Easter morning, with the sound of the monastery bells ringing in the hills above us we began our trip to Athens.
It was a warm and sunny arrival in the city of Athens. It was also the first time an arrival was also a return for me. I had been to Athens before! When I visited my cousin, Megan, in Germany after I had graduated from college, she obliged me by planning a short trip to Greece. We went to Athens and and the island of Naxos. We stayed in such a small area of Athens that I was sure I would remember it all very well.
It was just as magnificent the second time. Truly coming upon the Acropolis is spectacular. It just rises above you and is so ancient, it's hard to explain. We stayed in that same area most of our time, and I often found myself looking up at it, always knowing it's sitting right there above my shoulder.
Obviously, the Parthenon is hard to forget. But I loved wandering the narrow and ancient streets and it all came back to me. I am sure I recognized a restaurant we had eaten at. Other areas of ancient ruins seemed familiar. I remember a walk way around one of those areas that is a bit removed from the pedestrians. Megan and I sat in the shade up there for awhile. I feel like we were working something out like broken sunglasses or uncomfortable sandals. I don't know. Maybe we were just enjoying the shade, it was a lot hotter when we were there in June.
At one point, as Matt and I were walking down the Acropolis we came to a spot I knew would be waiting for us. It was the spot where Megan and I had realized I had left our ferry tickets somewhere. That was a horrible moment. I had avoided telling Matt the story of my irresponsibility as a traveller. But being at the place of the event, I had to tell him (besides we've been traveling nine months, I've improved). I remember Megan had been so calm, but silent. We went back to the hotel and they were right where we had been sitting. We picked them up and never mentioned it again, which was very kind of Megan, considering.
So, I faced that traumatic memory and the rest of our time in Athens was quite nice. We found a nice cream shop we liked and went several times, so things were good.
One of the things I loved in Athens was coming upon these ancient relics that had stood the test of time and were now surrounded by modern buildings. I guess a city as old as Athens is bound to see change. But the juxtaposition is odd when you think about it. Here's an ancient church, which seemed to still be in use, in the middle of an outdoor mall. That is an H&M right behind it.
We were only in Athens for two nights before we had a flight to the island of Crete. In planning our trip, Matt had planned out some island hopping, and Crete, the largest, was first.
We arrived in Crete and slowly made our way up the coast on a bus, stopping occasionally at small towns before getting on the next bus. It was quite windy, but sunny.
Finally, we got to the end of the bus route. We knew we wouldn't make it all the way to our first destination, so we thought we'd take a taxi from there.
As in most of our recent destinations, were still just ahead of the tourist season. So, buses and taxis are less available. The bus stopped at a tiny village and we found ourselves at an empty taxi lot. So, we walked a couple hours down the hill to an even smaller village on the coast. That wasn't the plan, but it was absolutely lovely.
Our hotel was empty when we arrived and we later learned that nothing was open in Phalasarna- no restaurants or markets. The owner offered to buy groceries for is when he went into town the next morning. We said yes, please, and enjoyed two lovely and slow nights in a very quiet village and surrounding area.
We then took the bus to Hieraklion. We didn't have reservations for that night, so we had to wing it again. So far, so good. We do alright make plans on the fly, I'm rather impressed with us. The days had gotten stormy and it was so windy on the coast. It seemed everytime we disbarred from a bus the rain started to pot down again. We found a hotel with the most glorious shower and I think we stayed inside the rest of the afternoon.
We spent the next day wandering around Hieraklion. We didn't go to the nearby ruins of Knossos, the cradle of the Minoan empire, which was probably a mistake. However, we did go to the museum, which was where all the interesting ceramics, jewelry and sarcophagi were anyways. We figured we'd picture that stuff in a place like the less built up areas of Ephesus and that's probably what we would have seen. That may be ignorant of me to say, but ruins kind of start to run together. Just keepin' it real.
After our four days on Crete we had planned on taking a ferry to Santorini. Well, the stormy weather had put a stop to the ferries for the last few days and we were a bit concerned. But, when we picked up our tickets, they said the weather should be getting better. When we left our hotel they told us the ferries were running. It did seem less windy. As we got closer to the port the wind seemed to grow. We arrived and things felt a bit deserted. As we asked where to go, we found the ferries had been cancelled. We were stranded on a Greek Island! Our friend, Gloria, came to mind as she had actually been stranded on a Greek Island, not just on the island, but on the ferry! At least we had a hotel and restaurants.
(Speaking of restaurants, we came across one that was Greek and Mexican. The family had lived in Texas and owned a Mexican restaurant! Go figure, right? They had returned to Greece and opened a new restaurant. Chips and salsa were complimentary and the fajitas were perfect. You know how that makes me feel.)
Anyways, the next day was Easter and there were no ferries to Santorini, so we would have to stay two extra nights and hope the weather was better on Monday. Matt did the math (very quickly, he didn't even make a spreadsheet of possibilities, it was all in his head!) and aside from the extra chance to go to Knossos (and, let's be honest, another platter of fajitas) it was better for us to get last minute plane tickets to make it to Santorini that day, as planned.
A tense 45 minutes later and it seemed we had bought the last tickets off the island, we were likely going to make it. Of course there is the question- if ferries can't leave, should planes?
Apparently, they can. We returned to Athens, transferred planes and made it to Santorini.
Again, there were no buses where we were going, so we walked, in the dark, to our hotel. Our walk included a winding road, a rocky path, and making our way through an empty hotel (I was nearly convinced we'd be sleeping outside that night). There were a few moments of wondering whether we were actually going to make it, but we did!
Arriving in the dark meant we didn't realize just how good it was. I knew to expect Santorini to be beautiful, but I had never realized just what it looked like.
We woke up the next morning and looked out our window. The sun lit up the blue sky and indigo water filling the caldera below us. We could see the end of the island as well as a smaller island that makes up one of the three parts of Santorini.
It was breathtaking, and definitely the best view we had ever had from our hotel room.
The day was warm and as it was Pascha, it also felt festive. We hot dressed, we both even put on deodorant, so you know it was a special day. We took our time walking along the narrow alleys and white houses overlooking the caldera back to the main city of Fira. Families were sitting in the sun and lambs were being roasted on spits. It was a joyful holiday. That was also the beginning of our almost hourly consumption of ice cream. And we weren't sharing, we were both enjoying our own ice creams. It was Pascha, after all. We each had our favorite ice cream shop, and we returned to them each of the four days we were on that island.
I decided my souvenir from Greece will be a couple extra pounds. And those couple extra pounds brought great joy.
Ah, looking at our pictures, I feel like I was never able to really capture how perfect it was.
We did a couple excursions. One was to Red Rock Beach. I love rocks so much, they're just so great. Whenever we see a rock shop, Matt always suggests we take a few minutes to go inside. This beach was great from afar, but while you're on it, you feel like the wall of rock could come sliding down on you at any moment. I felt like we needed to come up with a plan just in case. I guess swim away would be it. We didn't stick around for too long.
The next day, we took a boat out to the middle island where the crater of the volcano is.
We had to hike down to the port. Matt kindly opted not to take the donkeys down, considering my past feelings about riding animals. However, on the hike back up, I thought about how sometimes you have to make sacrifices and just do what you don't enjoy. No sacrifices this time though.
It is still an active volcano, so there was steam and sulphur. It was completely safe and so awesome. Being a second grade teacher has made me a sucker for volcanoes. They're just so great!
After walking around the volcano, the boat also took us to a spot where we could swim into hot springs. I was expecting a nice pool to swim in. But, it turned out to be several boats anchoring at the mouth of a brown stream, which, I guess was hot. There were a lot of people, which took some of the appeal away, so we hung out on the boat instead. It was lovely getting a tan!
After several more ice creams and half a day of just sitting in the sun at our hotel it was time to leave. Although, it was hard, because this is what sitting in the sun looked like.
I think we left just in time. It was starting to feel more crowded each day, and when we left, there were two cruise ships anchored off-shore shuttling people on to the island. Those lovely streets could easily become too narrow. The weather was much better, so we were able to take a ferry to our last island, Mykonos.
I loved Mykonos. Santorini is beautiful and amazing, but there was something about Mykonos. It was quieter. We stayed in the middle if the main town and could easily walk around, getting lost, but never too lost. It was warm and the air felt so good. We had a balcony looking out over the tiny street. Nothing like our balcony with the sweeping vista on Santorini, but certainly endearing in it's own way. You're pretty much sitting on the patio of the house across the alley. We were on total vacation mode, just doing whatever we felt like in the moment. It was perfect.
I enjoyed watching these little islands waking up, getting ready for the summer. Maybe another return to Greece is in our future someday.
Tomorrow, we fly to Rome! I'm thinking about the gelato and the pasta I'm going to be eating and I just can't wait.
