Back in 2013, I spent a week in Athens on a field trip with my high school class. We saw so much in seven days, went from museum to museum, saw the Acropolis, the Danish institute and so much more. We also took a day trip out to Delphi, which I also visited this time around. I loved Athens and consider it one of my favourite capitals in Europe, so I was more than excited to finally be back in the city at the end of the field trip with the university.
We only spent one full day in Athens in between roadtrips throughout the mainland of Greece and Peloponnese, as the teachers wanted to concentrate on seeing sights outside of the city, since Athens is so well connected with flights and therefore easy to get back to. I didn’t mind, as I felt like I’d already seen Athens and I really wanted to see more of Greece.
Still, it was great to explore Athens again!
We started the day off by going to the Acropolis Museum, which is located a few hundred meters from our hotel. The museum focuses on the artefacts and structure remains from the Acropolis and it was built to house every artefact found at the site, even though they are spread out throughout the world.
The museum is quite large with nearly 4000 objects making it a great introduction to the Acropolis, which you can see from the windows of the museum.
We paid a quick visit to the Danish Institute in Athens and then headed up to the Acropolis. There were hundreds and hundreds of tourists ruining the experience a bit, but going up there is always a joy because of the beauty and history of the place.
The Acropolis is an ancient citadel located on a rocky hill overlooking Athens. At the site, there are remains of several buildings with the most famous one being the Parthenon. The hill has been inhabited since the 4th millennium PC but there are no remains left from that time. The buildings that can be seen today were built in the 5th century BC, although they were severely damaged in 1687 in a siege by the Venetians during the Morean War. Most of the buildings have since been reconstructed and since 1987 protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We spent several hours exploring every part of the Acropolis, while trying not to get suffocated by all the other tourists. The view from the top over Athens with the mountainous backdrop is quite magnificent, probably the best in the city, especially that day with the dark thunder clouds coming in over the city.
After going to the Acropolis, we went our separate ways and could choose for ourselves what to do with the day until 5 PM, where we were to meet up at the National Museum of Greece.
Lula, Amanda and I decided to continue our shopping spree from the day before, walk around the quaint streets of the city center and eat some good vegan food, before we headed to the museum. We could’ve been more cultural (but who says that H&M and Zara is not being cultural!??), but we were tired and full of impressions, so we just needed an afternoon with the girls.
At the museum, we spent two hours looking around primarily the Neolithic and Bronze Age exhibitions. We’d already seen plenty of museums and monuments from the Classical periods, so we wanted to focus on some ancient prehistory instead. To my great disappointment, there was no mention of the Mesolithic or Palaeolithic periods in the museum (or anywhere else in Greece really), despite the fact that there are finds from both periods. This is one part of archaeology that is often overlooked in Greek (and Italian) archaeology, which is a great shame, as those periods represent the first people in the area – and also because the Old Stone Age is my favourite archaeological time period!
In the evening one of the students, Philip, decided to show some of us one of his favourite spots in the city – a place that quickly rose to the top of my list of favourites too!
We went to the Greek island-inspired neighbourhood of Anafiotika, located right below the Acropolis, where all the houses are small and the walls are white with blue doors and windows, built according to typical Cycladic architecture. The neighbourhood is beautiful with a feel of the Greek islands in the heart of Athens.
It was fun to see something new in Athens – and of all places to see in the city, this is the place that I recommend the most. It’s largely undiscovered, so you won’t meet many tourists here, the architecture is unique and the views are incredible!
The place is a laborynth of same-coloured houses, so it’s easy to get lost, which I of course did when I lost sight of the others when taking a picture. But I found the others again after a while and then we went to a roof top restaurant to eat a delicious meal together while looking out at the Acropolis on one side and the white neighbourhood on the other. It was a beautiful evening and a perfect end to a great day in Athens.
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