Anafiotika - Plaka - Monastiraki
The famous ‘historic triangle’ of Athens is full of surprises. Anafiotika feels like an island beneath the Acropolis, a window into the Athens of a hundred years ago. Plaka is like an open-air museum, with its monuments like the Roman Agora, the Tower of the Winds and Byzantine churches. Monastiraki, where east meets West, offers cafes, rooftop restaurants and bars and tavernas hidden in the alleyways, are all jam-packed with tourists and locals alike, eating and drinking side by side.
Syntagma Square
This square is the central hub of the historic centre. Walk in front of the monument of the Unknown Soldier, built in 1932, wait patiently for the kilted Evzones to perform the changing of the guard. The imposing Hellenic Parliament building is a former palace for the first kings of early modern Greece who began their period of sovereignty in 1843. It has been home to the Greek Parliament since 1935.
National Garden
Right next to the Greek parliament lies the national garden which, together with the Ζappeion Megaron garden, covers 24 hectares full of vegetation: 7,000 trees, 40,000 bushes, rare kinds of plants making 519 species and varieties, saplings and birds. It is accessible from seven entrances. 102 of them are Greek, with Judas trees, oleanders and carob trees the undoubted stars, while others come from different countries all over the world such as Australian pines or Chinese trees-of-heaven
