Stretching Our Budget & Still Having Fun - Meeting Athens' Mayor During Open House Athens 2026

Since we had all our valuables stolen on the second day of our holiday in Greece, we have to change our travel itinary. Instead of travelling around to different cities in Greece and going to other neighbouring countries, we have to limit our activities in Athens while waiting for our new passports.

It was a good thing that a buffet breakfast was included in our hotel therefore, we didn't have to spend anything on breakfast. It was a Saturday and we were wondering where we could go to spend this day without spending too much money as we were still awaiting emergency funds from our relative back home in North America.

We left the hotel heading towards the hill and saw some people lining up for something outside a building in a square close to our hotel. Curious, we went to see what was drawing the crowd.

Lucky for us, this weekend was Open House Athens 2026 weekend! Many government and some famous buildings were open to the public for free!

 

 

  We just needed to line up, got a number, entered the building and had a tour of the place.

 

 

 

 

 

  The first building where we had a brief tour was the National Bank of Greece with an imopressive open space on the main floor.

The tour guide gave us a talk about the history of the building which started out as a hotel and over time, it evolved into other uses and currently is the home of the National Bank of Greece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The second building we toured was the Athens Municipal Building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The building has many beautiful rooms adorned with many manificent artwork such as colurful stained glass windows, huge wall murals depicting the history of Greece from its glorios past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to see where the city employees work, and receive their guests as well as the mayor's office too.

And lucky for us, the Mayor of Athens was working this weekend and he was in his office while we visited the building.

He was gracious enough to receive us and spoke with us briefly about the future plans for his city. He was friendly, down to earth and approachable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I even had my picture taken with him!

 

 

  It was a great day for me and my husband as we didn't have to spend too much from our 40 Euros to have a good time in Athens!

RT, Open Day, Athens 2026, Greece