On New Year’s Eve 2019, my wife Jessica and I gathered for a small party in Zamalek, the affluent Cairo neighborhood where we and many other expats live. Our hosts were another Canadian couple Sarah and Marko, and they were quick to hand us glasses of imported wine and tell us to help ourselves to sushi or anything else from the generous spread.

I would have loved to properly ring in the New Year with this group of friends, but after only a couple of drinks we began saying our goodbyes because we had a 1am flight to Bangkok (via Abu Dhabi) to meet Jessica’s sister and brother-in-law. As we left, some of the guests with small children joked that we weren’t missing much and that they probably wouldn’t make it to midnight.

The trip to Bangkok was wonderful, and it stands out in hindsight for being our final international trip of ‘the before times’. We were young and naive and had no idea that we wouldn’t leave Egypt again for another 20 months. We also had no idea it would be our final international trip before becoming parents.

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Our son Ralph was born in Cairo in July 2021, only four days after we returned home from a week bumming around Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, which had become one of our favourite destinations during the previous year and a half. 

Cairo’s 40 degree summer heat forced us to mostly hide inside during the first few weeks of Ralph’s life, and we watched endless hours of the Olympics while taking turns holding him. We made a point of leaving the house at least once a day, usually for an early morning walk, although we did sometimes emerge in the evening after dark, especially when invited to a dinner party. 

After two weeks we were getting more confident in taking care of Ralph, so we took him on his first night away from home, a staycation at a fancy golf hotel in suburban Cairo. We spent the afternoon by the pool with Sarah and Marko who were (sadly for us!) leaving Egypt the next day. At night after their kids were asleep we helped them finish a final bottle of champagne in their room while Ralph slept in Jessica’s arms. Jessica and I also had a lovely stroll around the golf course at sunset and in the morning I played a final nine holes with Marko.

After this successful first minitrip, we started planning some longer journeys with Ralph, because we were committed to continuing to travel as much with him as we did before he was born. When he was six weeks old, we took him to Alexandria for three days with Jessica’s mom and sister. We went for long walks with him around the city, and I took him an old double decker tram, which was a first for both of us!

We booked a trip to Canada for the end of November, and we initially planned for this to be Ralph’s first international journey. But by the beginning of October, Jessica was finally fully vaccinated (Egypt had not been vaccinating pregnant women), and Ralph’s passport was ready. 

Suddenly, for the first time in almost two years, we were all set to leave Egypt and we had an open calendar. We debated a few options and settled on Athens, since neither of us had been before, the weather looked perfect, and the short two-hour flight seemed like a good way to ease back into crossing borders.

Travelling with a baby did present us with a few new dilemmas, including whether or not to bring the stroller. We decided to leave it at home, both because we wanted to travel as light as possible, and because Ralph generally prefers the carrier anyway. We also decided to not bring a car seat and to limit ourselves to public transportation while in Athens, and so we arranged for a driver to bring us to the Cairo airport with our car seat and to bring it again the following week when we returned.

Traditionally we are more last minute packers, but this time we printed out a long list and got most things ready the night before. We managed to limit ourselves to two suitcases (weighing a combined 35kg) and a small backpack for the plane. This amount of luggage was manageable, but in hindsight we could have easily left a few more things at home, especially since we ended up doing laundry almost every day during the trip. 

At the airport Jessica put Ralph in the carrier, and she was allowed to wear him through the metal detector (although in Athens on the way home they made her take him off). On the plane we were lucky enough to get the bulkhead row to ourselves, and Ralph happily nursed during the flight without much fuss. 

After breezing through customs in Athens, Jessica changed Ralph on some chairs next to the baggage carousel while I grabbed our suitcases, and then we hopped onto the metro for the 40 minute ride into the city. 

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Our Airbnb was a 10-minute walk from the Evangelismos metro station, and it was slightly awkward for me to drag our two suitcases while Jessica carried Ralph, but thanks to a saved offline map we had no problem finding the apartment.

We were greeted by Rena, the Airbnb owner who lived next door, and she showed us around the charming and unique (no Ikea!) apartment. She told us that there were a few drinks that we could have from the fridge, so we started the trip by splitting a can of Fix beer, and it quickly became Jessica’s drink of choice for the rest of the week.   

After finishing the beer we decided to venture out and unpack later. We were staying in a neighbourhood called Pagrati, which we chose because it was centrally located and full of restaurants and bars (but not tourist sites), and it proved to be an excellent base to explore the city and I would recommend it to anyone staying in Athens. 

We were hungry and on the hunt for a casual lunch spot when we stumbled upon Alexandrino, a souvlaki restaurant with a few outdoor tables on a busy corner. We shared a salad and each had a pork pita, because after so much time in Egypt we were both committed to always choosing pork over chicken on this trip. I wanted to split a carafe of cheap house wine (hard to think of something I miss more from living in Rome), but Jessica was already so enamoured with Fix beer that I was forced to fend for myself and to settle for a mini carafe of rose.

The food was tasty, but it honestly could have been terrible and I wouldn’t have cared. I was just so thrilled to again be sitting outside in Europe, drinking wine in the afternoon like I had countless times before, only this time with our son.

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We had too many wonderful experiences in Athens to properly document here, but are a few of the other highlights (we did go to the Agora and the Acropolis, but since I am not going to write about them here are a couple of photos).

Ralph’s First Ferry Ride 

Most travellers to Greece give Athens short shrift, staying for a day or two before moving on to one of the islands. We basically did the reverse, staying in Athens for an entire week with one island day trip. We chose to visit Aegina because it was only one hour away via the massive car ferry (we had quickly eliminated from consideration any islands that required a hydrofoil ride because of my propensity for seasickness).

We took the metro to the port and caught the 9:30 ferry, choosing to soak up the sun on the roof deck. Once the ferry started moving the wind made it a bit chilly and we had to wear a sweater, something we hadn’t done in a long time. We definitely weren’t in Cairo anymore!

After disembarking we did a quick walk around the harbour area and then made our way to the nearby archaeological site, which was one of the few places during our trip that actually asked to see our vaccination certificate. The ruins themselves were (unsurprisingly) extremely boring, but the cliffside setting overlooking a beach provided for a lovely jaunt.

Before leaving the site we changed Ralph on a bench (one of the numerous times we changed him on a public bench during the trip), and then we strolled along the beach before making our way back into town looking for food. 

We sat down at a small outdoor-only taverna on the edge of the town, with a nice view of the sea. It was only 11:30, so still early for lunch even by tourist standards, and so we had the place to ourselves for the first part of our meal before the other tables started to fill up.

Jessica once again drank a Fix beer (but who’s counting?) and I had a quarter litre of white wine. We shared a greek salad, tzatziki, stuffed vegetables, as well as a dish of pureed yellow split peas which was a delicious new discovery. It is truly hard to beat having simple food by the sea, and we lingered long after we finished eating, enjoying the most scenic Nescafe frappes of the trip.

After lunch we walked around Aegina’s quiet streets and then we found a nice (and empty!) waterfront park which proved to be the perfect spot to relax for half an hour and again change Ralph on a bench. We then made our way back to the ferry, stopping briefly to buy a package of the island’s famous pistachios. 

A Taste of Athens’ Weekend Beach Life 

On Saturday morning we set out to explore the beach neighbourhoods, so hopped onto the tram and rode for about an hour to the end of the line in Voula. We strolled along the seaside path until we arrived at the Voula Farmer’s Market, which was both a surprise and a real treat. 

We walked up and down the stalls ogling all the delicious looking produce, but unfortunately we couldn’t buy much since we were going to be out all day. We settled on some cherry tomatoes, a few types of olives, a hunk of cheese, and some pomegranate juice which we took with us to a bench by the sea for a delightful snack. 

After walking a bit more by the water we made our way a few blocks inland to Voula’s pedestrianised commercial area and sat down for lunch at a souvlaki restaurant which was already busy but still had a table available for us outside. The restaurant soon filled up, with many multigenerational families enjoying a weekend meal. 

After lunch we took a short bus ride back in the direction of the city centre and got off in Glyfada, a busier neighbourhood full of restaurants and shops. We walked around a bit mostly for the people watching, and then we got back on the tram and headed home.

Never pass up the opportunity to eat khinkali

The first time we visited Georgia, in January 2010, we knew next to nothing about the country and its food. We quickly came to love khinkali, the large savoury meat dumplings that are a staple of Georgian cuisine, and ever since we have always been excited when we get to eat them.  

In Athens we took one day to explore more multicultural parts of the city, and we wandered past many Indian and Afghan restaurants, as well as a few places serving West African food (and lots of people dressed up for church). 

We were trying to decide what to eat when we stumbled upon a small Georgian supermarket/restaurant with overflowing shelves and a few outdoor tables. The server spoke only a few words of English, but we managed to order 10 khinkali and drank a very green (very sweet!) carbonated tarragon soft drink while we waited. 

I was struck by the fact that the clientele and the servers seemed to be exclusively female. A few women were eating at the other tables, and a stream of other women came through picking up various baked goods to bring home. 

Back in Cairo we mentioned this to our Georgian friend Mariam, and she said that many Georgian women go to Greece as domestic workers. I looked this up later and found these beautiful photos by Tatiana Mavromati.

After finishing the delicious khinkali we went inside to pick up a few treats for Mariam and a bottle of the Borjomi carbonated water to drink while we walked. Borjomi is quite salty and polarizing, and after one sip Jessica remembered that she didn’t like it and so I got to drink the rest myself.

Exploring Pagrati

Throughout the week we spent a lot of time just walking around Pagrati and stopping at different restaurants and outdoor bars.

Almost every morning I took Ralph for an early morning walk while it was still dark, and we would return home with some pastries and freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast. 

Early during the week, we passed by a taverna called Karavitis which had a large courtyard with a rustic vibe and seemed like the exact type of restaurant that we usually like. It was either still closed or it was still too early for dinner the first few times we passed, but we finally made it for a Sunday lunch when it was busy with families, and had a nice meal of cold mezzes (greek salad, split pea puree, tzatziki, and some stewed greens) along with some red wine.

On our last full day, we decided to take it easy and not even leave Pagrati. We started by going to Ardittos Hill with the goal of getting a nice view of the 1896 Olympic stadium. We had previously seen people jogging up the tree-filled hill, but we found the gate locked, which made us momentarily think we were back in Cairo again. We walked along the perimeter until we saw two men inside sitting on a bench. We asked them how to get in and they pointed to a nearby hole in the fence which we were just barely able to squeeze into. 

We walked to the top of the hill (which wasn’t much higher up from where we entered) and Ralph immediately started making some funny sounds to voice his opposition to the strong winds, so we started making our way down the hill, enjoying the views of the Acropolis along the way.

We knew there was a solid chance the gate would be closed at the bottom, and sure enough it was, so we started walking back up the hill, this time along a trail that brought us along the edge of the stadium. We could have also easily walked into the stadium from here without paying (and we saw a couple of people do this), but we contented ourselves with circling around the top level. 

We were also confused because we saw many other people in this part of the park, and it seemed unlikely that they would have all slipped through the same fence we did. We made our way back to the closed gate we had initially tried to enter through, and sure enough, we realized that you could walk through the parking lot of an adjacent building and easily enter the park. This would have saved us some time but we would have missed out on the adventure!

We then continued our meandering through the neighbourhood, stopping to peek inside a large cemetery before strolling along the main shopping street. We once again had lunch at Alexandrino, where we had eaten the first day, and this time I successfully convinced Jessica to share wine with me (but don’t worry, she had her fix of Fix beer later that evening).

We had coffee and shared a brownie and a slice of apple cake at a popular cafe called Oh Boy, taking turns walking up and down the sidewalk with a fussing Ralph while the other person ate. We then returned home to enjoy a final evening in the cozy apartment while eating a bunch of clementines and watching another episode of Suits. 

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The next morning we gave ourselves some extra time to pack and took the metro back to the airport. I finished watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the plane, and we were met in Cairo by the driver with our car seat. 

Looking back at the trip, it is hard to think how it could have been better. Travelling with Ralph made things only slightly more complicated and no less rewarding, and we did as much exploring with him as we would have without him. 

Returning to Cairo was a bit of an adjustment (it always is), but we are motivated to be ambitious in our exploration of the city. Cairo can be tricky and frustrating, but there are so many possibilities if you are curious and willing to be a bit creative, and I am excited to have Ralph with us for the adventure.