Day 1: Race day to Athens

Trip

Greece+Cyprus 2025

Location

Athens 🇬🇷

Date

September 13, 2025

We left the house at 12:35 on Friday. For all accounts, a pretty normal thing except it was the same day as it’s Quebec’s Cycling Grand Prix in our neighborhood. The course ran almost through our backyard. It transformed what should have been a relaxed pace morning into more of a sprint as we had to drop the cats at their usual 5-star hotel (my aunt’s home) and get back home through traffic, tourists and road closures. We had to walk a little away from home to get to a spot where our driver could pick us up. Sprints are not an unknown concept to Karine. Thanks to our skills and an initial schedule that had plenty of padding, we made it to the airport a little over an hour and a half before our flight to Montreal.

Our time at the Montreal airport was just as chaotic as trying to leave our race course adjacent home. While airlines are working at curtailing lounge access there are still long lines and sit down restaurants in the terminal are all full. After walking most of the terminal we found the Aspire Lounge that would give us immediate access at a slightly discounted rate thanks to my credit card. Still, 32$ for a the privilege to enjoy a comfortable chair with 50 centimetres of space between us and our neighbours is not cheap. I guess that's why businesses like a captive audience. Also, Karine is pretty sure they had space because they do not have an alcohol permit yet.

The flight from Montreal to Athens did the unexpected. We left 12 minutes early and landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule. We essentially landed a little less than an hour ahead! On time is not as rare as what people seem to think: the Air Canada Montreal to Athens is actually ahead of time 52% of the time. I’m guessing the wind carried us.

My memory of the Metro from the airport to the heart of the city is a little hazy. Even if our last visit was only three years ago, I could have sworn the metro line (M3) that runs here is more frequent than every 36 minutes and indications were easier to spot. As most European airports I’ve been to have good public transit connection I might be confusing ATH with another. It’s a one-hour journey and we aren't in any hurry. One might think it’s the whole point of being on vacation.

We arrived in town a little after 11:00. We dropped our bags at the hotel (well… the restaurant under our hotel) and made a straight line to coffee. To our dismay, Dope, who offered the best cinnamon rolls, permanently closed their shop downtown Athens. Being the coffee nerd that I am, I had researched the local coffee scene and directed us to 📍Taf Coffee. Very much more about coffee than pastry but we did catch a glimpse of their last cinnamon roll being sold and found it to look promising. Two well-executed flat whites made for the energy boost we needed after an overnight flight. It also got our brain in shape enough to plan what to do today.

As we were planning, our hotel, the 📍Ederlezi Zoubourlou Aparthotel, messaged us to let us know our rooms were ready. We’ll even get to explore the city showered and sunscreened, two essentials to be comfortable in the city after a night of sleeping in one’s clothes.

Refreshed we headed out to the 📍Basil & Elise Goulandris Fondation’s museum. The Goulandris family is a wealthy Greek family that came to prominence through their maritime shipping companies. Basil got involved in the art scene and with his wife founded the non-profit fondation in 1979 and dedicated it to operating two museums to share the collection they assembled. It features masterpieces predominantly from 1880 to 1980 by renowned modern and contemporary artists such as Picasso, Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Not sure what gets you to buy works from well-known artists and, I’m guessing here, lacking a good place to display them, you setup a fondation with the sole purpose of displaying that artwork.

On the way to and the way back from the museum, we went through the 📍National Gardens. While we went straight through to get to the museum, we allowed ourselves to meander on the way back. The gardens are more of a public park site than a botanical garden. You’ll see a name plate for a specific tree or two but there are barely any flowers. Nevertheless, plenty of shaded and curvy paths that reduce sight lines and give a sense of being some of few people in the park.

Park over we got tired and stopped by 📍La Greche. Same gelato spot we stopped by on the first day of our first stay in the city. They kept the quality up but asking for 3 flavours in a cup will get you a very large cup. Not sure if it’s new or we made the same mistake last time and didn’t record it. Refuelled, we stopped at a market for sparkling water and a bottle of acceptable body wash.

💡

Get a bottle of some hydrating body wash and carry it around with you as you travel. You might not get through it all before you need to catch your next flight but you’ll feel cleaner and your skin will thank you. Well worth the small amount of money it costs.

Dinner was at our preferred spot in the city back in 2022. 📍Karamanlidika combines a traditional Greek meze restaurant with a working deli specializing in authentic charcuterie, artisanal cheeses. The rooftop terrace is nothing to sneeze at either but wdidn’t get a spot there this time around. We got a table by the window for the early birds. 18:00 is early for dinner but we expected to be tired by that time when we made the reservation back in May. Turns out we were very right. Also, maybe they’ve heard we eat fast but from butts in chairs to last bite eaten we were done in 52 minutes. Now people who stumble on this log might think that’s because we had a light dinner… you would be very wrong! Not Tomatoes is a vegetable wrong but a tomato is a suspension bridge wrong.

Tomworrow we’re being kicked out of our room at 11:00 and taking a ferry at 15:00 for Hydra. Nothing for us to do but find a good breakfast, drink good coffee and chill.