Top 10 Unusual Things in Athens

1. Athens Basketball Game

People mainly come to Athens to see the historic sights of the city. This is still an amazing adventure, but the reality is that there are plenty of other activities that you can do/see in Athens that will also make your vacation great. Some tourists like to do the unusual things instead of the mainstream ‘’key points’’. If you are tired of the mainstream activities like visiting the Acropolis, you can check out one of the activities from this list.

Not many people like sports, but even they can deliver a nice evening for every tourist. Greek people and especially people from Athens love basketball and football. While you can see amazing football fans almost everywhere, you cannot see such crazy basketball fans in any city. The fans of the two powerhouses in Athens – Panathinaikos & Olympiakos are just amazing.

While you visit Athens please check if there are some available tickets for their basketball games, you will thank me later because you will experience an atmosphere that you cannot see at any other place in the world.

2. Monastiraki Market

It is always interesting to go shopping, but Athens is definitely not a top destination for the tourists that want to go shopping. Still, there are some interesting places that you can visit and buy some nice things.

The Monastiraki Market is not a place where you can find luxury boutiques, but on the other side, you can find anything else. You can buy everything, from little magnets to all kinds of local food. Going on a tour in the Monastiraki Market can be really fun for every tourist. I strongly recommend you to save some time between your visits to the local top attractions and visit this shopping area of Athens.

3. Psirri Street Art

Psirri streets are located just next to the famous Acropolis area of Athens. Most people that somehow decided to visit this area never go around the small streets where they can see the most fabulous street art in Greece and East Europe.

Nobody would think that while visiting Athens he can see beautiful street art, well it is possible. If you are tired of the mainstream things in Athens, take a walk around Psirri and see what the street artists had created.

4. The National Gardens

The National Gardens of Athens are huge; they spread around an area of around 40 acres. You can see some amazing views combined with a quietness that you cannot find at any other place in Athens.

There are available tourist tours around the Gardens of Athens, but not too many tourists decide to save some of their time and go on a visit to the National Gardens. In here you can also visit the local Botanical Garden which is also spectacular. Visit this garden if you want to do something different and not typical for the capital of Greece.

5. Rooftop Bars

I know that Athens is pretty much all about history and cuisine, but what about relaxation. It is pretty hard to relax in Athens because the city is really busy.

My favorite ways of relaxation in Athens are the rooftop bars in the city that offer some spectacular views. There is no specific bar that I recommend because all of the ones that I had been to are perfect. I only recommend you to visit such bar in the evening time and see how Athens welcomes the moon.

6. Cooking Class

Athens has some wonderful cuisine and drinks. Combined with the history of the city, we have a great place that is perfect for a vacation, but don’t you want to try and cook these local dishes by yourself? I am a complete amateur in the kitchen, but since many of my Greek friends offered to me, I decided to accept their invitation to book a one day/evening cooking class in some of the local taverns.

What better than learning how to cook some of the local specialties and at the end of the night to have a great dinner with your spouse or with some friends? You can book a cooking class at a local tavern or restaurant in Athens. It might not sound interesting at first, but trust me the experience is unique. You can join such classes regardless of your experience in cooking.

7. Cable Car Athens

If you are tired of walking around the tourist attractions of Athens, why not fly around and see them from above?! If you want to relax a little bit and see the whole city from above at the same time, then take the lift around Athens. This is a really unusual thing for the tourists that visit the city, but it is something that you should consider. You can see some amazing views of the capital of Greece, especially if you visit the lift in the late afternoon.

This is a really unusual thing for the tourists that visit the city, but it is something that you should consider. You can see some amazing views of the capital of Greece, especially if you visit the lift in the late afternoon.

8. Outdoor Cinema

Athens is a city that just does not like the cold weather. The temperatures are low in here only for a couple of weeks in the winter. The sun is up mostly up all throughout the year.  Something that a tourist in Athens can do is to visit one of the local outdoor cinemas.

I know that watching a movie is not always the desired way of spending your vacation, but in case if you are tired from the long walks around some of the top historic sights of Athens, you can spend the night in some of the outdoor cinemas. There are a lot of them, so you have a huge choice. The movies are played in English with Greek subtitles, so you will not have problems with watching the films.

9. Ancient Mechanism

Do you want to see a couple of hundred years old computer created by the Greeks? If you want to see something so unique, then go to the Athens National Archaeological Museum. Most tourists focus mainly on the history of the ancient Greeks and on the mythology of the Greeks and they miss out on the museums that offer something different.

For me, it was amazing to see an ancient computer created by the locals. This gadget was used to predict the astronomical. There are plenty of other gadgets that you can see in the Archaeological Museum of Athens. Do not focus only on the ancient history, do something different and see what the Greeks created rather than temples and statues.

10. Sandals from Stavros Melissinos

Have you ever heard about the famous Greek poet Stavros Melissinos who creates sandals for a living? Well if you haven’t, let me tell you about this Athens miracle. This man creates typical Greek sandals and he had created such for people like John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

In the meantime, he had created books like The Rubaiyat which is translated into several languages and which is available in plenty of countries around the world. Don’t you want to have some Greek sandals created by him? Stavros is waiting for you in his small workshop next to Monastiraki Square.