After the quiet—even silent!—streets of Japan, Athens seems very loud and bustley. It’s a much bigger city than I had realized. The airport felt a little third-world, with a zillion guys holding signs standing just outside the exits, and a huge taxi queue—yellow taxis are still quite in force here, our first was a stick-shift with manual windows!
But our first noisy impressions of Athens are really good. Sure, on the one hand it is very loud & boisterous & touristy, but on the other hand under the grime and graffiti this is a beautiful city. Personality is strong with this one!
However, we had forgotten how annoying large bunches of Europeans can be. They don’t know how lines work, they are ‘way too loud and always loitering in the way, and they inevitably insist on cramming the largest vehicles imaginable onto the teensiest of streets.
Having said all that, I have to admit we both loved Athens at first sight. Plus, it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo here.
Walking around our first morning, we stopped into the very first historical site we encountered.
Not even halfway through our first day and we are just loving our time in Athens!!
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