Episode 1/10: My Vacations in Greece 2017 (Zagreb->Budapest->Athens)

I was always planning on visiting Greece, but as you know Croatia is a big tourist destinations. It makes it easy to decide where to go for a weekend trip or on vacations. Taking in consideration the economic situation and buying power on Croatian citizens, it makes even more sense to stay in ‘Lijepopj Nasoj” how we want to call Croatia.

In my opinion, the most expensive thing is to get to the Greece. Just a return flight ticket from Zagreb to Athens is around 300 euros (which is very expensive). On top of the flight you have to add a cost for a place to stay, food, transport… As you know, it all adds up, and one week in Greece could cost around 1000 euros. For students, 1000 euros is just too much money.

Picture of getting into a plane from Budapest to Athens

Anyhow, I really wanted to spend my vacations in Greece this past summer. I worked two jobs, saved some money and decided to go explore Greece for 12 days. Since I was traveling on a budget, my goal was to get there as cheap as possible. After looking for cheapest flights to Athens, I decided to take a bus and fly with a low-cost airline Ryanair from Budapest international airport.

I had a time to see Budapest while waiting for flight to Athens

Budapest Downtown

As you could imagine, flying out in July and August is very expensive, so I decided to take a trip in September of 2017. One way ticket from Budapest to Athens was 21 euro. If we add Flixbus cost from Zagreb to Budapest, we get to a total of 38 euros form Zagreb to Athens. Not bad.

I arrived in Athens on September 13th at 1am and went straight to the place I found on Airbnb. The apartment was located in downtown Athens just a few minutes from main attractions in Athens.

Day 1.

The first day I went to Mount Lycabettus. The Mount Lycabettus is a great panoramic view on Athens. It is a quiet place where you can get a cup of coffee and really enjoy the view which overlooks Athens. You can access the place by walking there, or you can even take a gondola which cost 2 euros, and will get you at the top pf the mount.

Background View on Athens

Selfie with the View on Athens

After visiting Mount Lyabettus, I walked all the way the Panathenaic Stadium. The stadium was build 300BC and it was a host of the first Olympic Games ever. You can enjoy the view on Acropolis and really get a feeling of how gladiators competed a long time ago.

Directions from the part to the Stadium

Panathenaic Stadium

If you are into a sports, you will see this place even more interested. There is a room inside the stadium which holds a light of all hosts cities of the Olympics Games.

You won’t miss a cool stage in the middle of the stadium, where you can take a fun picture of you receiving a medal of being a no.1. As X athlete, I was obligated to take a picture in this great monument. As always :)

Entrance for the locker room

The entrance fee is 5 euros. They have a 50 present discount for students. If you are a student, you will need to show your student ID in order to get a discount.

Directions to Temple of Zeus

After visiting the stadium, I decided to see a Temple of Zeus one of the oldest monument in Athens, build 350 BC.

I really enjoyed walking around the temple and look at Acropolis. This place is not very crowded, so you really get a nice feeling of the monument.

Temple of Zeus

The entrance fee is 30 euros and free for students with showing student ID. The ticket for Temple of Zeus is also good for Acropolis.

After visiting Temple of Zeus, I walked to Acropolis. If you are visiting during the summer, I would suggest you to get a bottle of water, since it can get very warm up there, and since there is no place where you can get a fresh drink.

Directions to Acropolis

On the way up to Acropolis you will see a huge arena which overlooks Athens. I think it is a great place to take some pictures. As you can cee, I didn’t want to miss opportunity to get mine! :)

Entrance to Acropolis

One important thing to know is that this place is always crowded. If you are visiting, try to get there early, or late after tours leaves. You will get on the top of the Acropolis much quicker and easier.

Acropolis

Acropolis

My next stop was Acropolis museum. I would highly recommend everyone to go there and to see all monuments. I had a feeling of being back 2500 years ago.

Acropolis Museum

After all that walk, I needed a good cup of coffee. Greeks have a good iced coffee called Fredo Cappuccino and Fredo Espresso. I would highly recommend anyone to get one.

This is a wrap of my day one in Athens. This will be the first episode of my travel around the Greece. Make sure you stay tuned for a new episodes coming up soon.

You can learn more about me by clicking here.
Please follow me @tonylup to keep up with my blog.

If you are interested in quality content around different topics follow @jerrybanfield the guy rooks big time.

Don’t forget to UPVOTE 

Cheers