This is How They Treat Me in Athens, Greece!! 🇬🇷

This is Athens, the cradle of democracy, the beginning of the Western world. And today I'm going to show you the people, the food, and the culture. Let's go. All right, so we're starting off the day with a semifreddo. So this is, from what I understand, it's better than Italian coffee. This is like a double espresso, it's cold. That's how we do in Greece, semifreddo. Oh my god, it's like frothy. It's strong. It's so good. I'm all about cold coffees in hot environments. In Miami, I do cold brew all day. Here, semifreddo. I might need another one, if you're a coffee addict. Come here, this is called Matsouka. It's next to my Airbnb. Migros Charm Coffee. What was I going to tell you? It's good stuff. Best coffee in the world, right here. Italy? You don't know what you're doing, bro. I don't know, dude. Greek versus Italian. Who's better? Okay, so this is from where? Thessaloniki? Yes. Looks like a massive pretzel with sesame seeds. It's going to be hard. Good. So here's like five versions. This one's nice. I mean, it is like a massive, almost like a bagel. In terms of taste. Where are you from? Jimmy. Thessaloniki? I'm from Albania. Albania? I love Albania, it's amazing. Bye, bye. Thank you, thank you. It's nice. I mean, something different, Tasos. When do you eat this? So normally, you would do this in the morning with some coffee. You know, when we go to Thessaloniki, you'll see that there's plenty. I mean, here, you know, it's a touristic street, so they sell it. And the seller even told you it's from Thessaloniki. It's called Koulouri Thessalonikis. So it's called Koulouri because, you know, this round shape, it's Koulouri. Koulouri also means zero. So that's why it's like a zero shape. So right here in Monastiraki, the center of Athens, we have one of the oldest remaining Byzantine churches, over a thousand years old, roughly 1050 AD. If you know about the Roman history, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, when they split, when everything fell apart later, you know, Christianity changed. And in 1054, the Catholic Church and the Byzantine Church split. And that's in 1054. That's the Great Schism. What an incredible piece of history standing right here in the center of Athens. And the name of the church is Panagia Kapnikareia. Get in here. It's amazing. Dude, this is like mind-blowing, huh? Dude, is this mosaic that old? A thousand years old, that mosaic? So this Hermou street connects the Parliament Building all the way down to Monastiraki Square, which is the most popular square in Athens. From there, you get views of the Acropolis, lots of people, lots of restaurants. And we're headed there right now. Follow me. And this is it, Monastiraki Square. Man, I was here 13 years ago. It hasn't changed. It is so beautiful. Now, why is it called Monastiraki Square? Well, right here, we have a Byzantine Church, a thousand years old. And that was part of the Greater Monastery. Huge monastery. Monastery, Monastiraki. Behind us right there, we have an Ottoman Mosque. You know, so a lot of different hands. The Greeks, right? It was Greek. It was Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman. And then eventually in the 1800s, they became Greece. So that now is a museum. And behind it, we have one of the most beautiful things of all time. The Acropolis. That is where everything started here. You know, this city is like, what? 6,000 years old, but really like 3,000 years of real culture. What was it? Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. So many great philosophers come here during the day for great photos. But at night, it becomes alive. Three performers. And right over here, we have like three bars, right? So from there, we get drinks, get great views. I mean, this is Athens. 2026. And it's hot. If you love coffee, you're gonna love Athens. There is over a thousand coffee shops throughout the city. And what do people drink? Freddo Espresso. Not frappe. That's old school. And people don't really eat breakfast anymore in Athens. This is a fast-paced culture. So you can see everybody's just running to work. They grab their coffee and they go. But if you're hungry, get a pita, which is like a tiropita, a spanakopita. It's basically similar to like a pie with spinach or cheese. They are delicious. We'll have some later today. But yeah, Freddo Espresso all day, guys. Especially in the summer months. When I was younger, we would really have breakfast. Nowadays, there's no time for this, especially in Athens. Not only in Athens, like all of Greece, you know, we don't really have breakfast. So before you leave your house, you don't even think about breakfast. You're like, oh, I'm gonna grab a Freddo Espresso on the way. And then on your way to work, you just grab a Freddo, some pita if you're hungry. Like most people, because honestly, people are stressed here as well. So they forget to eat. Then it's like, you know, you go to work. It's 12, 1, 2 p.m. And then you're like, oh, I gotta eat as well. So the thing is breakfast, though, you know, it can be a misconception. People will think, oh, Greeks, you know, like food, like breakfast. But it's not really the case anymore. It's just like, you know, Freddo and just go. So yeah. We're about to enter Varvakios Agora, which is the biggest market here in Athens. This place is a meat paradise. We're gonna see butchers. They're gonna be a little aggressive. It's gonna be amazing. Outside, it extends. It's huge. Look, you got spices, you have nuts, you have dates. But follow me inside. We're gonna go see what these guys are selling. Last time I came here, 13 years ago, I remember seeing the lambs, all of them hanging. It's a little intense, but hey, this is real. So these are all lamb? Yes. Yeah. It's actually so good. I mean, when you think about how Greek cuisine is, it's one of the best in the world. And the reason it is because the restaurants are literally coming over here to the butchers and buying this fresh meat. In America, people think this is like weird. But to be honest, I'd rather see where my meat's coming from. So right here, we have the liver. It's one of my favorite pieces of the animal. All organs. A little irony, but super delicious. All right. Wow. Look at this. Now we really see how massive this market is. It's not too full right now. What is today? It's like Tuesday morning. But over here, we have a mix of lamb, beef. You got chicken. So behind each of these shops, we have them actually cutting up the animals. Yeah. So over here, he's cutting up some more liver. Wow. Tongue. Oh, look at the tongue. Tongue. That's the bull tongue. Cow legs. That's the cow legs. Yeah. It's bone. Yeah. That's the brain. Yeah. If you guys are, you know, not accustomed to this, it might be a little boring for you. Walking through this market and actually seeing blood. Actually seeing them cutting up the animal. You know, this is the reality of the world. So I don't know. I think it's, you know, we got to thank God for these animals to give their lives for us. Because, you know, we are consuming it. You know, unless you're a vegetarian, which I probably will be a pescetarian in the future. Vegetarian, maybe not. By the way, this lady is just so funny. She goes like, I don't put on the same amount of sunscreen you put on today in a year. Am I that white, guys? I mean, I had to, guys. I'm burning. I'm burning all day here. But one thing they were telling me is that they really can't like speak on camera about the market because there's restrictions with the market president. But it's OK. I mean, this is it. You know, if you have a restaurant in Athens, this is where you come. If you are staying in Athens for a week or two and you want to cook some food, come here. You know, buy some fresh meat, poultry. And now we're going to cross through and go straight over to the fish market. I think it's right through here. The second you walk in, you smell the salty fish and the floor. Look, this is a real wet market. It's intense. Whoa, I haven't been to a place like this since the Philippines. Like a real wet market. We got salmon. We have a mix of trout, sea bass, shrimp everywhere. Looks like anchovies as well. All ice. Look at the amount of ice they put. Also, this is like some grouper over here, like some squid, some octopus. Octopus here in Greece is the best. Hands down. So this fish is very well known. It's called Gavros. It's my dad's favorite. It's cheap, fresh fish you can get in any market in Greece, especially here. So how do you eat it? Like just with oil or fried? You just put in the oven some oil, salt, pepper. Simple. 30 minutes out. Melts. Oh, she didn't have breakfast. Okay, but this is her breakfast. Amazing. So right now she's cutting up some fish. Big lakta. So what is this fish right here? I have no idea what that is in English, but I'm sure we'll translate it here. Yeah, so look at this. She just takes off all the scales. She fillets it. Look at that. Beautiful the way she does it. And so do you sell to just anybody or restaurants come? Restaurants and hotels. And hotels. Got it, got it. So this is where they all come to get the freshest fish. And look, it's a lot right now. Wow, lots of ice. Some people are screaming. It is more of an off day. We're saying like more like Fridays and Saturdays might be a little more crazy. This is Tuesday. It is more, you know, relaxed today. That's a red snapper. Okay, so this comes from the city two hours from here. It's called Halkida. Hey, so what time do you start work? How early? So she was saying they start around 8 a.m. Because it's B to C. So they don't start at 6 in the morning. I think it's way too early. No one's really awake. One thing you notice about Europe. People go to sleep late and they wake up a little later. It's not like America. We wake up at 5-6 in the morning. Here it's a little different. So what do we have here? It's like a small grouper. A scorpion. There's a red snapper there. Sea bream. So every single day comes from different places in Greece. So I asked him like how's work. And he's like we're good. Because now it's summer. So they work a lot with like yachts and like boats. So they sell a lot of fish. So for them they work with hotels and yachts. So business is good for them. And then over here we have some caviar. Damn, this is like fresh. It's like super cold. You can tell it's in ice. So Tasos, what is he cutting here? So he's cutting the lamb. Like exactly like my grandpa used to do it. You know my grandpa in the village, you know 15th of August. It's like a big celebration here of Virgin Mary. So everybody goes to their villages. They leave the city. They go to their villages. And there they like butcher the lamb. Easter time as well. So you know like to become a proper man in Greece. You gotta see an animal being killed, you know. So what is that? So this place you come to bet. There's different types of games. But there's also mainly you watch the football games. And it's part of culture. Men, you know, when it's like a night of football, they'll come here. They'll bet on their favorite team, you know, who's gonna win or not. And it's part of culture. Literally like, you know, because most men are super busy during the day. So in the evening they come to a place like this. They hang out. They bet, you know, small amounts. Two euros, five euros, ten euros. And it doesn't matter if you win or not. You know, socializing is what matters, you know. And watching the game together. So it's part of culture here. You'll see this throughout the city. Okay, so nuts. Here we go. And this has sesame seeds on top. Look right here. So this is our, his best sellers. This and then some really nice pistachios. So those pistachios are one of his best sellers. And they're from an island called Aegina. Let's try these. Crunchy sesame balls. A little sweet. Might have some honey on it. Oh, that's good. So on this side of the market, you have the nuts and you have the spices. So here in Greek cuisine, what is it? It's a lot of oil. But then you have a few different spices. It's thyme, oregano, and dill. Those are the three main ingredients. Very simple, but they elevate flavor in all the dishes. As you can see right here, this is oregano. Oh my gosh, that is good. So my ex-boyfriend's from the island of Karinos. And they have oregano, but they call it tribi because it's like wild. Use these oregano to like marinate some lamb. Leave it there overnight marinating. It's the best. Keep going this way, guys. So it's just a bunch of spices, more nuts. So it's mixed. So what is this? This is like similar to a sponge. Sponge? Yeah, that's a sponge. Sugari. Can I see one? But this is not a sea sponge, no? Because it's different. So this one is dry fig. All right, so he was telling me this is the oldest shop around. You can see the big difference between these next to it and this one. This is more, I guess, rustic, a little more edgy. And he's selling a bunch of nuts. And he's saying that these dates that Tasos is showing me is really good for your stomach. So have like one a day and you're good. 6.50 euros. And this is from where? Natural. So natural sugar. Perfect. Yeah, this is one of the countries in the world with almost no processed food. I think it's 11% of the country has processed food. That's why you can eat forever in Athens, in Greece, and never feel full. Yesterday, I ate 22 plates. Can you believe it? 22 plates. So right here, right next to Monastiraki Square, we have the flea market. This is a market that sells everything. We got souvenirs. We have clothing. Got sandals. It's a bit touristic, of course, but it's interesting. At the end of it, there's an antique market on the weekends. We're going to see if it's open today and we'll see if we find anything. It's a beautiful day. Not too hot. What do we got? It's got some shoes, military gear. Oh, I like this. The evil eye over there. The eye of Fatima. Almera. Good? Farsi. Persia. I love you guys. At the end of the street, we have the antique market. Today, it's a little slow, as you can see. Weekends, it's intense. A lot of people. Here they're selling like jewelry. Oh, look at these beautiful antiques. Got some like pottery. Very nice ceramics. And they also sell a lot of coins. A lot of old coins from the Drapma. Is it Drapma? Yeah, Drapma. Before the Euro. Let's see over here. Oh, I love this. It's like a Spartan mask. That's what, look at that. What a beautiful piece. So this little guy is 30 Euro for this one. I mean, who made this? But it's antiques, no? He's like, it's a museum that makes it. A museum made it. Wow, wow. Nice, 30 Euro. There's no negotiating in Athens. Is that part of it? He can do 25 for you. Do 25 for me. Okay, I think this is nice. It's a remember Athens. Yeah. Maybe that's the next thing I put on my back. And so where do you get all these? So he's saying he buys this from a museum and then he resells. Okay, I take this. You know, one of the things I like to do is have a budget when I travel for souvenirs. And really, it's to support the locals. Not just go to these big box, you know, souvenir shops and buy some random, you know, Chinese items. Don't do that. Buy things that are real, you know. Produced in Greece. Something you can remember your trip. And yeah. Oh, what was that? That was cool. This is for good luck. How many hair we have on the face and on the head. We are a team. We don't have that many hair. So much money to do. This is because you're both bald. It's for good luck. Oh, yeah? Yes. But we are ships. Thank you, brother. What's your name? David. My name is Gogos, brother. Gogos. Yeah. And you're from Athens? Yeah. I am here for the show Five Generations. Five Generations? Yeah, man. Wow. It's for the grand-grandfather. Wow. Here, yeah. My grandmother from Egyptian. Okay, okay. My grandfather Greek. Greek traditional from Thessaloniki. Oh, amazing. Nice. Nice mix. And so when is the best time to come to this market? It's like normally in the weekends. But because it's summertime, not as many people. Yeah. So normally in the weekends. But right now summertime, not that many people. But I think this is the place to come to buy something special. I'll see you next time. And we'll have some ouzo. You and me. Together, together. Together. Thanks. God, thank you, thank you. All right. So when I was walking into the antique market, half the guys were like, no, no, no. Don't film, don't film. This guy was super friendly with me. And he made a sale. And he was telling me that people come here on the weekends. Everybody's asking, asking, asking. But no one's buying. At the end of the day, on a super busy day, they make 70 euros. It actually makes me very sad. Guys, come support people like that. Don't just come into these big box commercial shops where, like I said, this is all from China. I mean, if you want to buy a souvenir, fine. Buy a magnet, buy one or two things. But really buy some cool stuff that really comes from people from here. And they made it by hand. At least somebody did it. It's probably one of one. And then they gave me a little gift at the end. Thank them. That was very nice of them. Thank you. Greece was annexed by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. But later, Emperor Hadrian, he was obsessed with Greek culture. And he actually helped preserve the city. He added the Hadrian's Wall and Hadrian's Library, which you see behind me. It's an incredible structure. Look at that, still intact. I mean, if you see over here, the map of it, it's a massive building. It's beyond this. There's so much more to it. So as you're making your way up from Hadrian's Library up to the Acropolis, you're going to go through the area called Plaka. This is one of the oldest areas in the city. It's a lot of small winding streets on a hill, beautiful architecture. And over here, we're going to go to the ancient Agora, which is the ancient marketplace. And right next to the Taverna Acropolis, we have the Agora. Look right here, you can literally have lunch, have some wine overlooking these ancient ruins. Look at all those pillars. Wow. Can you imagine being here 2000 years ago? Everybody's screaming. So many mixes of cultures right here in the cradle of democracy. This is so beautiful. Right here, we have the entrance to the Agora. Look at these pillars. Pretty well preserved for 3000 years old. As you can see the top, this is called Dorikos style, simple style. Again, three different styles, Corinthian, Ionian, and Dorikos. Isn't it amazing that this is still here? This is why this place is so special. Culture, 3000 years. Really 6000 years, but 3000 years ago is when Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were here. Incredible, bro. I can't even believe it. If those stones can talk, what would they say? Deep, bro, deep. Let's go. So when you're walking through Plaka, you'll notice a lot of small restaurants like this one right here. This one in particular, they say is really, really good. Meze style, some white wine, beautiful setting. You got these umbrellas. And deeper you go, the more you'll see that people actually still live in Plaka. Imagine living here in the middle of the city. This one has a garden. I doubt anybody's selling here. You know, everything here is probably in the millions. And I don't recommend them to sell because we don't want no more Airbnbs in here. Or do we? Let me know in the comments what you think about that. This is one of the most famous streets in all of Athens, Anafiotika. Look at this stairway. You got all these restaurants. Oh man, all the food looks so good. And good wines. Wow, this is nice, man. Highly recommend coming here. But which one is your favorite? So the most well-known one is one called Yasemi, which means Jasmine. It's been featured in various films. And yeah, it's the one up there. Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you too. Nice to meet you. So what's the name of the restaurant? Anafiotika Cafe. Anafiotika Cafe, just the name of the street. Same thing, right? What did you bring me here? What's this? Draft beer, the best in Greece. The best in Greece? Draft Alpha. Okay, Alpha. Cheers. Yamas. Oh man, you just woke me up. With the heat outside, this is amazing. Nice to meet you. You're kind. No, I can come here every day. Get some meze, have some good beer, some good wine. See some people. Of course, a little touristy, but I do see some locals. I hear some Greek. You know, I hear many languages. English, Spanish, Italian. Hey, what a beautiful place, huh? Plaka. I like it. That's good. Draft. The best. All right, all right. Hey, thank you so much. This is so beautiful. I'm so happy. So let me ask you, can I ask you a question? Yeah, of course. Okay, so what can you tell me about Plaka? Plaka is one of the oldest neighborhoods here in Athens. It's lovely, lovely. Are you Athenian? Yeah, I'm Athenian, yeah. So been here your whole life? All my life. Raised here, born here. So has it changed? How have you seen the change? You know, now tourism, heavy tourism. Crazy, man. When I was like a kid, it was like less crowded. Here now it's like six million people, it's crowded. I know. And like 20 million of tourists every year. It's good and it's bad. It's good and bad. I know. Same time. Hard, hard. Hard, yeah. I know. How's life for you here now? Life, it's okay. It's okay. Not bad, normal. You know, like in every big city in all over the world, like work. Some fun. You know. Well, at least we eat good. At least we eat good. But you know, the Greece, it's something different. I know. Different mentality. We have the way to having some good time. I know, I know. It's in our heart. This young generation, very different from the old generation. How do you see it? Young generation, I think it's more responsible than the older generation. Okay. In what way? Because you know, the life is harder now. Harder. It's not so easy. Not so easy, man. So all the inflation, everything, it's difficult. Yeah, it's very difficult. I know the golden visa, people buying, buying in. It's not easy to live here in Athens anymore. It's not easy. It's not easy to rent a house. Not easy to live. Of course, I know. 1,000 euro basic salary is not enough. Of course. The quality of life is much different. I'm praying for your people, always. Thank you, man. You know what? Hey, bald man, always, dude. Ciao, man. Ciao, ciao. Sei bello. Sei una bella persona. Sì, io. Tu parla italiano, no? I understand that you say I'm beautiful. Hey. Hey, afferristo. Afferristo. All right, awesome, awesome. And behind us, we have the Acropolis. Look at this place. Incredible. 3,000 years of history right there. And right across from it, we have the Acropolis Museum. The most modern archaeological museum in the world. It's amazing. I went there 13 years ago. When you walk through, you really get a sense of what this place was 3,000 years ago. And sadly, Lord Elgin, a British man, came and took the marbles off the Acropolis. And then they put it in the British National Museum. There's thousands of signatures online saying return it back to Greece. They said they would return it if they had a place to preserve it. There's a place to preserve it. Why aren't the British giving it back? You let me know. I love you guys in England, but give it back to Greece. We're about to enter the Acropolis Metro Station. There's three different metro lines in Athens, and this is the red line. Follow me. So we're going to show you how it works. You can tap or you can buy a ticket. From my understanding, it's better to buy a ticket. Let's see. I'm melting. So over here, these are ancient ruins. Obviously, these are fake ones. These are the ones that were stolen by Lord Elgin. Look, exactly the same replica. Wow, so you can see this in the British Museum in London. That's so sad. Man, that's incredible. So these marble sculptures date back to 438 BC. Zeus, Hera, and Athena herself, and other Olympic gods. And sadly, Lord Elgin in 1801 through 1816 stole them and put them in the British Museum. When are you guys returning it? All right, so this is how it works, guys. You tap, and then when you exit, you tap again, and you know exactly where you got off, and that's when the transaction ends. Look at this. All those artifacts you see upstairs in this mini museum, when they were excavating for the metro line, this is how it was. Look at that, all the pottery. Anywhere you dig in Athens, you'll find ancient ruins. Don't do it, though. So we're going deep. Look at this, deep. Full. Let's go, let's go. So we're going two stops. And so there's three lines again. Blue, green, red. And we're on the red line. I mean, it's greatly connected, but I'm sure it takes decades to actually dig in this, to excavate here, like Rome. It's very hard, a lot of excavation there to preserve everything. And this is Panepistimio, university station. Excuse me. Yeah, so it wasn't that packed. Tassos was telling me in the mornings, you can't even move in there. Luckily, they have internet, so you can be on your phone. Just be careful. People do pickpocket here. Remember the card. Let's go. And more ruins. 5th century BC pottery. Clay tub. This is where they used to bathe their babies 2,500 years ago. Wow, this is so cool, man. You know, there's just something about seeing the history, how we have evolved, and at the same time, how we've retracted. Wow, the National Library right here. What a beautiful structure. This is cool, man. What a different area. So this is truly local. All university students. I'm seeing a lot of young people. I'm sure nightlife here is great. Look at this incredible building. This is part of the University of Athens, built in 1839, nine years after the independence from the Ottomans. Over here, we have Socrates, the founder of philosophy, his student, Plato. And in the background, as you can see, the pillars, that's built in Ionian style from the shape of the top of the pillars. And one thing you guys have to understand is that during that time, Ottoman rule is like roughly 400 years of Greece. They broke off 1829, officially recognized in 1830. And the first prime minister of Greece, his name is Kapodistrias. He's the guy who helped the war of independence. Now, he was boys with the Tsar of Russia. He came back, he helped them fight their way out. And then he was made the prime minister. He had money. He was giving it all back to the people. And sadly, the lords of that time, the lords of Greece, were a little upset. I mean, obviously, they wanted to be free, but they still wanted their money because the Ottomans were paying them big money just to, you know, keep peace in the country. And those lords murdered him. It's a little controversial. It's real. There's a movie about it, and you should definitely look it up. And this is an epic building you must visit when in Athens. It's right here, literally next to the changing of the guards in the parliament building. Here in Greece, breakfast is all about the pies. They have so many variations. Pies and also Freddo Espresso. We're here at Starata, which means real. Come over here. Starata, homemade pies. Look how many there are. Over here, we have mushroom, zucchinis, sausage pie, cheese pie, chicken pie, meat pie, ham and cheese, spinach and cheese, tomato pie. They have like 14 other ones. I think we're gonna order at least five. The Kasseri one looks good. There's one that has like a super creamy cheese. Okay, let's order. One vanilla cinnamon pie. Yeah, so she asked me if you want cinnamon on top of the milk pie. Okay, so right there is the spinach and cheese. And I got one with like Kasseri, which is a type of cheese here. Right now, what they're doing is they're rolling out the phyllo dough. As you can see, slowly she gets the big dough. She cuts it into balls, separates them. Then she rolls them out a little bit, puts a few together and then rolls it out even more. Makes it very, very thin. As soon as she's done rolling it out, then she puts it onto the pan. That's the first layer. After that, they add ingredients. So depending on what they're making, they'll add the cheese, the meat, the spinach. And then from there, they add another layer of phyllo dough on top. So that's how it makes it, you know, bottom and top. And then in the center is all the ingredients. So then they add oil on top and then they throw it into the oven and it's ready. This place smells good. It's going to taste even better. So how does this work? Get your pies, then come over to one of these coffee shops. This one's called Coffee Island. It's one of the biggest franchises. I hear their coffee is really good. Man, Frello Espresso for the win every day. We got five different pies. I'm going to try this one. So it's not spanakopita, it's not tiropita, it's spanakotiropita. Oh yes, look at that beauty. So it's spinach and feta combined. So you see it on top, you got the phyllo dough. I love it. It's going to be nice and crispy, maybe a little flaky and definitely soft. Here we go. Look, I'm all about the pies. Whenever you travel to Balkans, you can look for burek, similar, not the same. Obviously, this is Greece, all about pies. Wow, it's herbaceous. It's a little tangy, a little salty. My type of breakfast. Fresh spinach, incredible feta. I probably could eat like four or five of these though. This is keema dopita, so ground beef. It almost looks like lahmacun and this one's definitely more crispy. Oh man, very juicy, crunchy. Definitely different texture, not soft like that one. It's similar to lahmacun, not the same thing but. And you can see right here, it's how she folded it. When she was putting it together, she folds the entire thing little by little. Phyllo dough, nothing like it. I'm so happy. Oh, this is a kasari one. So, it's kasari cheese. This one definitely reminds me more of a pizza. What do you think? I don't know, you guys. Let me know in the comments. Oh, oh. Jeez, it's so good. It's almost like fondue. It's like melting away. Oh, a nice cracker on top. This one definitely is a little more doughy. Hey, this place is bomb. I've had a lot of pies in my life but this is on next level. Oh, this one's a zucchini one. This one's completely different. You can see it. As soon as I pull it out, texture is way different. The other ones are with phyllo dough. This one's without. You know, we spent 12.30 for five. I think for like, you get two of them, spend like four euro. You're good for the day. This is gonna be great. Well, it almost looks like a mac and cheese type of style but it's all zucchini. Zucchini flour, it's herbaceous. You know what it is? The cheese as well, a little tangy. This one, so soft, no crunch. I actually think this is the best one. It's so good, different. And now, we have dessert. This one almost looks like a bechamel. Like even trying to pull it out, it's gonna be hard. And they threw cinnamon on top. It's a very traditional pie. You probably won't find this anywhere in Athens or in Greece but here you will. It almost reminds me of a cheesecake. Bro, it's cheesecake. It's so sweet. It's so creamy. Look, it's fluffy. Wow, the cinnamon definitely gives it that sweetness, man. I love Greece. If I had to rank them, I just go with the spinach and cheese as my savory and then with my dessert, this one. With the coffee. So real. It's summer in Athens and that means you have to get some fresh juices. And this place I heard is one of the best places in all of Athens to get fresh juices. Also, an incredible lentil burger, very vegan. Sorry for the loud noise. There's a bit of a protest over there. We're gonna come inside, follow me. This is it. Look at all the fruits. You got watermelon, apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, pears, mangoes. So over here they have the menu. Smoothology or smoothieology. So I think we're gonna get the one with strawberries and then... Here, come over here. Let's go this way. It's a little packed right now. Then we're gonna try this burger. So this burger looks really good. Also, Tassos was saying this one we have to try. Looks like almost like lentils and like truffles on top too. Truffles. They also have some tacos but these two. All right, bro. I'm ready, I'm ready. What do you have to say about this place? I want to say that this is the best place, number one place in Athens. Why? Because it does something really, really hard. Offers healthy food. We all like fried, processed, tasty. Okay, yeah, this is tasty. But this shop, Marcos, gives fresh stuff, you know, right after nature made it. I don't like processed. I'm leaving the States. This is gonna be great. Thank you, thank you. All the best for your channel, all the best for your life. I love that. How many years you have this place? 10 years. Why did you open it? A big question. It started from a need that I want to tell to the people to be a kind of vegan. But healthy vegan. Then I understand that it's an education to change our lives. This is a great smoothie with coconut milk, avocado from Krita Bio, ready to eat. And mix of berries. A little bit of agave and a lot of love. So we're gonna start off with a raspberry smoothie. I can't wait. It's a little thick. Oh, I taste coconut, coconut milk. Delicious. I mean, UP is the place you come to if you want super healthy options. Got smoothies. You also have this. But you have salads. They have soups. They sell kombucha. Oh, wow. I forgot how much I like this. I used to drink a smoothie every day after I lifted. Wow, I'll get a joke on this, right? Hey, delicious. The coconut. So Tasos has been raving about this lentil burger for a few days now. So it's lentils inside of a pita. You have like, I think that's paprika on top. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be good. It's like a soft pillow. It's smoky. It's almost like caramelized onions in there. Lots of lentils. Oh, my gosh. If I didn't have a long day of eating, I would devour this. By the way, guys, it's very sweet. It's crumbly. Look, look inside. It's like pull this out just like that. Yeah, the caramelized onions. What a lentil burger. Now, this is a pretty incredible pie. It's sweet potato, carrots, truffles, mushrooms. I think that's all I'm seeing here. You know, some people don't like healthy food. They're like, oh, vegan food. There's no flavor in it. It's too healthy. I personally would go vegan, but I do like meat. So good. It crumbles. It's almost like a very crumbly pie. The layer of truffle on top. I come from the land of truffles, so I can eat this every day. Wow, look at that. Yeah, yeah. Look, it's the carrots. Super flavorful. They're nutty as well. It's like a little sweetness to it. Very savory. Okay. Up is where it's at. When you stop eating Greek food, which you probably would never stop eating Greek food when you're in Athens, but this is a great alternative for a healthy Greek option. Hey, Marco. Thank you so much. The most delicious vegan food I've had. So good. I'm going to dream of your food. Thank you. I'll see you next time. Okay. Let's go. Behind me, we have the Parliament Building. And every single hour on the hour, the Evzones, which are the presidential guards change. So this is a changing of the guards. And what are they doing? Well, they're honoring the fallen soldiers. You can see right there, the tomb of the fallen soldiers. And that are the soldiers, Greek soldiers who died in all the wars. The ones that were unnamed are the ones that couldn't find actual names. Right. And it's crazy because I was here 13 years ago. And this is the math. They've done literally every single hour. So there's 113,000 times since the last time I was here, they changed. And what happens is once they're done completely, these guys, they stay still. They cannot move. They cannot make any movement at all. And this guard over here, he'll actually go and give them water, like to sip, so they can stay in this heat. It's an amazing experience. It's a little off, you know, usually it's like at the hour mark. I think right now it's starting at this 30-minute mark. So there's many different smaller steps or parts of, you know, the whole ritual. And every time they stop, they have these specific positions they gotta be in. And the soldier, that's not part of the presidential guard, but the one that's behind me, he's responsible for checking if they, you know, are in the specific position they gotta be in. And, you know, there's also rumors. I mean, you know, that's when we serve in the military, not, you know, the personal guard, but, you know, normal military. They say for them that, you know, within the hour that they're still, like the soldier, he also checks how many times they blink so they can blink a certain amount of times. But, you know, that's also rumors, you know, army stuff. But yeah, it's very, very impressive. If you're in Athens, you definitely should come here. It's part of Greek history, really. All right, so I suggest getting here on the 15-minute mark because they started around the 30-minute mark just to get your position. And also, you cannot cross this line right here. If you cross it, he tells you to move back. By the way, changing the guards is now. So right in front of the changing of the guards, we have this memorial. So what is this? Very, very sad. The biggest train crash in Greek history. So on February 28, 2023, at 11.18 p.m. at night, two trains collided. One coming from Thessaloniki, Athens-Thessaloniki with students. 57 people died on this train collision. One had students, the other one was a freight train. For 12 minutes, they were both going the same direction and no one knew. And why did this happen? There's many theories and I'm going to be, you know, just very honest of what I've read and what I've learned from people about this is that they had the funding, but the allocation wasn't really distributed correctly to know that for the technology to actually know that they were on the same course. Because for 12 minutes, you would know one of the trains could stop, the other train could stop, at least get the people off. This footage online, very dark, dark day for Greece. I'm very excited by this. And right here, all the names of this 57 people who died. They're all kids, all students. I don't know, but that's all. Yeah, you know, and I was here when the big protest happened. You know, for the commemoration of these kids. It was more than a million people. And, you know, not only in Athens, same time in all big cities of Greece and abroad, people gathered like thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. And, you know, you hear the parent stories that they were waiting for their kids. And, you know, I was, you know, I'm from Thessaloniki. I would take this train all the time and it was the weekend. So, you know, parents would be like, hey, take the train, it's the safest option. Don't take the bus. Something may happen on the road, but apparently it wasn't the case. It's a sad story, you know, but when the big protest happened, the one I was a part of, you know, that protest was not about parties, you know, because when a million people go on the streets, it's not about the party, it's about the people demonstrating against the government, which apparently didn't allocate the funds properly. This is not theorizing. And, you know, we have on the, if I'm not mistaken, 22nd of September, the former minister of transport is in the parliament giving a speech. And he's being questioned about the safety of the trains because the train workers like told them beforehand, they were sending letters. Hey, it's not safe. And he's like, literally like, what is it? Like three, four months before the accident, he's advocating. Why do you guys question us? And it's super safe, you know, and this is all public. And that guy, you know, when the crash happened, he took the blame. But then the next election, he went to a different county, like a different state, let's say, and he got reelected. Same guy, you know, so it's crazy. Like people were outraged and for good reason. And what I want to say is that, you know, on that day of the protest, they had written the names, but then same night, the government just erased them. And then people obviously got angry. And then the next protest, they wrote them again. And this is what you see now. So they kept it. At least they respected that. Yeah, man, crazy. So right here in Monastiraki Square, there's many bars. This is one of them. It's called 360 Bar and it has an incredible view over Monastiraki area. You got over here, Plaka. And then over there, we have the Acropolis. And also during the 17th century, the war between the Venetians and the Ottomans, there was a massive blast and destroyed a lot of the Acropolis. It is a beautiful site. I highly recommend going up there. You know, you need around half day and book your tickets in advance. We're looking at tickets online. They're reserved two months in advance right now. Summer is crazy. Wear a hat, wear sunblocks, have good walking shoes because right now it is scorching in Athens. And yeah, so what we're doing here is we're going to have a glass of wine, drink some water, get some air conditioning, and just enjoy the view. Can't even believe I'm here again. Look at this. This is Malagousia from the Peloponnese. House Nikolaou. It's nice. It's fruity. It's dry. It's a good wine. Behind me, we have one of the most important Roman monuments in the city of Athens. This is Hadrian's Arch, built in the 2nd century by Roman Emperor Hadrian. He loved Greek culture. He was a huge fan. So when they conquered Greece, he built this. And it looks directly at the Acropolis. And the other side, we have the Temple of Zeus. Follow me. Let's go over there. If I can cross. This is not smart. That side, Plaka, the Acropolis, that's the old city of Athens. As soon as you cross Hadrian's Arch, this is where the Romans started the new city. You have the Temple of Zeus over here. A few columns that still stand. This part of the archaeological museum over here. There's one, two, three, four. The one that fell. It's incredible how this still is here, standing the test of time. Can you imagine being here 2,000 years ago in this heat? I don't know how they survived without air conditioning. That's why the Romans made bathhouses. Or did the Greeks do that first? You let me know. This is Baba Ouram, one of the most famous bars in the world. Top 50. I'm excited. We're going inside. We're going to make some drinks. I'm meeting with Thanos, the owner. Thanos. He's going to snap his fingers. Thanos. Pleasure. Nice to meet you. A big pleasure for me as well. You have the best name. My favorite villain on earth. But I was before. You were before. I was before him. Before he snapped. Yeah, before he snapped. So welcome to Athens. Welcome to Baba Ouram. Thank you. So what do you do here? What is the concept? Baba Ouram is the first new era cocktail bar that opened in Athens, in Greece. And one of the first in all over Europe, except London. Yeah. So we opened in 2009. So we try to promote the cocktail culture. Like quality stuff and nice, but also fun. So what do you want to make for us today? The classic Baba Zombie. It's a tropical drink in our way. You're going to love it. And then an experimental one with some feta cheese on the top. With feta cheese. Okay. It's truly Greek. So a little bit of fresh lime. Grapefruit as well. Some aromatic bitters. A touch of secret ingredient. And our rums. Sotos, how many rums are there? Five. Which is like our secret blend. And it's a blend that have been going for a lot of years. Let's see. I love it. It's a zombie. So of course a tiki mug. No heavy like the alcohol in there. Fat tiki man. A little bit of spearmint. Fresh things up. Pineapple, lime. And there you have it. The Baba Zombie. Cheers. The Baba Zombie has our secret blend of five different style of rum. So it's five rums but very different ones. So we make our own rum blend which is very important. Then some secret ingredients. Like Fallenum and some other from the Caribbean. And yeah it's a very balanced and very beautiful tropical drink. Here we go. Let me try this. The zombie. Oh so refreshing. The Baba Zombie. If I have too many of these I'm going to be like the Walking Dead out of here. It gives me like a mojito vibe. But it's more strong to be honest and more complicated. Okay. We said this since 2009. Since the first day we opened. I calculate that we have sold more than 200,000 zombies. 200,000 zombies. I love it. Ice cold the cup. This is so cool. So I've heard so many good things about your bar. What is this area and when's the best time to come? This area is the historical and commercial triangle of Athens. So that means it has a very rich history. In modern times. Baba Ramadi was the first bar that opened in this area. When we opened in 2009 there were no hotels, no other bars, restaurants. Now it's full. Best time to visit this area is all day. We open at 7 p.m. So but the truth is that during the night it transformed to a more interesting kind of zone. So get here around 9, 10 p.m. and it'll be packed. Right now we got here a little early. Obviously we wanted to be able to film here without too many people. That's true. But it's gonna be very packed soon. Nice, nice. We open from 7 to 3. 7 to 3? Yeah. 3 a.m? Yeah. That's very common for us. I'll come at midnight then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So next one we have the Anapologetic Highline. As simple as it looks right now. As complicated in flavors it is. We prepare all of this in our lab. And it belongs to the experimental part of the cocktail. But it wouldn't be a Greek one if it had a little bit of feta. So feta cheese. Cheers. What we got here, we have a little bit of pisco that comes out of grapes. Alongside with some water also from grapes. Alongside with pear aromas. And then a fat wash of Greek feta cheese. Which gives a touch of savory in the drink. So botanical. A touch of sweetness. Fruity. But also in the end a touch of savory from feta. Okay, Thanos. With this one I drink and then I take a little bite? Is that how it is? Whatever you feel like. It's your drink, man. It's not in our hands. Oh wow. What a unique blend of fruits. It is, huh? Wow. I've never had this taste before. Yeah? Yeah. It's quite different. Oh yeah. This is almost like a palate cleanser right here. A little bit salty. I love feta. This is good stuff, man. So Baba Ram has a selection of about 400 Ram labels. And this is a beautiful award we won two years ago from the Tales of Cocktails. In Orleans. New Orleans. Which is about the world's best beer selection given to Baba Ram, yeah. Tell me, Thanos. So you know, David, that Baba Ram has been to the list of the world's 50 best bars for 11 times. It's only one bar that has more appearances in the whole world after that Baba Ram. And it's located in London. So yeah, that's a big legacy, I believe. So what do you think is the reason? Is it the interior? Is it the mixologist? I have a very good answer. I believe it's the soul we bring here. The soul. The soul, yeah. Like, we are very professional. We know what we're doing. We read a lot. We experiment. We travel a lot. You have to love people to be a bartender. Of course, of course. Yeah, so I think this is it. A reconsistency, of course. And are you Athenian? I'm Athenian, yeah. Okay, so I have a question. Where do you go for peace? It's kind of... I'm going to my neighborhood, which is Vironas. So it's a kind of a close suburb. And it has the mountain of Imitos. Very close, like walking distance from my house. I go there walking. It's a small forest. And you have a great view of Athens over there. So that's my thing. I like it. And I also love the sea. Wherever there is water, sea to swim, to enjoy, to smell it. And thankfully, Greece is full of sea. Well, thank you so much, Thanos. Thank you. You're so welcome. Thank you for coming, David. This is great. I'll be back in a few hours.