11/23 – Piraeus all day

Today we are sticking close to home, well, not literally, but generally. I have the day planned out with a couple of museums down by the other harbor, Zea. There is also the electric railway museum – but that is in the opposite direction, so we’ll see about that one.

We sort of laze around this morning, taking our time. The museum doesn’t open until 10, so no rush. Although it is a 30 minute walk, we still have plenty of coffee time before we leave.

The walk is, well, the walk. It is through the city, so nothing much to talk about. But we do find the pedestrian street, Sotiros Dios, which is nice to know for later. We reach the harbor easily enough, then walk down the broad promenade looking at all the boats and yachts moored here. The maritime museum is located at the end of the harbor, in a semi-circular building that is built underground. When you are walking along the promenade, you’d never know there was a building beneath you, just a wide stretch of cobblestoned sidewalk with a nice – albeit filled with military paraphernalia – semi-circular park below you.

Once again, our Vax cards prove puzzling to the museum ticket taker, but eventually he allows us to enter. While small, the museum does have an array of exhibits – but the vast majority of the space is taken up by more models of sloops, schooners, military ships, cargo ships and yachts than you can ever imagine! Some of the most intriguing are the old original Byzantine era ships with oars – one of which has 2 levels of oars and had a crew of 100 to 300 to man them. Wow.

Another fascinating display has to do with the Italian submarine “Delfino” attack on the Tinos area in 1940. They have the remnants of the actual torpedo that hit the breakwater in the port, as well as this amazing picture of the explosion at the exact moment it hit. Pretty wild.

While very interesting, the museum unfortunately is small – and therefore we are through with our visit much more quickly than I had planned. So, with lots of time to kill before lunch, we decide to see if in fact the archeological museum is open. Everything we have read says it is not (and for some reason I thought we were here for 3 days, not 2 and had planned to visit tomorrow), but we figure it is just a few blocks away, so we’ll give it a shot. Arriving at the museum, we got very excited when we saw the front door open, but alas, it was not to be. A lovely lady (read: guard) came out and told us the museum was closed on Tuesdays. Oh well. At least we can take pictures of some of the larger artifacts through the fence behind the building.

Another pit stop at the big grocery store on the corner for shoe polish, still doesn’t burn off enough time, and we decide to stop at one of the coffee shops around the harbor for cappuccino. We choose Mr. Menu and Coffee – hey – what the heck. Unfortunately though, our Vax cards won’t work here at all. The cashier has obviously never seen one like it and has instructions to only allow QR codes in order to sit at one of the outdoor tables. Yep. Even outdoor! Oh well, rules are rules (obviously not heavy on American tourists here) so we take our to-go cups of cappuccino to the bench across the street right on the harbor. No big deal, to be honest, the bench is a better setting.

Time wasted, we continue on our walk around the harbor. There is a restaurant I have found that serves seafood and has excellent reviews. But – wouldn’t you know it? It is closed. Locked up tight, and doesn’t show any signs of opening soon. All the other cafes are starting to set the tables and bring out menus, but not this place. Oh well – we’ll find something. But not on the harbor. Everything else is either burgers or Italian or kebobs or something that is distinctly not Greek and available anywhere anytime.

Darn. Well, it is still early, so we’ll just walk back to Sotiros Dios, where they say there are lots of cafes, restaurants and shops to fill your time. Don’t know where I read that – but, shops, yes. Cafes and restaurants, um, no. After about 5 blocks, we’re getting a little antsy, but we finally reach a cross street that is also pedestrian with umbrellas and tables out on the walk. Yes! Success.

We end up at this nice little place called who knows what (all in Greek alphabet) with nice tables outside and a good broad menu. We order a Greek salad (which is unlike American style – no lettuce whatsoever, just cukes, onions, peppers, olives and feta – we’re going to have to figure out how to digest those cukes!) and Shrimp saganaki (which has 4 large heads on shrimp in a great tomato sauce that is perfect to sop up with the bread). Plus beer and wine – the wine served in this great little metal pitcher sort of thing – and we were good to go sitting on the walkway watching people.

After lunch, we continued our explorations, hitting H&M (vax card accepted there for entry) and then finding a cool church in the middle of the commercial area, before heading back to the apartment to relax and catch up.

Dinner tonight is at Meat and Salad – a place that has this wicked huge menu and a reputation for good, inexpensive food. We made reservations, but again, didn’t need them as we are the only 2 people in the place. We ask to eat on the rooftop terrace, and as you can see from the photos, have the place all to ourselves. The entire time!

The waitress is adorable, and tells us everybody loves to speak English with us because it gives them good practice. We’re happy, because Greek is not happening with us. We have a hard enough time with Spanish and Italian that we’ve been studying for, oh, decades now! We start off with Tzatziki sauce, and our girl upsells us on 2 pieces of pita (it is only 40 Euro cents, so no big deal). Except, it is a big deal, oh my God, the sauce is huge, the pita is enormous. Then Ed orders a meat skewer and a sausage platter – which comes piled high with Pita. I only order the Meat and Salad signature salad, so fortunately no additional pita, but the salad itself was huge, and topped with tons of pecorina cheese, pine nuts, raisins (or dried grapes as listed on the menu) and chicken. Way, way too much food. But way, way cheap. Definitely the go to place for our meals when we return here next year!