Monastiraki is one of the most characteristics areas in Athens. Athens is an European city but for more than one aspect it doesn’t look as all the other european cities. The first time you visit Monastiraki you may wonder if you are in the right country or maybe you are in north africa or in a medioriental city.
Ermou road is the main road in Monastiraki where you can also go by car. It gets you very confused: you can find very old and abandoned houses next to trendy and crowded restaurants.
Monastiraki square Athens
But this is only one side of Monastiraki. Going straight you arrive in Monastiraki square where you have a suggestive view of the acropolis. Furthermore the square demostrates that Athens is an european city but with a strong turky influence.
From this square you have a lot of opportunities: you can easily reach the best historical attractions on foot, you can get one of the touristic buses in order to go to the best Athens destinations and last but not least there is the station where you can get the train for the airport.
Exploring the area
If you decide to explore better the area from the square, you can go in the parallel streets of Erou road: Ifestou street and Adrianou street. These 2 streets are like 2 different worlds. Ifestou street is like a Turkish souk market, instead Adrianou street is very different. It’s full of very cute greek restaurants on one side and on the other side, after the train tracks, you have the old Athens Agorà ruins and a beautiful view of the acropolis.
To be more accurate we should say that Adrianou street was built on one part of the ancient agora of Athens. Infact the big part of the ancient Athens Agora is fenced and visitable as an historical site but an undiscovered area is still under the modern city.
This is evident by the new archeological site you see by the road, by the ruins you can see in the station and by the ruins you can see in the basements af some restaurants.
Monastiraki: food and relax
After a full day visiting museums and archeological sites Monastiraki is a restouring base point. Here you can feel the greek atmosfere, listen to typical music and maybe more importantly, to taste very good food.
Good news: greek food portions are very abundant for all the hungry ones!
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