Flew United to Paris then Aegean to Athens. Not a bad combination but the Star Alliance lounge in CDG Terminal 1 is not much to write home about, particularly on the food front. Not a ton of options in the terminal either. The SAS lounge next to the Aegean gate was no better.
Athens was fantastic and greatly exceeded expectations. Very lively central area. Many options for outside eating, drinking, and hanging out. The north and south sides of the Acropolis seemed to be mostly tourists while the northeast seemed to be more locals. Kind of a mix elsewhere. People were very helpful even when they were not great at English, although spoke a bit.
The food was very good with fresh vegetables, fresh seafood, and lots of good cheese. Would recommend Koallis for seafood although having a map and knowing it is near the Hotel Metropolitan was very helpful to the taxi. The greek salad from Kuzina was almost a panzanella with excellent tomatoes, arugula, croutons, capers, and excellent olive oil. Would recommend the 12-hour pork here as well even though I opted for the salad. Great starters. For lunch and cafe time, there are a few on or near Vasilis in the Thiseio area but you can really look anywhere around the city. They love their iced coffee. Could also recommend the roof bars around A for Athens and 360.
For a break from the Acropolis and nearby crowd, highly recommend wandering around
Filopappou Hill which is right next door. Very few people and great views. About a 30 min walk away you get to the base of Mount Lycabettus. About 25 min up to see the Church of St George and look down on the entire city. Fantastic views. Make sure to take water.
Stayed at the New Hotel Athens which was great. Nice rooms. Excellent full breakfast in their restaurant. Great little tea cookies by the check in desk and chocolate at turn down :)
Perhaps one too many fantastic martinis at Osterman on Plateia Agias Irinis (menu looked great. should have eaten more) and was off to the Athens airport Sofitel for a 5:00am wake up to catch my Aegean flight to MUC then Lufthansa to SFO, only 0.2% over the direct route. Good although unintentional carbon footprint minimization. Had planned a longer layover to head in to MUC but it was 3C and very foggy, and I was underdressed, so settled for an airBrau at MUC. Pretty good helles and only €2.60 for a 0.5L. Highly recommended. You can go outside security to the location outside the check-in area (do not have to clear passport control connecting from within the EU) or visit the smaller one in Terminal 2 after you go though passport control for international flights.
$1.375 = €1 which was not a great rate compared to recent trips. Ended up with a 3G SIM from Vodafone from a store in Athens. €17 for a micro SIM for my 4s including 500M of data for 30 days and 400 minutes of local calling. Very helpful to call a local conference bridge number for work. No stores for SIM cards on arrival at ATH. BKK still wins at that game. Tried to buy a Wind SIM first but it did not work with my US 4s. The guy at their store said this happens frequently with unlocked iPhones from various other countries. Google Maps and Apple's friend stalking apps were so very helpful in Athens.
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