works (Nico, not the cat) and she gets back into her cosmetics work (lashes, brows etc).

Hamish has not slept well so is grumpy on his birthday. We have given him a Crete t-shirt and when he opens it he says: “Oh, something else to pack” Rod and I roll our eyes. He’s been difficult before on his birthday, so we just ignore it. Things turn worse for Hamish at the airport when he is reallocated to a seat diagonally across from us. It’s not a window seat. He can have a window seat in row 18, but he says he’ll stay near us. He can’t sit in our row because he needs to be 16 to sit in row 10 (just one ahead of the exit row). He is scowling. We get through security easily and find some breakfast, hoping this will help his mood (it usually does). He is still not very pleasant, but improves after I buy him a ‘birthday’ sugar doughnut. He goes for a walk, comes back and unprompted, apologises to me for his behaviour. We are friends again.

Getting to our apartment is relatively quick and easy: the X95 bus followed by an Uber. As stated, our apartment is in a local neighbourhood and is beautiful. Athens however, isn’t giving a great vibe. We’re pretty open minded about cities and places we’re visiting: Athens is old and a little tired. But so are we.

Our host has left balloons, a cake, candles and a card for Hamish. How lovely. Rod and I head to the supermarket to get supplies and then explore the local area. We are on the lookout for a birthday cake for Hamish and we find something pretty special (he tells us later it is ‘too creamy’ for him *insert eye roll) It’s similar to a cheesecake and at least Rod and I have enjoyed it this week… The host has also left instructions on an area to go for dinner. Getting there is a tangled maze, dotted with scooters, cars and one way streets, but suddenly we’re in a gorgeous town square ‘Platia Varnava’ Finding somewhere to eat is easy and we all enjoy our traditional foods (spicy cheese dip, meatballs, salad, pita, tzatziki).

Sunday 6/10

Our activity today is a free walking tour of Athens. We Uber our way to the meeting point (as we haven’t organised our public transport cards yet and the Uber is like 4 Euro, so cheap) and see our tour guide George. People arrive in dribs and drabs – we are group of about 10 from the US, Australia and Argentina. Hamish is the youngest, but there’s a 19 year old from TAS and the Argentinian couple are probably in their early 30’s. The rest appear to be retired, some sporting knee braces. I remind Hamish he may have to engage with people today. He doesn’t look impressed – I’m starting to wonder what has happened to my interested boy, surely 24 hours of being 14 hasn’t had that much of an impact yet! George is energetic and knowledgeable. He has a background in history, archaeology and architecture – a perfect combination for a tour guide.

I have a lovely time chatting to the young woman from Tasmania and likely miss some of the important information, but not the story of the Greek priest (Archbishop Damaskinos) who saved the Athenian Jewish population by getting them fake ID cards. The Germans said they knew he was behind this and ordered a list of the names of all Jews in Athens. The story goes, he presented the Nazi’s with a list of 2 names: his and the Lord Mayor’s. The Nazis threatened to execute him and he goaded them by saying “make sure it’s a hanging, because that’s how Greek religious leaders are executed” which threw the Nazi commander off and his life was spared.

The 3 hour tour turns into a 3 and 1/2 hour tour and, like that, we have a great overview of the history of Athens, the Gods, the buildings and some prominent Greeks. George provides us with recommendations of where to eat and what to visit – everyone tips him (as is the practice) so he is well rewarded for his time.

We leave the group and immediately go in the wrong direction, but find some food and cool drinks before eventually heading home where we do some washing and I crack open the 2 Euro cask of Sangria (don’t judge me) whilst Rod has a wine and Hamish an orange Fanta. The washing is hung on hangers inside or on the outside clothesline, which is accessed via the kitchen. I am careful not to drop anything, as it’s 5 stories down and I don’t know how to get to the yard where our undies may land. Rod is unable to hang the washing out due to his fear of heights. I don’t mind posing for a photo to prove how brave I am.

Later that night Rod figures out how to log into Netflix (he thinks this is some achievement) and we discover ‘Kaos,’ which serves as our (heavily modernised and embellished) recapitulation of George’s lessons on Greek mythology.

Monday 7/10

Hamish and I have voted for the Athens War Museum today and we start there, but not before Rod has found a local kiosk and purchased our Athens Cards (8 Euro for unlimited public transport rides for 5 days) and we’ve scoured the public transport website which is confusing at best. Turns out our bus (the 227) is 100m away and is a direct line into the main square (Syntagma Square). We tap on and find a seat. We walk through the beautiful, shady and quiet National Gardens and our interest is piqued by the many, many armed responders leaning against the garden walls, some in full riot kit, with riot buses on corners. We work out the Presidential Mansion is what they’re guarding.

The war museum is a combination of general Greek/Athenian history and military history and is excellent. I particularly liked the statue of ‘woman with folded arms’ – I’m sure you can relate.

Greece seems to have been at war for ever! They were at war before and after both the 1st and 2nd world wars – dreadful. Hamish scores a free ticket due to being under 18, so the museum costs us only 10 Euro.

Our next stop is the Acropolis, but we haven’t pre-booked tickets (I tried and tried the previous night, but had difficulties) so are told there’s no more tickets left for the day. Not disheartened, we eventually find the 227 bus stop which will bring us home. The bus is already full (no sitting or standing room) but another 12 people get on, including us. We are packed in – there are no safety rules. The bus driver keeps making stops and we are relieved when our stop finally arrives. We chat simultaneously on the walk to the main street about our individual but shared experience. The 227 is something to be reckoned with.

I have threatened Hamish with a haircut and his day has arrived (see pic). The hairdresser works silently and meticulously- he charges a mere 5 Euro for the haircut, but Rod gives him 10. Rod and I enjoy cooking dinner tonight in the apartment kitchen, without the little necessities from home (olive oil, non stick pans) but we manage well – whilst eating out is nice, it’s not sustainable for a trip of this length and chips with every meal are only a novelty for so long. We have one more flight until we have a car for a month, so will have a bit more space for food items we can pack up and take from one place to the next. After dinner I book the tickets for the Acropolis.

Tuesday 8/10

The 227 lets us down. We wait and wait and wait. The bus disappears off my live map twice, so I find us a new bus which is a 15 minute walk away. I’m sick of waiting for a bus that’s never arriving. No sooner do we get to the end of the street when the 227 rears its ugly head – but it won’t stop for us. I apologise to the boys and we walk back to the original bus stop. The 227 eventually arrives, but we’ve been waiting for over an hour.

Our plan today had been:

Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

Picnic in the National Gardens

Acropolis – the ticket is for 3pm

But due to the dismal bus operations, our timings are out of whack. We decide to eat our picnic lunch first, which is a very pleasant way to spend 30 minutes. We then walk to the museum. It’s a small but impressive museum. The guides there run some displays and we learn that the early Greeks invented:

Automatic wine dispensers

Door alarms

Computers

Magic fountains

Military signalling systems

Musical instruments

Basically loads of stuff using hydraulics and/or pneumatics. We stay there for an hour, vowing to return to finish the museum after our Acropolis visit.

We walk to the Acropolis and enter the massive compound. We weave our way up the Acropolis complex, looking at other ruins (Dionysus’ theatre – Greek God of having a good time – the first ever theatre) and another theatre that has been renewed and is used for modern day concerts, before summiting at the Parthenon, which sits atop the Acropolis. The views are spectacular. The crowds are OK and we head to the Greek flag. The Acropolis is huge – we also see Athena’s temple. We don’t spend loads of time there, but the entire excursion has take us over an hour. We descend, get water and head back to the museum where we play ancient games and try to solve a 24 piece tangram. None of us can.

We brave the heaving 227 and grab spicy cheese dip and crackers to go with our evening drinks on the balcony. Life is good, but we are leg weary and looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow.