For years, the Athens subway has been limited to a handful of stops, not very useful to the traveler (or to most Athenians). That's all changed now, with a sleek, modern, system which will only get better.
Difficulty Level: average Time Required: 30 minutes
Here's How:
- Check the Athens Metro map for the station nearest your hotel or other starting point.
- Make sure you have sufficient drachmas in coins for your 250 drachma-per-person fare.
- Go to your station; Syntagma is the most beautiful, reaching out toward (but not to) Rafina; Monastiraki leads to Piraeus, handy for ferries and hydrofoils.
- Buy your ticket; the ticket vending machines take only coins though this will probably change in the future.
- Insert your ticket into one of the automatic stamping machines.
- Retrieve your ticket.
- Descend through three thousand years of Greece via the stairs and escalators
- Standing back from the edge of the track, wait for your train.
- Enter the train quickly.
- Using the maps, count how many stops there are between where you got on and where you get off. If your Greek isn't fluent, this helps you to catch when your stop is announced.
- Prepare to get off at least one stop before your destination.
- Exit the train swiftly.
- Ascend through three thousand years of Greek history.
- Emerge into daylight (or night - the trains run 5am - midnight)
- Note the location of the station so you can find your way back for the return trip.
- As with metros throughout the world, there's a lot of stairs, ramps, and general territory to cover. Wear comfy shoes.
- Give yourself enough time at the Syntagma Square station to look at the many displays of the archeological treasures discovered during the digging of the tunnels.
- Amazingly enough for smoker-friendly Greece, the stations and the trains are all non-smoking.
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