okay no time for chit chat i have just got back from athens and i need to make sure that you go
visit when you go to greece yes you should visit the islands but you should also spend time in the
capital because it's incredible right we're gonna get straight into it because i have a lot to say
today and we're gonna start with my favorite thing to do in a new city although this was my second
time in athens but nevertheless i like to find a good vantage point today i'm gonna be sharing four
incredible vantage points with you and a fifth one at the end of this video this is this is how i
hook you in the first vantage point that i'm going to be sharing is mars hill also known as ariopigus
before i tell you everything i know about this hill which is a medium amount i want to thank
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free with zero fees okay back to our hill now it has a pretty long history in around 500 bc
the athenian council of elders started using it as their meeting spot and the council wasn't a
small body it consisted of a 500 men it's actually pretty easy to picture the meeting there because
the hill gets unbelievably busy so go there early in the morning and wear good walking shoes because
they've got these marble steps leading up that are incredibly slippery okay let's move on to our
sunset hill now it is called philippa hill also sometimes spelt like this and it is amazing i
loved it so much because it's quite a wild hill compared to the other ones there are loads of
trees it's a nice shady spot and the sunset from there is incredible because not only do you see
the acropolis which is probably the main draw you also see the ceronic golf you see the sea
and the views are really spectacular i was going to say it was my favorite hill but
i think i've got two favorites in fact let me share my other favorite now that one is called
lycobeetus hill which it might be pronouncing incorrectly but it's written like this and it's
more of a hike personally i didn't mind the uphill climb but that's partly because i visited in
november so it wasn't too hot in the summer i can imagine it getting pretty intense pretty sweaty
so if that sounds like a little too much there is also a funicular that can take you up to the top
however it isn't one with nice views because it's just enveloped inside a tunnel so if you're after
good views unfortunately you're you're gonna need to do a bit of working out but it is so worth
it at the top you will not only get incredible views there's also a small church there is a big
flagpole that you can see we actually saw them taking the flag down which was a bit confusing
i think it was because of bad weather but for a second they were like is this a coup it wasn't
a coup and there is also a really cool restaurant in fact there are couple there is um like a really
fancy restaurant and then a slightly less fancy restaurant they're both a little more expensive
than what you pay in athens in general but that's because you're literally a captive audience and i
ordered some tzatziki some souvlaki um i think we had hot chocolate and yeah it was delicious
highly recommend it our next hill is the acropolis itself it literally translates to high city so i
think it definitely qualifies and it is probably the most famous tourist site in all of athens and
for good reason it does get busy i will be very honest about these yes athens is an incredibly
busy touristy city but these places are hand on heart totally worth it the acropolis has been the
center of athens since the neolithic era that's 7000 bc and it has gone through a lot of changes
around 1400 bc the ruling mycenaeans chose it as a spot for their palant and by 800 bc athenians
were building temples all over the place then the persians came along and they destroyed everything
in 480 bc they invaded the hillside and they just raised it to the ground rude but athens
didn't just sit around moping because around 30 years later ruler pericles decided you know what
we're going to make things better we're going to put it back together and that is when the absolute
heyday of the acropolis began over the next two generations literally all of the famous structures
that we see on the hill today were built those buildings include the parthenon the eric theon
the propeller and the temple of athena nike the most famous of these is the parthenon a temple
dedicated to goddess athena whom the people of athens consider their patroness hence the name
athens athena athens the parthenon is the most important surviving building of classical greece
and the most famous example of a dork temple named after the columns you see all around it what you
see of the person on today is just a ruin albeit a pretty well preserved one here's what happened
for nearly 2 000 years the parthenon stood there almost intact and then 1687 came along now in 1687
the turks were ruling athens and most of greece and the venetians wanted a piece of it they wanted
to destroy them they wanted to take over athens and they didn't care how they did it or what got
damaged in the process so it's pretty intense warfare and for some reason the turks thought it
would be a brilliant idea to use the parthenon to store their weapons including gunpowder
and then a mortar shell landed on the temple and it went boom so that that was a bad idea
in hindsight but if you'd like a better idea of what the parthenon originally looked like and it
was nothing like what you see in athens these days because what we tend to forget about the ancient
romans and the ancient greeks is that their buildings were very colorful you see those you
know elegant roman marble statues they were white they were painted um yeah the proper layer the
entrance to the acropolis actually used to have a canopy of stars painted on top of it i digress but
pretty fun to crash and you gotta admit the python um you can see a life-size replica of it including
the giant athena statue that was once inside it in um nashville the replica was designed by architect
william crawford smith and built in 1897 as part of the tennessee centennial exposition i actually
got to visit a few years ago and you know what it is pretty impressive it feels a tiny bit tacky
um but yeah it's it's a very unique place now now back to athens back to athens we're gonna talk
about probably the second most famous tourist site in athens and that is the agora now here's one
thing you must bear in mind there is in one agora there are two there is the roman agora and what
is called the ancient agora the roman agora is the less ancient of the two is built around the second
half of the first century bc so that means it was created after the lives of socrates and plato and
aristotle and all those really big household philosophy names so they wouldn't have had a
chance to walk around here but it was around the reign of julius caesar i know we're in greece and
not rome but a fun fact about caesar julius caesar his name in fact gave rise to other names like
kaiser in german or tsar in russian and these are names now used to denote other types of rulers in
those countries you can explore the roman agora in less than 30 minutes the ancient agora is the main
spectacle here the agora is often referred to as a marketplace but i want to make it abundantly clear
that it is so much more it was essentially the epicenter of social life in all of athens
so think of your typical saturday what would you do you might go out shopping yes absolutely
but you might also go to see a play or concert you might go just walk around and you know be
exposed to other human beings um you might wanna like eavesdrop on other people's conversations
you might wanna people watch you might wanna get some food you might wanna go to dinner in a nice
restaurant all of those were things that people in ancient athens did as well and they did them in
the agora okay so yes they would be clad in their magnificent tunics and look a little bit different
to us but essentially be doing very similar stuff um they when i talk about eavesdropping some of
the people that were frequently eavesdropped upon although they were pretty vocal themselves
were um some of the most renowned ancient greek philosophers including socrates you might have
heard of him or diogenes who you might not have heard of but he was referred to in a walking
tour that i'm going to mention in a second as the original hippie which i found pretty intriguing
now this walking tour that i want to talk to you about is done by rick steves he has an app by the
way this isn't sponsored but it is brilliant he has an app that you can download for free and in
that app he has loads of walking tours all around the world also for free and i did the one of the
acropolis and i did one of the ancient agora and they were absolutely brilliant both of them
last about an hour and it really enhances your experience because instead of just blankly looking
at rocks trying to glean something from that you are given all this incredible information so
i'm leaving a link below it is such a good walking tour and again completely free um absolutely loved
it my two personal highlights from the agora are the temple of ephesus i just can't believe
how well preserved it is it looks absolutely spectacular and if you download that free walking
tour um rick tells you a little more background about it but even more impressive was the stone
now i know i mentioned it is a replica but what's most impressive about it is the museum inside
of it the store itself was an ancient shopping mall the original structure was built in 150 bc
and the reconstruction you see here in the 1950s a little fun fact about the columns notice how the
lower part of each of them is polished smooth this was done on purpose to encourage people to pause
lean against them chat and ultimately shop for longer now on to the agora museum i just want to
show you a couple of the incredible items inside this is the claritarian an early voting machine
citizens would put ballots in the slots then black and white balls would go into the tube
and randomly select who would become the future city council members then there's the klepsidra
or water thief this was a water clock used to time council meeting speeches you can fit 1.7 gallons
of water inside of it and it took 6 minutes to empty out the allocated time for each speaker
and there were so many other cool objects i absolutely urge you to go to this museum
okay that is our magnificent viewpoints and the ancient agora done i think those items alone would
be enough to last you what two to three days in athens but don't worry there's plenty more and my
next point is a very quick one a very general one and that is to make sure you visit a greek taverna
i'm linking a specific one here but there are so many incredible restaurants that are traditionally
greek in athens some of them do tend to be a little more touristy than others the one that
i'm liking here was not touristy at all um but yeah completely up to you and what your comfort
level is where you want to eat but the food is incredible and i have a whole separate video about
greek food it has been doing incredibly well loads of people watched it already um so if you want to
be one of them here's a little plug um you should absolutely become one of them by watching it the
next five places i'm going to mention would make for a really nice day out it might be a little too
much to fit into one day but if you're feeling ambitious this would be super super fun so here
is a little map of what that walk would look like and it would start on syntagma square this is the
central athenian square of course back in ancient times that city center used to be the agora the
acropolis nowadays it is syntagma running down from syntagma square you will find irmu street
this is the main shopping street in athens it's it's a nice shopping street it wasn't my favorite
thing that i saw in athens but there are loads of high street boutiques as well as some more
expensive ones um and when you walk to the bottom of it there is a very very nice church i couldn't
film inside the church because it was prohibited but take my word for it it is worth going inside
but there is a better church i don't know are you allowed to do that are you allowed
to be like this church is okay that church is better it feels a bit blasphemous but anyway
there is a better church built in 1842 this is athens metropolitan church or the metropolis
the name given by orthodox greeks to their cathedrals the impressive church i'm talking about
isn't the metropolis though it's the small one next to it its outside decorations were scavenged
from earlier buildings and include everything from a pagan calendar a pre-christian freeze
old tombstones and some mythical griffins around the corner from these two churches you will find
aya philatheist streets full of shops selling all sorts of religious paraphernalia from robes for
orthodox priests to incense burners and golden icons a short walk away from the central church
you will find hadrian's arch i just love the arch i i don't know why there are many many ruins
in athens but this is one of my favorites when you're done there head east you will go through
the national garden which is a place with trees like i'm underselling it it has turtles it has
a small petting zoo trees it it's a park but it is a very nice park the next place we're going to
is the panasonic stadium now this is the original olympic stadium it's very cool my boyfriend who
is obsessed with the olympics absolutely loved it when i said this was the original olympic stadium
just now that might have been a little confusing it hosted the first modern olympics in 1896. the
ancient olympic games weren't held in athens but in olympia on the peloponnese peninsula in
southern greece in ancient times the pan-athenaic stadium hosted the pan-athenaeu games held every
four years from 566 bc to the 3rd century a.d the panathinaik stadium is also notable for being the
only stadium in the world built entirely of marble while you're at the stadium don't forget to get
the free audio guide it's pretty interesting okay that's our little walking tour finished and now i
want to introduce you to three neighborhoods that i think you should visit while you're in athens
and they are conveniently congregated in one area so it is a really simple thing to
do and we're gonna start with siri siri is one of the quirkiest artsiest neighborhoods
in all of athens it's really fun to just stroll around and admire the colorful buildings and all
the street art i don't want to say it's a super authentic part of the city as it's so close to the
center but it certainly has its own character and it's a place the locals genuinely come to
especially at night there are two fun spots i want to mention the first is baba rum a cocktail bird
that is consistently ranked as one of the best in the world and the second is six dogs and all
day all-day all-night bar slash cultural center slash club serving organic cocktails and snacks
once you're done exploring siri start heading north toward a neighborhood called exarchaea
on your way you'll come across the central municipal athens market a really really wonderful
market selling everything from freshly caught fish to meat and vegetables there are many restaurants
inside the market serving really nice seafood it's great for a quick lunch before you head to
edgy ex archaea with its anarchist bookshops its live music cafes and its alternative nightlife
and in the evening especially on a friday or saturday head to gazi ghazi means gas
in greek and that's because it is home to a huge sprawling gas plants which has now been converted
into a social space it's kind of hard to describe they have a lot of things they have food trucks
they have museums and exhibitions sometimes they have performances and loads of restaurants
in the area okay remaining are four places that i couldn't fit into any other category but i wanted
to mention nevertheless the first is probably the least remarkable and it is a small church i
just chanced upon but really liked so i wanted to share it with you it has a very long name
it's called the greek orthodox church pamegiston taksarchion and panagias grigorusas i apologize to
anyone who's greek next up is genuinely one of the best museums i have ever been to if you're
even remotely interested in philosophy please visit it's called plato's academy museum and it's
a tiny bit further from the city center than some of the other places i've mentioned but so
worth it i personally studied philosophy at ib international baccalaureate if you're familiar
with it it's like a levels equivalent high school basically and i loved it and um this museum
brought it all to life if you're familiar with plato's allegory of the cave they have an entire
room dedicated to explaining the concept there's a small theater there are loads of interactive bits
um there are visuals there are maps it's so good i highly highly recommend it yeah i i
don't know if you can tell from my enthusiasm levels but i thought it was pretty cool
next up we have another spot which is um a tiny bit you know unusual maybe to visit but kind
of cool it's called lyfada and it is the seaside part of athens if you were visiting athens in the
summer i think it would be a brilliant place to go and finally number 19 monastery of kaisariani
i said that wrong kaisariani no i said that right never doubt yourself monastery of kaisariani is
a perfect day trip athens can be really busy really noisy and really overwhelming and
if you have enough time there i was there for a week and it was my second time you should take
one day to just get out now i'm not just talking about the monastery itself i'm talking about the
general area that it's in on mount heimitas it's the perfect little hike away from athens you get
beautiful views of the city but also generally you feel like you're in nature you get to recharge
your batteries a little bit and there are some really fun hikes actually well signed posted
you can just download maps.me if you want something a little more detailed but
yeah the signs probably would be sufficient to just plan a day out and you can very easily get a
taxi beat is who i would recommend they're a taxi company that make booking really really easy in
athens you can just take a taxi there and take a taxi back it's super simple and the taxis are very
affordable and that my friends is it for today thank you so much to wise for sponsoring this
video don't forget that discount link is in the description and also pinned in the comment below
and thanks to you as well for watching if you like my videos i bring out new ones every friday
so don't forget to subscribe and i will see you next week had a lip gloss on bye