Monthly Archives: February 2012

Clean Monday

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see the video here

See video

 

 

 

“Clean Monday “, Kathari Deytera,  is the the beginning of the great Lent of the Greek Orthodox Easter also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday or Shrove Monday. The common term for this day, “Clean Monday”, refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods.

It is a movable feast that occurs at the beginning of the 7th week before Orthodox Easter Sunday which is going to be on April 15 this year, 2012.

 

Delicious lagana bread (photo: onair24.gr)

Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece, where it is celebrated with outdoor excursions, the consumption of shellfish and other fasting foods such as crabs, mussels, cuttlefish, pickles ,fish roe, olives, halva which is a sweet made with sesame oil, and a special kind of azyme bread, baked only on this day, named “lagana” and the widespread custom of flying kites. Eating meat, eggs and dairy products is traditionally avoided by the majority of  the Orthodox Christians throughout Lent, with fish being eaten only on major feast days, but shellfish and vegetables are part of the main diet.

Trying to fly the kites high, ...but no wind! (photo: tlife.gr)

People on Clean Monday usually take their picnic baskets and put inside fasting foods because it is the day that Lent begins and also take with them their kites.This year though it was cold and wet but that did not stop people from going to the market to buy all fasting goodies. Yiannis from Athens Walking Tours, came to the main food market of an area in Athens called “Nea Ionia” and made this short video to transfer you to the clean Monday atmosphere.

Athens Food Tour

 

How to Reach Athens From Piraeus Port

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Port of Piraeus is the biggest passenger port in Europe and the third in the world.

The port of Piraeus is located 7 miles (11 Kms) from the Athens city center. It is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually.

Millions of people who like cruising visit Greece – the sea paradise of Europe – with its beautiful islands such as Santorini, Myconos, Crete, Rhodes and many more. Most of  the Meditarranean cruise itineraries include the port of Piraeus as most cruisers want to visit Athens with its glorious monuments and the Acropolis, the symbol of beauty and Democracy. 

TIPS FOR CRUISERS

The Piraeus port has two cruise ship terminals. Cruise terminal A and cruise terminal B. They are connected with shuttle buses and it takes only a couple of minutes to go from one to the other cruise terminal. Cruise terminal A is more frequently used for exit.

Round trip transportation and tour in small groups. Athens Walking Tours offers shore excursions for  cruisers. We have designed tours to accommodate cruise ship passengers so you can get the most out of your visit in town even in a very limited time at very advantageous rates. A tour for example of seven and a half hours which includes round trip transportation, guided tour at the Acropolis by a licensed tour guide, entrance fees and free time in Plaka costs only 59 Euro per person.

How  to come to Athens  on your own: If you like to join our walking tour which costs 36 Euro (entrance fee 12 Euro not included) then you can make it time wise by using public transportation means. Our tour starts at 9:30 am and most ships dock between 6:00 and 8:00 am

OPTION A > PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION MEANS :The most inexpensive way.

BY METRO: Average trip time one hour, cost 1,40 € one way. Purchase your tickets either at the cashier of the station  or in the automatic machines. To get to Piraeus metro station, you will either have to walk from the pier to the metro station, 20 – 30 minutes depending on the pier the ship docks or take the 843 bus from outside the dock to Piraeus metro station. You get the metro direction KIFISSIA (line 1) and in 20 minutes’ ride you reach the MONASTIRAKI metro station.You can get off here if you want to spend some time in the Flea Market or change into line 3, direction AIRPORT and you get off at the next station which is SYNTAGMA the central Square of Athens located in front of the Parliament building,  meet with the  licensed Athens Walking tours guide inside the Syntagma metro station underneath the hanging clock. How to find your tour guide ? look for the orange colored Athens Walking Tours sign. Cruise ship clients, who like to mingle with the everyday life of the Athenians, enjoy both the walk and the ride and by following our instructions, always come to Athens without any difficulty or problem.

BY BUS:  If you dock at  Cruise Terminal B or Terminal A you can take bus 040; the bus terminal is just outside the Cruise Terminal B pier on Akti Xaveriou road and there is a stop also close to Terminal A. Bus 040 will take you  to Filellinon road by Syntagma Square.You may have some difficulty though to purchase your ticket as usually tickets booths are closed . So we would advise you to use the metro instead .

OPTION B > By Taxi: More Expensive. 

Average trip time 30 minutes (depending on traffic). Cost: 16-20 Euro for the ride one way. You can use a taxi which is a more expensive option than public transportation means. Coming out of the cruise terminal you will come upon many taxis. Usually they try to sell you the transfer with a tour. You should know that taxi drivers are not licensed to give you a guided tour, are not qualified nor authorized guides. In Greece it is only licensed guides who are allowed to give guided tours. It is convenient and comfortable though to use a taxi for your transfer; most taxis are air conditioned and clean cars, drivers speak at least basic English and can be very helpful. You can also make it up with them to take you  back to the port.

Do not bargain for the price or do not make up front a price. As soon as you get into the taxi, they should turn on the taxi meter and you pay as much as the taxi meter says. This comes up to about 16 to 20 Euros depending on the traffic. This fee is for the ride and not per person. You can share the fee with 4 people; this is the maximum a taxi takes.

OPTION C > Taxi pick up service by Athens Walking Tours. 

The most comfortable way.You will recognise your driver from the orange colored Athens Walking Tours sign he will be holding. Average trip time 30 minutes. The cost is 35 Euro per ride. Waiting time of our driver for you at least half an hour.

The Athens Walking Tours offer transfers with luxury Mercedes – non smoking  car no smoking driver – from the port of Piraeus to accommodate cruise ship passengers for their shore excursions in Athens. You can book this transfer independently or with your tour by booking at athenswalkingtours.gr. Instructions how to meet with your taxi driver will follow with your confirmation letter.

 Athens Sightseeing with Athens Walking Tours

This is Home

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A beautiful view of the holy rock of the Acropolis

No matter how difficult the financial situation becomes or how many noxious insults are flung, my city of Athens will survive. As a Greek-American living in Athens for the last 20 or so years I feel compelled to defend this city more than ever before. As a child when we would come on holiday with my parents I remember walking around the center of Athens and inhaling as much air as I could hold to take back with me to the States. To me the air was sacred and so it remains.

I have had a ceaseless love affair with this city for as long as I can remember. It surprises some, especially now during this extended period of unrest. Friends from overseas ask me “What are you still doing over there?” “Come home.” But this is home I tell them and there is no other place in the world that I would rather be.

And I realize this every time I lift my eyes from the crowded streets of Athens and gaze upon the Parthenon. It still takes my breath away. A few years back when the Athens Walking Tours hosted a group of marathon runners who would be participating in the Athens Marathon on behalf of a famous athletic company I was amazed at how these runners got up every day to run in the city at 6am. I asked one of them where they find the discipline? He just shrugged his shoulders, smiled and pointed to the Parthenon and said; “We don’t have that back home and that’s all the discipline I need.”

I have written down a few suggestions of what to see and do if you have some free time in Athens. I stress that this is only a very small list and I will upload more information in future blogs. If you go to these places while you are in Athens, you will fall in love with my city too.

There is no better way to experience a city than on foot and some great places for walking are Plaka and the Anafiotika , so is the Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds. A stroll down Adrianou Street is also quite enjoyable especially if you stop at one of the delightful café’s or restaurants on the walkway and enjoy the spectacular views under the blue Athenian sky. Make time for a visit to the Ancient Agora and walk on the same road that Socrates walked some thousands of years before. Here you can, with the help of your imagination, picture how life was in ancient Athens.  The Dionysiou Aeropagitou pedestrian walkway is lovely where you can admire the beautiful neo-classical buildings lining the street and you are next to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum. The National Gardens is a green oasis in the heart of the city where you can feed the birds or just sit on a park bench in the shade and read a book.  Ah and last but not least; enjoy a memorable outing on a summer night in Athens at an outdoor cinema like Cine Thiseio, which by the way was recently voted the most beautiful movie theatre in the world by CNN (see full article here)! You can watch a good movie and enjoy a delicious snack and cold drink, but best of all, you never loose sight of the Parthenon which is in full view.

 

Learn About Athens Through Your Taste Buds

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A visit at the famous and one of the oldest specialty shops in Athens

The 8th annual International Meetings & Incentives Conference (IMIC) with the topic “Tourism and Gastronomy in the Spotlight “ took place, with great success, at the Ledra Marriott Hotel in Athens on the 15th and 16th of February 2012. Naturally Athens Walking Tours were there.

A distinguished group of Greek and international speakers and panelists developed and presented their ideas to an audience of tourism professionals in the hope of providing a better understanding of the role, development, and future of gastronomy and culinary heritage tourism in Greece.

Despina Savvidou co-founder of the Athens Walking and Food Tours had the privilege of speaking at the conference about how the Athens Food Tours are a prime example of successful culinary tourism initiatives in Greece.

The Athens Food Tour was launched in 2010, thus making it the “baby” of the Athens Walking Tours family – which have been operating since 2004 with a selected team of licensed and highly qualified tour guides.

As Despina explained to a captivated audience, the Athens Food Tour is designed and executed with love and passion, so that the visitors of Athens can have an authentic culinary experience, thus learning about the history of the city, its people and customs of the whole country, by tasting cultural dietary staples such as sesame rolls, Greek olives, Greek coffee and sweet honey doughnuts known in Greece as “loukoumades”.  Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours learning something new about a foreign city now, is it?

Despina took great care in planning and mapping out the tour so that the “touristy” areas were at the greatest part avoided allowing visitors to get as close a look as possible to everyday life of the Athenians. Thus, visitors are led through the back streets of Athens, literally a Minotaur maze to the uninitiated, the main food markets (Varvakeios), small traditional food and spice shops, dairy shops and popular with the local’s restaurants, where visitors get a glimpse of busy Athenians on their lunch breaks. Everyone on the tour has the opportunity to taste various delicacies that are offered welcomingly as the food specialist explains the history and “story” behind every food type.

And the verdict at the end is unanimous! The visitors love it because they know they are experiencing the “real thing”, but also because they are not treated as a herd of balky eyed tourists but as valued guests. At the end of the tour everyone has the feeling that they have made new friends and some participants depart vowing to keep in touch. This is definitely an experience that bonds and fortifies. Food does that and Greeks know this very well. 

This is just a small example of what some satisfied participants have said of the Athens Food Tour on Trip Advisor:

“Feel like a local “ — “The food tour was outstanding”  — “It covered the History and origins of Greek cuisine” —”An informative entertaining and tasty Walking Tour” — “It made our trip to Greece much more memorable and entertaining”

The Athens Food tour takes place every day except Sundays.

Protests in Athens

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athens syntagma square

View of the peaceful protest in front of the Greek Parliament

On February 12, 2012, in the very late hours of the evening, the Greek Parliament struggled but succeeded in passing new and more severe austerity measures, imposed by the EU, in order to avoid financial default. The measures are considered by Greeks and non Greeks alike unusually harsh and derogatory.

For Greece the path ahead will be one of extreme hardship and sacrifice but one that must and will be endured. Greece is a strong, proud and above all freedom loving nation who has experienced foreign occupations, wars and dictatorships. In the end democracy always prevailed.

A vast peaceful demonstration took place in front of the Parliament where thousands of people gathered to protest against the austerity plan which ended up violent due to error handling of the Greek Police using tear gas and violence to disperse the thousands of demonstrators.

Athens Walking Tours would like to point out that Greece and especially Athens  regardless of periodic incidents of protest is one of the safest cities in Europe and of the world and that our tours have been operating on a regular basis without suspension even throughout periods of unrest. We would also like to assure you that every necessary precaution is taken for the complete safety of our clients during our tours and if the situation is considered hazardous or unsafe then it is cancelled.

Athens Sightseeing

Legendary Greek Filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos Dies

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On Tuesday January 24, 2012 Greece and the world of cinema lost one of its favourite sons, director and filmmaker Theodoros Angelopoulos.

The filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos (Getty Images, hollywoodreporter.com)

Angelopoulos was struck down by a motorcycle as he was attempting to cross a busy highway while on location filming his latest film “The Other Sea”, which is about immigration and the crisis in contemporary Greece. He wanted to check his “frame” as co-workers said. He had bad visibility from where he was standing and the light of day was fading fast since it was late in the afternoon.

He was born in Athens in 1935. He studied law at the University of Athens but found it boring. After completing his military service he moved to Paris and attended the Sorbonne to study philosophy but he actually spent most of his time at the Cinémathèque Française. Changing schools once again he enrolled in the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques, France’s chief film school, before returning to Greece in 1964 where he worked as a newspaper film critic and then began his career in film as a director.

He soon carved a unique niche for himself as one of the best international film directors of the 20th century with many critics comparing his films to those of Michelangelo Antonioni and Akira Kurosawa. His characteristic style of long single scene takes and his breath stopping, evocative imagery but also his keen perspective on various historical periods of Greece won him numerous international film awards such as the Palme d’Or at Cannes and many others.

His films were always about the heart and soul of Greece, his beloved home. In a Los Angeles Times interview he said: “Greece is more than a geographical locale to me. It’s a spirit, a culture”.

His film “The Other Sea” which deals with the present day crisis in Greece will remain unfinished. His abrupt death came at a time when Greece needed his vision and insight more than ever before. But it was fate, his colleagues said, like the best of Greek tragedies and perhaps a fitting way for a figure like Angelopoulos to call it a wrap. He was 76.

THE ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

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Many people call it the New Acropolis Museum to differentiate it from the old one but it is the only Acropolis Museum and there is no old museum any more. The previous Acropolis Museum was located on top of the Acropolis behind the Parthenon until it closed in 2008 and all the items were transferred to the new building which was inaugurated on June 20, 2009.

THE EXHIBITION ROOMS 

The magnificent artifacts of the Acropolis, which are chronologically displayed, are spread throughout three floors which the visitor ascends as if ascending the Acropolis itself. The third floor, surrounded by glass is dedicated to the Parthenon, which you can see in all its splendour, especially if you happen to be there at night and the lights shine brilliantly on the marble columns of the Parthenon. Picture taking is prohibited in the museum and all short descriptions under the displays are written in Greek and in English. One of the most unique and interesting design characteristics of the museum are the glass floors that were placed securely over the excavation site depicting the layers of the ancient city of Athens and which you will enjoy walking over in the garden and the ground floor.

Parthenon room on the third floor of the Acropolis Museum.

FACILITIES 

The Museum has one coffee shop on the ground floor where you can get a snack or a drink either before you begin your visit or at the end of it. It also has a lovely restaurant located on the second floor offering delicious Greek cuisine and light meals and with a fantastic view to the Acropolis. The restaurant remains open until 00:00 on Friday nights. Picture taking of the Acropolis is permitted on the terrace of the restaurant. There is also a spacious free WiFi center directly outside the  restaurant. Restrooms are located on all floors and are clearly marked. The museum is also handicap and wheelchair friendly.

On the ground floor as well as on the second floor you will find the two Museum shops with books and very tasteful souvenirs.

The cloak room is in the ground floor. You can leave coats, handbags and anything that is a burden for you during your visit. You will not be permitted to take large handbags or backpacks with you in the main halls of the museum but you may leave them at the cloak room free of charge.

TICKETS: There is no need to purchase tickets in advance on an individual basis since there are many cashiers and the service is good and quick but if you are a family or a group of more than 15 people then you will have to make arrangements with museum officials to visit the museum at a certain time.

TICKET COST:Entrance tickets cost 5 Euro for adults and 3 Euro for students or teenagers while children under five are free of charge.

OPENING HOURS: Daily from 8:00am  to 8:00 pm . Fridays until 10:00pm and on Mondays it is closed.

If you like to enjoy a guided tour in the Acropolis Museum with excellent licensed tour guides then “the new  Acropolis Museum tour “ or “the City tour Acropolis and Acropolis Museum” are an excellent option  for you.