Festivities well on their way in Athens

Image via In your pocket Athens

Sunday was total chaos in the centre of Athens, with shoppers picking up last minute gifts for their friends, family and of course, themselves. Once a year Athens retails on a Sunday like the UK (every Sunday though) near X mas time.
As we came out Monistiraki metro, there were DJ's lined up pumping out some phat sounds and tourists drifting along with the crowds towards food (it all smelt so good) and Ermou street. I'd never seen Athens so packed! Probably wasn't the best idea, but we headed up Ermou for a spot of shopping and got caught in the heaving crowds with their super shopping bags. Every shop we went into was hot, crammed pack full of people and the tills had endless queues. It was actually quite organised of me (for the first time ever) to get all my X mas shopping done via the net (asos.com, Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, Kurt Geiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Play.com, Amazon to name a few) and to have a helpful sibling currently State side to help with the odd bit, so that was a relief!

There's a lot going on in Athens this Christmas, the big ole tree is already up in Syntagma Square, looking every inch the perfect, brightly lit x-mas tree and with the odd individual dressed as Santa, Reindeers and Elves... The Zappeion and the National Gardens are to be transformed into a Christmas Fairytale with a Carousel and a spectacle dome, we didn't have time to check it out yet, but i'm sure it'll be a festive wonderland... Yup, Christmas brings out the inner child for sure... It's going to be magic!