Iconic Athens, Greece

The night before our Mediterranean cruise we stayed in Athens, Greece and explored what the iconic capital has to offer. If you only have one night, these tips will allow you to make the most of your time in the Greek capital. We show you the best visiting times for The Acropolis, where to find the most gorgeous, historic Athenian neighbourhood and where to find a wonderful traditional meal.

Do you ever just land in a city and fall straight in love? That's what it feels like when we touch down in Athens. It is a couple of degrees warmer in temperature than Italy and even warmer than the temperature is the welcome. And while the official language is Greek, English is very widely spoken in Athens.

We head towards Piraeus port where we are staying and check into our hotel and after a shower and refresh we take the train into Athens Central. For €4.50 you can get a 24 hour pass for the trains and you can pay for this all through the machine with instructions in different languages. As we are at the end of the line at Piraeus port, it’s super easy for us to catch a train.

We alight at Monastiraki station where there are ruins of this ancient city right in the underground tunnels. We emerge at Monastiraki square with its busy flea market. Vendors sell fresh fruit and I am tempted by the plump fresh figs that are bursting at the seams. It’s 30°C/86°F mid October and summer is not relenting here in Athens.

We walk down Adrianou Street, a pedestrian only street where the market is in full hustle and bustle mode with shopkeepers selling all sorts of souvenirs from clothing and trinkets adorned with evil eyes. There are also food souveniers like bags of vacuum packed olives and bottles of olive oil. People line up to get freshly squeezed juices to slake their thirst in this heat.

A few minutes walk away is Plaka, the historical old neighbourhood dubbed the "Neighbourhood of the Gods" located just under the northern side of the Acropolis of Athens. The Anafiotika area within Plaka is where you will find tiny whitewashed houses and narrow, winding streets. This haven was built in the 19th century by stone masons from the island of Anafi, who were brought to Athens to work on King Otto's palace. They recreated the Cycladic architecture of their homeland with flat roofed houses, bright blue shutters and flower filled courtyards. Well fed and friendly cats sleep or greet strangers for a pat.

Anafiotika is very special and feels like a small, hidden world with its labyrinthine alleys and staircases with the air perfumed by jasmine flowers. The area has the towering Acropolis and the ancient ruins as a backdrop peeking out between the buildings. This area is very popular with fellow tourists.

Plaka also boasts the oldest street in Europe. Tripodon Street is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as being over 2,500 years old. It was also among the widest streets of ancient times, measuring approximately 5.5 metres or 18 feet across.

The late afternoon heat saps my strength so I need to sit down. Mr NQN and I have a system: if I’m feeling tired and need a snack or drink he plonks me down at a cafe or restaurant and I rehydrate and relax ready for the next section of walking while he runs around taking photos. We head towards Mnisikleous street. The street is famous for its steps and restaurants located up stories of steps. Certainly it is touristy but it is well positioned and at 4:30pm there is no better place to be relaxing.

I take a seat at Palio Tetradio restaurant under the grapevines at the top of the steps and order a fresh pomegranate juice and eggplant dip with bread for snack. Both are delicious; the pomegranate juice is made of fresh pomegranates so that it isn't overly sweet while the eggplant dip is fresh and luscious without being too heavy.

Just before sunset we head towards Areopagus Hill for a lovely sunset view of the Acropolis. It does require climbing up some slippery marble rocks (I don't advise going up there when it is raining) but it is worth the photo when they light the Acropolis up at sunset. It is here that you can also get a beautiful city view photo at sunset just as they turn the light of the Acropolis on.

It’s 7:30pm by the time we finish taking photographs so we head to a little backstreet of Monastiraki to try our luck at getting a table at restaurant Karamanlidika. It’s down a quiet side street and a man driving his car beeps his horn loudly and yells "malacca!" at another driver.

We arrive at Karamanlidika or Ta Karamanlidika tou Fani. This restaurant on the corners of Evripidou and Socratous streets is also a deli, butcher shop and restaurant or actually a pastomageirio aka a "tavern of salted goods" which is a term that comes from the Byzantine times. Karamanlidika focuses on food from the Karamanlides people who are Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox people who were relocated to Greece in the 1923 Greek-Turkish population exchange.

Karamanlidika usually requires bookings but has three floors of tables that they can rapidly fill. The woman at the front is very friendly playfully shooing a group of 6 young guys to wait outside. "Where are you from? Sydney! Oh welcome!!!" she says waving us in. We are headed to the roof top. Service is really lovely and they bring us a slice of pastrami edged with pepper filled with cubes of cheese as a gift from the restaurant (every table gets this).

We start with sour cherry soda and cod roe tarama creamy salad with grated Greek bottarga served with thick sliced white bread. To go with this are divinely crunchy deep fried kefte filled in the centre with soft slow cooked beef.

Huge platters of grilled meat come out but we have gone with the waiters recommendations. Daddy’s little anchovies are absolutely packed with garlic olive oil and herbs. These white anchovies are a revelation and so well balanced in flavour and moreish that I want to recreate this dish when I get home.

The bulghar is an excellent and tasty starch to soak up flavours with mushroom, parsley and capsicum. It goes perfectly with the Sahanaki Karamanlidiko with pastrima (from the Karamanlides people) and Sujuk (from the Constantinople) tradition with cheese, eggs and tomatoes. The Karamanlides people were expert at making pastirma and this dish is lovely and rich with a range of textures in each bite.

For dessert there are syrup free baklava bites, pistachio baklava and knafeh as well as a dessert of the day. When we enquire about the dessert of the day our lovely waiter comes back with a complimentary dessert. Every table gets a serve of the sweet carrot spoon sweet on a bed of natural Greek yogurt. The contrast of the creamy tart yogurt and sweet carrot jam is lovely. And the bill is a very pleasant surprise at €50!

Where we stayed: The Port Square Hotel, Piraeus

As we were embarking on a cruise at Piraeus Port the next day we stayed at the port which is around 30 minutes from the airport. Although I don't usually like catching public transport with large luggage, airport transfers are expensive and our hotel was perfectly located right next to a train station. If you are getting a taxi, I really recommend pre-booking a pick up because you can get pick ups for around €61 whereas it cost us €77 by taxi via the Uber app. There is currently no Uber in Athens, the app will book taxis instead. However, our taxi driver was super lovely.

The Port Square Hotel is small but well designed. The welcome is warm although when we arrive our room isn't ready until 3pm on the dot, probably because they deal with a lot of cruise guests and a lot of people check out at 2pm for boarding afternoon cruises. On the plus side, late checkouts are offered which was perfect for us as we are sailing at 4pm the next day.

The hotel has a stylish bar and restaurant attached to it a called Bacaro where we go and have a drink while waiting for our room. At 3pm they hand us our keys and we go up to our room #606. This is a comfort level room with a bit more space to it than the entry level rooms.

The hotel room is modern and well appointed with everything that you could want. There is a very comfortable bed with silky smooth sheets and a pillow menu with four types of pillows. There is a work desk, fridge with 2 complimentary bottles of water and a coffee machine as well as tea and a kettle. Having your own coffee machine and kettle in the room is such a nice amenity (I can't cope with seeing anyone before my coffee or tea).

The bathroom has shampoo and body wash by Greek brand Olivia that smells divine. The shower is a good size with two shower heads. There is also a flat screen television and fast and free wifi available for unlimited devices.

Breakfast is served from 6:30am-10am. The breakfast included in the room stay is a mix of a Continental and American breakfast selection with hot and cold choices. You can also order hot breakfasts made to order but these and espresso coffee cost extra.

At the breakfast buffet there's Greek touches from Greek salad, sweet bougatsa pastry, cherry spoon sweets, Greek honey and Greek yogurt as well as regular cereals, granola clusters, breakfast cakes and fried fruit. There are also strapatsada (scrambled eggs with tomato and cheese), plain scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and sauteed vegetables. I particularly liked the sauteed vegetables with the koulouri sesame bread. The koulouri here is so light, fresh and crisp (I find sometimes other koulouri can be a bit dense in Australia).

The only downside to this hotel is the safe could be bigger (it won't fit laptops, only money and passports). But really, this was such a lovely and comfortable stay that I would absolutely recommend it. It is also very well priced at $146AUD.

All activities, food and accommodation in this post were paid for independently.