Day 7: Back to Athens

Trip

Greece+Cyprus 2025

Location

Athens 🇬🇷

Date

September 19, 2025

We’re starting our two-day transit to Crete. We could probably have done it in one long day, but we’re on vacation and stressing ourselves out isn’t what we plan for.

The day started at 📍Klimis Cafe. We setup camp there to have breakfast and coffee while we wait for our boat. Their patio turned out to be a mixed blessing. There were no smokers around us; they preferred to setup on the little balcony where there’s a wind screen. There was, on the other hand, quite a bit of wind. We had to be strategic with placement of napkins and empty glasses otherwise we would have to play catch the flying object. We spent an hour and a half there looking at the waves and planning our late afternoon in Athens.

Once again, having assigned seats on the boat didn’t matter. With the wind, there are more waves meaning the boat will rock more and the closer to the front of the boat one sits, the more you’ll feel it. The crew, wise to this fact, preferred to seat everyone towards the back than picking up after seasick passengers.

It was direct sailing from Spetses to Piraeus (Athen’s port). The boat arrived a little late and probably went a little slower than planned. Considering the frequent puke patrol while we were away from the coastline, I’m sure it was a good thing we didn’t go full speed. Other than one particularly rough portion where Karine and I had to stop looking at our phone and, instead, look to the horizon to help our eyes and inner ears to say the same thing, we were both fine. The main point of discomfort for us was the boat’s AC being set to Siberian winter setting. We were happy to be allowed to exit that cold and walk back into a warm and sunny 25°C.

We hadn’t made any plan for the day. We’ve seen the sights after all. Karine suggested we chase a replacement to the best cinnamon buns we had during our first visit in Athens, as they are now closed. She even built a list of six different locations for us to visit. We’ll, of course, avoid sampling the coffee at each one or risk vibrating our way back home.

Starting a bakery tour at 15:00 is a challenge. Most of them close at 16:00, one at 16:30 and another at 18:00. We managed to squeeze two on our way to our Airbnb as they had 16:00 closing time: 📍Proof and 📍72H. We then dropped our bags and went to 📍Kora then 📍Taf. Landing us at a comfortable 4 out of 6 places visited but only 3 (Proof, 72H and Taf) still had cinnamon buns. The winner for that day was 📍72H, who were truer to the classic even if the cinnamon sugar used in the roll had too high sugar to cinnamon ratio. Not quite Dope standard but close.

While doing our buns run - when you’re trying to squeeze so many places in very little time we can’t really call it a stroll - We were struck by how sensitive the Greeks seem to be about closing time. The two sitdown places we stopped at, 📍Proof and 📍Taf, were within 45 minutes of closing and both really wanted to make sure we understood they were closing in less than an hour and if we prefer we could take our buns to go. How long can eating a small pastry take? In our world less than 5 minutes, but who knows how long it takes others?

It’s close to 17:00 and our dinner reservation is at 19:30. What else is there to do but go day drinking? We headed to one of the spots we enjoyed during our 2022 trip 📍To Kefeneio. In the small alley where the restaurant’s few tables are located, we sat and enjoyed a half litre of rosé and sparkling water while watching people go by. The wine reminded us that rosé is still a hit and miss proposition in Greece. We rated it as “inoffensive” and moved on.

A quick stop to charge the batteries later, we headed to dinner at 📍Arka. While a little out of the way, the restaurant itself is very much in our style. Open kitchen concept, friendly, change the menu every day, and much more focused on the quality of the ingredients than the complexity of the dishes. We felt safe enough to ask for an orange wine and were offered a bottle that was off the winelist, an unfiltered orange wine made in country (didn't catch the region sorry) that was acidic on the approach, sweet in the middle and bitter at the end. Quite a ride in one sip but it worked somehow. The complexity of the wine helped it support all of our dishes:

The sweet figs with the cheese
The tomatoes without their croutons sadly (risk of nut contamination )
The squid with ink sauce and crushed cacao nibs
The mutton with chickpea and a touch of yogurt to make it a Greek cassoulet.
The rooster with potatoes and a jus sauce that was rich in flavours.

we concluded the meal with dessert. After all, they did such a good job with the meal we couldn’t just end it there. Sadly they fumbled the dessert course missing out on my nut allergy but still managed to give us something good.

Tomorrow we’re heading out to Crete. Mostly a flying day but likely with good food and a relaxing time. We’ve considered visiting Crete several times before, we are curious to finally meet this iconic island.