Day 80: Athens Airport Meet Up by Metro and More Piraeus

Tuesday, 6th September 2022

Planning My Airport Route

My girlfriend Marion was due to arrive today, and I’d agreed to meet her at Athens Airport so she wouldn’t have to find her way to Piraeus alone. Her flight wasn’t due to land until 2:10 p.m., so I had plenty of time to make my way there.

I planned to take the Metro, as I’d become familiar with it over the past two days, and I’d done some research to confirm that I would need to head from Piraeus to Monastiraki station on the green line 1 before switching to the blue line 3 for the airport. A one-way ticket costs €9 and takes roughly an hour.

Changing Hotels

Our ferry to Sifnos wasn’t until tomorrow morning, so we planned to overnight in Piraeus. For some reason, I’d decided to book a different hotel for the night, meaning I needed to check out of Achillon Hotel and move my luggage to the new hotel. I wanted to do this before meeting Marion so that I didn’t have to take my big suitcase to the airport and back, or leave it at my current hotel and come back for it later.

I spent most of the morning in my hotel room, working on YouTube content and updating my blog notes. At 11:30, I checked out of the hotel and decided to head straight to the new hotel, Lilia, hoping to either check in early or at least leave my suitcase there. Lilia Hotel is a bit further away from the port but closer to the restaurants near the marina at Pasalimani. After a 10-15 minute walk, I arrived at reception. Unfortunately, my room wasn’t ready then, but I was told to return in about an hour when it would be – this was good news, as it meant I’d have access to the room just in time before I had to leave for the airport.

I passed the hour walking around the marina, ending up at the big supermarket I’d visited a couple of days ago, where I bought a protein shake for lunch and some water to store in the room for later.

Airport Arrivals

I’d been tracking my girlfriend’s flight online and could see it would arrive slightly late at about 2:30 p.m. I got checked into our room at Lilia, then walked to Piraeus metro station just after 1 p.m. The metro was quiet for the first few stops but got busier as we moved closer to central Athens. It was pretty hectic when we reached Monastiraki for the change from the green to the blue line.

I arrived at the airport just after 2:20 p.m. and could see that her flight would be landing in the next few minutes, giving me time to walk across to the arrivals area and wait for her to come through. She appeared about 15 minutes later, excited to be on holiday and because it was her birthday today!

Retracing my steps, we returned to Piraeus mid-afternoon, stopping at Freddopolitan for a late lunch as we were both quite hungry. We also stopped at the port to buy our ferry tickets for the morning, which was a painful experience as the only seats left were in business class and cost a whopping €84 each!!

Hotel and Dinner

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel, then headed out for dinner around 7 p.m., unsure where we wanted to eat. As we’d had a late lunch, neither of us was especially hungry, so we agreed to find a place that sold crepes or waffles to snack instead of a full meal. After walking quite a distance and having no luck, we circled back and found a place near the hotel!

Feeling suitably full and excited to head to Sifnos tomorrow, we strolled back to the hotel for an early night.