An Athens Food Tour on Three Wheels

Greece has an abundance of food and dishes unique to the country and it can be overwhelming for a traveler to Greece who doesn’t have knowledge of Greek food beyond Greek salad and baklava.  A great introduction to traditional Greek food is with an Athens food tour.  Even better is an Athens food tour that also provides an overview of the layout and sites of Athens, all while riding around on three wheels.  Scooterise provides such a food tour of Athens.

The Vehicle

Scooterise provides tours of Athens on trikkes, battery powered three-wheeled scooters.  Scooterise’s motto is “see more, sweat less” because the trikkes enable their guests to zip around Athens, covering a lot of territory in a short amount of time.

Driving a trikke is a little bit like driving a Segway in that you’re standing on a moving battery powered vehicle.  However, while a Segway is controlled by moving the handlebar, a trikke is controlled by a throttle on the handle and brakes. 

Driving the trikkes around Athens was a lot of fun as we really did get to see a lot of neighborhoods in a short amount of time, plus we got to eat.  I had a little trouble getting the hang of accelerating smoothly, but other than that driving the trikke was easy.

The Sites

All of Scooterise’s tours start in the Plaka neighborhood as that is where their store is located, a short walk from the Acropoli metro station.  We drove through Plaka, bouncing around on the bumpy stone paved street for a couple of blocks until we got to smoother surfaces.  Our route was usually through pedestrian-only areas though we sometimes traveled along streets with light traffic for short distances.

We passed by sites like the Roman Agora and Hadrian’s Library, then through Monastiraki Square on our way to our first food stop in the Psiri (also Psirri, Psyrri, and Psyri) neighborhood.  Psiri is a destination unto itself.  It is a trendy neighborhood known for its authentic food places and also its buildings covered in graffiti and street art.  After a few food stops, we drove by the Academy of Athens, Greece’s national academy, and got to do some donuts in front of Syntagma Square before driving down Athens’ main shopping street Ermou.

The Food

Our Athens food tour was in the morning and our first stop for food was at Bougatsadiko I Thessaloniki Stou Psyrri (Μπουγατσαδικο Στου Ψυρρη) for bougatsa.    Bougatsa is a very traditional Greek breakfast pastry that comes from the city of Thessaloniki.  The outside is crunchy, flaky phyllo dough and the inside is a sweet custard made with sugar, eggs, flour, and milk.  The warm bougatsa is served sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.  Bougatsadiko opened in 1956 and its name simply means the place that makes bougatsa.  If sweet isn’t your thing, you can also order savory bougatsa filled with cheese.

Our second stop was not far from Bougatsadiko.  Miran Pastourma and Soutzouki (Μιράν Παστουρμάς και Σουτζούκι) has been around since 1922.  When you enter the store there is no question what you’ll be eating here.  The place is full of meat, meat, and more meat.  There’s even meat hanging from the ceiling, which Rome was disappointed to learn was fake.  

But what we were served was not fake. Miran is a family owned business started by the grandfather Miran Kourounlian.  It is believed Miran brought pastourma to Athens.  Pastourma is a dried, cured, and highly seasoned pressed meat.  It is usually made with beef, but camel, turkey, or sheep can also be used.  In addition to pastourma, we had soujouk, a spicy dried sausage, and pastrami.

For me, since I like sweets and carbs in the morning, our third stop rivaled our first for my favorite.  Aigaion (Λουκουμάδες Αιγαίον) has been around since 1926 and makes loukoumades.  

Loukoumades are fried pudgy rings of dough served drizzled in honey.  They’re airy, slightly crunchy, and not too sweet.  You can also add cinnamon and sugar and even dark chocolate.  The pastry and the décor of Aigaion reminded me very much of Café du Monde in New Orleans.  My verdict?  Loukoumades win over beignets.

Our last stop was a pretty pastry shop selling colorful pastries and candies.  Here we tried marzipan candies (made with almonds in the south and walnuts in the north) covered in powdered sugar and accented with a clove.  The shop has been around for three generations and had to move locations when the Nazis burned down the original store.

Scooterise’s Other Tours

Scooterise is a relatively new company.  Two brothers, Nikos and Kostas Sarifidis have been running the company for two and half years and 2015 marks their third season.  Their Athens Food Safari Tour is their newest tour, which has only been going for a few months.

Scooterise has five other tours.  The Scooterise Athens Highlights Tour visits the Panathenaic Stadium, National Gardens, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian’s Arch, Zappeion Exhibition Hall, and Roman Baths.  The Art and the City Tour visits the Lyceum of Aristotle, Museum of Cycladic Art, Presidential Mansion, National Gardens, Academy of Athens, University of Athens, and Library of Athens.  The Scooterise Athens Complete Tour visits the Plaka neighborhood, Monastiraki Square, Monastiraki Flea Market, Roman Agora, Tower of Winds, Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, changing of the guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and Greek Parliament at Syntagma Square, and Hadrian’s Library.  The Acropolis & Athens Combo Tour visits the Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, Erechtheion, Propylaea, Theatre of Dionysus, and Dionysus Sanctuary.  The Athens Riviera Tour gets out of the old town and visits the Athens Riviera, Kavouri beach, Vouliagmeni town, and Vouliagmeni Lake.

All tours are private tours.  Sometimes they run tours for large groups from cruise ships, but they also run small tours for couples, families, and friends.  Scooterise tours are fun for the entire family, as little ones can ride around on a scooter with their parent if they are too young to drive one themselves.

If you’re looking for a unique way to get to know Athens, a trikke tour with Scooterise is the perfect choice.  Since travelers to Athens spend very little time in the city before heading out to other parts of Greece, a Scooterise tour provides a great introduction to Athens in a short amount of time. 

Thank you to Scooterise for hosting our Athens food tour and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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10 Things to Do in Tijuana (That Don’t Involve Tequila)

Historically Tijuana has been a drinking mecca.  Tijuana’s proximity to Southern California cities like San Diego and Los Angeles and its legal drinking age of 18 meant Tijuana was a popular place for the under 21 crowd to come for drinking and clubbing.  Tourism from the United States to Tijuana dried up for years when stories of crime and drug wars filled the news.  Now Tijuana is a safe place to visit again, and the implementation of a passport requirement means the demographic of the traveler looking for a day trip or weekend trip to Tijuana has shifted.  Tijuana’s streets are no longer overwhelmed with rowdy underage drinkers.  Now they are being strolled by couples and families looking for things to do in Tijuana that celebrate Tijuana’s beauty and culture. 

Tijuana Cultural Center

The Tijuana Cultural Center is the most important center for culture in northwest Mexico.  Founded in 1982, the Tijuana Cultural Center portrays the culture of Mexico close to the border.  The center has art galleries, a botanical garden, an aquarium, an IMAX theater, a performance hall, and an outdoor area that is a great place for events, festivals, and outdoor exhibits.  There is constantly something going on at the Tijuana Cultural Center.  The center hosts concerts, theatrical productions, movies, documentaries, and many other events, some of which are free to the public and others of which require paid tickets.  The Tijuana Cultural Center also showcases a number of exhibits, again, some of which are free and others for which there is a charge.

During our visit, the Tijuana Cultural Center was featuring a beautiful exhibit of the works of Massimo Listri, a photographer of interior spaces like libraries, churches, and palaces, some of which you may recognize from your own travels.  The Museum of the Californias is a permanent exhibit covering different times in the history of the Baja peninsula including European explorers, missions and missionaries, the Mexican Revolution, and more recent history.  Did you know Tijuana had an airplane factory in the 1920s?  We also visited an exhibit featuring the art of local Baja artists.

Plaza Saint Cecilia

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music, and music is what can be found in Plaza Saint Cecilia.  This is where the locals go to hire mariachi bands for their parties.  While we were walking through we got to see two young people performing the Mexican hat dance for a large crowd. 

Plaza Saint Cecilia is a colorful reminder of old Tijuana.  This is where Tijuana was founded in 1889.  In addition to the music, this pedestrian street, the oldest street in Tijuana, also has a number of restaurants, bars, and shopping kiosks.  We had a wonderful breakfast at Restaurante La Tradicion.  La Tradicion is a family-owned restaurant opened in 1997 which prides itself in being a restaurant of the people.  La Tradicion’s owner Martín Muñoz is also the president of Tijuana’s restaurant association. 

I was introduced to a new dish for me, and La Tradicion’s signature dish, molcajete.  Molcajete is named after the vessel in which it is served.  A molcajete is a Mexican stone tool similar to a mortar and pestle.  In this sizzling dish, there is chicken, tender beef, tequila shrimp, chorizo, cactus, queso fresco, and all sorts of other delicious ingredients that blend together to make a dish bursting with flavor.

Mercado El Popo

Near Plaza Saint Cecilia is the Mercado el Popo, a traditional market located within the alleys of a downtown Tijuana block.  Here you can buy fruits, vegetables, cheese, herbs, spices, piñatas, prayer candles, and anything else you might desire.

Pasaje Rodríguez

A block away from the Mercado El Popo is the Pasaje Rodríguez.  While Plaza Saint Lucia is old Tijuana, Pasaje Rodríguez is new Tijuana.  The new generation took over this alley and filled it with art and trendy shops selling records, clothing, and books.  Pasaje Rodríguez really took me by surprise and I hope to see more places like this in Tijuana.

Downtown Tijuana Shopping

When walking around downtown Tijuana it is guaranteed that you’ll be approached by ten different men selling the exact same silver necklace for a dollar, a necklace that is sure to turn your neck green while in the process of falling apart.  But there is some good shopping that can be done in Tijuana.  An example is the Hand Art Store, a store that has been around since 1955 and sells items handmade in Mexico in the traditional ways.  When shopping in downtown Tijuana, keep on the lookout for stickers in the window pronouncing the shop as being on the Outstanding Host list created by CeturMex and the Baja Secretary of Tourism.  These shops have been around for decades and provide honesty, quality, and service.  If you are looking for a silver necklace, the Emporium Plateria and The Silver Mine are on the Outstanding Host list, as well as other shops selling leather goods, wine, chocolates, and more.

Caesars Restaurante Bar

Caesar’s Restaurante Bar is a downtown Tijuana institution which has been around since 1927.  Did you know the Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana?  Well it was, and this is the restaurant where it was invented.  There are conflicting stories of exactly when and how the Caesar salad was invented and who invented it.  But there is no dispute that Caesar’s is the home of the Caesar salad, and you can still order it prepared table-side. 

While Caesar’s is an institution, it is also a modern fine dining establishment.  Caesar’s has been owned by the Plascencias, Tijuana’s famous culinary family, since 2010.  This means the restaurant is both historic and really, really good.  In addition to the Caesar salad, we had roasted beef marrow and a Mexican combination plate of grilled beef tenderloin, cheese enchiladas, and Chile Relleno.  Caesar’s also brews their own pale ale.

Playas de Tijuana

Playas de Tijuana is an area I only explored for a couple hours but would love to explore more in depth.  These are the beaches of Tijuana.  Playas de Tijuana is not full of sun-worshiping tourists but is rather mostly filled with middle-class families of Tijuana out for some family fun.  The beach can be reached by multiple staircases that lead down from the street and a wooden boardwalk provides a walkway to stroll along the sand.  Between the street and the boardwalk are multi-storied buildings, some housing restaurants and bars selling cold beers and fresh seafood, some housing private homes, and some vacant and ramshackle. Along both the street and boardwalk are colorful examples of street art.

At the northernmost point of Playas de Tijuana is where fun and relaxing beach community turns into sad dose of reality.  Here is where you can see the colorful fence that separates Mexico from the United States, which extends 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean.  This area is called Friendship Park / El Parque de la Amistad, a meeting place where families, friends, and loved ones come to meet, separated by a fence.  It was heart wrenching to witness these tearful meetings

GSalinas Vinos de Mexico

If you’re having a weekend getaway to Tijuana, enjoy wine, but won’t have a chance to get down to the Valle de Guadalupe, you can taste some of Baja’s great wines at GSalinas Vinos de Mexico.  This little shop carries some of the best wines the Valle de Guadalupe has to offer.  In addition to Mexican wine, the shop also sells mezcal and Baja craft beers.  GSalinas is family owned, having been started by the patriarch of the family 50 years ago, and is both a shop and tasting room.

Caliente Casino

I’m not much for gambling, but if you like hitting the tables or the machines, Caliente Casino is a large casino catering to all of a gambler’s needs.  The casino also holds Greyhound races every night and they are currently building a soccer stadium.  There is also a good restaurant and bar in the casino, Mujeres Divinas Restaurant Bar.  (While this article is about the Tijuana that doesn't involve tequila, Caliente Casino's restaurant does serve one of Tijuana's weirdest shots of tequila.)

El Trompo

El Trompo is something to do in Tijuana only if you have little kids. But for the kids this is a fun museum to visit with six interactive rooms that allow kids to both have fun and learn.  Kids can play with bubbles, look at animals, learn about plasma, play learning games, create things in workshops, and do lots of other fun stuff.

Where to Stay in Tijuana

A visit to Tijuana can be either a weekend trip or day trip from San Diego.  It’s always fun to be able to take a two-nation vacation.  If you decide to overnight in Tijuana, be aware that Tijuana is not a city of luxury hotels.  The accommodations in Tijuana are not as luxurious as those we had during our Ensenada weekend getaway or at the historic Rosarito Beach Hotel.   However, one option for a safe, clean, and comfortable Tijuana hotel is Hotel Palacio Azteca.  The hotel is a short nine-minute drive to downtown Tijuana and an 11-minute drive to the San Ysidro border.  Hotel Palacio Azteca has a pool, a restaurant whose head chef was amongst the first graduating class of Tijuana’s Culinary Art School, and a bar. They will also book tours for guests, including whale watching, culinary, and wine tours.

I remember the years, long ago, when it wasn’t unusual for families to cross the border on a whim for shopping and dining in Tijuana.  Happily those days are back and there are plenty of things to do in Tijuana to keep friends, couples, and families entertained for the day or the entire weekend.

Thank you to Descubre Tijuana for hosting our weekend getaway to Tijuana and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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How to Travel Well With Your One and Only

Whether you've been coupled for decades or you're still in the heady rushes of newly found and committed love, traveling with your partner can be a joy unlike any other. From the present tense romance of experiencing exotic lands, foods, and cultures together to the memories you'll share and reminisce fondly over in the future, couple travel can be a truly exquisite way to bond even more.

Of course, traveling with your partner can also be an insufferable hell on earth that, in its most extreme forms, can sow the seeds of breaking up entirely. If you're happily coupled and looking to take a trip or two with your beloved, congratulations! Just be sure to mind these tips, so you can do it well.

Take Care of Your Physical Needs

Even the best-planned travel itinerary can go off the rails, and it's during those times of unexpected delay, discomfort, and true debacle that nerves can fray and tempers erupt — especially if you haven't tended properly to your body's needs. Low blood sugar, dehydration, and fatigue make controlling your tongue and behavior much more difficult when things are going smoothly.

When you're hungry and things begin to fall apart, well — let's just say it's a disaster waiting to happen. So, don't tempt fate. Stay hydrated, well-fed, and rested throughout every leg of your trip. When you're on the move, make sure you always have water and a snack with you, so just in case you get stranded somewhere for a time or your reservation falls through, you'll be able to stave off hunger and thirst until your problems are solved.

Stay Within Your Budget

Whether you have a large and roomy travel budget or a small and tight one, do yourselves a favor by sticking to it. Money is one of the primary sources of tension and disagreement between couples back in the real world, so why bring that tension with you on vacation?

Decide on a budget together — you can save money by booking flights online — and so long as the spending choices you and your partner make fit within the budget's parameters, agree that you won't even comment on one another's travel spending, let alone complain.

Spend Some Time Apart

One of the easiest ways to stay on good terms with any travel companion, but especially a spouse or partner, is to spend some scheduled time apart before such a time when you can't wait to get away from each other.

Almost every couple has differences in interests, which makes spending time apart when you travel relatively simple. Let your wife head to the medieval weapons museum, while you read a novel in a small café. By spending time alone, you'll avoid feeling cramped in time and space, and you'll also be more grateful for one another's presence.

Communicate Early and Often

The necessity of good communication, in any relationship, can't be overstated, but nowhere is that more true than in a couple on vacation together. As soon as his waking late starts to affect the day's plans and you feel annoyed by it, say something. If she keeps getting the first shower and you're left with only a scant amount of hot water, bring it to her attention.

With diplomacy and kindness, communicate early and often with one another, and you'll avoid most arguments.  

Don't Try to Do it All

One of the keys to a successful vacation is experiencing new places without trying to do so much that you feel stressed out all the time. As much as you're able, don't bite off more than you can chew in a day's schedule.

While having just two days in Rome may make you think you have to tear around the place from 6 a.m. to midnight to make sure you see it all, a better choice would be to select a few key sites and experiences, and let the rest await a future trip.

Share Decision-Making

It may take longer, and it may mean that something you really had been hoping to do falls off the truck, but so long as you're both willing to compromise for the good of the pair, sharing decision-making will enable you to craft a trip and itinerary you're both excited about, and if some aspect of the trip is lackluster, there won't be anyone in particular to point a finger at.

So, book a trip for two to anywhere in the world. Armed with these suggestions, there's no reason you and your beloved can't have the time of your life together, regardless of what hiccups or troubles you come across.

This is a sponsored post.

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