Greece Travel VLOG - Piraeus, Greece - The Largest Port In Greece!

Well hello there, and welcome to the Port of Piraeus. It's been a long hard season, I'm feeling weary to my bones. Alrighty fellow travelers, welcome back to Adventures of a Traveling Don in our continued series here in Greece. Today we are at the Port of Piraeus. This is the second largest port in all of Europe, and the first largest when it comes to passengers. I think it's actually third in the world when it comes to passengers, because about 20 million people come through this port every year, whether they're going to the Greek islands or coming in off of some kind of other tour, Mediterranean tour, they all come through eventually here in Piraeus that is connected to Athens. So we're going to go and explore this part of Athens, this city of Piraeus, and see what we can find to eat, and see what kind of history we can come up with as well. Alright, so whether you're coming off of a cruise ship, or you're coming down from Athens on the metro, Themistocles Square right here behind me, this park is sort of like the first major point that you're going to see as you make your way down into Piraeus. Just so you know, Piraeus is a rather large port city, so you're going to be walking a lot, or I highly recommend taking one of the buses, the trams, whatever, or even a cab to get where you need to go if you're on a time crunch. If you want to walk it, that's fine, but it is rather large, it's not like the other neighborhoods I've been doing. But Themistocles Square, it's just this regular kind of like nice small park. The Holy Trinity Church though, right next to it on the north side, is definitely worth a look. It is beautiful inside, even outside the architecture is fantastic. But anyway, let's go ahead and get some breakfast. Okay, so our first stop here in the Port of Piraeus is a place called Marty Coffee and Wine Brunch Bar. It's kind of actually hidden, because I was looking for it on the map, it's kind of down the back, this side little alley off the main strip. But it's really kind of cool, it's like decorated really well, I like the aesthetic of it. We went ahead and got ourselves a quick drink. It's called a Lemon Mastihas, and a Mastihas from what I learned is from the Isle of Chios here in Greece. And it's a specific resin or like dried sap. And what they do is they make like a nice little refreshing lemon drink out of it. So, cheers to you guys. That's a pucker. Oh, that lemon on the back end. That's kind of good, it's like, it's just a mild sweetener, it's like, it's not as sweet as honey or anything like that. It's actually kind of got like a little bit of like a piney flavor to it. You can actually make liquor out of Mastihas, but very refreshing. Alright, so breakfast has arrived, and basically I got a Greek egg breakfast called Gaianis. And Gaianis is basically scrambled eggs, I believe they scramble it up with tomatoes. And then it's added with a little bit of feta cheese, salami, I think there might be a little bit of garlic in there. And then they put a little side of sesame brioche on the side. So, we're going to go ahead and give this a try real quick, and it just looks so, so good. Oh, man. The feta is very strong in there, those eggs are super soft and fluffy. We're going to go ahead and put that on top of a little brioche, see if we can't get a little crunch added to it as well. Mmm, that's good. That's really good, that's probably some of the better scrambled eggs I've ever had. Soft scramble, and then of course the feta cheese and the salami in there. That is fantastic. Okay, so after breakfast, before we get into the historical stuff, which we'll get to in a minute, I do want to get a cup of coffee. Just a little pick-me-up just to get me going. I came to a place called Coffee Tales, and it's kind of like in this little strip that's right next to a park. And I will say this, I'm really liking Piraeus. It's a little bit more spread out, the upkeep is a little bit better, the streets are slightly cleaner, there's just a little bit more room, and a little bit more pleasant aesthetic-ness to it. But anyway, we'll go ahead and have a nice little dark Greek coffee for you guys. Ooh, that one's rich. Holy hell. They even brought me out a little piece of like a small little cake, so we'll try that real quick. Looks really, really good. Smells good too. Is that apple? I think that's apple. That's really good. Yeah, if you're looking for a place for coffee here in Piraeus, come to a place called Coffee Tales. Small little side coffee shop. Really good. Now the history of Piraeus Port is pretty much as old as Athens itself. And there are throughout the city different areas where you will see ruins that have been excavated and then kind of like fenced off. So you can kind of check them out, you can't really kind of go into them, but they are there. Unlike places like Calathea and stuff, they don't have that here in Piraeus, you do have a lot of the ancient stuff. And one of the great places to check them out is here at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. I gotta say, I am quite impressed with the Archaeological Museum here in Piraeus because there's so much to see. And it doesn't necessarily look big from the outside, but inside there's room after room after room of statues and pottery and steles and reliefs and so much great antiquity art. It's just, it's mind-blowing the amount of stuff that they have. And it does show you how old this area of Greece, particularly in Athens, is. Piraeus is as old, it goes back to about the 6th century BC. And when you are here, when you're done with all the great stuff inside, make sure you come to the outside. It can be easily missed, but you come to the outside area and they have this massive excavated old Greek theater here from Piraeus that is just, it's a big part of the whole complex. And then on this backside they have all of these statues and everything that they've excavated and restored to an extent. It's just, if you're into antiquity and Greek history, the Archaeological Museum here in Piraeus is absolutely phenomenal. Woo! Well, I just found the part of Piraeus that I am out of my element because I found the Yacht Club. Gee mini Christmas. This entire area and across on this part of the wharf is just yacht after yacht after yacht and you just like get little peeks inside and you're like, holy crap. So this is how the other part, uh, you know, the 1% lives. That is nice. These are really, really cool yachts. Alright, so the next place we were going to visit is here called the Hellenic Maritime Museum. It's basically right next to the Yacht Ship Row that we're at and it's supposed to go into the history of maritime here in, uh, ancient Greece. I think it even goes up to modern times as well. However, it is closed unfortunately, which I'm not exactly sure why because it is not a holiday that I'm aware of and it is not a Monday when I'm filming this. So don't know why they're closed, maybe they're doing renovations, stuff like that. Something though I have noticed, um, throughout these videos, places like historical places I've been going to have generally cost me less than what is stated on the price. I think it's not just a local price. If you're here during the off season like I am, I think they put it down to the reduced price instead of the regular price. So like the last museum, the archeological museum that we were at is usually four euros. This time they charged me, uh, two euros. So it, and it did state a reduced price on there. So I was like, I think if you're here during the shoulder and off seasons, you get the reduced or the local discounts. I'm not entirely sure if that's always, but that's what I have kind of come to realize. But anyway, bummer that this is closed. So along your like promenade walk, which actually covers quite a bit of distance, uh, when you're walking all around Piraeus along the coastline, uh, there's little outcroppings like small rocky beaches and stuff like that. You definitely want to check out. It gives you kind of great views of, uh, different parts of the Bay. Uh, I mean just that in the background is absolutely fantastic, but you also get like these little weird gems that I don't even know what they're for, but you have like this small little shrine here, which is just like off the road down a little, little staircase down the hill. And it's just, it's right here. It's kind of really kind of cool. Uh, they've got like this little candle lit and everything. So, but yeah, you just get some really, really good views and some great picture opportunities all along this entire Piraeus, uh, coastline. So definitely check them out when you get the chance. Okay, so to take a break from all of that walking, we have now come to a place. It's a little seafood restaurant right off the water called, uh, Pasaro Scala, uh, Piraeus Tavern. I think I got that right. It's a mouthful. Basically triple PT is what it's called. So we stopped here for just a kind of like a quick little snack. Got a little fried calamari. I haven't had calamari yet since I got to Greece. So we are going to check this out real quick. A little bit of lemon on there. Looks really, really good. Mmm. That's nice. It's mildly tender. It's got a mild, nice meaty chew to it, but the breading is very simple. Very easy. I'll do a little of those tentacles for you. I actually really, not everybody likes the tentacles. I love calamari tentacles. Oh yeah. They have a little bit more crunch to them. Mmm. That goes very, very well with a little rocky to go down. It's a nice spot though because it's got, basically it's a restaurant that has all these glass windows. So you can basically see and get great views of the ocean from pretty much anywhere, particularly the ones that are right next to the windows. So it's a great spot. It's a little pricey because it's on the water. So like this plate of calamari is about nine euros, which is probably close to about the same amount that you pay for in most of your regular American restaurants, seafood restaurants. So yeah, about nine, 10 euros, not too bad. Like the rocky itself was maybe about three. So it's like 12, 12 euros, a little over 12 bucks for some bread, some decent portion of calamari and a little rocky to kind of like, you know, stop and have a nice little mild lunch. Not too bad. But anyway, yeah, this is Posada Escala. By the way, you know, you're in a seafood restaurant when you get little furry guys like this one at the door. He was here earlier. It's like looking at me going like, you, uh, you're going to share that calamari with me? Yeah. Of course they chase him out because they don't want cats to come in here consistently and beg all the guests, but it's kind of funny. This little cat's like, I know what you're eating. You can share with me, correct? Please? Yes. I take it real quick and then I leave. He's really cute. Well, that's one way to dry out your octopus and, uh, you know, showcase your product to the guests. They just put that up out there. Interesting. All right. So after that nice little snack, we are continuing down the Promenade and honestly, around sunset time, if you're staying in Athens, Piraeus, anywhere in this area where you can reach Piraeus, sunset time is the best time to come. I mean, just look at that behind me. It's absolutely epic. And anywhere that is Western facing along this Promenade is just, you get great, great sunset views with the mountains of the mainland in the background. And it's just, it's so cool. And of course you have this massive monument here. This is a monument to the Unknown Soldier, another one of those. And then there's also this cute little white and blue chapel down there. I think it's the chapel of St. Nicolaus, but it's just, it's very tiny, but really cool to just kind of look into if you need to light a candle, light a candle. But yeah, the West side here of this whole Piraeus Promenade, just, man, sunset time is just, it's gorgeous. Absolutely fantastic. All right. Looks like I made a new friend. Hello there, little one. How are you? Oh, you are gorgeous. Oh yeah, giving a nice little scratch. Nice little scratch. You say hi to everybody. There's cats all over Athens. This one though, usually they're skittish. This one was like, hey, come love me. Okay. So before we wrap up here in Piraeus, I had to stop and get another little bite to eat before I head home. And this is a place called Street Souvlaki. And I basically got, I didn't get the full souvlaki, a whole kind of deal. But what I got was I wanted to try a couple of different skewers. So these are souvlaki skewers. And you have one that is the traditional one, which is kind of like, I think it's like 60% pork and then 40% lamb. So we're going to try that real quick. That's real good. Just like the seasoning and the spice of that. Fantastic. And then of course, they have another one. Kind of, I'm kind of looking to see what the name of that is. It's called seftalia. And this is basically beef and pork wrapped in lamb fat. So we're going to try this one too. Oh, wow. That is a whole nother dimension of flavor there. Just that fat inside. Wow. That is absolutely delicious. Damn, that's good. All right, guys, that's going to be the end of the Piraeus video. I hope you guys enjoyed all of that. It is a great part of the major metropolitan Athens area to really, really explore, particularly when you get down to the Promenade on the waterfront. Absolutely amazing. But anyway, guys, I hope you liked it. If you did, give it a big old thumbs up and, of course, subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Hit that notification bell. If you have any comments or questions, leave them down below, and I will get to those as soon as I possibly can. And, of course, I do have a Patreon and a Buy Me a Coffee account if you want to help support the channel and the travels. And until we meet again, guys, peace out and have a great night.