Don't Just Go for the Gyros: One Woman's Travel Recommendations for Greece

When my friend and I decided to take a much needed vacation last year, I wanted desperately to travel internationally and suggested Greece. My choice was mainly influenced by some of the most beautiful images of Greece and neighboring European countries I'd recently seen in a calendar given to me for 2004. The crystal blue waters of the Aegean Sea, white-washed houses and breath-taking views of the horizon sold me. Since Athens is the most popular destination among the many in the country, we began to make tentative plans to go there but were reluctant because of the massive tourist population that would surely beat us there.

We planned our trip for May of this year, and soon began to reconsider our decision on Athens and opted instead for the southernmost island of Rhodes. The rate of 120.00 Euro per night at the Hilton Rhodes Resort on Ialyssos Avenue, less than half of the 350.00 Euro per night at the Hilton in Athens seemed like incentive enough to change our minds and the images of the hotel on the Hilton website were simply breathtaking. Also, because the flights we chose would give us about a 6-hour layover in Athens before reaching our final destination, we were counting on being able to see some of the sites in the capital city.

Traipsing Through Athens

With a travel size "Say It In Greek" translation guide in tow, my friend and I flew from Atlanta to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and onto Athens International Airport. We arrived late morning, checked our suitcases into a holding area within the airport and took a 45-minute ride on a city bus into the famed Syntagma Square. Even though we didn't have a specific plan in mind when we left, this was a brilliant idea as we were pleased to find out that we could simply walk from the busy city center through the foothills to the ancient Acropolis in about an hour's time.

Amongst modern houses and paved streets are several ruins and centuries-old churches, all labeled, so there's no need to book a guided tour unless your time will not be limited and you would prefer to learn tidbits of history for each structure. It was very warm in May-about 32 degrees Celsius/89 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, we were able to buy water frequently as we passed many shops and cafes along the way.

On the ascension, we almost immediately came to the first set of ruins, The Bathhouse of the Winds. We encountered the Church of the Metamorphosis and then the Church of the Apostles, restored in 1956.

The walkway led us directly to the highest point of the city dedicated to the goddess Athena and known as the Acropolis, or 'Sacred Rock of Athens'. It was such a thrill to see the preserved temples and ruins we'd only previously seen in textbooks. When we reached the highest point of the city, we only had to pay a 12.00-Euro entry fee to walk through the Propylaea, the archway leading to the temples dedicated to the goddess Athena (the Parthenon, Erecthion and other smaller temples), but this one payment allows re-entry as you may not get enough of these massive and indescribably gorgeous edifices in one day.

In the interest of time, we reluctantly left the Acropolis and descended the mountain using another trail and came to signs for the Ancient Agora, the center of the ancient civilization of Athens. It was once the site of political, commercial, administrative and social activity as well as the center of religious, cultural and judicial dealings. The most intact features of this area were the Temple of Hephaistos, dedicated to the gods HephaistosandAthena (construction began in 449 B.C.), the circular base of Tholos where chairmen of the Council of 500 were housed as well as a standard set of weights and measures. There are engraved signs marking the Middle Stoa where an auditorium once stood that later, because of a destructive fire, would be the site for a gymnasium. Visitors with vivid imaginations can effortlessly envision what it would have been like as an inhabitant of the Ancient Agora as we walked along the beaten path among lots of olive trees and shrubbery back to modern civilization. No matter where we went, there were places to eat and to buy keepsakes from this lovely, European city.

Onto Rhodes

The island of Rhodes is only an hour plane ride away from Athens. By taking a taxi from the airport to our hotel, we were immediately acquainted with the culture of extremely friendly people. In addition to the beautifully melodic sound of the Greek tongue, tourists can expect to hear English, Dutch and German spoken freely. Our room at the Hilton Rhodes Resort was perfect, complete with a balcony overlooking not only the hotel's courtyard and lovely, lagoon-like pool but the expanse of the Aegean Sea just on the other side of Ialyssos Avenue.

The island (thought to be blessed with nearly 300 days of sunshine per year by the Greek God Helios) is full of attractions and an unfathomably ancient history of its own. The locals refer to a portion of the oldest inhabited medieval city in Europe as Old Town, where artifacts and historical landmarks are preserved. The web of streets lined with designer clothing boutiques, souvenir shops, cafes and university are called New Town.

In the center of Old Town lies an awe-striking, 6000-year old castle, also called Rhodes World Heritage City today as the inner walls are filled with still more shops and cafes and even paved roads for automobiles to drive through carrying goods and lodgers.

It is also a little-known fact that the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue that once stood over 2,000 years ago at a busy harbor on this island, inspired the gift given to America by the French when slavery was abolished to celebrate the notion of freedom. The Colossus of Rhodes, which stood at the exact height of our current Statue of Liberty (120-feet, from foot to crown),was destroyed by an earthquake after 56 years as a perceived guardian of the harbor.

In New Town, my friend and I tasted authentic gyro platters with chips (otherwise known by Westerners as fries), tzatziki-a wonderful dipping sauce made from yogurt, cucumbers, dill, garlic and olive oil-wedges of pita bread and heavenly Greek salad with leafy greens, onions, ripe olives, olive oil, vinegar and topped with fresh feta. To top off this tasty meal, we were given small bottles of Greek red wine.

Between New Town and the hotelis an underground aquarium. For only 2.00 Euro per person, we saw the remains of several very large, but extinct aquatic creatures that once inhabited the Aegean Sea as well as familiar sea turtles, crabs and other fish. Not far from the aquarium stands a detailed statue of a man being carried by two others on the way to New Town. One of our taxi drivers explained that it is a monument to honor the great Olympians Diagoras and his two sons, Akusilaos and Damagetos, the first to win Gold medals for the island of Rhodes.

To our delight, among a long stretch of restaurants and shops, we even found a 24-hour wireless internet café within walking distance of our hotel that served sandwiches, cocktails and coffee. One of my favorites was yogurt and honey-one of Greece's famous desserts.

We spent the last two days of our week-long trip taking in a couple more sites. We visited the Museum of Beekeeping in the small neighboring city of Pastida, where we tasted and purchased varieties of honey from thyme and rosemary flowers, royal jelly fit for the queen bee herself and marvelous honey-flavored rum.

We also took a trip to Rhodes' very own acropolis at Lindos, surmounted by another castle-like structure that contains the ruins of several temples. Characteristically, there were more shops at the base of the mountain and in the winding pathway within the city are more shops, cafes and donkey herders that will allow you to ride, rather than walk to the top for a nominal fee. The houses and buildings constructed in the side of this mountain were white-washed as I'd seen in my calendar and, against the clear blue sky were that much more amazing to view.

We spent the day there and returned to our hotel to prepare for our journey home-savoring the foods we'd eaten, cherishing the interactions we'd had with the local people and engraving into our photographic memories all of the things we'd seen that seemed otherworldly until that week.