Day 1 Athens, Greece

Trying to upload a wonderful post. Maybe third time’s a charm?  I am lucky enough to go to Europe with three girlfriends for a vacation on The Mediterranean Sea. DG and I flew from the west. JP and ME flew from central Canada. We all let in YYZ to fly together to Athens, Greece. 

DG and I walked directly from our gate in Toronto to our next gate to meet our friends and they were already in line to board our next flight. It was so much fun to meet them and exchange hugs. We had arranged to sit in four aisle seats where we could visit back and forth for the flight. Upon touchdown on Athens, not surprisingly DG and I did not have luggage at the carousel. In fact we didn’t really wait much at the carousel because we have both purchased air tags connected to our phones to track our luggage. That app told us the luggage was sitting back in Toronto. We had a very cheerful desk agent who processed all our information to report our delayed baggage.  I felt I packed my carry ok very well anticipating my luggage might not show up - so I am good for a few days. 

We took a taxi from the airport to Fresh Hotel. Taxis are supposed to be government regulated and cost anywhere from 40 to 55 euros to get downtown. ME expected it to cost 45. The ride cost 60. We should have negotiated our price up front but I did pay the requested 60 euros. Lesson learned. 

Our hotel lobby was cool with air conditioning and that was appreciated because it was 38 Celsius. Our rooms were not ready so we dropped the bags we had and walked to Thanasis for traditional Greek food. It was tasty and not too expensive. 

We wandered through the markets for a couple of hours but I was starting to fade with the 9 hour time zone change and not having slept on the plane so I welcomed the return to the hotel to have a nap!  After a one hour nap we all went up to the rooftop pool where you could plunge in and cool down.  We can see the Acropolis from our roof top pool and restaurant!

A typical Greek road with a view of the Acropolis atop the hill!

After two hours enjoying the pool we ate supper in the adjoining restaurant. The peach and green salad was delicious - the spaghetti was okay. 

After supper we walked to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials like sunscreen!  Tomorrow we have tickets to the Acropolis at 9 am so we are all ready for a good night of sleep!