Walking Tour of Plaka and Anafiotika in Athens | Greece Travel

foreign [Music] [Music] s here in Athens and is one of the best places to sort of spend either the morning or the afternoon exploring there's lots to see particularly with architecture in this neighborhood it's also great for shopping and you get views of the Acropolis all along your walk so I'm going to spend a couple of hours here I'm going to walk around show you some of my favorite spots in this beautiful neighborhood because it is the winter time it is a lot less crowded than it normally is down here normally there are tons of tourists walking down here because all of these shops are usually open because it's the winter summer open Less hours than they normally are obviously there's a school here and I believe I've walked past this before and it's one of the oldest schools here in Athens so I just walked past the sign and it says it is the oldest public school known Public School in Athens as you can see you can see the Acropolis Hill from here this is actually a really great Street and spring to walk down because you see this um Bush that's hanging over this entrance to the house in the spring it blooms and it is beautiful wisteria it gets really full and purple it's gorgeous and people come and take photos so just be mindful that it is someone's house if you do that there are a few things that you can see here in placa that are historic there is the oldest house in Athens I did walk by it earlier but it's closed I think a lot of things in the winter are not open as many hours so that's something you want to check if you're coming down here I can show you the back of it though this house over here is the oldest house in Athens and it's been restored inside it's great and this is like the back Garden of it which I think they're doing some digs it is not one of the public museums though so it is not one of the ones that if it's a free day you could get into I do believe that it is a donation so whatever you want to give to get in [Music] there is a museum down here it's the Museum of Greek folk art it is the old public baths unfortunately it is not also open and I've never been inside because every time I come it's not open even though the sign says it should be open serve down here on the end of pocket is the Roman Agora and this tower that you're seeing right in finis the tower of the Winds definitely worth it coming to this is not the ancient Agora but it is separate from that but there's definitely some cool things to see [Music] go have a little coffee and slash brunch snack at one of my favorite places to go here in Palatka it's called yesemi which is Jasmine in Greek and it is on the famous block of stairs and you will find that all year round Greeks and tourists alike will come here and sit and have coffee and it is very popular in the summer as you can imagine it should be pretty quiet today though foreign [Music] any spaces on the stairs with an actual table which even in the winter is not kind of surprising because so many people come here so I'm sitting inside which it doesn't really matter because as you can see it's still super sunny and they have like a whole section on the other side as well so there's plenty of places to sit and I'm just gonna get some like a breakfast and a coffee and not get anything elaborate [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] and some more coffee [Music] not only is it one of the most architecturally interesting areas you'll also see that it's probably one of the most colorful parts of Athens as well all of the houses are painted usually these bright pastel colors yeah I know bright pastel but it's pastel but it's bright and I love this one I loved a really old wooden shutters they're fabulous and more views of the Acropolis Hill if you have ever been here and heard about the elevator if you see that over there that is the elevator and it sort of drops down the side they do reserve it for people who need it so you can't just take the elevator if you are able-bodied look at this look at this house with the lemon tree look at all those lemons looks fabulous as you can see there's lots of places to eat over here in placa foreign much like the Greek Islands sometimes in winter is when construction tends to happen in these neighborhoods because it's the only time they can get stuff done without it totally interrupting like the walkways so sometimes you'll see that in Winter and because Athens is ancient sometimes it takes way longer than you expect because they find things that they weren't expecting so the best thing you can do is just walk down one street and turn and go up another because placa sort of works its way up towards the Acropolis Hill and so you just go up and down and up and well up up up and then eventually go down the further you get up the less and less there is to see and do in terms of like cafes and chops it's mostly just to see the old houses you won't find a lot of these houses in the rest of Athens because they've been torn down to build apartment blocks this is also a museum it is the old University of Athens the building has obviously been restored part of the reason I'm not going into any of the museums that are open today is because as I have discovered they don't let me film inside so I don't really want to pay to get in at this point when I can't film inside to show you guys I probably will Vince is at them on my own but not when I'm filming here's the best thing about placa the views the views are amazing I'm now going to take you to sort of a special place within Blanca a neighborhood in a neighborhood if you would it is the neighborhood and a fiatica hopefully I'm saying that correctly I've practiced it was built by workers from the island of anaphi who came to work on the palace for King Auto and so the architecture is very similar in nature and it has these windy areas like it does on the island so let's go check it out I actually met someone last fall who lives in here um I don't know exactly where obviously we just met through mutual friends and had dinner together and I'm sort of curious to know what it's like to live up here because placa is hard enough let alone up here you can see that there's no way cars can get in here in fact if you noticed there is a barrel there blocking cars from coming through because otherwise this place would be bombarded with people and they have signs up everywhere asking people to be quiet and to not trespass thankfully I'm here in the winter so hopefully me alone will not make that much noise it's so quiet up here go ahead and look at this okay these people have a stunning View of a look at Bettis Hill wow and listen you can barely even hear the city below you so a lot of these houses were built in the 1850s so they're a little run down some of them not all of them a lot of them have been well maintained but some have not as you can see it is twisty and windy and now it's a decision of which way to go I think I'm gonna go this way I'll probably have to walk back this way and this area is filled with kitty cats guys I made a friend and I don't even have any food to give it it is definitely not abiding by the fact that it needs to be quiet because it came at me and started doing that okay this is even more narrow than some of the Greek island Horrors that I've been in it's very very narrow and here is another kitty cat this one is a giant fluffy cat I'm sorry I'm in its way believe it or not I don't pet them all because sometimes they can be a little bit um persnickety [Music] [Applause] really amazing so I've reached the top of the neighborhood and you're basically on Acropolis hill now I was going to walk down that way but there's a giant puddle and I think if I go that way I'm going to miss some of the other houses so I'm going to walk back down through where I came from and see what else I can see and of course we have more kitty cats [Music] I'm going past the little blue and yellow house now because I think this is the best way to go in further without invading anyone's privacy so a little bit less narrow but still really narrow this definitely feels like a Greek Island it would be even more if it was sunnier look at that I see how someone could renovate it's interesting that some of them seem to have been really well renovated and taken care of and then some of them are just falling down I'm sure it's because families just don't want to take care of them anymore and I would imagine that up here it's very difficult now I'm going to go down these treacherous stairs and that is pretty much it for Anna fiatica very small this is a little secret area that I really like because it not only is it stunningly beautiful as you can see but you see that little fenced-in area there is a little secret in there like I say in Athens you can run into archaeological sites all over the city that you didn't know existed unless you just got lost I discovered this one day and I believe there's no sign but we believe it's part of the old city wall so really cool now we're down in the very Central souvenir shopping area and there's lots of great places here however you know watch yourself in negotiating prices and things and shop around when you come down here so that way you get to compare prices I'm going to take you to my favorite place where you probably don't have to worry about the prices it's called flynnor and it is one of my favorite places to buy things for people when either they've come to Greece and I want to give them something or I'm taking something home I even buy stuff for myself there they have great things for everyday use foreign so it is off that Main Street over here where the Wisteria is I will link to it in the description box so you know where it is and this is it [Music] they have some of the best souvenirs that you are not going to find in the other shops and some of my favorite things in here are the jewelry and the Soaps so I love this brand of soap you can actually get it in tinos but this is the first place that I was actually able to buy it they obviously have gorgeous Pottery things and some beautiful jewelry and today I'm going to buy a Greek book that's been translated into English I also really love these things little little pouches that have donkeys and cats and all of these things most of the artists are Greek or they have made their things here in Greece what I really like is they have a really great collection of books about Athens in English as well as in Greek I've actually bought this one this is really great this is it in in Greek so they have songs about Greek different books on like portraiture and things and they have great posters if you keep walking down this road you're more shops as you can see there is a archaeological site up here on the right as well if you walk down a little bit further there's this little area with this Tower but I've actually never stopped to look at and see what it is so let's see what it is it's a monument I'm not even gonna try to say that okay so it's part of an ancient Street and it's a monument and probably built in the 5th Century BC I will tell you that this sign says it was built in 334 to 333 BC so fourth history you know one of those centuries it's really old the great thing about placa is that you can stay in this neighborhood there are lots of hotels there are definitely good value for your money particularly given your location I will link to the ones that I recommend down in the description box below I hope you enjoyed this tour of placa if you're coming to Athens I highly recommend that you just walk around placa get lost a few times it's the best way to find the most hidden gems in the neighborhood if you have any questions please ask me in the comments thanks so much for watching guys and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: A Girl and Her Passport

Views: 24,877

Keywords: Travel, Greece, Athens, Athens Greece, plaka, plaka athens, anafiotika athens, plaka anafiotika, walking tour plaka athens, walking tours videos, walking tours greece, walking tour athens, anafiotika, plaka athens greece, plaka athens walking tour, plaka athens restaurants, athens walking tour, athens walking tour 4k, athens city walk, travel vlog, athens city tour, walking tour of plaka, plaka athens tour

Id: zozLl3c-toM

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023