As what some of you await, here is the update on my Greece trip. Again I will say, I am not the best travel expert anyone can depend on, basically a noob here who just travel and plan out of my own bliss. Hehe! But here I am sharing some things that probably could be helpful. After all, sharing is caring.
---
We booked our flight via Scoot to Greece, Athens. Omigod. Can I just say here how much I love Scoot? Lol! I know it's a budget airline but....I truly love it. The downside of it of course it being a budget airline, you don't get food serve to you unless you order. You need to pay and add on your 30 kilos luggage per person. No on board entertainment unless again..you pay for them. But it wasn't a problem to us because we have Netflix now. Hehe! Space wise it varies. To me, it's alright because I'm fun-sized. Lol! But D find it a little bit too cramp because he is tall. But above all, the price was reasonable. We bought it at a promotion and it only cost us about $500-600 per person! 😍
And what amazed me. I am not too sure if it's the flight itself or is it because of another secondary reason but for the FIRST time ever that I took a long flight and I didn't have any difficulty breathing problem at all. Yes, this is the greatest issue for me. I took SIA for both my trip to Melbourne and Korea and in these 2 occasions, I found airway tight half-way through the flight. Trust me, this is the scariest thing to ever go through with because you're in the middle of the air and don't even know what to do. Even when I tried to calm myself down, I still feel out of breath. So of course, knowing myself not being able to survive almost a 7-8 hours of flight, I was pretty afraid if I would be able to last this flight that is going to be 11-12 hours long. But I knew I had to try, else I will never be able to go further from Southeast asia countries.
But..I did change some things though like I don't take the window seat anymore and sat on the outer seat, maybe better air circulation? I took a night flight and probably it's best that I feel sleepy and get to sleep in the flight instead of taking a morning flight. And I also bought a motion sickness pill at Guardian. The last time when I had this attack to Melbourne, I remembered one of the air-stewardess gave me this pill and it helps knock me off to sleep. But they no longer provide this on flight when I went to Korea.
Took this before flying off.
Day 1 - 04th April 2019
Our flight was at 0235 hours and Ayah sent both of us to the airport in the midnight. D and I hang out around the airport first as we reach way too early and finally check-in to the boarding area when it was time.
Yes only 1 big luggage and 1 small luggage this time because the last time we brought 2 big luggage to Korea and it was a killer. D had to carry them up and down the staircase (no escalator & elevator) because I couldn't carry them. So now I can carry the small one and D the bigger one. #SmartTravel now? Hehe!
Sent our big luggage away and seeing the tag made me feel so surreal. Like I never dream that this will ever come true one day for me. Just seeing pictures when I was young knowing it will just be pictures only. I've always wanted to be there but I don't get to live the luxury of money when I was younger. I never even board an airplane. My first airplane was when I was 18 but that was also because of school and I was able to use the Edusave money, else I will have to wait till my prince charming now, who Alhamdulilah, provided me things I've missed. But that's not all, I have to thank my parents too for providing me their best that I was able to finish my education, gain knowledge and earn my own moolahs now. And thank you Allah SWT for His will too. Amin. 😢 *Sorry got emotionally carried away*
We boarded the airplane and I feel well, comfortable somehow and I'm like woahh, so many mat sallehs you alls. Hahahaha!
So Scoot being Scoot. Lol! Our flight really got delayed for almost about 45 minutes to an hour or so but it wasn't their fault this time. They were actually waiting for 3 person from a connecting flight to board the plane. It was nice to me I thought that they were willing to wait. Lol! When the 3 finally were on board, we were all set to fly. (Still having goosebumps as I typed this because I still can't believe I went to Greece! Hehe!)
I remembered the pharmacist telling me to take 2 tablets of the motion sickness pill since my flight is 11-12 hours because 1 pill can last for about 6-7 hours. I initially took 1 before going on board and tell myself that I will take another if I'm awake again but as we were flying, I was like heck, I'd rather be sleeping than having to go through another series of breathing difficulty problem. So I took another one while on board. Haha! And guess what?! I was soooo happy that I was pretty knock-out for a good 9-10 hours on board. Only that I wake up once because D couldn't sleep during that 11-12 hours flight. HAHAHA! And he was feeling hungry and told me to help me order food. (Because he don't know how to order. 😑)
D wanted braised chicken with rice and of course look at the serving. It's definitely not enough for him BUT we had to save the $$ we have. Poor husband had to cringe his hunger. I ate a little (although I was pretty hungry too) and went back to sleep after that.
1 and a half hour before we landed, I was wide awake and it was day time. Hehe! I was pretty excited how it will look like down there.
Oh yes, one mat salleh took the window seat and sat next to D. Lol! And I guess he must have regretted because he had to squeeze and only left his seat once to go to the toilet.
And also I met this cute toddler,
Hehe! He seem to be making eye contact with me.
I get to catch a few episodes of Netflix on my phone and before we knew it, it was time for landing. Still, I couldn't believe it myself when the pilot made an announcement that we've already reached Athens at 9am Greece timing and the temperature was 15 degrees, which...I didn't prepare myself so much for a spring weather. Confidently hoping it will be at least Summer. Hahaha!
Lol!Good thing Greece is easy to navigate around because of the train that is available. We decided not to drive even though I initially wanted D to drive but I'm afraid it will be too dangerous. Besides all you have to do is hop on to their train and it's so easy to get around. But of course, we need to get our wifi working first to google directions and stuff.
I usually rent my wifi router from Changi Recommends when going overseas except to country like Indonesia & Malaysia because I will buy their prepaid cards instead. I know we can buy prepaid cards or router from the country that we are traveling to but I'm afraid if the data is limited or if the sim card requires topping up (and I might not know or troublesome to find a place to top up) or if sim card language is in Greek plus if there is any hidden extra charges etc which I don't know. So I feel it's safer to rent router from Singapore instead. HEHE! Plus it's easy. You have to charge it and you're good to use it. To rent it, all you have to do is just pre-book them online and state how many days to rent and can collect them at their booth at the airport (Terminal 1, 2 or 3) anytime BEFORE boarding.
So hungry too.
So of course we have no idea where the train was but we followed the sign and the crowd. I will say the husband is very good at navigation. He will be the one looking out for signs, directions and doing the navigation whereas I'm good at planning and doing research on how to go to one place to another. Just that most of the time I don't know how to get to it. Lol!
We booked Airbnb for this trip and I've contacted my host for directions. The great thing is that our Airbnb is at Monastiraki station which is the central of everything. Not knowing how to use their ticketing machine, I went over the the counter and asked the staff and told them Monastiraki. They let us knew how much the tickets was and then handed us our tickets + the timing to board the train.
As you can see it's about 17 stations from the airport to Monastiraki but it wasn't long because their train is a super fast speed train. Lol. And even till today, D and I like to imitate the train voice system when the person mentioned the different station's name. It's really....Greek....really...different. Hehe!
As we were making our way to our Airbnb (following the direction given by our host), we were greeted by our host's parents. It was so nice that they actually waited for us despite us being 3 hours late due to the flight delay. They brought us to the apartment and showed us around the apartment, telling us how to use the stove and etc. And also like what we can do and what we cannot do. Like not letting the aircon on when we leave. Like how I will do when I stay in hotels but ONLY when in hotels. 😜 For that I'm guilty. 😅 We wanted to rest actually but the conversation with the host parents went on and on. 😐 Lol! Like finally an hour later when they left and D and I just lay down on the bed to rest for a while.
But I did told D that we cannot rest for so long because our activity for the day starts on the day we arrived, as we didn't want to stay in Greece for more than 10 days like how we did in Korea and get pretty homesick. Lol! Plus we were starving too, the time difference in Singapore is about 5 hours, so 1pm in Greece was already 5pm in Singapore. The last meal we had was in plane, so we really needed to get out to go get food.
My food encyclopedia for a Halal dining is definitely by Have Halal Will Travel in Greece. I will also sometimes refer to their website on places to go. This is definitely one of the best Halal-Greece itinerary to follow and you can tweak changes to your own liking and adventures. I refer to Travel Intern for some of my Greece itinerary too.
We changed to a comfortable clothing and left our luggage and off we went for food hunting. And this part here was the most scariest thing that ever happened to us. We were pick-pocketed on our way for dinner.
#1 - Pick-pocket
I guess it's true how people usually associate Europe country having the most number of pick-pocket cases going around, especially in Paris. But I didn't believe that it will happen to me in Greece. I have always picture Greece to be beautiful and when I was pick-pocket. It made me sooooo pretty upset on my first day in Greece. Luckily, my colleague, Charlotte bought me a safety travel bag which has like so many safety locks and it is like almost impossible to unlock it.
So anyway, the story goes. I wanted to put on my sunglasses 😎 while walking but in the end I decided not to because it wasn't too sunny. So I place my sunglasses inside my pocket and I even zipped the pocket. I had my bag inside my jacket and my jacket zipped right up to the top. So it's impossible to unzip my bag without unzipping the jacket. I thought I was safe enough until while walking, I heard one Greek, I think he is probably a G***** calling out to me and wanting to hand me back something in his hand. D and I didn't turn and quickly walk away and he kept chasing us hard, to a point where we quickly cross the road and he couldn't cross as the lights turn red. So he was still showing something in his hand that look black. I told D that doesn't look like my stuff and I'm not sure what it was. Maybe he wanted to sell us something. Then suddenly I thought, OMIGOD, is it my handphone?! I look at my phone. Alhamdulilah! It was still inside my bag. But was that he was holding in his hand? After much thought, I placed my hand inside my pocket. The zip of the jacket was unzip and my sunglasses was gone. I was soooo upset and so was D. He felt like a failure for not being able to 'protect' me from these people. It was my favourite sunglasses too but the WEIRDEST thing, they are sooooo good at pick-pocketing that I didn't even realized how did that happen?!
We found the place where we wanted to have dinner - RAJA JEE FAST FOOD
I had to give some words of encouragement to D because he doesn't seem like he wanted to anywhere anymore after the incident. But I did tell him that we learn as we travel, else we will never see what the real world is like. Not everything is pretty just like how Singapore is and with that, we should feel thankful that being a Singaporean is definitely better. Albeit it was my favourite sunglasses but we should feel bless and thankful that Allah SWT keep both of us safe and our other most valuable belongings like passport, wallet, cash and handphone safe. Alhamdulilah.
After dinner, we used GPS to navigate. We went to look for the train station and head down to Syntagma Square.
SYNTAGMA - Changing of Guards.
This is where we witness the changing of guards which happens every hour here. It was interesting to watch and seeing their leg powers and how they are able to stand so still, so straight under the weather. Wow. Amazing. And I sure took a lot of photos here.
This is when the changing of guards starts,
#2 - Con
So as we waiting for the changing of guards ceremony to happen. Again, there is this I guess old G***** man who was feeding some nuts to the pigeons. He initially told me to feed the pigeons but I keep rejecting him, then he just took my hands, open up my palm and pour the seed on top. So all the pigeons started flying over to eat the seed from me of course. And then, when the nuts finished, I wanted to walk away and he showed me the dollar sign and said 'money'. Like wtheck right? I was so annoyed because I don't have small change yet. Our notes were all big notes because we haven't buy anything besides the food we bought. So I think I end up giving him some euros which was equivalent to SGD20. $20 over some seeds? Seriously! D told me not to stray far from him too much else, I'll get con like that. Oh, I just stand few steps away from him because I was admiring those pigeons while eating ice-cream. Anyway, really, I'm not trying to be mean but all these people who con and steal from me, I will never halalkan dunia akhirat. I don't care if you're not Muslim or what or believe in this halal or not halal thingy but really, I will not halalkan dunia akhirat. I hope these people will feel sooooo guilty over what they did to con people like that. Haiz! This incident still makes me sooo angry and upset especially that I feel like crying to be con in this way.
The old man is not in the picture. Lol!
So just be careful guys. If you really want to feed the pigeons then go ahead, at least keep some small change. I'm sure these people above got con too. Hurhur!
We planned to go back to our apartment at least by 5pm Greece timing. So that will be equivalent to 9pm Singapore timing. Just nice for us to head back and rest to sleep. We wanted to keep our Singapore timing close as much as possible especially the waking up and sleeping time because I don't want us to be seriously jet-lagged when we go back to Singapore. Since it was only about 4pm, we managed to squeeze only one last activity.
AKROPOLI - Acropolis Museum
From Syntagma square, we walk back to the train station to board the train and hop on to the next station which is Akropoli also known as Acropolis. The station in Greece is easy to understand, just like the train station in Singapore.
We exit and follow the sign and to the Acropolis museum.
When we exit the museum, oh by the way, you cannot drink in the museum. There is no sign that says no food and drink but nope, you can't drink because I did and I got told off. LOL! So confusing these places. Some allow, some don't allow. I didn't purposely choose to drink also, it just slip off my mind as I was too tired and thirsty.
So we left the museum and make our way back to our apartment. We came across this view and I told D that I really can't wait to head there the next day. Like I really wonder what it's like up there.
Oh we were actually on the way to the museum and I guess this is our last con maybe? HAHAHA! This lady came up to me with lots of roses in her hands and said I look like Angelina Jolie. FOR REAL! 🙄
That's when I too decided, enough con for today. LOL! Time to head back to our apartment to rest and not getting con anymore. I even got myself thinking. It's only day 1 and we got con so much, how do we last the next 7 days here? But then again, I also tell myself that we shouldn't let this thing ruin our day. It's a lesson to learn and everyday is a learning journey in another country. We also learn different method to guard our belongings and ourselves on how to avoid getting con. 💪
Since our Airbnb is just a few minutes away from this M+S Cafe, I bought hot chocolate and D tried Greek coffee for the first time. We pack it back to our apartment and have this daily until the staff recognized us. He was so nice to us too. Afterall, not all Greek people are not nice. Well, I'm not trying to be judgmental but Greek people are nice, I guess only the G***** are not so. Hurhur.
Leaving some articles to read up on Greece, Athens.
- Is Athens safe? Areas to avoid and other warnings
- Non-touristy experiences in Athens
- 10 Things tourists should never do in Greece
- 12 reasons why Muslim traveller should visit Greece
XOXO,
Princess Azie Anni ♥
No comments:
Post a Comment