My experience in Greece is like riding a roller coaster - I felt wonderful standing on a sacred land that breeds civilization when I saw those α, β, θ in the language and the flyers promoting philosophy clubs. 30 minutes later, after fighting with my backpack and the slopes leading to our Airbnb, I was suddenly awake - I wasn’t in Greece thousands years ago, I was in modern Greece that has graffiti everywhere.

The whole city of Athen feels like a museum. You can just walk around and easily bump into some architectures that are hundreds years older than you. It was definitely an experience.

The Acropolis is as magnificent as I expected. However, there are 2 things that I didn’t expect - the crowd and the wind! Even famous site like Machu Picchu didn’t feel that crowded. I guess it’s because before reaching to the wide-opened top where Parthenon located, people have to walk through a series of relatively narrow stairs. As for the wind, I almost forgot Parthenon is located on top of the hill, of course the wind could be that strong. (be careful of your hat!)

We got this recommendation from someone on Reddit. It was obviously very popular. When we arrived at noon, there were already many people dining there, especially in the garden seating area. The environment is chill and the food is good.

Great place to buy souvenirs or just to take a walk. Note that the more East you walk towards, the cheaper the price it could be (not a guarantee but at least that’s what I observed). On the street, you can see delicate stores that have nice decorations and sell pretty products; you can also find many shops that are similar to what you’d see in traditional markets in Taiwan ha.

It was at the moment that I had some random thoughts - being abroad really casts some charms to your experience. The flea market feels like an open-street market in Taiwan, which I don’t usually go and don’t particularly find it attractive. But now I am visiting a similar one just because I am in Greece, which makes everything covered with an exotic and charming veil I guess.

While walking around the street, I suddenly felt like it was a perfect day for boba (also I need to use restroom 🫣) So I looked it up and found one - My tea! It was run by a friendly Chinese lady and they serve pretty good boba! (they have restroom as well 😀) Recommend if you are looking for a good boba in Athen. (I went there 2 times so it tells how good they are 😉)

I was still thinking about how Athens’ flea market isn’t that different from a traditional market in Taiwan. With that in mind, I walked into a Greek Orthodox church and had a tiny realization. In Taiwan, we burn incense in temples. Here in Greece, people light candles in churches. Isn’t that kind of similar? At least it felt that way to me. I was happy to have such enlightening moment while looking at those candles ha.

We got this recommendation from Reddit as well. People say it is a must try so we went. I didn’t like any of the goat-related food: goat milk, goat cheese, lamb (of course not since I’m most of the time vegetarian), but Stani’s goat yogurt is different! It doesn’t have the unbearable goat taste that I usually have. It was just a very smooth taste that I realized fresh goat produce could be that tempting as well.