Athens and (a few of the) Greek Isles

Santorini, Greece.

 

Um, can we go back?  Ten days in warm, sunny Greece was absolutely magical.  It really felt like the summer we never had in England, which was the coolest and wettest on record.   This trip was planned a full six months ago, in even worse weather: the dead of our dark, cold winter.   Last December I happened upon a Lonely Planet Greek Islands book at the library, fell in love with the descriptions of ‘endless stretches of white sand’ and the ‘sparkling sea’ and spent the following weeks pouring over anything I could find about traveling there.  It wasn’t hard to convince sun-lover Chris, but it was an amazingly difficult trip to plan!  Greece has around 3000 islands, of which about 150 are inhabited.  I’d guess 30 are regularly visited, each of them with its own sort of personality. Islands are known for their scenery, parties, beaches, food, geology, geography, size, culture, ruins, etc.  Santorini is a famous example: it’s known for the stunning landscape formed when a huge earthquake sunk the center of the volcano that formed it. 

Ferries connect some of the islands, some of the time (less frequently than I’d imagined), so the challenge was to find a few islands we really wanted to visit that were also plausible to travel to based on ferry lines and schedules.   We read about the islands and noted a few that looked particularly fantastic, then looked at maps to see if any were in close proximity to each other.  Then we checked ferry schedules (in books and online) to see if any of the islands were regularly connected and realized only a few were.  We could get from Crete to Santorini fairly easily, and those both seemed like ‘unmissables’.  From there we worked backwards, looking at ferry lines and researching each of the islands they serviced to figure out the other couple islands we’d be able to visit.  I’m laughing to myself because it doesn’t look that complicated on paper, but I distinctly remember a solid week of lugging those travel books around everywhere we went to try to hash out the logistics of this trip.  It was fun to read about islands, beaches, and the Mediterranean while hunkered down in winter coats and boots.  In general, ferries move south/north and not east/west (similar to England’s train lines, actually).  There are many named clusters of islands in Greece (the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and Ionian for example) and ferries tend to stay within the cluster.  The Cyclades had some of the classics, so we decided to stay within them this trip.  We settled on four islands – Crete (the big one just south of the Cyclades), Santorini, Mykonos, and Naxos.  

But first, Athens!  We took an overnight flight from London, which seemed like a brilliant idea at the time (save on a night’s hotel!) but as the flight was only 3.5 hours long and we arrived at 4am Athens time (2am our time) we didn’t get enough sleep and were hazy the rest of the day.  We waited for dawn in the airport, then took an hour-long bus ride into the center of Athens, had breakfast, and walked to our hotel.  

Catching some zzz's at the airport.

Strange changing of the guards ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens.

 

Athens is a massive city with an absurdly rich history (think: birthplace of Plato and Aristotle, the arts, Olympics, democracy) but the actual historical sites are condensed to a really small area.  We spent the morning walking around the busy main shopping street that connected Syntagma (Consitution) Square to our hotel area near Plaka.  (Aside:  highlighter neon shoes are all the rage in Greece- there were thousands on display.  Are they popular in the States as well?) We stopped by Hadrian’s library and the Roman Agora and then made our way to the gem: the Acropolis.  The site is set on a high flat rock 500 feet above the city.   The hike around the base and then to the top was no joke and we were thankful for some cloud cover to keep the temperature bearable.  Whether it was the lack of sleep or lack of guide, we weren’t floored by the Acropolis.   It’s amazingly old (400-500 BC if I remember correctly) and quite grand, but is currently under scaffolding for restoration.  We spent an hour on the hill and then admitted defeat and hiked back towards town.  We stopped for lunch at a tiny restaurant and had our very first Greek salad.  It would be the first of at least ten such salads and by the end of the trip we were quite particular about them!

Looking up at the Acropolis.

Chris from the base of the Acropolis, looking out over Athens and Areopagus hill, where the apostle Paul delivered his message to the Athenians.

Ancient stadium in Acropolis.

The Parthenon.

Greek salad!

There is no lettuce on a Greek salad.  It consists of chunks of tomato, cucumber, and sweetish purple onion, strips of green peppers, olives, and a (huge) hunk of feta cheese seasoned with oregano, salt, and pepper.  Add a generous pour of olive oil and maybe a touch of the light vinegar… yum, yum, yum.

Anyway, after a much-needed nap we wandered around the Plaka (shopping) neighborhood for a while, then had a drink at a bar called Brettos to taste their homemade ouzo (tastes like black licorice) and raki (Crete’s unique clear spirit).

The next morning it was back to the airport for a 40-minute flight to Chania, a town on the western third of Crete.  Chania airport was one little building with a suddenly non-functioning luggage belt that started working two minutes after the hourly bus into town… forcing us to take a E25 cab ride… coincidence?  All annoyance disappeared when we were dropped off at our hotel, Constantino’s Studios, where we were at once greeted by Constantino himself. Leave your bags!  Go to the beach!  We did, and we did.  Two minute change, two minute walk to the beach, and we settled in to our first real holiday in a long time.  We sat on the beach and played in the amazingly clear, blue water for hours, until hunger forced us the 30 feet to a beachside taverna long enough to eat an omelet, Greek salad, and white wine, then it was back on the beach until late afternoon.  We spent a fortune on sunblock! Our first day in the sun, on the sea, was incredible.  Not having a true summer made us appreciate the perfect weather and water temperature even more than we otherwise would have.  The evening involved a relaxing stroll up to the Old Town and its picturesque harbor.  

 

The beach by our hotel in Chania, Crete.

Chania's harbor.

 

The next morning we felt great after a morning jog.  Back to the beach!  Lunch this day turned out to be our favorite meal of the trip: another amazing omelet, sardines in olive oil, Greek salad, dry white wine, dolmades, and fish soup.  (We didn’t even eat dinner that night).  Other than a two-hour lunch, we spent the whole day on the beach until catching an evening bus to Iraklio, a city 2.5 hours away towards the center of Crete where we planned to catch a ferry to Santorini the following day. The bus ride wasn’t the flat, coastal ride I had expected!  Our driver took the mountainous curves incredibly fast for our huge coach.  We arrived into Iraklio late at night and were immediately met with a bad surprise: the only ferry to Santorini the following day was sold out.  Nooo!!! Totally my fault – I knew to book it, and had even been to the booking website but just hadn’t ever completed the transaction.  I was so, so mad at myself and completely frustrated.  We were instructed to either stay an extra day in Iraklio (no thanks, ugly city!) or take our chances and get to the ferry a few hours early to try to get on a waiting list for last-minute cancelations.  Blah. 

We woke up early the next morning, had our first experience of Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast (the day was looking up!), unfortunately walked the longest route ever to the ferry (hot, sweaty, with bags, stressed…) put our name on a list and waited nervously for a couple hours.  It wasn’t the most fun morning, but we were successful, and we were two of the last few people to board the ferry for our three hour ride to Santorini.  What a relief!  The ferry ride itself was smoother than I thought it would be and the view of Santonrini on the approach was stunning. 

Whew, last seats on the ferry to Santorini.

The ferry arrived at the tiny, bustling ‘New Port’ where we hopped a local bus into Fira, the main town at the top of the caldera, or cliff.  We did make sure to buy the next day’s ferry tickets to Mykonos before we left the port – we weren’t going through THAT again!  

From Fira we walked 15 minutes uphill to our hotel, which was a gorgeous room  perched on the cliff with a killer view (the best of the trip for sure.)  We showered off the day’s sweat and anxiety and made our way back to downtown Fira to the ‘Old Port’ to take a sunset boat ride around the little volcanic islands.  I agreed to walk down the 600 steps to get there in return for either catching the cable car or riding a donkey for the return trip.  I’m on vacation, honey! 

Dinner plus a view!  Fira, Santorini.

Fira, Santorini.

Chris on the 600 stairs to the New Port in Fira, Santorini. 

View of the stairs zig-zagging up from the New Port to Fira, Santorini.

 

The boat trip was good.  It was nice to be on the water, and really interesting to explore the surrounding volcanic islands.  We swam in some ‘hot springs’ that were more ‘brown lukewarm water’ and pretty disappointing after places like Hot Springs, Arkansas where the water comes out close to boiling!  The sunset itself was seriously disappointing because of a low layer of clouds but the views of the islands on the ride back made up for that.   

On Kameni island just off Santorini, which was born from an underground volcano in the 1700's and continues to be formed.  The last deposit was an eruption in 1950. 

Volcanic islands off Santorini.

Sunset failure.

Fira, Santorini.

Stairs, stairs, everywhere.  Fira, Santorini.

 

The donkey parade was held up by this guy looking for a snack.  Fira, Santorini.

We left gorgeous but ridiculously expensive Santorini to head to party central Mykonos the next day.  Ferries aren’t cheap, this trip was a few hours long and around $65/each.  This whole ferry/arrival experience was so much less stressful than the previous one.  We had pre-booked the tickets, arrived in plenty of time, had a short ride chatting with some American honeymooners, and were then picked up from the ferry by our hotel owner, George.  Easy breezy!  George carted us and five 23-year old guys back to his hotel where we oohed and ahed at our view, comfy bed and huge bathroom (with fixed overhead shower… a luxury in Greece and the rest of Europe.)

From our private veranda looking across the pool to the sea.  Notice the Carolina blue and white paint scheme on the hotel (and most of the houses in Greece!) 

 

We dropped our stuff and made our way to Paradise Beach, maybe the most famous party beach in Greece.  Although it’s officially a couple weeks past the end of the tourist season, the party was still going in Paradise.  The beach was lined by bars and restaurants but dominated by Club Tropicana, where a deejay was blaring tunes much to the joy of the handful of a few 20-somethings on the dance floor.  I was torn between mocking the cheesiness of the place and really enjoying the soundtrack to our beach time.  We were struck with a few things pretty immediately.  The first thing was how arid the islands are.  There isn't much plant and animal life on Mykonos especially!  It was even starker than Tuscon, Arizona and definitely didn’t match my (unfounded) mental image of palm trees and flocks of sea birds.  The second shock was about the beach itself: it wasn’t sandy and was entirely ‘organized’, which we’d come to realize means 90% of the beach is covered in umbrella-covered lounge chairs which you could rent for about $25/day and have the privilege of a scantily clad person bringing you expensive drinks and food.  We were the only two playing on the beach and some of the only people in the water at all, and definitely the only ones who had brought a picnic from the little corner store up the road.  It was a beach to go to “see and be seen”, which is fine but just not our style.    Like I said, though, the music was fun and the people-watching was hilarious.  After the sun faded we took George’s advice and flagged down a local bus to take us into Mykonos Town to walk around ‘Little Venice’ that night.  It was incredibly quaint, with narrow, windy, cobbled streets lined by brightly lit shops, restaurants, and bars.  We enjoyed a glass of ouzo and a Greek yogurt with honey on the waterfront before going to a bar for a couple hours.  The bartender was appalled that our next stop was Naxos, “Oh God, it’s going to be you and the locals!”  (Chris and I exchanged a mental high-five.) The shops on the street were all open as we walked the short way back to the bus at 1AM, and people were really just arriving to start their night. 

  

This is not sand.  Paradise Beach, Mykonos.

Keeping it classy.  Paradise Beach, Mykonos.

  

After breakfast the next day, Chris and I took a calique, or water taxi, to a nearby beach called Elia.  It was cloudy when we arrived (boo!) and we were sad to see it too was ‘organized’ and pebbly.  It was snotty, too, again the ‘see and be seen’ thing going on.  Ah well.  The sun came out and we made do until the earliest ferry came to take us back to Paradise (at 2:30… we were stuck for a while.)  Paradise looked good after Elia!  We had a fantastic swim in the sea out to a nearby point before relaxing in the hot tub at the hotel. 

George took us to the ferry the next morning and we were off to Naxos!  It was a very pleasant 40-minute ride chatting with some American honeymooners from Colorado.  Naxos is a huge island, more fertile than most.  The whole westerly side is a 20-mile stretch of (mostly) sandy beach and the interior is mountainous.  Everything from food to taxis to hotel ($25/night) was markedly cheaper than anywhere else we had been in Greece.  We were so, so pleased with the beach Agia Anna that was right down the street from our hotel, and spent the whole rest of the day there.  There were other people (our age!) playing beach ball, laughing, and swimming.  The beach was full of families, too, picnicking on the beach and enjoying life, and only a few chairs dotted the scene.  It was so much more our style.  Give me unorganized and sandy any day!  The town was tiny but perfect- a couple good restaurants, a coffee/internet café run by the same lady who owned the grocery store next door, and a moto rental place. The island was quite large and had many areas to explore so I ceded to Chris’s want to rent an ATV, even though I swore never to ride with him again after an ‘incident’ last time we were on one together…   I’ll admit the quad was a lot of fun and made the island feel smaller.  We popped into town for yet another great meal.  The old man who owned the place wouldn’t let us make any faux pas by giving us clear ‘advice’ on what to do (“you start slowly with this” as he drops off a Greek salad) and how to properly drink ouzo (“you order water, too”, as he shows us to put a cube or two of ice in, some ouzo, and then a splash of water).  Love it!  Yet another thing to love about Naxos was the free bit of dessert (usually sliced fruit, liquor, or yogurt with honey) delivered after each meal.  I love that Greek restaurants assume everyone will be sharing each of the dishes ordered.  The Greeks, like the Italians and French dive into meals with gusto and respect, tasting and chewing and generally slowly enjoying the heck out of whatever fresh, tasty food is in front of them.  They emphasize fresh anything, olive oil, herbs, lamb, olive oil, seafood, olives, olive oil, wine, tomatoes, olive oil, bread, and fresh nuts.  Oh, and olive oil.  I think we consumed a gallon of it these past ten days but didn’t gain weight.  Is this Mediterranean diet thing for real? They don’t serve 0% Greek yogurt, either… I saw 2%, 4%, and 10% for sale at the store! 

Agia Anna Beach, Naxos.

 

Trouble.

 

Ouzo!

 

Whew, I digress.  The next morning, armed with a map (of the island’s ten roads, none of which had names), some groceries, sunblock, a camera, and helmets, we rode our way to Aliko beach, which was about 10 miles south of Agia Anna.  Oh. My. Heaven. On. Earth.   We found our perfect Greek beach!  It felt like a hidden, magical escape.  The beach was white sand (not Destin-powder soft but certainly not pebbly), the water was crystal clear, there were zero chairs, and you actually had to clamber down a 15-foot-deep crevice in the surrounding cliff-edge to get down to the sandy cove.  We were happy to share it with a few like-minded people.  Like all the Greek beaches there were various levels of nudity which by the end of ten days didn’t even warrant a giggle.  We’re pretty prudish, us Americans (& the Brits, but less so) but the contrast from Egypt only two weeks ago was especially stark. 

Surprisingly, the Greek seas were almost as devoid of life as its islands. There were some small schools of fish, and the occasional sea slug and urchin, but it wasn’t nearly as teeming as I’d mentally pictured. The visibility is astounding, though, so although we opted not to dive we did buy some cheap snorkeling masks and putter our way around the coast.  I was shocked to see details on the rocks 30 feet down!  To add to the awesomeness of the beach, a girl set off windsurfing and cut back and forth along the coast for an hour.  Pretty impressive!  We had another great meal at a local tavern and from there drove about 30 minutes inland to Naxos’ oldest town, Halki. 



 

Aliko Beach, Naxos.

Such clear water!  Aliko Beach, Naxos.

Aliko Beach, Naxos.

Kite surfer, Aliko Beach, Naxos.

 

We walked around the little town, which took roughly 30 seconds as ‘walking around town’ meant turning in a circle looking at the tiny town square made up of the intersection of two tiny pedestrian-only walkways. On one side of the square was the Kitron Distillery, where we took a free ‘tour’ which involved an old woman walking us to a room, pointing at some copper pots, saying “That how we make it” with a wave of her hand, smiling, then walking out. We tried a few of the varieties (not sweet, little sweet, very sweet), and bought a few little bottles. Across from the distillery is a famous ceramics shop that was sadly closed for the afternoon. 

 

Packing up the quad to head inland.

 

 



Bottles of kitron at the Vallindras Distillery in Halki, Naxos.

 

The drive back to the hotel was scenic and fun.  I loved the every-day working feel of the island – it was really evident that only a bit of its revenue came from tourism. We witnessed a gorgeous sunset and fawned over a baby seal that had made its way to the beach, lost, no one at Naxos having a clue what to do with it.  Take it? Leave it? Feed it? Put it back in the water?  The island police came to keep people away after the owner of the local dive shop called the island’s vet who advised everyone to back off and let the mother come get the pup overnight which she was likely to do. 



Naxos.

Just another view from the ATV...

Navigating Naxos' interior.

Baby seal on Agia Anna beach.

Amazing sunset in Agia Anna, Naxos.

The next morning, our last on the beach, we tried another beach- Mikri Vigla which was good but after a few hours we packed up and went back to our favorite.  It seemed only fitting to spend our last day on the islands at the best beach we had come across on our trip!  We lazed around all day and spent a good two hours over dinner, enjoying the food, our view of the ocean, and each others’ conversation and company.  It was a magnificent end to the best of holidays. 

The next day was 16 hours of nonstop travel – 6 hours by ferry to Athens, 1 ½ hour bus from the port to the airport, few hours waiting for the plane, four hour plane ride, then hour and a half from London Heathrow home.  We were absolutely exhausted and ready to stretch out on our own bed!  The weather forecast calls for 50 degree and rainy days for the forseeable future, so maybe I should just hang on to that Greek Isles book for a few more days!