Greece

Saturday 6th August 2016:

Forever slaves to the early morning/late night discounted flight prices, we once again woke early on Saturday morning to set off to Stansted Airport. We were working with a pretty tight schedule – we had to make it onto either the very first or second tube of the day or else risked not making it in time.

We scraped through and arrived at the airport but were instead greeted by huge queues at the check in desks. On any other occasion this wouldn’t have been a problem, but since we would be away for a total of ten days we had checked baggage instead of our usual carry on. After lining up and waiting in the correct area, and then moving to a different (wrong) area to try and speed up the process, we did eventually get our luggage, and selves, checked in and onto the plane.

We arrived in Athens where it was hot, hot, hot! We wandered through the streets to locate our hotel in the Psiri district, an area that seems to be in the midst of gentrification. Nearly every possible surface was heavily grafittied, there were many abandoned shops mixed in amongst other old and some shiny new ones. Grungy bordering on ghetto. Given the overall appearance of the neighbourhood, we weren’t expecting much from our hotel but were pleasantly surprised.

We checked in at the modern and well-equipped Arion Hotel, left our bags and then headed down the street in search of lunch. Under a canopy of vines covering the street below, we discovered the restaurant Aischilou Grillhouse. Even though there were very few people here, the place had a good feel about it. The vines overhead, the tables and chairs set up on the street, it all felt pretty authentic.

After filling up we continued down the hill to the central square and flea markets in the adjacent Monastiraki district. In the background, the Acropolis sits high on the hill overlooking the area.

Later we returned to the hotel and headed up to check out the roof terrace. The view from up here to the Acropolis was actually the best of anywhere we went during our entire time in Athens! We also met the rest of the group we would be travelling with, and were then led by our stand-in guide, Aris, to dinner.

On Sunday morning, Aris led us on a walking tour of the city. The first sight to behold was the Changing of the Guard (Evzones as they are known in Greek) ceremony outside the Greek Parliament building, which is only held at 11am on Sundays. We followed the Evzones as they marched up the side of the Parliament building back to their military base, and then continued down the side of the 40 acre National Garden, past the Presidential Mansion.

Onwards we headed to the Panathenaic Stadium, which was the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

We also passed by the Zappeion, ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch.

At the end of the tour, Aris took us into a café for our first experience with the sugary and caffeine goodness of a Greek Iced Coffee, followed by the cheap and always cheerful gyro. Gyros, pronounced with a silent ‘g’, are kind of like a doner kebab and were available in most places for around €2.50.

Next, we climbed to the top of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is actually an ancient citadel situated on a rocky outcrop high above the city and contains the remnants of several historic buildings, the most iconic being the Parthenon.

After having climbed the hill in sweltering heat and paying the €20 entry fee, the unfortunate reality you’re faced with on reaching this UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a construction zone. The current restoration works have been on-going since the 1970’s. While impressive nonetheless, parts of the iconic Parthenon were shrouded in scaffolding and cranes. This makes the structures amazing to see up close, but far more photogenic from afar.

We were given an early wakeup call on Monday, and then set off for the ferry to Mykonos with our actual guide, Kostas. The group of islands that we would be travelling between throughout our time away is known as the Cyclades.

The scenery was a little different to what we expected – very rugged and dry, not lush and tropical like we’d imagined. Kostas did say that the southern part of the island is home to many famous, white sandy beaches. Apparently there are plenty of celebrities that frequent Mykonos, Kostas said he had seen Leonardo DiCaprio only recently.

Alex Hotel is sat on a hill at the end of a winding and narrow laneway, where the shuttle bus didn’t dare venture. Being set into the side of the hill, the hotel is built in a terraced formation with no lift – luckily for us our room was on the first floor. We also found that there are more cats than people at this establishment.

Kostas taught us that on each of these smaller islands the main town centre is known as ‘Chora’. And into Chora we went, strolling through the narrow streets with their painted stone floors. The Paraportiani Church is apparently the most photographed church in all of Greece.

In the Little Venice area, buildings are constructed right on the water’s edge with balconies overhanging the sea. The Mykonos windmills sit in a raised position, with great views down across the rest of the Chora.  

We spent Tuesday at the Tropicana beach club at Paradise Beach, one of the famed white sandy beaches. The roads that the bus takes to reach this part of the island are narrow and winding, lined with charming low stone walls. Although Kostas forewarned us, we did find Mykonos to be quite pricey – it seemed we were at the ATM withdrawing money twice a day.

It was onto Santorini on Wednesday. Santorini today is a circular archipelago, however historically it was one large island prior to a volcanic eruption. Prior to reaching the port by ferry Kostas pointed out two of the smaller islands, one of them comprised of pumice stone and the other being the volcano.

The main port of Santorini is at the bottom of what is almost a cliff face and the narrow road zig zags to the top. In 2007, the cruise liner MS Sea Princess ran aground on a volcanic reef beneath the sea and sank where it remains today, marked by a circle of floating bouys.

Prior to our arrival at the New Haroula Hotel, where Kostas had warned us that the hostess was very particular about the furniture in the lobby. Don’t let the bags hit anything and don’t touch anything. On our arrival we couldn’t see any items that were particularly nice but still made sure to stay away.

We weren’t able to check in straight away because the rooms weren’t ready yet (a frustratingly common occurrence throughout Greece it seemed), so left our bags and followed Kostas up the street for a wander around the main town centre of Fira, the capital of the island.

Thursday marked Roslyn’s birthday, a day that we spent out riding quad bikes across the island, enjoying the toasty weather. In order to hire a quad bike, which they ride on the streets like any other vehicle, you need to hold a valid drivers license. Ironically though, the rental office that we hired from insists that they hold onto your license as a security deposit.

First up we rode to the top of a hill, where the Monastery of Profitis Ilias is. Although the bikes are capable of hurtling along at 30 kph (so we were told, there was no speedo to verify), once you point it at a hill the motor becomes even more whiney than normal, as it struggles to lug the weight of itself and it’s human cargo uphill. This is the highest point in Santorini, and despite the less scenic military base and radio towers, the views across the island are impressive.

Next we set off to the beachside village of Kamari. Riding around in the sun, we had become quite hot and so our first port of call was a dip in the ocean. The volcanic black sandy beach is visually perplexing and until we stepped onto it we had no idea of the amount of heat that it holds. Woah! The thongs went back on and we held onto them in the water.

After a cool off and some lunch, we were back to the bikes. It was here that we first heard the Greek swear word ‘malaka’ used as security guards tried to chase one of the guys on our tour that was doing doughnuts in the gravel. We rode on up to Santo Wines Winery (the actual name, tautology and all) which sits atop the cliff above the port.

Next we were onto the longest stretch of ride. We departed Santo bound for the iconic village of Oia, a distance that Kostas estimated to take around 45 minutes. Oia is pretty much a postcard perfect town with white stucco buildings perched on clifftops and blue domed churches. Although the other areas of Santorini had their own advantages, it is images of Oia that seem to most dominate the world of tourism marketing. 

Most of the buildings in Oia are built into the rock. With nowhere else to go, property owners must excavate deeper into the rock if they wish to extend. Donkeys are used to cart cargo up to the village from the port beneath.

Oia is famed for its magnificent sunsets, and thanks to Kostas our group secured a prime spot at Lioyerma Lounge Cafe Pool Bar.

After the sunset, Kostas promptly hurried us back towards the rental office and hotel in Fira. It was not without incident though. Not too far from town, the bike immediately in front of us died suddenly on a steep uphill with the hang-on passenger leaping off and waving at us in a panic. The look on her face was priceless, and we did all laugh about it later on. As Kostas went back to sort out the problem with that bike and the rest of us didn’t know the way back, we stopped on the side of the road and waited. At that point the second bike in the group decided it had had enough.

Of everywhere we went, Santorini featured the most number of visual reminders of Greece’s financial woes. There was a staggering amount of partially complete building sites scattered across the island, most of them appearing to have been abandoned long ago.

On Friday we were once again loaded onto a bus and whisked away down the zig zag road to the port, setting off for what is generally regarded as a party island, Ios. We were dropped at our accommodation, Homer’s Inn Hotel, and then Kostas took us all down to Mylopotas Beach for the afternoon. Mylopotas Beach is mainly comprised of beach clubs. On one side of the street are the outdoor clubs; all appointed with a very high end fit out including restaurants, bars, swimming pools and sun lounges, while across the street is their patch of beach and ocean.

During our night out in Ios it became obvious that most people here were Australian or Kiwi, both tourists and staff.

A small group of five of us joined Kostas on Saturday morning for a tour of the Chora. Climbing up the hill, we reached the scenic white stucco and blue domed church of Panagia Gremiotissa. Along this small strip of hill there are four churches, we continued on up the hill past another two, until we reached the end of the path at the third church. This high point above the Chora has a wonderful outlook of the surrounding area. 

At 2pm the entire group reconvened at Mylopotas Beach for an afternoon out on the water. Setting off in a speedboat from Meltemi Water Sports (a company that also seemed to be staffed by majority Australians), we were hastily taken out to go swimming in caves. Cutting through the waves at high speed, one of the girls on our tour who was English and said she had never been to the sea before, looked pale and nervous.

After swimming through the caves we went snorkeling above a shipwreck, and were then taken to an isolated beach for lunch.

Back to Mylopotas Beach, and we headed in to Far Out Beach Club where Roslyn found and danced with Ella, her Australian friend from London, who was also in Greece for a birthday holiday.

On the final evening of the tour, most people did their own thing. We were stood out the front of the hotel awaiting a bus into the Chora for dinner when Kostas spotted us and came along as well. We trusted and went along with his recommendation, although it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. He led us to a bar (that didn’t sell food) that the locals like to go to, and then said he would mind the table as we went off to get gyros. We ate our gyros and returned to find Kostas had purchased a jar of rakomelo to share with us. He said it was a Greek alcoholic drink, used to treat a sore throat or cough. Indeed, the strange flavour was a bit like liquefied Strepsils.

The end was near, as Sunday spelled our return to Athens. Initially we were supposed to board a ferry back to Athens at around 11am, but severe winds meant that no ships were coming into or leaving the port. There was talk that the winds being experienced on this day were the worst in eight years. Kostas kept watch on the online ferry tracker, but for most of the day it had not yet even departed Athens. From Athens, it would still take several hours to reach Ios.

We waited around all day, until we finally boarded the ferry at about 10pm. The seas were rough, waves crashed heavily and loudly against the side of the ferry; it was probably a good thing that in the darkness of night we couldn’t see what was outside.

After six hours aboard, we finally reached Athens at approximately 4am Monday. 12 hours behind our initial expected arrival, several people had to make for a frantic dash to the airport. By the time we reached the port in Athens, two girls who were travelling together had already missed their scheduled flight in addition to the one that followed. The rest of us lethargically boarded a shuttle bus to our hotel, where Kostas was very unceremoniously thanked and farewelled.

Fortunately with our flight departing at 4pm we didn’t have to rush, although our late arrival into Athens meant that we slept beyond the point of being able to go out and do much. Lunch, shopping for a souvenir and then it was off to the airport we went.

At the airport, this time we found the correct area to check into. Because we were unsure how heavy our luggage would be, we had left it unlocked to put on the scales. It came in at an acceptable weight and the lady behind the counter swiftly had it move along the conveyor belt. At this point, to the embarrassment of Roslyn, Brendan reached out in a panic and tried to grab the bag to prevent it from disappearing out of sight. Confused by the moment of terror, the check in clerk calmly reversed it back and the lock was attached. Crisis averted!

General highlights:

- Nearly didn’t even make it out of London
- Total of ten days away

- Explored the Cyclades group of islands, Athens – Mykonis – Santorini – Ios - Athens (Travel Talk Tours, 'Best of Greece'

- Amazing blue waters

- Arid landscape, not lush and tropical like we expected

Athens:

- Stayed in the Psiri district

- Ate under a canopy of vines covering the street

- Monastiraki Square

- Flea markets

- Roof terrace on the hotel had an amazing view

- Changing of the Guard ceremony

- Presidential Mansion

- Panathenaic Stadium

- Zappeion

- Temple of Olympian Zeus

- Hadrian’s Arch

- Had our first iced coffees and gyros

- Climbed to the top of the Acropolis

- Hottest weather of anywhere we went

Mykonos:

- Southern part of island home to famous white sandy beaches

- Roof top pool at hotel, plus cats galore

- Painted stone floors in the Chora

- Paraportiani Church

- Little Venice

- Mykonos windmills

- Tropicana beach club at Paradise Beach

- Narrow and winding roads lined with stone walls

Santorini:

- Santorini is a circular archipelago

- Lots of volcanic and pumice stone

- Steep road zig zaging the mountain from the port to the village

- Stayed in the main centre of Fira

- Day on quad bikes for Roslyn’s birthday

- Highest point in Santorini, Monastery of Profitis Ilias

- Kamari black sand beach

- Heard the first use of the word ‘malaka’

- Santo Wines Winery

- Postcard village of Oia

- Donkeys

- Sunset

- Bike break downs on the ride home

- Lots of incomplete buildings

Ios:

- Party island

- Lots of beach clubs

- Mylopotas Beach

- More Aussies/Kiwis than Greeks

- Panagia Gremiotissa church

- Climbed the hill above the Panagia Gremiotissa

- Speedboat ride

- Cave swimming

- Snorkelling over a shipwreck

- Isolated beach

- Roslyn danced with Ella

- Had an intimate dinner with Kostas, drank rakomelo

- Stuck on the island, unable to leave on the final day

- Six hour ferry ride back to Athens,  arrived 12 hours after expected