We arrived in Athens late morning and it was a bit hectic to try and find which transport to take. Google was suggesting the buses would be faster but I would have preferred the train. We ended up purchasing a 3-day pass ticket for the bus and it arrived straight away. We ran after it only to have it sit for 15 minutes making us look silly for running. This was an unpleasant trip. This bus collects at the airport and finishes at the city and vice versa.
Although it stops along the way really, it’s designed to take people to and from the airport. However, it had no luggage compartments and no spaces for luggage underneath. I had found a 4-person bay and piled all our luggage up on 2 seats and I was on the third and really there was barely any room for someone to sit in front of you anyway.
Someone was unhappy with me taking 4 seats and asked me to move. Figuring I couldn’t occupy all the seats with the bags I moved them and then they the young couple proceeded to put their bags on the spare two seats and sit there themselves. Not really doing anything different and it meant I needed to stand in the disabled section holding onto 2 suitcases for over an hour. I was exhausted and quite upset for the whole journey.
Luckily our hotel was only a short walk down the street. We arrived at the hotel at lunch and thankfully could check in early. We got some lunch and being so preoccupied with getting everything ready for Egypt and Israel we hadn’t put much effort into researching what we wanted to do in Athens. It was lunchtime Tuesday and we had all Wednesday and Thursday before leaving Friday morning.
After lunch, we decided to give ourselves an hour or so to choose our itinerary for the next couple of days and we played Skip Bo. This is the first time I have ever played and Nathanael and I really enjoy playing games together. He had joked at my enthusiasm to bring it along and said we wouldn’t play it so it was nice to play it together and prove him wrong. We had since played it a lot and even roped Mum into loving it.
I told Nathanael I had an idea for the afternoon and that I had worked out our itinerary for the next two days so off we went. Nathanael had no idea where we were going and I said it was just a hill we were going to climb. What a lie! I knew it wasn’t a hill and more a mountain but to get to the top of that thing and only be able to claim that we climb a ‘hill’ is a major insult to the effort that went in.
Which included walking 1km directly up a steep hill to the bottom of this ‘hill’. It was fabulous. I knew as soon as I saw it as a recommended thing to do Nathanael would love it. It gave you an absolutely incredible 360-degree view of all of Athens. Being the highest point in Athens it was a fabulous experience and definitely a highlight for us both. Watching Nathanael’s face light up as we climbed he was so happy I had chosen it.
After climbing Lycabettus ‘HILL’ we headed down the streets to the local markets. They were mostly closed for the day but it was good to see how the local shops get all their fresh produce, olives and fish. We found a place for dinner called Meat the Greek and headed home.
Wednesday morning we had a tour at 10am. It was sooooo unbelievably nice to have a sleep-in. To be able to sleep in, eat breakfast at a casual pace and have a shower without rushing was such a relief. Something I know I desperately needed after 2.5 weeks of hustling morning and night. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast, I made myself a salami, tomato and cheese roll to take with us on our walking tour and off we headed.
The Walking Tour guide was actually an ex-Aussie with family connections in Greece. He was a complete wealth of knowledge and really gave us a great history lesson from Ancient Athens to modern Athens. Of all the walking tours we’ve done over all the years and places, he has been the best we would say. We again only had one other person on our tour and he said that Wednesdays are his quiet day and for the next three days he had over 30 people booked in for the tours each day.
We felt blessed to be able to have a small group and someone we could easily understand compared to the last few. After finishing the tour we went to a little shop to grab some final souvenirs and went to see the Parthenon and the Acropolis. We managed to also fit in the Ancient Angora which is where we saw a couple of tortoises which was so unexpected but fun. We finished with some dinner and went home to relax and head to bed.
Thursday morning Nathanael headed out for a run. It’s a great way for him to be able to experience a lot of the city and I got to have a sleep-in and easy-going morning. He still wasn’t able to run without pain but it was much better and each day since his ‘Miracle Run’ he was seeing improvement. Nathanael went to see the Panathenaic Stadium which held the first modern Olympics and Philopappos Hill.
There wasn’t really too much left to see and do in Athens. I think you really only need 2 days maximum here and after seeing Ancient Egypt and Jesus Land it was a bit underwhelming for us personally to see broken pillar after broken pillar.
So we sort of ticked the boxes of the places left to see. We saw the Modern Angora, the Temple of Hephaestus, the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian’s Library, the Kerameikos Site and finally the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. This was insane. They have a change of the guard ceremony every hour and it is taken so unbelievably seriously. Someone was there for their first time on duty and this work is regarded as the highest honour he had friends and what I would say was a brother or cousin and they had tears at the extreme honour of seeing him.
Overall it was an okay day but we were ready to go home. We had seen and done so much over the last nearly 3 weeks. We missed our girls and we were ready to go home back to our real life which brings us lots of joy. We finished our last night in Athens by finding a really cute, very homely restaurant where we ate local dishes and enjoyed such a warm, welcoming and homely service. It was a highlight for sure.
Friday morning came, we had breakfast, packed our bags, and caught the 1-hour bus ride to the airport. We had to arrive a little earlier than we would usually because the 3-day pass was actually a 72-hour pass to the minute so we had to leave a bit earlier so it didn’t expire. Check-in and security were busy but not too bad. On the first flight, we were able to get a spare seat next to me which was helpful for me during the 4-hour flight.
We had a short 90-minute layover in Doha and it was busy. I went ahead flashing my bump to get priority access and went to the check-in line. I begged and begged for a spare seat. I remember going to and from Italy and having a spare seat on the way back made all the difference for the long-haul flight. Being pregnant, tall and having hypermobility issues it really was important. Add in 3 weeks of exhaustion and I was serious about fighting for a seat.
The lady offered us a row to ourselves, great. I was thrilled. Then we get on the plane. It was a 2 person row. This was worse than just sharing in a row because the armrests didn’t go up so I was even more restricted.
Now this next part I’m not ‘totally’ proud of and Nathanael hid away mortified but when the cabin crew leader came to me and checked in to see how I was doing as I had been flagged pregnant I told her and she asked the man in the row in front who was the only person in the row if he would switch. He was more than happy to. I cried tears of joy and relief. I was going to be okay. I was going to make it through the flight. After crying and relieving that pressure I went to pull the armrests up and get comfy but they didn’t move.
After trying to get them to work for ages we realised that because the row behind was a 2 person row this was the last full row and the armrests didn’t move. Again I was back to being more restricted than just being in a regular row. Nathanael looked at me and shook his head. “No, don’t do it”. But I did. Partway through dinner I checked in with the cabin leader and said. The people in front of us have a spare seat and it’s been 2 hours and they aren’t using it (as they were two separate travellers) and haven’t pulled their armrests back.
She said she could only ask them but couldn’t make them. Nathanael being the slow eater hadn’t even finished his meal and they agreed (I said after dinner was cleared etc but she asked straight away) so we awkwardly moved ahead a row, with our 5 pillows and blankets we had been given, headphones, care packs and changed seats with two strangers.
I felt UNBELIEABLY awful and uncomfortable. I felt selfish but figured they weren’t using the armrests and I would benefit from it and I was desperate. It really though made such a difference being able to have them up and a spare seat. I could lie down on Nathanael and put my legs up. This relieved a lot of pain and discomfort and it made the trip bearable. Even Nathanael got to enjoy the perks of lying down a time or two. #you’rewelcome.
Finally, we touched down in Brisbane and we were on the way home. Just needed to catch a train, then a bus as they were doing track works which meant instead of 5 more minutes on the tracks we had to take a 1-hour detour bus to then wait 20 minutes for another train to take us to our station before getting an Uber home. Mum had taken the girls home to hers for the weekend so we could sleep as we arrived home at 8pm Saturday night. We went to Woolworths to get some essentials and then unpacked as much as we could.
The night sleep wasn’t great and we were jet lagged for a few days but seeing the girls the next afternoon and being back with them was the most amazing feeling. We were so grateful we got to go, grateful for the prize money, grateful to be kept safe and grateful to be home with our girls. Even if that feeling only lasted a few days before we were back to being driven crazy and wondering how we were going to parent kids for the next 30 years of our lives.
What an adventure and it was the best experience to do it with my best friend. We learnt a lot about ourselves, each other and the world and that was incredible.
Thanks for sharing along this journey. It’s taken hours to write this all down but I’m glad to be able to share it with you and with my brain that will one day age and forget and with my children and future grandchildren for years to come.
Love Sarah Kay, xx
