Adrianou Street connects Plaka with the Monastiraki Square. It is one of the most touristic roads in Athens. Athenians however, prefer to lazily walk through Adrianou Street towards the Monastiraki Flea Market for their own shopping relaxation and because this stroll is still considered to be one of the best escapes from the everyday life.
Let us then, try to be and to behave not as tourists but as genuine Athenians! First of all, we will have to try the lamb-dishes that we will find in the tavern in which we will seat. Forget for a while 'horiatiki' and 'souvlaki'!
Adrianou Street, in its part that passes through Plaka district, is full of tourist shops. We have to be highly eclectic and selective in our choices, like the Athenians are, when they buy things from there!
We can buy actual hand painted icons and all sorts of unique wooden artifacts. We can choose to pick some really humorous post cards and some quite cheap but practical cotton clothing for the summer time, Athenians do that too!
We can certainly find some really underpriced handmade jewels from wondering artists, who sell their own artifacts and jewels in the street. We can find some time to visit the Greek Folk Art Museum, in which we will be amazed about how many Athenians we will find inside it, learning about their own national folk culture!
Adrianou is momentarily disconnected just before we arrive at Monastiraki Square but it continues parallel to Monastiraki metro station. In this section of Adrianou Street, our world is transformed from that of a commercial street to a paradise for food and coffee lovers! Every single meter of this section is covered either by a café or a tavern.
What we need to do here is simply to choose the café or the tavern that we like the most and do as Athenians are doing all the time: watch the people passing by and start gossiping about everything with our friends!
When we will feel refreshed, we will have to walk down the Monastiraki Flea Market, the Hephaestus Street, a small pedestrian zone, in which we can find almost everything, from expensive clothing and shoes to second-hand books and used electronic gadgets.
Here we need to be careful, we need to know how to buy like Athenians do, in other words, we need to bargain!In order to do so, we need to be really aware of the true value of the products we are looking at and we must try not to be mesmerized by the sellers' smooth voices and big smiles!
