Stroll for shopping and snacks in festive Athens
In the narrow streets of Ermou, inside Varvakeio, around Omonia and outside the historical center, places for shopping and drinking
Walks in decorated Athens, shopping for the festive table and gifts for our loved ones. These more or less sum up a perfect day in the city during the Christmas season. How will it get even better? But of course with a stop for … fuel so that we can get strength and clink glasses with their friends. Below we suggest strategic places to shop next to delicious corners, giving you many wishes for an enjoyable, festive day.
Photo: Municipality of Athens
Traditionally, the walk during the holidays requires a passage through the great “stomach” of Athens, the Varvakeio Market. Lamb shank, turkey, ready-made rolls, beef heads, whatever you crave to take off the Christmas table you’ll find around here. If, in the meantime, you get an appetite, at the winery Continent inside the market you will sit down to eat a soup of little legs which is special if it’s even a little cold, while if you want something for your leg you’ll get a wrap from the Bulb and you will recharge your batteries to continue shopping. With so much meat that we will all be eating these days, a little fish for a change is a good idea so in the fish market that is next to the meat market you will find everything: codfish, flounder for soup and mullet. You can try everything right next door, at Butchers: Greek fish in perfect sushi, oysters, saganaki shrimps and grilled thrapsalo. Even fresh pasta from a Genoese cook in Trattoria within the market one can try! At the entrance of Varvakeion from Philopoimenos, at Cheese, the granddaughter-3rd generation of cheesemongers, has taken it upon herself to transform the business into the most modern cheese shop in the area. There you will find all the cheese you want for the holiday table, from fine blue cheese to hot gruyere with fireplace and from kopanisti to giza continental to make nice pies.
In Evrypidou you will also get your spices to make Christmas sweets and honey macaroons – cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and so much more. Going downhill, the walk can reach the city’s glorified pasturma shops – you’ll also find sudzoukia, kavoorma, Caesarian pies, and itzli meatballs. Make a stop at Karamanlidika of Fanisshop for home nice sausages, aged cheeses, pastourmades and souzoukia and sit at its tables to enjoy ouzo – tsipouraki with perfect appetizers.
The Christmas open-air market of Omonia is also set up near the pasturage shops. From December 17 to January 5, the Concord Christmas Buy, fills the historic square with even more liveliness, offering Christmas delicacies, gifts and trinkets at the specially designed stands. Make a stop at coffee shop of Lumidis on the corner of the University for ground musky coffee for home.
THE Municipal Market her Khigh also organizes an impressive Christmas market, from December 21 to 24, with ecological ideas and solutions for the festive table. Before or after your walks in Fokionos Negri, take a walk here to shop for your gifts as well. Many may choose her Vegetable market of Rentis for the vegetables and fruits of the holidays, pomegranates, gerbils and last-minute alexanders to decorate the house or for the houses that have invited you. There, in the heart of the abundance, there is the place suitable for bream and meze, the Mezeklikia of the Vegetable Marketin which, in addition to very good appetizers, pork and unbeaten varieties, one can also buy a lot of Greek (and not only) delicatessen products, from pasta and sauces to nuts, honeys and spirits, cheeses and cold meats, if you are lucky you will succeed. and live bouzouki.
THE Hermou it was and always would be a key shopping destination for Athenians. Endless shopping in the shop windows, bags in hands and going up and down between crowds and street musicians is the eternal image of the holidays on the city’s most commercial pedestrian street. On the way up, what better than a stop at the brightly decorated Athenwhich even hosts brunch ideas on weekends and perfect sweets from the best pastry chefs, such as the Madame Fraise team Stelios Parliaros but also Spyros Pediaditakis of Ourse? If, on the other hand, you want greenery, live Christmas tunes and a cosmopolitan atmosphere, perhaps the most beautiful indoor winter garden in the city is Winter Garden of the Great Bretagne Hotel that offers coffee, English tea and its accessories, hot chocolate and many more – wonderful kir Royal. If you go shopping on Sunday (due to festive hours many shops are open in the center) find out how in the very lively, very tasty and these days very nicely decorated. Vezene behind the Hilton they bake. So if you’re in the mood for Sunday Roast and amazing meats cooked for hours in the wood-fired ovens, don’t miss it! Your shopping has taken you until the afternoon and you want to relax? Stop for a glass of wine or an aperol at the Lilliputian bistro Kiki de Grece in the decorated Christmas market of Epitou 4. You will drink nice small wines -many by the glass-, and you will nibble on nice Greek appetizers but also, especially on days, delicious Christmas dishes. The Christmas walk sometimes calls for cocktails on the way, so a stop at Bar in front of the bar at Petraki 1, for drinks and shots in the leg. And if you get hungry (…again) at Thess Bao (Perikleous 30) you will find amazing bao buns from the hands of three famous chefs, Sotiris Evangelos, Athenagoras Kostakos and Manolis Papoutsakis, who each sign their own bao for a good cause, as part of the proceeds go to the Non-Profit organization MAZI . Christmas walks in Athens have it all, happy holidays again!