approximately 4 h. private walking food tour
Be our guest! Every time we Athenians welcome a friend coming from another city or country to Athens, we have to feed him well and at places he would never discover on his own.
Walking you around the city center we will also stop and see points of historical or cultural interest, since we are so proud of our city and its long ancient and modern history, makes it very interesting to see from the side of a local expert foodie!
Let's meet half past the hour in Syndagma square and walk across to the front of the Parliament house, to watch the changing of the guards, which takes place every hour, on the hour, while we are enjoying eating the famous "koulouri", the crispy bread roll with sesame seeds, which you can also feed a few small bites with the pigeons that love "hanging out" in front of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier, where the changing of the guards takes place.
From there let's proceed to the most famous down town store, where you can see and taste dry nuts, "pasteli" (honey with sesame seeds), loukoumi, koufeta, dry fruits and a shot of Mastiha liqueur from the famous island of Chios.
Our walk will continue through some of the most busy or narrow streets of central Athens, in order to get to either Monastiraki or Psyrri area and drink a "Greek coffee", which has such a long tradition and while enjoying it, we will tell you all about it.
But after the coffee you will need a bite again, so let's pick according to our mood of the day the right spot to taste a Greek pastry made with "phyllo" that is freshly prepared every day. There are a few special places like that, where we will taste either a bougatsa or spanakopita or baklava.
And now comes the most challenging part! Now you will prove how brave and open to new adventures you can be! Let's walk pass the fresh vegetables market and taste some olives, before we walk across and enter the "Varvakeios Market". It's a large indoor market where the largest variety of fresh fish, spices and meat from all around Greece arrives every day, therefore the Athenians come and visit it from all over the city. We should warn you! It's not a supermarket with everything beautifully packed in special packages. It's an indoor market composed by many stalls one next to the other, which looks very much the way the ancient agora (market) would have looked like, where you can see the fish or animals' meat full body and head, smell them, touch them to check how fresh they are and bargain with the salesmen. Being your local friends we try to show you the real Athens and we want you to experience this, but if it is more than what you can take, we can enjoy an alternative walk outside of the market and see it from a distance. If we do go in though, we will go and taste some Greek “mezes”, at one of the "holes on the wall" there are. Mezes is a sacred word for Greek gastronomy, and means something very tasty that usually accompanies a glass of wine or beer or ouzo, and is similar to tapas.
Finally, the time has come, after all this multicolor experience and long walk, to sit down and chat about our experience. Let's turn into a small alley, which will travel us to a total different setting, which looks more like a "beach front taverna" on an island rather than the crowded city center. Here we will enjoy a few more sea food mezes and some house wine.
This is where our tour will end and until we meet again... enjoy!
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