We had booked on a walking/eating tour of Athens. So we walked down top Panepistimiou subway station to meet our guide, Angelo. Angelo was an engaging character full of his own views on all sorts of subjects as well as food and the general diet and social habits of Athenians. He began by pointing out the various buildings in the vicinity which emphasized the different ages of the city and the different influences which have paid a part in the social and eating life of the city. We then moved over to a small food stand where we tasted the round, sesame crusted breads called koulouri which seem to form the equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts in the USA!! Although a little dry these are tasty enough and they form the ‘on-the-run’ breakfast for busy Athenians. Our walking tour group consisted of a couple from Hong Kong, two couples from Australia, a couple from South Korea and a couple whose origins I did not discover. All were congenial and interested.
From here we walked, with occasional stops for editorializing by Angelo to a restaurant called Doris. Here we sat and had either Turkish or reek coffee and ate the traditional round-shaped honey covered donuts which are famous in the city. During this break, in the intervals between Angelo’s narration we were also able to find out a little about our fellow walkers.
From Doris we moved on to a traditional grocery store which stocked over 1,500 traditional Greek products most of which are organic. We tasted honey flavored with thyme, feta cheese, ouzo and olive paste. After this we were given some time to purchase any products we wanted. We bought some thyme honey and some olive paste. (Unfortunately, the honey fell foul of the security at Athens airport on the way home as it was a liquid which was over 100 ml).
From the grocery store we went on to a spice store via the main meat and fish market in Athens. This market is huge and noisy but has some wonderful produce and is a great place to browse around. Unfortunately, it is also crowded and dangerous and one of our number had her purse opened and lost her wallet with credit cards and her passport. That put a little damper on things for a while and she had to leave the tour to try to retrieve things, cancel her cards and get her passport replaced.
The spice store, called Fotsis, which had been in the same family for many years had a hige selection of herbs and spices and at very reasonable prices so we stocked up on saffron at what would in NY be knock down prices.
From herbs we moved on to a meat store, Miran, and tasted pastourma and sousouki. The former is a very spicy version of pastrami and delicious.
From here we moved on to Bougatsadiko where they make fyllo pastry pies. We were able to watch one of the staff swinging the fyllo in the air and smoothing it out , filling it with cheese ready for baking. These cheese and spinach pies are some of the tastiest food in Greece.
From here it was on the Avissinia Café. This is situated in the heart of the flea market area. Here we met the owner, tasted some other foods and the tour wound up and we bid farewell to Angelo who had given is a most interesting, entertaining and informative tour. We decided to stay on and have a light lunch at the Avissinia Café. One of the dishes was roasted hot peppers and were they hot???!!!! As we sat having lunch, we were able to watch the flea market at work. There are many stalls with all sorts of goods both high and low quality.
After we left the café, we walked to Monastraki Square and took the subway back to Constitution Square. The Athens subway is beautiful and because building it involved digging through ancient remains there are areas of the stations which have exhibitions of the relics which were unearthed as the subway was being built. From Constitution Square we walked home to the hotel. After a rest, we decided to go up Lycabettus Hill which was in front of our hotel. It is the highest point in Athens. We took the funicular railway to the top, checked out the views, (although it was dark) and had a drink in the bar at the summit.
Descending from the hill we walked a short way down from our hotel to try to find a fish restaurant but when we got there we found it was closed so we went to another place on the side of a square and had dinner there. As we had a 4 a.m. taxi pick up for the airport, we soon returned to the hotel, packed and went to bed. As Friday is party night in Athens sleep was not undisturbed and at about 3 a.m. one of our neighbors, an Italian lady decided to hold along phone conversation in a loud voice on her adjacent balcony.
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