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We are in the process of coming back.  We got stuck overnight at JFK because of a local delta mess.  Thanks for the recs.  Milos was beautiful and not crowded as dago said it would be.  Would go back there for sure.  The sites in Egypt were great, the travel process is something else.  We had a good guide, driver and a tourism cop who wore a suite and carried a sub machine gun under his jacket.  We didn’t leave the hotel without our guide because it so overwhelming.  Driving there would be insane.  We were on a 4 lane highway at one point that had 6 lanes of traffic on it and everyone honks all the time.  Luckily our hotel had a legitimately good restaurant.

 

Edited by kevwun
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Headed to Greece in the morning for a bit over two weeks for job. Have work stuff in the mornings but done everyday by noon. First week in Athens. Staying in Plaka. I am sure it will be mega crowded--and that aint my bag. Any recs on places to eat/drink that might not be so touristy? I have dropped some pins on a google map for Tapfield and The Clumsies.  Still looking for restaurants. And if I hit up a beach in Athens, which one (or two) should it be?  Thanks for any help. 

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2 minutes ago, squib said:

Headed to Greece in the morning for a bit over two weeks for job. Have work stuff in the mornings but done everyday by noon. First week in Athens. Staying in Plaka. I am sure it will be mega crowded--and that aint my bag. Any recs on places to eat/drink that might not be so touristy? I have dropped some pins on a google map for Tapfield and The Clumsies.  Still looking for restaurants. And if I hit up a beach in Athens, which one (or two) should it be?  Thanks for any help. 

Handlebar in Psyrri for a drink in the evening.  Not touristy and grungy enough to keep them away.  Think younger greek hipsters.

bar2_2.jpg?itok=LfgQcxTK

 

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2 hours ago, squib said:

Headed to Greece in the morning for a bit over two weeks for job. Have work stuff in the mornings but done everyday by noon. First week in Athens. Staying in Plaka. I am sure it will be mega crowded--and that aint my bag. Any recs on places to eat/drink that might not be so touristy? I have dropped some pins on a google map for Tapfield and The Clumsies.  Still looking for restaurants. And if I hit up a beach in Athens, which one (or two) should it be?  Thanks for any help. 

I liked the Clumsiest. Baba au Rum as well. 

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Spent the longest 6 hours of my life in Athens airport last night. Due to long delay in Chicago, we missed our connection in Brussels to Corfu. 
 

Ended up spending the day in Brussels and had a blast. But then flew into Athens at 1:00 am. Flight to Corfu was at 7:25 am. I had been up for like 36 hours straight I think. I was highly intoxicated and delirious. 
 

But finally made it to Corfu this morning. It has been great!  Next 8 days will be traveling Albania and North Macedonia, before coming back to Corfu for one more day/night. It is beautiful here. 

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On 7/6/2023 at 1:38 PM, locodos said:

Handlebar in Psyrri for a drink in the evening.  Not touristy and grungy enough to keep them away.  Think younger greek hipsters.

bar2_2.jpg?itok=LfgQcxTK

 

 

We really liked Psyrri, had an apartment there and it worked well for us in that location. But just understand that two blocks one way or the other and things go from a range of casual greek hipster lounges and hookah bars to a abandoned overgrown lot filled with rubble. It's an interesting area. Feels like greek gentrification. We liked the scene and had a good meal there. And the view from the apartment rooftop certainly did not hurt.

 

IMG-6546.jpg

   

 

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On 7/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, squib said:

Headed to Greece in the morning for a bit over two weeks for job. Have work stuff in the mornings but done everyday by noon. First week in Athens. Staying in Plaka. I am sure it will be mega crowded--and that aint my bag. Any recs on places to eat/drink that might not be so touristy? I have dropped some pins on a google map for Tapfield and The Clumsies.  Still looking for restaurants. And if I hit up a beach in Athens, which one (or two) should it be?  Thanks for any help. 

Will be athens in september and would love to hear about any restaurants that you would recommend. Most meals will probably just street food or the place that looks like grandma is in the kitchen, but not opposed to making a reservation somewhere nice. 

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7 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

 

We really liked Psyrri, had an apartment there and it worked well for us in that location. But just understand that two blocks one way or the other and things go from a range of casual greek hipster lounges and hookah bars to a abandoned overgrown lot filled with rubble. It's an interesting area. Feels like greek gentrification. We liked the scene and had a good meal there. And the view from the apartment rooftop certainly did not hurt.

 

IMG-6546.jpg

   

 

Agree,

The thing to remember is that if you're only worried about violent crime,  Athens is very safe compared to anywhere in the US.  Yup you'll see junkies and needles in alleys and back streets, if you don't take reasonable precautions you *might* get mugged (much lower chance than US cities) but statistically very safe.  It does look much rougher through US eyes.  My friend from San Fran, of all places, was a twitchy till I showed him the crime comps between Athens and SF.  Then I showed him the murder rate comps LULZ.  'merica!

Sounds like we might have stayed in the same place.  We (along with 2 other families) rented flats in the tall apartment just a door down from Handlebar.  Had full access to the roof.  Forget the tourist trap rooftop restaurants (although we did go to fancy one), instead grab some good food from a local shop, some nice bottles of wine, and put on some music.  The apartments were ok, but the view and location can't really be beat. 

<csb>

I gave my 15 yr old & his friend a challenge to go buy some beers at Handlebar (Like 30yds from the building) and bring them back to us on the rooftop.   They noped out and came back, so we (the dads) went down with them.  They said they were worried about the crowd and scene.  We took them to the bar and waited outside.  This time they were defeated by the hot 20-something braless bartender wearing a thin white t-shirt.  I walked my son up to the bar and asked the bartender if she would have sold him beer.  She smiled at him and said.. "No, but since you're here and it would be fine."  We had a few more out on the street.  The boys didn't mind going to get more beer after that.  Their fear was somehow replaced by an exotic new motivation. Strange how that worked.

</csb>

 

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1 hour ago, locodos said:

The thing to remember is that if you're only worried about violent crime,  Athens is very safe compared to anywhere in the US.

Oh yeah, just because the surroundings got a little shit holish in some areas, there was never a time when we had ever a concern around safety or the kids were being exposed. We let them free range quite a bit on the islands and in the villages without a concern. In Athens and Thessaloniki they had run of the place while mom and dad went out at night. 

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59 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Psaras Tavern is a good spot in Plaka.  We stopped at it on the way back from the Acropolis because our guide recommended it.  It was probably the best meal we had in Athens.

We actually have reservations there. It was recommended by someone so we booked a table. Glad to hear it's a good as we were told. 

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The moussaka is excellent.  The house red wine is real bad though.  It is the only thing I would avoid there.  I should have done some research on Greek wines.  I don't know anything about them so we had no clue what to try.

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18 hours ago, kevwun said:

The moussaka is excellent.  The house red wine is real bad though.  It is the only thing I would avoid there.  I should have done some research on Greek wines.  I don't know anything about them so we had no clue what to try.

As a young man, my wife and I were in Athens and having dinner with some Greek friends. They were quite a bit older (he was missing a few fingers from fighting in the Greek resistance in WWII) we where somewhere outside the city on a terrace on a beautiful night.  I was 23 or 24 and didn't have a developed taste for wine, but was asked check the latest bottle brought to the table.  It tasted like wine to me, so I told the waiter "Yes that's fine"   After he poured it out for every one, the older Greek took a sip and nearly spit it out.  He called the waiter back and got a different bottle.  I felt bad, and told him I just didn't have a lot of experience with wine and it tasted ok to me.  He laughed and told me not to worry about it, "Greek wines are like our plays, they're all tragedies!"   

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That house wine was basically vinegar.  God it was bad.  I assumed most restaurants we ate at would have wines from France, Spain, Italy, the US, etc that I could pick from.  Most of them just had local Greek stuff though.  Not until we were in Egypt did we get a wine list that I knew anything about.

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1 minute ago, kevwun said:

That house wine was basically vinegar.  God it was bad.  I assumed most restaurants we ate at would have wines from France, Spain, Italy, the US, etc that I could pick from.  Most of them just had local Greek stuff though.  Not until we were in Egypt did we get a wine list that I knew anything about.

Things are changing and there are some good Greek wines.  When you get out into the Peloponnese you can see some of the "Wineries" and let me just tell you this, the Italians have NOTHING to fear.  There are a few that have invested in infrastructure and developing wine tourism, but a ton of them are just barebones agricultural buildings, vines, and a donkey.  Which I prefer if the product is great, but rustic doesn't begin to describe it.

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There's a rooftop bar called the Utopia Cafe on Milos in the town of Plaka that has one of the most amazing views I've ever seen.  The drinks were excellent too.  This isn't my pic but it's right were we were sitting.

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Edited by kevwun
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1 hour ago, texasdago said:

Greek wine has absolutely improved.  Do not ever order Retsina though.  Garbage.

@PenelopeWitherspoon

This one is good in Athens - https://www.manimani.com.gr/en/ 

Also, check out the pedestrianized section in Koukaki where you probably have 15-20 bars and restaurants all right by each other.

Yeah, Retsina is garbage, though I feel one glass is needed to understand how bad it is.

Mani Mani is excellent.  I had a great meal there.

The following places are restaurants I have been in Athens that were worth it:

Hytra - Definitely posh, but the view is outstanding

Mani Mani - The food was excellent. 

Kuzina - The view on the roof is second to none; food is very good too

Old Tavern of Psarras - Really solid Taverna in Plaka.  Food was simple but solid.

Mavro Provato - Back in 2019, this was one of the it restaurants in Athens, and holy shit was it good.  Not expensive at all, but completely solid food, riffs on classic Greek dishes. (https://tomauroprovato.gr/)

Vassilenas Restaurant - This is a multicourse tasking menu that was absolutely packed when I went.  Food was great.

I also went to this comfort food place in one of the markets.  I went there at 2 or 3 AM after Baba Au Rhum, but the food was outstanding.  I will try and find that one.

On the bar front, Baba Au Rhum was great.  The Clumsies was jam packed, so I gave it a skip.  Brettos is still one of my personal favorites.

 

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My standing recommendation for Athens is to go to the restaurant at the top of Mount Lycabettus for drinks or dinner at sunset.

Get a table on the patio and watch as the sun sets over Athens. You’ll see the aegean sea drift slowly away as the acropolis lights up. Your nighttime view is this.

image.thumb.jpeg.1b4597966d4d2f00664d474b0508db07.jpeg

 

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41 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Our airbnb was super close to the Acropolis and had a rooftop patio.  We just sat up there one night and stared at it.  It was awesome.

It is such a stunning place.  I have had the luck to be up there twice.  The first time, it was hot and crowded.  It was around Memorial Day as I had gone to Greece for 4 or 5 nights around that time back in 2016.  It was still amazing, but the amount of people wasn't fun.  We paid to do a guided tour, and that was great.  We had a group of about 8 or us, and she gave us a lot of background.  I wanted the slopes once I was headed down and saw all kinds of things.

In 2019, I was in Athens for a conference.  I was flying to Denmark on Saturday night, so on that Saturday AM, I went up to the Acropolis.  I got there at 8 in the morning.  The weather was glorious (sunny and about 68-70 degrees), and there were maybe all of 10 people up there until I started to head down.  This trip was amazing.  I absolutely adored being up there that early, and it was almost like I was touring it in a private setting.  It is mind blowing that I was walking where people walked 2500 years before.  It is awe inspiring.

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22 hours ago, texasdago said:

Greek wine has absolutely improved.  Do not ever order Retsina though.  Garbage.

@PenelopeWitherspoon

This one is good in Athens - https://www.manimani.com.gr/en/ 

Also, check out the pedestrianized section in Koukaki where you probably have 15-20 bars and restaurants all right by each other.

alison-brie-alice-sophia-eve.gif.4fba5588f7aed6e3961914fc578806ca.gif

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