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    Six Days in Athens
    Six Days in Athens
    Six Days in Athens
    Ebook104 pages54 minutes

    Six Days in Athens

    By Graham Kingston

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In this eBook (13,200 words, 23 photographs) we discuss our Six Days in Athens. We had an additional day each for arrival and departure. Our Athens eBook is different to our previous eBooks in that we focus on observed cultural aspects rather than a day-by-day account of our activities. Although we do have a chapter which presents our schedule and activities.
    Our impressions of Athens are drawn from the walking tours (over 16 hours) we joined and our experience of self-catering in a pre-dominantly local neighbourhood.
    Therefore, we have chapters which focus on our living experience, and our experiences related to our private food tour, neighbourhood tour, and the tours of the Acropolis Museum and Acropolis. Other topics we discuss relate to issues raised during our visit, such as Greece and the European Union and The Greek Economic Crisis.
    The food and neighbourhood tours left a lasting positive impression on us and we’d strongly recommend them. Highlights from those tours included the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, walking through the protest suburb of Exarchia, shopping in the markets of Monastiraki, stumbling across The Trilogy, feeling as though we would get blown off the Acropolis, tasting traditional Greek coffee and Greek yoghurt honey and nuts, plus a local meze.
    A highlight of our stay was living in a very nice self-catering apartment in a local area (i.e. not touristy), eating alfresco in the local restaurants, visiting the local supermarket for supplies, and travelling on the cheap, clean and practical Metro.
    We always find disappointments: not being able to organise a Street Art tour and not having enough time (it is ever thus) to visit all the landmarks of Athens.
    When can we go back!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGraham Kingston
    Release dateMay 14, 2019
    ISBN9780463715246
    Six Days in Athens
    Author

    Graham Kingston

    IntroductionOS Wayfarer is not a business or an enterprise but a passion!At its core, OS Wayfarer is about self-publishing eBooks, especially our travel eBooks. So far, we have self-published eight travel eBooks.OS Wayfarer is sustained through the partnership of Graham and Katherine Kingston. It is our passion for travel, and my (Graham’s) passion (some might say obsession) for personal computing, photography, and project management, that has resulted in OS Wayfarer. Fortunately, Katherine knows her history, provides great editing, calms Graham’s exuberance, anchors the outfit in some reality, and ensures a measure of class.We endeavour, for less than the price of a cup of coffee, to share our travel experiences with you. We hope you enjoy our eBooks.Our approachFour key principles underpin our approach:•We love to take a “Do it Yourself” approach as much as is feasible: in respect of our travel, eBooks.•A cost-effective approach is always front of mind.•A commitment to maintaining standards is important to us.•A desire to share our knowledge and expertise thereby helping others to enhance their travel experiences.We strive to be professional; and to adopt practical, affordable, achievable, and effective approaches to the development and publishing of our eBooks.Our backgroundsTravelWe are retired baby boomers and we have been at this caper, in one form or another since about 2009.We travelled as a part of our professional working lives but to less developed countries. We lived and worked in Bandung, Indonesia (four years), Kitwe, Zambia (four years) and Kuching, Sarawak (two years). These wonderful opportunities provided a rich experience for our family and instilled a desire to travel (perhaps it was always there).We have travelled quite a bit since retiring and intend to continue. To date we have visited various parts of the world: for example, Athens, Prague, Isle of Skye, along the Queensland Coast, Istanbul, Bucharest, Budapest, and Barcelona (it just so happens that all these visits resulted in an eBook!).Earlier we travelled to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, as well as Italy on two Insight Tours.ProfessionalI (Graham) started out as a Radio Technician before becoming a technical teacher, and technical teacher trainer. This foundation led to a very enjoyable career as an adviser, program/project tenderer and manager, and independent consultant in international development assistance.Katherine commenced her career as a primary school teacher before becoming an ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) teacher, Self-Access Centre manager, and IELTS (International English Language Testing Service) Centre manager.

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      Book preview

      Six Days in Athens - Graham Kingston

      Chapter_1_Introduction

      Chapter 1 - Introduction

      Background

      Visiting Athens has been on our agenda for 10 years, but the Global Financial Crisis and subsequent Greek Debt Crisis caused us to rethink our plans. The news out of Athens was not all that encouraging with stories of civil unrest with violence and diminishing basic services stoking our concerns.

      Originally, we were fascinated with Greece as the home of democracy, its mythology, and the ancient architecture. However, as we researched Greece, we became more interested in its contemporary culture, 20th and 21st century history, and its present-day relationship with the European Union. Also, we found the ancient history complex and esoteric, and therefore difficult to understand. We concluded that one needed to be a student of ancient Greece and its history to undertake a meaningful tour of the ancient ruins in one week. Moreover, our lived history is more closely tied to the 20th and 21st century period.

      By the time the news from Greece had improved our interests had changed. This eBook reflects those changed interests.

      Overall impressions

      We thoroughly enjoyed our six days in Athens. So much so, that we are inclined to return and spread our wings a bit. There is only so much can be achieved in six days.

      Our time in Athens was spent walking the neighbourhoods, sampling and learning about local food, living in a self-catering apartment in a more local neighbourhood, visiting the Acropolis and Acropolis Museum, and learning about the culture.

      For some reason, we felt comfortable in Athens (even though I was pick-pocketed). Perhaps it is because we lived in Melbourne, Australia for quite a few years, which has the second largest Greek population in the world. This meant that the restaurants, food and coffee culture, and general demeanour of the people was familiar. The culture we experienced we liked.

      On our journey in from the airport, the taxi driver warned us that the drivers were crazy, but not taxi drivers of course! After our week we’d describe the Greek pedestrian that way as well. However, as with many Asian countries we’ve visited (and lived in) the cars and pedestrians can achieve an effective accommodation that makes things work. That’s probably another reason we felt comfortable – Athens had an Asian feel to it for us (markets, street meeting places, finding-a-way to get things done, cheerful attitudes despite hardship).

      Our highlights included:

      Exploring the central neighbourhoods of Athens on the walking tours

      Sampling Greek food on the food tour

      Living in a self-catering apartment and eating locally

      Stumbling across The Trilogy, and suddenly coming across a Byzantine-era church in a busy shopping street in central Athens

      Walking through the unique suburb of Exarchia

      Observing Monastiraki Square and Flea Market

      Climbing to the top of the Acropolis 

      This eBook details these experiences and more.

      Our eBook

      The presentation of this eBook is a departure from our normal approach. Normally, the core of our eBooks is about our daily schedule and activities; however, this time we have tried to focus on the cultural aspects of Athens as reflected in our experience. We don’t think we’ve completed this journey to a different approach yet, but we feel we’ve made a start.

      In this eBook, we discuss our experiences of Athens culture during our six days in Athens (excluding one day each for arrival and departure – eight days in total).

      We present chapters which discuss: the neighbourhoods of central Athens, our experience of Greek food culture, what it was like to live in our self-catering apartment and dine locally each evening, what we learned about Greece and the European Union, The Crisis, climbing the Acropolis, our impressions of The Trilogy, and the enduring impact of the 1919 – 1922 Greco – Turkish war. Our top references are consolidated in an appendix.

      Planning and Research

      The planning and research for our trip to Athens commenced some 18 months prior to our trip. This exercise was charted in a series of blog posts on our website. These eight posts posed the question "Should we visit Athens?" and explored a range of topics from accommodation, the Greek islands, Meteora, Greek culture, and tours. This research showed us that we needed to spend about three weeks in Greece to taste all it has to offer, and we only had a week. Hence, we chose to confine our trip to Athens.

      Chapter-2-Our-Living-Experience

      Chapter 2 - Our living experience

      The Koukaki neighbourhood

      Our apartment was in the local Athens suburb of Koukaki. Its

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