GREECE

I’ve been a little behind on my blog game lately so it’s time to catch up now that midterms and “spring break” are over.

Where to begin…let’s go back to Wednesday, February 19^th aka the night I left for Greece! Tiffany and I went to Greece about two weeks ago and let me tell you, it was a trip I will never forget. We flew out of London, Heathrow to Athens, Greece and landed at 4 in the morning. From the airport we took a bus to the port were at 7:50 we caught a ferry to Mykonos. After a 4 hour ferry ride we arrived in Mykonos, it was so beautiful.

We walked from the port to the town (we are too cheap for cabs) and found ourselves very lost amongst the tiny little alleyways. After much confusion and frustration we found our hotel, Hotel Zarsis.

 

this one is for you mom, the sandal place!

As we were walking around we noticed that a lot of things were closed and that there were hardly any people there…later we found out the island is pretty much close until summer (pure disappointed). While the news was a bit of a damper we were determined to have a nice time, we spent our first night at Mykonos eating at one of the only open restaurants than getting a bottle of wine and watching the sunset by Mykonos’ infamous windmills. 

After the sun set we found a little dessert shop where I was able to try some authentic baklava…it was delicious!

To our surprise on the walk back to the hotel there were people outside in the streets, dancing and partying, just enjoying life. As we walked by they grabbed us and made us dance with them to traditional Greek music, it was like something out of a movie (this event made the entire trip). 

After dancing with the locals we retired to the hotel and tried to make a tentative plan for our next day on the closed island of Mykonos.

Let me just reinstate the fact that Tiffany and I were literally the only 2 tourists on the entire island, the rest of the small population that was there all knew each other. At first we both thought this was awkward but the people were incredibly friendly and we experienced a side of Mykonos not many people can say that they have.

Our plan for the second day was to rent a motorized bike and just explore the island since what else could we do but…shocker there was nothing open but a car rental place. So needless to say we rented a car! I was so surprised with how easy renting a car in Greece was, they did not mention insurance nor did they take a copy of our license they literally handed us the keys and we were off…well sorta…we opened the door and saw that it was standard so we needed to wait 10 minutes for them to find an automatic car and then we were off…well sorta…they gave us a car with literally no gas (the car was hardly moving up the hill and we were panicking) but then we found a gas station, fueled up and then we were off!

We drove around for hours with the windows down blasting music and taking in the gorgeous scenery. We were able to see all the beaches as well as a lighthouse and the hillside. I’ve never in my life seen water so blue it was awesome! Driving around Greece is something I will never forget.

After driving around all day we were hungry so we headed to dinner. At this point our cash was running thin because the island wasn’t taking cards so we basically spent all of our money on that dinner and breakfast the next morning (worst feeling in the world). 

After breakfast Saturday morning we boarded a ferry once more and headed back to Athens for the night.

Getting off the ferry in Athens was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life; we had no idea where to go and no money to get there. Our first order of business was to find an ATM, after about 30 minutes that was accomplished. At this point I was so frustrated I just sucked it up and paid for a cab to drive us to our hostel (best decision I could’ve made), he got us there in 30 minutes as opposed to the 3 hours the public buses would’ve taken us. The cab driver was an angel and also offered to pick us up Sunday morning to bring us to the airport.

But hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself…when the cab driver stopped the car he pulled down the sketchiest alley and was like “we are here”, Tiffany and I just looked at each other and exited the cab. The hostel was interesting to say the least, we checked in dropped our bags and went out to explore Athens while we still had some day light left. We were able to see a few of the ancient ruins and hike up to see an amazing view of the city. 

After that we headed to dinner, which was by far the best food I’ve had since I’ve been in Europe. We had Greek salad, and gyros. I can’t think of a dinner more suitable to have while in Greece.

After dinner we explored some more and found a pretty hoppin’ part of the city filled with shops and loads of people, we walked around for hours and ended our night with a few drinks.

Side note…. Athens may very well be the dirtiest city I have ever been to in my life.

Anyway, upon arriving back to the hostel we were greeted by a stray cat in the lobby, which proceeded to follow us to our room. Tiffany distracted the cat while I ran in the room and she eventually snuck in as well, the cat spent the remainder of the night meowing outside our door. Sunday, morning finally came and we were headed back to London bright and early…6am! We got to the airport with no complications and our flight was perfect.

Although my experience in Greece was not what I had anticipated I had an awesome time. I definitely will be back to Mykonos one day while its in season of course because it really is just a sight to be seen. Although the trip was a bit of a mess and all over the place, I wouldn’t trade the memories I made there for anything.