Athens in a nutshell

If you aren't visiting Greece anytime soon, you might find this post boring. I'm recording it mainly for myself and fellow travellers who might appreciate a few ideas for travelling to Greece. The Debster in our apartment rental in Athens.

The apartment's terrace.

In Athens, we rented an apartment through a Greek-American woman named Carole. Carole has five or six great apartments, all in the Pangrati neighborhood of Athens. This was our second time to rent an apartment through her. Last January, when I surprised C with his 30th birthday party in Athens and some of his friends fly over from the States, we rented an eight person apartment from her, which was superb!

This apartment was very spacious and only about a twenty minute walk to the "center"of Athens. It was also extremely clean and furnished with a complimentary welcome basket with all sorts of local Greek goodies, including Greek wine and snacks. Almost all of her apartments include rooftop terraces with views of the Acropolis. They also all include wi-fi and cable t.v. and are extremely affordable. This is definitely the way to go if you are travelling with 4 + people.

My parents at O Kostas

One of my favorite things about Carole's apartments is that it's near an amazing restaurant called O Kostas. It was once a person's home and only holds about eight or ten small tables.

It is oh so cozy and the food is about as authentic as it gets. Managed by a man and woman, the man waits tables while the woman (I think they are a husband/wife team but not sure) cooks in the small, fragrant kitchen in the back. My favorite dishes were the fried zucchini fritters, fried cheese, beet and garlic salad, and hummus. (The Greeks call hummus something different but I can't remember the word for it but it's basically the same thing but a tad creamier). The waiter brought our table a small chalkboard with the menu on it or he just recited it to us. Here you eat family style, (which I love), sharing several small plates and perhaps a “main plate." It seems no matter how much we ordered, our bill never ran more than 10-15 euro per person, including drinks. O'Kostas's address is Ekalis 7 and their phone number is 2107011101 and the man that works there speaks English. Carole provided me with this great, local, restaurant rec and I thank her so much for it. We ate their twice this trip and ate their twice last year, too. It's THAT good.

After leaving Athens the first time and coming back after Mykonos (which I'll blog about next), we spent our last night in Athens at the Central Hotel, right in the Plaka. This picture was taken from the rooftop terrace of the hotel. The hotel was in a great location, super clean, and had a great intercontinental breakfast. Central Hotel's basic double room costs 138 euros a night.

Putzin' around the Plaka in Athens

Plaka neighborhood

We stumbled across the restaurant Kuzina in the Plaka, which is where C and his friends ate last year when we were there. C said it was great. (I hadn't arrived yet when they ate there).

Kuzina is on Adrianou 9, right in the heart of the Plaka, and their phone number is 2103240133 . C and the group said the food was great, and it's in an area where you can't go wrong with if you'd like to have something to do after dinner. Carole's describes Kuzina as "Adrianou Street is a great people watching spot. Some examples of the tasty treasures you can find here are: feta cheese mousse dumplings with pomegranate sauce on traditional fried cheese; steamed mussels with feta and herbs are a very traditional “mydia” dish. If that doesn't make your mouth water, try the figs wrapped in walnut leaves as a tasty appetizer."

Hey, "when in Rome!" Twirling my napkin above my head like ALL the Greeks do. (ha)

This next place we visited was strictly for entertainment purposes only. The food was awful but if you know that going on then it's not so bad. We just stuck to Greek salads and munched on bread, which we knew they couldn't mess up too badly. Even though the food was bad, the entertainment was well worth it. Greek singers and dancers performed to traditional Greek songs, and even broke a plate or two for us at the grand finale. I of course got dragged up on stage and danced a bit with the dancers and the rest of the women who were convinced to go up. (Ha, I didn't include those pictures).

I suggest checking out this show. It IS "turisty," but from what we have learned, these kinds of things usually are. But the service is great (even if you only order salads) and you get to watch two hours of non stop peformances! Taverna Kalokerinos is on Kekropos 10 in the Plaka.

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A few other places that Carole suggested that we didn't get to try are listed below. (These are also her descriptions).

Zeidoron (Psirri) at 10 Taki and Agion Anargiron 210 321-5368 Drawn in by the meaning of the name, life giving, (“zei” which means life, and “dora” which means gift) and the beautiful placemats, we were definitely happy with the gifts we received as the food arrived. We recommend the most perfect braised pork, a common menu item, simmered in an uncommon lovely peppercorn, rosemary and wine sauce, crispy zuchinni fritters (kolokythokeftedes) and chickpea fritters (revithokeftedes - think falafel meats latkes) and a wonderful baked eggplant in a fresh tomato salsa with feta and tiny onions.


MEZEDOPOLEIO GEORGOS AND ATHINA at Damareos 25 (at Damarios and Kononos). Open for lunch, quaint, simple and fun to be in the kitchen with Athena. It' s a plain little taverna which you enter through the kitchen, where you will find Athena hovering above the day‟s offerings. Lift the lids, smell, point to what looks good and take a seat in the adjoining dining room.