Amazon Hotel (Best Western) - Athens, Greece

The Amazon Hotel has a prime location in the Plaka (old part of the city) right by Syntagma Square.  The hotel is located not far from a pedestrian shopping street.  There are also many small boutique shops scattered about.  Because it is near Syntagma Square, the parliament building and the national park are nearby.  It is also within walking distance of the Kolonaki, which is an upscale neighborhood in Athens.  The Amazon has easy access to the subway and to an airport bus, which are big pluses.

The hotel is well-priced given the area, and the rooms are very clean and comfortable.  Best Western is an international chain, so it is a little bit of a sterile experience, but you will never have problems either.  Everything about the hotel is standard.  They have free wi-fi in all the rooms (a big plus), the room was more than warm enough, and it came equipped with a TV.  The bathroom was a little small, but we found that it stacked up well against other bathrooms we encountered on the trip.

The breakfast was the only big issue.  The food wasn't very good, and the selection was poor.  We both think this is due to the fact that Greeks don't really eat breakfast.  They usually just have a cup of coffee and at most have a piece of spinach or cheese pie.

Green Acres

is the place to be (doot doot). Our WWOOF (world wide opportunities on organic farms: an organization where people volunteer on organic farms for room and board) host Natalie met us at the Halkida train station around noon. We drove through Halkida out to the farm, which was near a small village. We were immediately greeted by orange trees whose limbs were sagging with fruit and two very old German shepherds.


The olive farm is a shadow of what it once was. The farm house is a testament to its former greatness. It is a beautiful two-story house. It has been modified for the more modest needs of the current owner (4th or 5th generation, not sure which), but remnants of the old days still remain. The old dining room, sitting room, and balcony are currently unused, but they tell you a little about the house's past. The dining room is extremely large, with a high ceiling and a simple, but elegant chandelier hanging over the table. It is the type of thing you see in movies about plantations in the pre-Civil War south. They still have all the old chairs, table settings, and barware (decanters, wine glasses, etc.), but none of it is in use. The parts of the house that are in use have been changed from storage rooms into bedrooms and from olive pressing rooms into sitting rooms. I do believe the old kitchen is still in place downstairs. There is a new one upstairs, but I'm not sure what the room used to hold.


The olive part of the farm is extremely small. They only have a few dozen trees. They get a few hundred pounds of olives every other year or so. That may sound like a lot (it is for a family of three), but most farms get about a ton. Because it is so small, they only need a couple volunteers to do all the picking over two weeks. The job is rewarding. You can see exactly what comes out of your effort. After 2 weeks, we had nearly 100 liters of olive oil to show for our labor.

Olives

This goat was a royal pain in the ass and one mean bastard.

The two of us picking olives.

Impression of WWOOF after one week:

We discussed it, and it would be helpful if WWOOF had a rating or comment system for each farm. We weren't aware that the owner of this farm is basically a vegetarian, because there was no mention of it in the description for the farm. That wouldn't be the biggest problem, but the only things she buys for the volunteers are foods she would eat. If you are used to eating meat, that can be an issue. When we first got to the farm we had leeks, potatoes, pasta, eggs, yogurt, fruit, squash, homemade jams (awesome!) and a jar of salted fish (not bad actually: olive oil, garlic, onions, a few spices, and sardine-sized fish). There isn't a lot there in the way of protein though. We could go out and buy meat (we were told as much), but the WWOOF host is supposed to provide full room and board.

I got the feeling that most of the farms cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the volunteers. That's not at all true on this farm. You cook your own breakfast and dinner. They cook lunch only on weekdays. Again, not a big issue, but the cooking supplies were lacking. We eventually got bread and cheese, but still no real protein. We did find that there were usually leftovers after lunch. She let us have those for dinner, which saved us from having to cook. Again though, very little protein available in the meals, because they eat a mostly vegetarian diet and her son hates beans.

The host also owns a language school that dominates her afternoons. That is fine, because not much work is done in the afternoons we found. However, she was gone nearly every morning as well. We were on our own doing work we weren't entirely familiar with from the very beginning. If she had spent the very first, or even the second, day with us, I don't think that would have been a problem. She had an appointment with the doctor the first day though. A friend of hers flew in from England, and that occupied her the second and third days. The fourth day she did work with us in the morning. The fifth day, we took what we had to the olive press. It didn't help that her friend treated us like hired help rather than volunteers.

The olives go up...

...they come back down cleaned and sorted...

...they get mushed up...

...and finally become olive oil.

we ended up with 46 kilograms of olive oil after a week of labor

Emily put in all the new bricks for the oven

Nice view

And she's finished

The farm had three family members: the host, her son, and her mother. The host was great. She was a lot of fun to be around, and she was very laid back. Her mother was illogically OCD. As soon as a meal was over, we had to have our dishes washed and put away or she flipped out (happened the very first night). It was a sign to me that she doesn't cook very much, because my grandmother's kitchen was NEVER clean except for maybe the day after Christmas. That was a big maybe. Whenever our host's son was around the farm, she wasn't. That was a problem, because he is nine and has a proclivity for getting himself in trouble. He shook olive trees that didn't have tarps under them (causing god knows how many to fall into the grass to be eaten by the goats or stepped on by us), broke two branches in one tree (that I had to get to the ground), and almost broke a chicken's foot. It feels like we are babysitting anytime he is around. That is not what we signed up for.

I don't want to make it sound like it was all terrible. The work is honest, and you can see what you've done. The actual olive picking part has been fun, and it has been nice getting to know a different side of Greece. There are just a few things that have made the experience less than amazing.

Over the weekend, we had time off to do what we wanted. On Saturday we took some bikes that Natalie had and biked around the area. We went to the waterfront, which wasn't far at all. It was very nice, lined with cafes and a pretty walkway. We biked along that for some time until we were hungry for lunch. Being on the waterfront, the cafe had only fish and seafood, probably caught that very same day. We had some fish and calamari, accompanied by wine, of course! It was a beautiful day and the food was delicious. We biked around a little more then spent the rest of the evening relaxing at a cafe in the village. On Sunday, we didn't really do anything. Slept in, played computer games, went into town, relaxed at a cafe, and in general did nothing. It was nice.

Outdoor dining in December with a view of the Aegean.  Not bad.

Impression of WWOOF after two weeks:


Richard's Opinion:

This week was a lot better. The host's mother went to Athens for the week, and the host's son stayed away from the olive trees. We also decided on more relaxed hours. Before we arrived, I was under the impression that this would be a real working farm. On a real working farm, you just have to get things done when it comes time for a harvest of any kind. So, last week, I worked a couple longer days. After figuring out that this isn't really a working farm, I decided to relax a little.

It was a good thing I decided to work a little less, because the host wasn't with us a single day during the week. She had various appointments and work-related things to do, so we were on our own. Her mother was gone, and I have a feeling she told her son not to bother us too much. If I had worked 7-8 hour days like the previous week, we probably would have been finished by Thursday. Instead, I relaxed a little and worked 6 hours a day. We still finished, but on Friday. Which was just fine.

As far as WWOOF is concerned, it seems mostly like a way to get cheap labor. Your experience will depend on the farm, the host, and the season. The farm and season dictate the type of work to be done. The host will make the experience enjoyable or excruciating. The experience was fine this time, but I could have seen it going worse. It really depended on the rest of the people in the house, not our host. I would have liked a little more warning about her mother's habits (as in prior to arrival). That would have made getting settled in smoother from the beginning.

Emily's Opinion:

The second week was a lot better than the first. For the most part it was us and Natalie. However, because she took off Friday for a trip to the olive press, she had make up classes in the mornings. We didn't get to see her too much, and also had to cook lunch on our own for two days. That was ok, since she provided more fresh vegetables from the farmer's market. I was ok with the strict vegetarian diet up until Thursday of the second week, when in the middle of picking olives my body broke down and I was really hungry, tired, fatigued, and generally not in the mood to do more picking. On Friday we finished the rest of the trees and did some more relaxing, naturally!

Saturday in the morning was more relaxing (we certainly did a lot of that this trip, huh), and then in the afternoon Natalie taught me how to make soap. In the summer, she makes various cosmetic products and preserves to sell at local markets. Today we made cinnamon soap, and it smelled like cookies :) Before beginning our experience on the farm, I really wanted to learn something worthwhile, such as gardening or making something. Up until this, all we did was wake up, eat breakfast, pick olives, eat lunch, pick more olives, eat dinner, go into town to a cafe to use the internet, go back, watch a movie, and go to bed. This time of year there is no gardening nor making of things like preserves (nobody wants olive preserves), so it was difficult to find something to learn. Luckily Natalie had to make soap, so I was excited to learn. This was one of the highlights of WWOOFing for me. In the evening we went out to dinner with Natalie and got a huge spread of mussels, feta cheese, fish, and calamari. Then we went to a bar for some honey-raki. It was great to finally have a chance to talk with her for more than 20 minutes, although it was our last night.

My overall impression of our experience was perhaps a 6 or 7 out of 10. The first week was tough to get through with Natalie's son causing a ruckus in the olive grove and her mother going crazy at our dishes and general lack-of-her-idea-of-order. I enjoyed all the food Natalie cooked us, although there wasn't much meat (we were always full, though, and it was always tasty). I loved making soap, and seeing the process of olive pressing. I would go WWOOFing again, but I would want to do something where I can learn more about gardening or making things, not just harvesting.

Phidias Hotel - Athens

The Phidias Hotel is nicely located right near the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora. It is very close to Thission subway station, which is a nice bonus (despite the fact that they are doing construction on the subway system). The area around Thission Station is home to quite a number of outdoor cafes, which are extremely busy midday, but the crowd tapers off at night.

The hotel itself is nothing too amazing. It is a budget hotel in every sense of the word. The rooms are clean, but you can tell they are very old. They don't hold heat well, and the walls could use some new paint to liven them up a bit. The bathroom is pretty small, but we're used to that by now. They do offer breakfast, but the highlight for me was the elevator. The elevator was absolutely ancient. It was about one step away from the lever operated ones from the 30s. You press the up button hard in the lobby, then you wait to see the small window in the door light up, you get in, close the door (there is no safety gate), and it goes up.

Other than that, there is nothing spectacular or horrible about the Phidias Hotel. It was one of the easiest for us to find this trip (bonus!). We want to stay in the Plaka (the old part of Athens) when we go back, but there was nothing wrong with the Phidias. I would stay there again.

My Big Fat Greek Vacation

And now the end of our trip. We made it through three countries in 2 months (Mongolia, Russia, and Turkey), and now for the last month we'll spend time in Greece. Back when we were planning our trip, Richard and I thought it might be a good idea to work on an olive farm on the island of Evia, north of Athens. Our flight from Turkey got into Athens at 6pm, however, so we then decided to spend one day exploring Athens before heading out to the farm. We stayed right next to the Agora, in the Phidias Hotel on a popular cafe street.

Our first night we explored the cafe street and some of the Plaka, the historic center of Athens. We ate at a tiny restaurant and discovered how cheap wine is! ½ liter of red wine for 3 euros! We ate moussaka and fish along with our wine. We continued to stroll along the lit-up streets and slowly made our way back to the hotel.

Welcome to Athens!

3 euro wine and moussaka

Hadrian's Gate at night. Hadrian built a shit load of stuff.

The next day we got up early to see the Acropolis before it got too touristy. Well, we later found out, that was not a problem. It's December now, so there were barely any tourists there. We saw the Odeon of Heracles, the Theater of Dionysus, the Parthenon (naturally), and the Propylaea (entrance gate). We found the Acropolis to be slightly interesting. It's been in Athens for as long as Athens has been around. Control of the city changed hands with the Persians and Ottomans. They both disregarded the Acropolis; the Ottomans blew it up when they used it for munitions storage. It wasn't until the 1880's and 1890's that the Germans began to excavate and partly restore the Acropolis. And it wasn't until the 80's or 90's when Greek teams began to plan massive restoration projects to build the monuments back up to what they used to look like.

After spending many days looking at ruins in Turkey, the Acropolis was actually not as breathtaking as it probably should have been. The ruins in Turkey began to be excavated in the 1920's, and they were all underground, so much better preserved than the Parthenon. Plus, by that time, people thought ancient ruins were interesting and efforts to excavate and restore were underway. So, for us, we found the ruins in Turkey to be much more interesting, at least to look at, than the ruins of the Acropolis. They were better preserved by being underground, and they didn't have years and years of exposure to the elements. The ruins in Turkey also weren't used as munitions dumps that blew up twice.

Odeon of Herakles, Temple of Dionysus, stairs to the Propylaea

After we saw the Acropolis, we went to look at Hadrian's Gate and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Temple reminded us of the Temple of Artemis in Turkey. The Artemis one was a wonder of the ancient world, but now there is just one column standing and a bunch of rocks lying around. The Temple of Zeus has 6 columns standing and a bunch of rocks lying about. We did enjoy this temple more, because the area around the columns is completely empty. From a distance it looks very majestic, and up close the columns are highlighted by the open space.

Emily making a face and me in front of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

For lunch, we ate at a cafe outside (eating outside in December...Yes!!), where we again discovered the cheapness of Greek wine. After that, we made our way to Larissa Station, the train station, to see if we could buy tickets to get out to the farm for the next day. They said only day-of tickets, so we walked to another ruins site. The ticket you buy to see the Acropolis also includes the Zeus temple, Hadrian's Library (which we didn't see), the Agora (also didn't see), and the Kerameikos. The Kerameikos, we found out, was actually a large graveyard and burial place. Everything we walked on once was a grave. OOOoooooh! They had a small museum that contained artifacts from the tombs, like pottery, metal works, and coins. But by this time we were tired and tired of looking at ruins. So we went to a cafe near our hotel and relaxed until dinner.

Souvlaki and a Gyro

These guys were everywhere.

They had these cool relief sculpture copies in the subway.

Graffiti like this was everywhere

The Kerameikos

The street next to our hotel on the weekends turns into a flea market of sorts. People are there selling “antiques”, books, jewelry both hand-made and not, and other assorted goods. It was fun to see the things people were selling, and relaxing to walk along the street and do some window shopping. If there is one thing we learned from this trip, it's that traveling for more than 2 weeks is tiring and you relish the times when you can relax and enjoy not doing the touristy things.

For dinner, we ate at Kuzina, a restaurant that apparently was featured in the Michelin Guide. They had a set menu, which was phenomenal. Salad with special cheese from an island (tasted like a mix of feta and goat cheese), cheese and spinach dumplings with a pomegranate sauce, pork that had been marinated for half the day, and tagliatelle pasta with wild mushrooms and truffles. They served a very tasty chocolate mousse for dessert.

The next day, we headed out for Halkida and the olive farm.