Welcome to Harry's Real Athens Greece Travel City Guide Athens 2005
Harry's Athens Greece Travel Guide Highly Recommends: "Paul" The Honest Greek Taxi Driver |
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| Athens Greece Taxi Transfers: When you arrive in Athens, Greece what could be better than having someone knowledgeable waiting for you at Athens airport to help with your luggage, show you the best view from Mt. Lykavittos in Athens center and drive you to your Hotel? With a Cruise departing Athens major port of Piraeus and time to kill? Do what hundreds have done and let Paul show you the sights of Athens in a few short hours and drop you off for embarkation. He can also transfer you from the airport, hotel, port, or any other transportation hubs, to comfortably and reliably continue your journey.
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Harry's Post Olympic Athens Greece Travel Guide Update
Athens new Tram system is modern and clean but due to congestion often slowed. When I rode it last Sunday afternoon (tickets 60 c) it was extremely impressive and peppy. These futuristic, Italian designed carriages move like articulated muscle cars and can go from zero to sixty in 8 seconds! Make sure you are holding on or sitting down! They seat 57 and stand 150 people too! Athens Tram runs from Syntagma Sq. to the sea shore(s). Unfortunately there are too many stops on the tram line and no express service. Count on anywhere from 1 to 2 hours on a heavy traffic day start to finish. The tram is also useful to visit Athens many public and pay beaches which are warm enough: May - September. See the culture menu above for more info on Athens, Greece beaches.
Athens Tram's "T shaped" route offers a good inexpensive tour of the Glyfada seaside and journey hence. Glyfada's popular Center or Platea is worth a peek too and has lots of stores and restaurants. If you go the other way towards New Phaliron there is a gourmet delight waiting for you at the Monadikos Taverna too. Its two blocks past the terminius at Myrtidiotishs 4 in Piraeus and is also know as the Alexandros! The menu has a Cypriot flavour to it. Try the Saganaki Haloumi, hot cheese salad, fried green peppers and dont miss the Cypriot specialty Stefalies pork meat balls. Its low key and reasonably priced too!
Other Olympic inspired bequests include several all encompassing ring roads with (no surprise) misleading signs too! There is one such road serving the airport which will take you to Piraeus or the Center but after a frustrating castor oil and bollix dose of local traffic. Airport buses ply this route as well! See the To and Fro menu above. Athens new Metro is highly recommended: fast, clean and inexpensive (70c). It touts an airport route (6-8 eu) which unfortunately entails a bus ride leaving or arriving from the airport so take a taxi, airport bus (2.90 eu)or finally, the metro. Airport Transfers are available too, they cost more but are well worth it if you have lots of baggage or deserve to be pampered in an air conditioned Mercedes E-class. Plus you can split the cost if you aren't solo or make a friend or two. Its been my experience that you meet more people in Greece going somewhere than after you arrive and get stuck in your hotel. Old style ferry boats are one example and a good way to slow down and scope out.
Speaking of scoping out, if Greeks have a blind spot its in making signs that make any sense. Like a vision problem but more bureaucratic. The new Athens airport related ring road signs are an example but just one of many. Getting to Athens port of Piraeus from the center in your rental can be gnarly too. Pireos street which is Piraeus street changes names twice, is one way part of the time and really low on guidance.
It has seemed to me for years that somebody responsible in city government should finally do something about these misleading signs.
You'll need a good map if you'll be renting a car. There are plenty available both here and abroad but with the recent changes, an Athens bought map is probably best! See the maps menu above too!
There are so many guide books available here its bewildering and expensive. I noticed the publication and updating of loads of new Athens and Greece Guide books 6 months prior to the Olympic Games and only now abating. Everybody got in the act. The Italians, The Aussie's, The Yanks, The Brit's and the Greek publishers too. Spend some time on this site and then buy a guide book if you need to. I mean how much 'new' info on the Acropolis do you need? Still, there are many pretty and explanatory picture books to be purchased on line and in Athens. Some particularly nice, in English, German and French coffee table editions from the Greek press cost over 100 eu and are not available abroad. See the floating menu for the best Athens book stores please.
Athens' museums have been renovated plus we got a new sculpture museum (as if we didn't have enough sculpture before). Its part of the National Picture Gallery but difficult to get to as its no where near the NPG. Its more for the Greeks than the foreign tourists, at least so far. Athens and Greece's museums in general are heavily weighted towards sculpture as no ancient paintings survived. Two dimensional representations of space are mostly confined to churches rather than museums. As you view ancient sculpture try to remember it was all painted before display. Especially the Parthenon. More info above!
WINE FESTIVAL FEB 4,5,6, ZAPEION "TA DIONYSIA"
Ta Dionysia were an yearly, ancient Athenian religious event. Need I say more?
12 NOON TO 8PM, 500 TYPES OF GREEK WINE "I never miss a Greek wine festival if I can help it" - H.
see walking tour map no.1 |
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| Dateline Athens Greece:
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Greece switched to DST
on October 31st. GMT+2 |
Athens Greece Travel: Results & Savings
On this site you can get results 2 ways, both of which will
save you money:
1. You can freely learn about Athens, the capital of Greece,
home to 4,500,000 people, and the cradle of democracy and
western thought. Its also where many of you will spend at
least some time on your way to other Greece travel destinations
and will discover how to make the most of Athens.
Or, If you are doing your homework prior to a trip including
Athens Greece or Greece Travel:
2. You may use this Athens/Greece Travel Guide to find great
travel deals. This site provides you with exceptional values
especially on luxury and superior Athens Greece accommodations,
cruises, tours, weddings, honeymoons, car rental, yacht charter
and cabin cruises! I deliver more travel bang for less travel
buck! I really wouldn't have gone to all this trouble otherwise!
Don't take my word for it, see for your selves!
Please compare with other Greece Travel sites and tell your
friends/message boards. As Sy Syms says: "An educated
consumer is our best customer!." Read
the terms and conditions where applicable!
Your Personal Choices Make the Difference
Did you ever stop to consider that
when you book a package tour you aren't really helping anyone
in Greece? Why go to an artificial resort built by foreign
fat-cats in cahoots with a couple of Greek politicians after
some bogus environmental study?
These resorts are designed to keep
you spending on site and have about as much real Greek culture
as the British Museum or some of these on-line hotel sites popping up everywhere. Trickle down economics? I don't think
so! More like Swiss bank accounts!
Plus you'll be hanging around with
the same old crowd you are trying to get a break from. Users
of this site will sleep that much better at night knowing
they will be helping real Greeks from day one! Your tourist
dollars will directly effect real live human beings and provide
an economic boon to a poor country.
Greece Tours 2005
My advice is start here at the overview
2005 Greece tours.
Half Day to 4 Day Tours of Athens and Greece's most important sites for
below list price. Athens
By Night, Athens
Sightseeing, Mycenae,
Delphi,
Epidavros,
Meteora,
Corinth,
Cape
Sounion to name just a few.
Major Cruises Greece 2005
If you are considering a cruise of The Black Sea, Baltic,
Med, or anywhere in Europe be sure and visit this
Greek islands Cruises page for the lowest prices anywhere
guaranteed!
Athens Greece Travel & Worldwide Flights: Anywhere,
Anytime - Online Booking!
Compare
prices/choose from three kinds of air flights? Book for
up to 9 people, in your language, in your currency, from a
ANY departure point of your choice. On line and right now
or months in advance. Hotels, car rental and more world wide!
Want
round the world flight fares with multiple stop overs? Then
click here instead. These are wholesalers and can really
save you big money if you plan ahead and know what you want.
They don't do domestic USA but departing USA yes!
Athens Greece: Love it or hate it or somewhere in Between
Athens is a great town full of wonderful people. Give it
a chance and you'll learn to appreciate it, if not love it.
Like everything else in life, Athens has its good points
and its bad. There is a lot of Athens hype by people that
want to separate you from your tourist dollar...buyer beware!
That goes for everything from guidebooks and guide-magazines,
to top ranked web sites and a lot more!
Its my wish that you enjoy your visit here to the utmost.
This is a frank guide that will tell you the truth about Athens
and not a lot of hog wash, so spend a little time here and
you'll be better prepared.
Being patient and bringing your sense of humor along will
help you enjoy your Athens, Greece travel holiday experience.
From July and through October the City of Athens
Cultural Center organizes Free Walking Tours of Athens primary
sites and landmarks on SUNDAYS starting at 10am. Tours are
in Greek but guides usually speak English too! Tel: 210-323-1841
and 210-324-0762
Wear some decent non-skid, support giving shoes or you can
break your neck at some of these sights.
My List of Athens Must See Sites & Landmarks
The view from Mt.
Lykavittos!! The
Acropolis & Parthenon & Acropolis
Museum, Temple
of Olympian Zeus & adjacent Hadrian's
Arch, Cape Sounion
& Temple of Poseidon, a walk through the Plaka,
Anafioitka
and Monastiraki.
The National
Archeological Museum. Byzantine
Monastery Kessariani (forest preserve & good view
of Athens a plus) or the
Byzantine Museum.
The 1896 Olympic
Stadium AKA (also known as) the Kali-marmaro or good-marble
stadium. The
Cycladic Museum.
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Harry Who? Harry Why?
Harry, (that's me) is Greek-American, has lived in Athens for 15
years and currently resides in colorful and artistic Exarhia Sq.,
Athens center. I lived on Nikis St. in the historic/touristic Plaka
area for 9 of those years. They tell me I have been visiting Greece
regularly since the age of 4 months.
My grandfather or "Papou", youngest
of 17, came from the N. E. Aegean island of Chios. A civil
engineer, he designed the Bauhaus & Historically Registered
Blue
Polikatikia here in Athens' Exarhia district.
Its no accident that Greece keeps its National Archeological
Treasures in Exarhia. Its the heart & soul of the real
Athens! Kind of like Dorian Grey's picture. Dorian being a Greek name BTW. |
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This Athens Guide is
dedicated to my grandfathers memory and to the members of
my family who declined life long pensions from the Greek government
(due them by Greek law) for being members of the (non-communist)
resistance during the Nazi occupation. Two of them are still
alive including my Mom. During WWII my grandfather used to hide and feed British and Australian soldiers from the Nazis in the basement. Mom was eventually arrested and after a month in a cave escaped to Egypt via Turkey in company with the heads of the Greek Army, Navy and Air force.
The Blue Polikatikia (a currently gray building) was the
first major apartment building built in the city (1932) and
has been home to many Athenian luminaries including singers,
actors and politicians of all stripes including Yiannis
Horn, founder of the Athens News, his brother Takis
the famous actor. Freddy Germanos,
television personality and author, Katina
Paxinou, international star of screen and stage and
extremely influential and staunch Greek patriot, chanteuse
Sophia Vembo.
Cultural Minister Melina Mercouri
declared it historic in 1989. Grandfather also designed the
Benaki Museum which many of you
will visit. Athens College and
the Hippokration Hospital are
two more of his designs.
Athens Greece Climate & When to Come
The climate in Athens Greece is generally warm and dry in
summer: April - September and colder and rainy October - March.
Summers in Athens may be called draught like with average
temperatures in the 90's F and no rain for 2 to 3 months.
Athens enjoys an average of 300 days of sun-shine yearly.
In winter snow falls on the nearby mountains and occasionally
even in Athens proper.
Ex- Athens, many travel related services such as hotels,
cruises and some tours are unavailable or closed during winter.
Winter is too cold/windy for comfortable swimming, cruising
or yachting. Forget November, December, January, February
and March if you are looking for warm weather. Spring and
Fall in Greece is beautiful and enjoys fewer tourists and
lower prices.
August is high season in Greece except in Athens where typically,
the city empties. Most Europeans vacation in August and Greece
is the number one vacation travel destination for Europeans.
Athens Greece Good News for Siteseeing
The good news is that most of the famous sites are near the Acropolis which is the center of Athens has been for a few years and probably always will be. I highly recommend a visit to my Athens Greece walking tour suggestions page for more details. A central hotel is a darn good idea too!
Planning Your Athens Nights
Athens has a lot going on and the longer you live here the
more you'll discover. Within walking distance of the center,
tourists should visit the Plaka and Thession/Psirri areas
to get that out of the way. Then they can visit Haritos Street
near Kolonaki to bar hop and rub shoulders with Athens sophisticated
arty set. Plan on dining after 10 pm in summer and then dancing
from 1 am on in venue of your choice.
Treat yourself to an open air cinema and see the Nightlife
section and the Gay section in the Culture menu above! Don't
forget the Restaurant Guide too!
Check out Athens International Radio 104.7
Also:
88.3, 94.0, 96.3, 97
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MAJOR GREEK PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2005
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Warning to Drivers and Pedestrians in
Athens |
Jan 1: New Years Day-Agh. Vasileiou
Jan 6: Agh. Theophania
March 14: Clean Monday (Lent)
March 25: Independence Day -Thotokou
April 29: Big (Good) Friday
May 1: Labor Day & Orthodox Easter
June 20: Holy Spirit
August 15: Assumption Day
October 28: Nat. Holiday Oxi Day
Dec. 25-26: Christmas & Boxing Day |
Expect delays around these holidays when businesses
are closed and people home with their families.
Also be careful when driving and crossing the street here
in Athens where a stop sign really means slow down and look
and not stop for pedestrians. Athenian pedestrians should look left, right and left and
right again before crossing the street! Many people leave Athens on these holidays resulting in many
traffic fatalities. Greece has the second worst drivers in
Europe after Portugal. I knew one person who was killed and
my Aunt was run over too. Be careful here!
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Greece Taxi Tours - The Smart way to See & Do a lot !
Visit anywhere in Greece by luxury air-conditioned Mercedes Benz
Taxi. Your journey of discovery may begin in either Athens or Thessaloniki.
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"Hello - My name is Paul and I have spent more
than twenty-five years in the United States (in New Jersey). My goal is
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take a Greece Taxi journey with me, whether it is a day trip or a week
long excursion around the country, you will come back with a better understanding
of Greece, and will have perhaps the best vacation of your life. By the
way I'm one of the few taxi-drivers in Greece who doesn't smoke".
- Greece
Taxi Tours Testimonials
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