Athens ... A Brief Glimpse
- chebelladonna
- Jun 10, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 1
On our recent trip to Greece, we transited through Athens. I always knew we would fly home from Athens, and would spend the final night there, but after miscalculating which day there was a flight from Malta to Greece, we also ended up with a pit stop at the start of the Greek portion of the holiday.
With the flights booked, we were supposed to land in Athens at midnight and had a mid-afternoon flight the next day to Rhodes. After briefly contemplating sleeping on the airport floor after refusing to pay the exorbitant amount to stay at the airport hotel, I broke down and booked an inexpensive hotel downtown. I figured we could get a good nights sleep, go out for breakfast, wander around and then head back to the airport at midday.
The plan quickly started falling apart in Malta. After arriving to the airport, the flight was delayed two and a half hours. We didn't end up even leaving until midnight and we were the last plane out of the airport. I was just happy that we took off. If the flight had been cancelled subsequent travel arrangements were going to become messy.
We landed late ... as in 2:30 in the morning late. The Athens airport felt enormous under the weight of our tired legs. Eventually we collected our bags and hailed a taxi to the hotel. Some cities, like Valletta, are close to the airport and some cities like Athens, are not. It's a solid 45 minutes on the highway with no traffic. We were all exhausted. Pablo, who sat in the front seat, asked "Did you know that downtown was this far away?" I'm not sure I answered but truth be told ... I did not. By the time we paid for the return taxis, we could have stayed in the exorbitant hotel inside the airport. This wasn't their first rodeo. Sigh.
To add insult to injury the taxi driver dropped us at the wrong hotel, leaving us to walk the final block. The lobby was utterly tiny; this was possibly the world's skinniest hotel.
The elevator was more of a one person and luggage kind of situation. Pablo wrangled the bags and my kiddo and I walked up several flights of stairs.
We were now delirious with exhaustion.
Opening the door to the room revealed a clean but equally tiny space with three single beds laid out like camp beds. There was no room to open suitcases. I did not care. I peeled back the sheets with glee and climbed in. Truthfully, it was the most comfortable mattress I have ever slept on. Absolute heaven. I thanked the universe and immediately proceeded to pass out.
Amazingly we managed to rouse in time for breakfast. The one upside of walking through the streets of Athens well after three in the morning with my suitcase was that I noticed an attractive restaurant down the block. The next morning it was bustling with life and patrons. The espresso machine whirred and glasses clinked. We all ordered heaping portions of differently prepared eggs, each of which were impeccable. The coffee and juice also hit. We were brought back to life.
After breakfast we did sneak in that walk, way up toward the Acropolis. We didn't have time to go in, and I knew there was an Acropolis in Rhodes, but the walk stretched our legs and gave us a wonderful birds eye view of the city. A view, I noted to console myself, that would not have been seen at the airport hotel. There were fields of poppies in full bloom, an unexpected burst of colour, which I loved.
And then before I could blink we were back in one of the yellows taxi heading to the airport.
Athens you were a dream, literally.
.....
On the return we left my kiddo at the airport to fly back to Malta. Pablo and I would fly home the next day. For this leg of the trip I booked a small, kind of quirky hotel, still not the expensive airport hotel, but a hotel close to the airport in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't find anything else, unless we wanted to go back downtown. The inn was located in the countryside/suburb/residential area, which was kind of odd. The vibe wasn't giving hotel. Pablo gave me a bit of an eyebrow raise that said, "Did you know this was here?" But it was well priced and included a free shuttle to the airport. We smiled and graciously took our room key.
The saving grace was that they also offered free shuttles to a town called Artemida if you agreed to eat at a particular restaurant. Where else were we going?
Turns out, it's a thing. The shuttle, provided by the restaurant, went around and picked up travellers from similar inns dotted throughout the area, who were also waiting on flights, and dropped us at an open air restaurant by the ocean. It was delightful. For a day in the middle of April, the weather was divine. Wearing a light sundress and sandals, we indulged in a last leisurely Greek lunch amidst travellers and local families alike. I dipped my toes in the ocean, which always feels like good luck. We followed lunch with a long stroll along the water. It was a perfect Saturday.
The next morning we woke up and were shuttled back the airport where we embarked on the long journey home. We were greeted to a very cold, wet spring. It was an April that required pulling winter jackets out of the closet and left us dreaming of long, slow, sun drenched lunches in a suburb of Athens.
