Stop #8: Athens, Mykonos & Santorini (Greece) 

I found Heaven... it's located in Santorini <3

We left Greece over a week ago, spent time in Kenya, and are now at the airport heading to Dubai.  It’s getting difficult to keep up with these blogs!  Our days are packed with things to see and do… but I really want to stay diligent about writing these blogs and posting the photos so that, not only can I share our experiences with you, but also so that I’ve well documented our trip around the world.  The last time I did a 3 month trip around the world (15 years ago), I wrote 10 pages per country… and I’m so happy that I did!  I wrote those pages by hand, and then by email.  These days, I get to create a cool travel website which is far more fun to share with family and friends 😊 Technology is great!

Anyhow, our trip throughout Greece was excellent!  Much better than Croatia, mainly for the fact that my wounds were healing and I wasn’t in so much pain anymore.  However, I still couldn’t use my right arm for the most part, and I wasn’t allowed to swim… what a tease when you’re visiting the Mediterranean.  We started our journey throughout Greece in Athens.  We got a great AirBnB that was located minutes from Acropolis – one of the greatest areas to see in Athens.  We spent the first evening when we got there exploring the area and checking out the views of Acropolis all lit up in the dark.  That’s one thing I suggest – you have to see the place during the day, as well as the night.  It’s beautiful!  Dinner was delicious and surprisingly cheap.  I always assumed that Greece was expensive, but actually, Athens is far cheaper than the man of the neighboring islands… so be sure to buy your souvenirs there 😊

The next day, we visited Acropolis and all the ancient sites.  It was quite amazing to see what people could build way back in the day! We were quite impressed with the structures, as well as the great views of the city.  But I do regret not getting a guide / walking tour, because we weren’t quite sure what we were looking at.  We knew some history of the place, but we would have learned a lot more if we had a guide.  If you ever come to visit this place, be sure to do a walking tour.  Travelling is the best Education <3  On the way back to the hotel, we checked out all the shops and picked out some souvenirs… unfortunately Lorenzo is not very interested in shopping so I had to “speed shop” and grab whatever I could during his short attention span lol.  I’m not the biggest shopper when I travel, but I do like to bring a few things home!  And that evening, we kinda got drunk.  The wine was so good, it wasn’t our fault!  Right below our AirBnB was a really good wine bar, which is where we started our evening.  Then next door was a classy restaurant that focused on pairing fine wines with fine food… and it was SO good!  The waiters were so animated and so nice, we were totally into it.  We ended up leaving the restaurant with two delicious bottles of wine that we wanted to bring with us to the islands.  It was a great way to end our last night Athens…

Athens: Excellent wine, as expected :)

The next morning, we took a ferry to Mykonos Island.  When I first planned our travels to Greece, I wasn’t totally sure which islands to visit (there are so many of them!).  But I heard that Mykonos is the “party place” and Santorini is the “most beautiful and romantic”… two things I’m interested in.  And the place I booked in Mykonos happened to be the biggest party resort on the whole island – Paradise Beach Resort.  I kind of knew this when I booked it, but I guess I underestimated it.  All day they played house music as people tanned nude on the beach and drank at the beach bars.  And all night, they played party music and danced alllll night long.  We spent the 1st day in the town center, where you see all the cute shops, restaurants and beautiful white buildings.  We also checked out “Little Venice”, which is something you should really see if you visit here. Lastly, we checked out those infamous windmills that you see on all the postcards – another thing you can’t miss 😊  And then… we spent the rest of the day, tanning and drinking on the beach while gazing out to the crystal clear turquoise water.  It was quite a bummer since I couldn’t swim yet!  But at least I had the view.

The next day we attempted to do something productive, but we failed and ended up spending the entire day on the beach again.  Why not??  We booked a hotel on one of the best beaches on the island, we wanted to enjoy it!  I don’t remember much of that day (besides the fact that it was incredibly fun), so I’ll just move along to the next day.  That next day we rented a car (a crappy, tiny little Smart Car that hardly worked), and checked out all the beaches around the entire island.  Almost every beach had a resort similar to ours (but not quite as crazy), or a restaurant to eat and lounge at.  They were all very beautiful, but the wind was way too strong to chill on one of the beaches.  The coolest place we saw was a resort that belonged to Lindsay Lohan… it was beautiful!  It was classier, prettier, and more chill than our place.  Next time, perhaps we will stay there.  The last stop before returning the car was to “Super Paradise Beach”, which was basically a knock off of Paradise Beach.  But I have to admit that they also had a very nice beach, and parties all day long.  It was enticing to stay for a while, but again, the wind was too strong to stay comfortably on any beach.  So, we eventually returned the car and went back to our place to enjoy a “fine” dinner at the beach club lol.

The next morning, we took a ferry to Santorini, and I can’t tell you how excited I was to go!  Mykonos was a lot of fun, but I was really looking forward to somewhere a bit more calm and romantic.  I’ve always heard great things about Santorini and couldn’t wait to see if they were true.  Unfortunately, we only booked two nights in Santorini, because it was really expensive.  I wanted to stay in the BEST area of Santorini – Oia – where they have the best views and sunsets on the entire island.  And I have to tell you that it was worth every single penny!!  Getting to our apartment was quite a journey – through narrow walkways and millions of stairs.  Luckily, we had a porter from the hotel agency to help us with our bags.  It was incredible how he was able to carry both our very heavy bags on one shoulder!  Definitely tipped that guy.

Our apartment was even better than expected, I was beaming with excitement.  We were on the side of the hill, with a clear view of the drop dead gorgeous ocean and sunset.  It was actually a “private sunset” location because they rope off the area so no one else is able to come by and block your view.  I guess that’s why our place was called “VIP Suites”!  I highly recommend this place to anyone who plans to stay in Santorini.  Anyhow, that first day, we walked all around Oia.  People pay a lot of money to visit this area, so we were so lucky to be in it.  The area has the cutest shops and restaurants, and the very best views.  We were very near the famous blue domes that you see in all the postcards from Santorini… it was just amazing!  Although Lorenzo wasn’t keen on shopping for souvenirs, he was ok with shopping for food.  So from a variety of small shops, we picked up olives, salami, bread, and a few other snacks that would go well with the wine we brought.  Our plan was to have a sunset drink at our place and enjoy the place we booked.  And it was an excellent plan!  I’m telling you, Lorenzo knows how to make a kitchen EVERYWHERE.  Whether we are at a hotel, AirBnB, apartment, etc, he knows to how to make a meal anywhere.  And he prepared the best platter of snacks, along with a nice bottle of wine.  Together, we enjoyed the most romantic, beautiful sunset on our private patio in Oia, Santorini <3

Wine + Oia Sunsets = Romance Heaven

If we had to end our trip there, I would have been satisfied.  But luckily, we had a couple more days to go.  The next day, we took a long hike down all those stairs, and a dirt path around part of the island.  We saw a little island the other day, where people were swimming to and jumping off a platform.  Of course, we had to go there!  And I’m so glad we did because it was one of my favorite memories from this trip 😊   The water was so beautiful and the water temperature was so perfect… I didn’t even care about my wounds anymore and decided to just jump in!  It was so worth it.  We swam to the other little island, where Lorenzo jumped off the platform several times.  He’s got some crazy dive moves I have to say (as you can see below).  I would have spent all day and evening in that spot, but we had to go back to the shops to pick up snacks again.  We wanted a repeat of the previous night, which turned out to be just as fantastic.  I hereby declare Santorini the most romantic place in the world!

The next morning, we packed up and took a bus to Fira – the other town you have to see in Santorini.  Again, there were lots of cute shops, where I was able to buy some very beautiful (and fairly inexpensive) opal jewelry… love it!  But our time was cut short because we had to head back to Oia, to catch a shuttle to the airport, to catch a flight to Athens, to catch a flight to Qatar, to catch a flight to Kenya.  We were definitely not looking forward to all the travelling, but we were very excited to check out our new destination!!

PHOTOS OF GREECE