Athens in a day

Athens  is the capital of Greece and the one of the oldest cities in the world. I had a short 1 day visit to Athens. 3400 years of culture is surely a good reason to visit. I was always interested in visiting it but i am not good in history and each stone of this city has years of history, my Imagination was that there will be statue of Hercules everywhere :)

 Time is short and plan is simple visit the center square and go for a big shopping street in the middle of city and acropolis; and if time permit then the oldest stadium,

 Arrival and transport

The airport is nice and has many possibiities of eat and drink in a reasonable price. The options to go to center are either metro or bus. The blue metro line goes to center with frequency of every 30min andticke cost nearly 8Euro one way. little expensive but it takes nearly 50 min. The other option is bus number X95 which goes once or twice in a hour and cost nearly 4-6 euro (don't remember exactly). I took the metro to station SYNTAGA square, its center of Athens and all tourist attractions are on walking distance form here, tro to get a hotel nearby here.

Hotel,food and people

The hotel are nice and clean with balconies and breakfast has good fresh food. (olives are really great)

The food is similar to Turkish styles but not a lot of variety. The people are friendly but on streets you need to be careful for your stuff, it doesn't feel very safe in night and TOO MANY homeless people, its the maximum homeless i have seen in any big city.

Syntagma square

Its the most important square in Greece both social and historical point, and nowadays gathering place for the protests. The guard march all day and its quite photogenic place. This place is hub of intercity transport and many shops and eating places are nearby.

Shopping street (PLAKA)

Its a long long shopping street with many old and new style shops and sells mostly historical or tourist related things. The walk in this street is tiring but makes you feel in another world. Its a good place to buy monument here (nearly 1-2Euro /magnet). There are a lot of street dogs and cats in Athens and this street is their home.

Acropolis

The Parthenon, is the most eye catching bulding on the mountain of Acropolis, its seen form the down and you pay ticket and climb all the way up to see the ruins of castle and Greek civilization. The climbing part is really tiring so keep a water bottle and hike in small portions, the view from the top is really amazing, the  theater of Herod Atticus is also another great place to admire the workmen ship of the past.

Final views:

1-The city is historic and demands the tourist to have complete knowledge of Greek and the Roman empires, read something before going

2- The city is not very clean, road side rubbish is common view.

3- The conditions of the street shows that the economical condition of the country is not very promising, too many homeless people and in night time every corner you will find people laying down or sleeping.

4- The food is fresh and taste good.

5- I think there should be minimum 2 days to visit more places.

 Calm streets of Athens