Greece!

Athens was the first stop. It took a whole day of travelling to make it there; first flew to London with a six hour layover, then 1497 miles onto Greece with Aegean Airlines (probably the best airline ever). The hostel was great. Right in the middle of the city and had an amazing view from the terrace on the roof of Acropolis at night. Our lovely European student cards got us in for free to Acropolis, which is an amazing site. Once you make it up there it is breathtaking. It is built on this huge hill which can be seen from all over Athens rising above the city. One night we even watched the sunset from up near Acropolis. The view was amazing and the city of Athens is looked endless. Went to the Olympic Stadium and the Temple of Zeus too. I was a bit disappointed not to see Zeus sitting in his chair, Disney movies raised my expectations a bit too much. Who knew that Zeus was long gone! I think I tried all the famous Greek food. I lived on gyros all week. They were really cheap and delicious. It is a choice of meat, tomatoes, onion and tzatziki sauces wrapped in pita bread. Of course I had spinach pie, lots of Greek salads, tried Moussaka and all sorts of Greek deserts like baklava, kadafi, profiteroll and ravani.

In front of the Temple of Zeus.

Acropolis

We took a five hour ferry to Ios, one of the Greek islands. It is known for the younger crowd and backpackers but the season hadn’t quite started and the island was pretty empty. Everyone seemed to be painting and opening up for the season. We stayed at Far Our Beach Club which was right across the street from the beach. When they picked us up at the port they told us we would never want to leave. The owner kept trying to talk us into an upgrade. Telling us our rooms would be pretty cold at night this time of year, and the upgrade for 5 more Euros not only has a TV but also an air conditioner. He was making a lot of sense. Haha. We stuck it out for our ten euro a night “double room with a shared bath.” They walked us over to our rooms and showed us to two bungalows. They were white washed circular rooms with straw roofs. The inside had two beds, a table and chairs. I loved it. My friends were a bit unsure. The whole Beach club is more of a camp ground. We were one of the few guests and everything was still being prepped for the season. Therefore the bathrooms hadn’t been cleaned since probably last November. We headed straight to the beach and spent the whole day swimming and enjoying the sun. We had the whole beach to ourselves. That night we went into town which is about two miles away. There is a shortcut from the beach which involves walking up this huge hill to the top. It was quite the adventure walking to the only bar Flames. But we had a great time once we got there. The next day our noon ferry was cancelled. So we spent another day on the beach before taking the ferry to Santorini around five.

The beach in Ios

Bungalows!

Santorini was beautiful. We stayed at an amazing hostel, a great deal and with our own room including a bathroom and kitchen! It was right across from the black sand beach, Perissa beach. In the morning we hiked up a “hill” to see Ancient Thira. It was full of ruins of the ancient city and had an amazing view of the beach and island below. Later we went into Fira, the main city. It is full of shops and restaurants with an amazing view of the caldera. We took a cable car down to the port, and turned right back around taking the donkeys back up. It was about 1588 steps and a blast; one of my favorite adventures of the trip. That night we missed the bus back to Perissa beach but it worked out perfectly as we met up with some Ireland/Qu friends and caught up on our travels. The next day was Easter and Kristina’s birthday. We celebrated by going out to the volcano then swimming in the hot springs. Not so hot this time of year as it was only 15 degrees Celsius. Plus we had to jump off the boat, swimming through the freezing ocean to reach the Iron and sulfur hot springs. We ended the day watching the sunset from Oia, on the other end of the island and I wasn’t ready to leave Greece.

Hike up to Ancient Fira


Donkeys!

Up on top of the volcano!