My trip to Athens

 

On Hanukkah vacation, I flew to Athens, Greece, with my good friend, Naama. At first, I didn't expect anything from this destination; we booked a flight so quickly just to run away from our hectic reality. I was surprised to find out that Athens is full of life, young people, beautiful neighborhoods, history, and many bars and restaurants.  The food is not the best, or we didn't have much luck in this area. In Greece they are very strict with covid 19 situations. You have to be vaccinated three times if you want to get into any restaurant or store.

We booked a hotel on "Ermou" street; it's the main shopping street that was the very center of everything, close to every destination we wanted to go to. I’m not the  shopping type, but it was nice to be in the center. The hotel's rooftop has a view of the acropolis, and also a restaurant. fun to eat there. The acropolis was so impressive to see in reality. The local people are very welcoming, and it seems they live from tourism. The prices are very similar to Israel.

One  day, we booked a day trip to Meteora monasteries. This location is a 4-hour ride on the train from Athens. It was a dream come true to visit this extraordinary place. These monasteries are from the 9th century on cliffs of basalt rocks. Meteora is a place that is considered to be the perfect place to achieve absolute isolation. Today this site is also a UNESCO World Heritage. We took a tour guide from the station we went down. She told us these monasteries today are still administered by monks. We entered two monasteries ( it was a lot of stairs to climb!), but the view made it worth it. The monasteries were preserved just as they were built a thousand years ago.  The guide told us the monks who are sworn to these monasteries can get out only once a year. These monks live in complete isolation. Fun fact to know: one of the scenes from one of the James Bond movies was filmed right there.