Greece

We flew to Greece early one morning and arrived in Athens lapping up the warmth and keen to see the sites. As we got there after lunch we spent the first few hours wandering around the area Palaka. This part of the city is a shopping and restaurant area of town with lots of tourists and local intermixing. We just walked along taking in the atmosphere and loving the fact it was so warm.

While wandering we ran into this dog who had decided that the road was the coolest place around and managed to take up most of it! He was good entertainment though.

We had dinner at an café in one of the squares. All of the resurants have a small indoor eating area and large areas of tables on the street or in the middle of a square. It was a beautiful night and had a fantastic time eating a traditional meal of veal.

The next day we joined a walking tour of the city which took us to see all of the main monuments I have listed them below.

Temple of Zeus

Hadrian’s library

Panathinaiko European headquarters in Greece Parlament Changing of the guard

Syntagma square

Oldest Greek orthodox church in Greece

Market street

Acropolis view

We finished the tour at the Acropolis and went straight inside as we didn’t want to have to walk up the hill again. The Acropolis and Parthenon are pretty amazing and the view from the top is great. However we were a little uninspired by the Parthenon. After walking around we went back and ate lunch and decided it was too much work and went for a nap.

That night we went up to the rooftop bar which over looks the Acropolis and watched the sunset while drinking cheap vodka and pineapple juice and went out to dinner in the town.

We were flying out to the island of Santorini in the afternoon but we had most of the day to spend walking around Athens. We went to the Theatre of Dionysus in the morning which was pretty cool and then to the Ancient Agora which was one of my favorite places in Athens. They have restored the Stoa of Attalos and turned part of it into a museum it was really good to see a full building how the Greeks would have seen it. Scott went to the local gym and the Temple of Hephaistion which is the best preserved temple in Greece made it much easer to appreciate the size and structure of the Parthenon that we had seen the day before and made it seem much more impressive.

We went to get some lunch and do our final walk around the shops and headed back to the airport were we flew out to Santorini.

The next day was a relax, sleep, eat and swim day. We were staying near at Perissa near the Black Beach on the island and after waking up went for a walk along the sand. There was no one there yet and Scott decided it would be a great opportunity for some running on the sand (crazy man). So I had a beautiful stroll along the beach in the water and Scott ran. After breakfast a swim in the pool was called for and then we walked into town to get lunch. That was a slight mistake as the map showing where town was, no where near scale and gave the wrong impression of how long it was to get there. We eventually made it and found this great local bakery which had the best food and fresh Baklava which you cannot get in England and I love.

After lunch there was more swimming, eating and a nap involved before dinner. We then went for another walk along the beach to work off dinner.

We went for an early swim in the morning and packed up and headed over to Thira where we were going to stay for the rest of the trip. Went down to the port and waited for our lift to our hotel which took awhile however after we finally made it we spent the afternoon walking around Thira loved the place. We did a bit of shopping and sightseeing and went back to the hotel for our afternoon swim, nap before we headed out to watch a beautiful sunset.

We had planned a boat trip to take us to the volcano and Thirassia by boat the next day and set of early to catch the boat. Our first stop was the volcano. It was so hot and we both got a bit sun burnt but it was interesting to see. We then sailed to the an area where thermal water rises out of the ground into the sea. I jumped off the side of the boat into the water to have a swim and Scott thought it a good idea to stay on board.

We then sailed over to Thirassia and sat at the base of the hill drinking and eating while feeding the fish on the reef our bread. It was a really relaxing afternoon. On the way back to the boat I had a little accident and broke my jandles I didn’t think this would be a problem however when we got to Oia I soon discovered that it would be. To get to the town of Oia we had to climb the cliff this would have been fine however with a broken jandle and donkey poo everywhere it became a bit of a task. However without too much grumbling on my part hehe we made it to the top where the hunt was on for a new pair of jandles. After obtaining a pair we explored the town and as it was too ate ice cream overlooking the sea while waiting for sunset.

We went to pick our spot to sit to watch the sunset and decided on a beautiful restaurant which had a great view. So we sat there and ate a lovely dinner while watching the sun set.

After a late start we headed to the airport and said goodbye to Santorini and headed back to London. We definitely want to go back to another island one day as it was a great relaxing holiday.