Athens for only one night? Why not?

Athens from above

This weekend I met up with a good friend of mine who loves travel just as much as I do but with

completely different opinions about it. While he says if you go outside Europe you should at least take three weeks of time I'm of the opinion you can also make a good trip out of a week. But maybe that's because I like visiting citys and he to travel around the country which of course takes longer.

So this Sunday we came to a point discussing on what too do if you have to wait for hours for your connecting flight. While he said leaving the airport would be too stressful and you can't really see anything I say talking from experience it is the best thing to do.

When I went to Santorini with my cousin this summer we ended up booking really shitty flights because we had to go on a certain date due to work. Our route was Vienna-Zurich-Athens-Santorini. With a six hour wait in Athens..in the middle of the night. Instead of whining about the long waiting I decided to make the best of it and started to plan this six hour stay. Eleftherios is connected to the city via a new metro line, but unfortunately the last metro departs at 10 pm while I got there at 12 am. Searching the internet I found various opinions on how long it would take and how expensive a cab would be so I just decided to not think about it anymore and decide when I was there. When we landed we soon found a cabman, he was currently having a break and showed us where the cabs on duty were and also told us not to pay more than 50€. It was then

Greek Parliament at Sytagma Square

when we noticed a bus that had “Syntagma Square” written on it, Athens' main square and the place we wanted to go and a ticket was only 5€!

I have to say I was kind of nervous when we got on that bus because it was a long ride and I was worrying about being back on time and if there is a bus back. What didn't really help was when I checked my cell and got a text from my Greek girlfriend who lived in Athens for some years that said:” I know there are buses from the airport but they take for ever, better be safe not to miss your flight and stay where you are” , well thanks I'm already on that bus very comforting.

After all the bus ride took an hour and it drove directly to Syntagma Square. It's a big square in the city center housing the Greek Parliament, a park and connected to the main shopping mile. Since shops were closed we just strolled around the square. We even had a nice surprise walking down the street when we turned out heads to the left and got a glimpse the Acropolis something we did not really think we'd get to see. So all in one we had a five hours stay, 2 of them on a bus, one at the airport and two in the city and I can only say it was a fun and exciting experience because driving around town on that bus and walking the the city center although all shops were closed was still better than sitting at the airport for five hours being bored and I would always do it again.

Acropolis