We had one day to spend in Athens before catching our flight to Santorini, and I was incredibly impressed! For some reason I thought of Athens as dark, dingy and kinda blah - but it turned out to be bright, beautiful and totally interesting. Since time wasn’t on our side, we asked our cab driver what we should do on our way to our Airbnb from the airport. We decided to hit the major landmarks and do light research on places to eat. Our first destination was the Acropolis, which contains several historical buildings - most notably the Parthenon. We were lucky to get a bright, sunny day which made it all the more enjoyable.

One of the first landmarks we laid our eyes on was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, built in 161 AD and was originally a concert venue. It’s enormous and impressive and the patterns are gorgeous.

One of the more impressive architectural remains was the Erechtheum, an Ancient Greek temple dedicated to Athena and Poseiden. The famous "Porch of the Maidens" features six female statues as columns which drew me in immediately (see key photo). It’s absolutely breathtaking and the detail is worth every second of the time you spend gazing at it in admiration.

The main event at the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which has been going through a restoration since 1975 (woah!), hence the scaffolding. Regardless, it’s still a marvel and a famous symbol of ancient Greece, well worth the visit.

We also haphazardly stumbled upon the changing of the guard at the Parliament Building, which was fun to observe in real time. The dedication of these guys I tell ya!

Despite our short stay, we were also lucky enough to catch the Temple of Olympian Zeus - yet another mind blowing landmark from ancient Greece.

We didn’t do much else other than stroll and check out as much as we could in 24 hours, but if I had the option I would have stayed longer! Greece in general is an amazing place and I’ll get into the culture and food more in my next post about our final destination, Santorini. Thanks for staying with me!