Days 74 to 79: Five Days in Athens

Over the past five days, I only explored Athens for two of the days. I was too worried about selling my bicycle since that’s what I decided to do.

I listed my bike on Buycycle.com and Facebook Marketplace. There was a buyer from each platform, but I ended up selling my bike, along with the panniers, repair tools and parts, some bike clothing, etc, to Rodrigo, the traveler I had met during the first day of my stay at the hostel. He decided to start his first bicycle tour and ride around Europe and maybe go to Türkiye. It’s his 38th birthday today and he sees a new adventure coming.

I was glad to have sold my bike, but I felt bad because there was a girl from Florida who had contacted on Facebook Marketplace and wanted to buy the bike, too. She was disappointed after I sold it to Rodrigo. But she might buy my camping gears and I will try to help her find another bicycle to purchase in Athens.

As for the city of Athens, I walked to Areopagus Hill to get a good view of the Acropolis, then paid €30 as the entrance fee to go inside the grounds of the Acropolis. I also saw the Parthenon and some ancient temples there.

Yesterday after selling my bike, I took a walking tour with Rodrigo and his friends, Bradley and Lucre, to Philopappos Hill to get another good view of the city. We also went to Anafiotika, a neighborhood in Athens that’s full of buildings painted white. There was also a great view from there.

For lunch, we ended up at a vegan restaurant called Mama Tierra Acropolis. The food was excellent. No wonder it has a 4.9 rating with over 1000 reviews.

At the Athens Hawks hostel, I extended my stay until the 24th. After that I will stay with a Couchers host named Paweł for two nights before getting on my flight to Philadelphia.

I’m glad I sold the bike so I don’t have to find a bike box anymore and flying will be so much easier without a bike.

Total distance from King of Prussia to Athens on my bike: 5485 miles