BUONGIORNO!! We have finally arrived in Italy! It took a train, a plane, a bus, another train and then another bus..and then a walk.. but we finally arrived at our destination of camp Jolly just off the Venice island..yes, we have a pool. Coooooool!
Anyway, Greece was indescribable.. literally, I just tried to think of some of the words I would use to describe it but none of the usual describing words really fit. We loved it. From the black beach of Santorini to the mountain ranges of Delphi. . Were we the only ones completely unaware of how crazy and beautiful the mountains are in Greece once you head in land??
Santorini was lovely, it's sort of exactly what you expect because it's so famous but then nothing like you expect all at the same time. There are no beautiful beaches with white sand, there is the black beach, and the red beach. And they are as they are named. . Red and black rocks! We were lucky that we booked so last minute, it seems that on booking.com, or maybe just in Greece, if the rooms aren't booked by a certain time the prices drop, so we got to stay in a lovely family owned hotel/resort/villa kinda place, a 2 minute walk to the beach and restaurants, 1 minute walk to our favorite 24 hour bakery and a 30 second walk to the pool, all for the price of a decent hostel. Heaven! We stayed in Perissa which is the black beach, south of the island. Then there is Fira, the capital of Santorini and then there is the city that you all know by photos, Oia! We stayed away from them as we read they are covered in tourists and what we hate most, tourist traps!! Dum dum daaaaa! It was one of our best decisions yet. Perissa we got to eat dinners on the beach, relax by our pool and walk around and not be harassed by said tourist trap trappists. We hired a quad bike for 2 days and roamed around the island and visited the other cities of course. . Then went home to our lovely quiet town.
On our last night we did what all tourists do. Literally. Every. Single. Tourist on the island was there. We watched the sunset from Oia. And beautiful as it was, having 10 people breathing down my neck and taking photos over my head was not as romantic as the photos make it out to be. They definitely took advantage of being behind a short person!anyway, we rode home that night, got lost.. I'm not blaming Tom. .. but I was focusing on the driving. .. just saying.
We caught the ferry to Naxos next. We did a lot of research into which other island we would do and decided on the road less traveled. Naxos is the biggest of the Cyclades, still very untouched with lots of local produce, family run tavernas and not completely overpopulated with tourists. We stayed in another nice family run resort, even closer to the beach than the last. However, this beach we swam in!! It was beaaaaautiful! The clearest water I think I've ever swam in! Most of our days in Naxos were spent on the beach, by the pool, eating our buffet breakfast, drinking wine, eating dinner on the beach and not a lot else. We ventured into Naxos Town, we stayed in Agios Prokopios (must check spelling. ..) another small town out of the main town and yet another excellent choice. We hired a bike for another 3 days there, as Naxos is really big, we drove inland one day and just visited small towns that had a whole lot of nothing there but enjoyed the views all the same.
In Naxos we ate too much food which we are still recovering from. I haven't been able to eat large pieces of meat since, which for those who know how much I love a piece of rare steak, it's big..and bad. I blame the little Greek lady who served me too much delicious pork one lunch time.
Next up, we caught a ferry to the mainland and a train into Athens! We just stayed the night before we headed off onto our 2 day tour to Delphi and Meteora! Meteora, is where 20 monasteries were built by monks centuries and centuries ago, on the top of these gigantic rocks! It was a bucket list item, so we booked the tour and were amazed! We were dealt an absolute twit of a tour guide to Delphi.. which was a little disappointing, but we moved on and tried to block out her shit talk. The drive to Delphi was nothing like I expected. . In fact, I'm not even sure I knew what to expect, but Greece is filled with mountains! Big Green mountains that have winding roads all up and down them, that we took! It was truly a drive I won't forget. We stopped in at the archeological site of the Greek god Apollo, see pictures 😊 then we drove onto Meteora where we stayed the night in a lovely hotel with buffet dinner and breakfast. . These things are way more exciting when you've been traveling for so long. . Although a home cooked meal would be better!
Meteora the next day was simply breath taking! The photos I've taken don't really do it justice, so if you think the photos are cool. . Just times the coolness by about 100000 and that's how awesome it was! We visited two monasteries which were a little heavy in religion information, but all the same we loved it! Then it was a 4 hour trip back to Athens. We stopped at the site where the Romans attempted to take on the Persians with only 300 men (for all of you 300 *the movie* lovers), then we hit Athens and hit bed!
Athens. We had very little expectations for this city, as we were yet to hear someone speak highly of it. Thanks to all of you, we lowered our expectations, and athens exceeded them all! It's a little grungy and touristy. .but you just can't say a town is bad when it has lovely Greek people everywhere!! And good food! We hit up the acropolis and Agora, ate lots of Greek food and that brings us to now.
But all up, we loved Greece. It's shooting up to the top of the list for favorite country so far!
Hope everyone's well, and not too cold at home. Mwahaha
