Hello friends! Long time no blog!
First, I’d like to say that I do not regret not writing our weekly blog while in Greece. I was too busy enjoying our time there and totally off schedule to remember to have it done by 5pm Eastern Time. So, to make up for lost time, this blog will be all things Greece! Our favorite places, where we went, where we stayed, restaurants we loved, activities we loved, and more. We’ll include the places we’d like to return to and the places we wouldn’t, as well as what we learned throughout this trip and why it was SUCH an adventure.
We took a train from Norfolk to NYC, and then had a direct flight from JFK into Athens. We only stayed one night in Athens before taking a train to Thessaloniki.
Thessaloniki was a place that we’d researched and read about while trying to see what place is the most expat friendly. The train up was incredible. We saw so much of the Greek countryside. Thessaloniki itself was very cool. It had much more city vibes than we expected, and less cool/chill/cute town-esque. We found some cute spots, like a pedestrian only area where there were nothing but restaurants and shops until you got to the waterside. Now that was our kind of place.
Rule #1: If you’re walking almost everywhere, stay near the pedestrian only streets! There are not a ton of well maintained sidewalks in a lot of the areas we visited, so we loved it when we found these pedestrian spaces.
After Thessaloniki, we ventured back to Athens, to the port of Piraeus, and took a ferry to Sifnos.
Sifnos, my friends, was my favorite place. We arrived by ferry and as the departure ramp was descending we saw blue water, white houses, and mountains. We knew immediately that this was somewhere we could stay for a long time.
What I thought would be a long walk to our hotel ended up being no more than 10 minutes, and that was with time to be confused about where we were going. We arrived at Hotel Afrodite 3 hours earlier than our check-in time and the man at the front kindly let us into our room immediately. There was water already stocked for us in the minifridge, the balcony was open so we had a beautiful breeze coming in, and our room number was 13. If you know me, you know this was a good sign. 13 is my favorite number, as well as my mom’s who was born on the 13th. So naturally, being in room #13 was just another good sign.
From our hotel, you could walk onto the beach and then take a beach walk to the main strip where all of the shops and restaurants were. The nice thing about Sifnos was that it wasn’t incredibly touristy. I mean, there were tourists there, but not an overwhelming amount, and it never felt like a place that was huge for tourist attractions. I think most people arrive in Kamares (the port) and then travel to other areas of the island, but we loved this little port town. The people were kind, the food was INCREDIBLE, and the prices were reasonable. We LOVED Sifnos.
On the last full day there, we rented a scooter and Steve drove us all over that little island. It was absolutely nuts how beautiful the scenery was and how tasty every meal we ate was. This is a place that I would love to return to someday.
One of our longer stays was supposed to be in Patras, near the end of our trip. Patras is on the mainland and supposed to be very expat friendly, but after Thessaloniki and then loving our little island stay on Sifnos so much, we canceled the Patras trip and decided to stay in the islands longer! We’d already booked the ferries from Piraeus➡️Sifnos, Sifnos➡️Santorini, and Santorini➡️Piraeus. Luckily, there’s such a thing as an “open ticket” that we were able to get to return back to Piraeus, which made things a lot easier!
Rule #2: Be ready to change your plans. When traveling somewhere you don’t know a lot about, you’ll quickly learn once you’re there what you don’t want or what is and isn’t your vibe. We learned, and we pivoted, and everything worked out accordingly!
From Sifnos we took a ferry to Santorini. On maps, and when I was planning stays, the long ferry trip and the bus up the mountain looked like we would be exhausted by the end of that day so I booked a hotel for the first night at the top of the port. Well, we could’ve easily just hopped on another bus and made it to a better area.
Rule #3: Research the public transportation that is available to you before you go. It’s not that hard doing it on a whim, but it will give you a lot more peace of mind and a lot less anxiety if you have a little bit of knowledge about it beforehand.
The next day we walked 2 miles to our next stay. Keep in mind we traveled light: one backpack each with one personal item that we traded off while walking. It was a HIKE. We even walked to the top of some castle and took in the view of basically the whole island while we took a break. Then we walked down the mountain to our stay, Afoura Houses. Now this place was cute. It was supposedly an old winery that they’d turned into little apartments and they were adorable. Our view was absolutely incredible for sunrises and so cozy.
While here, we hiked back up the mountain for dinner and ate incredible food. They gave us grappa, which is alcohol made from grape leaves, and then dessert after dinner for free! (This is very common in Greece. They like to give you free samples of things like alcohol, dessert, etc.) We even met another couple that we ended up hanging out with the next night. Making friends in a different country who are also from a different country is so fun.
We also found a place for lunch the next day that was all locally sourced food that was made daily by the mother of the two men that were running the place. They were so kind, and the food was INCREDIBLE. I realize I keep saying “incredible”, but it’s true!
We decided to stay in Kamari for our time that we would originally have been in Patras. We stayed in Agiris Studios, which we loved because it had a two burner hotplate for us to cook, a fridge, a sink, and free coffee in the mornings!
While in Kamari we hiked up to Ancient Thera and it was so cool. Getting to see the ruins of an ancient civilization was beautiful and interesting and everything you can imagine it would be. We then took a bus to Fira to take a boat over to the volcano! Fira was much more of the touristy area of Santorini, but it was still beautiful. However, the boat ride over to the volcano, the swim in the hot springs, and the hike around the volcano was incredible. Only pictures will do it justice.
One thing my dad mentioned about his time in Greece was that when he went to Santorini, the donkeys carried them up the mountain. Apparently that was the only way up. They now have gondolas, which we took down to the boat, but Steve really wanted to take the donkeys up. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but we both did it.
Rule #4: If you don’t feel comfortable doing it, don’t.
Rule #5: If someone else wants to, let them.
We didn’t love it. It was fun at first, but then you just feel sad for the donkey. Afterward, neither Steve or I would recommend it.
Moving on…
Kamari was beautiful and much more of a touristy beach with sunbeds at every restaurant that you had to order some time to pay for. Luckily for us, we found sunbeds (without cushions) that no restaurant owned so we almost always chose those.
We took the ferry back to Piraeus and then a train to Athens and made it to our next-to-last stay. We got to experience Athens, which, once we found the pedestrian only streets, was very cool. We walked around the Parthenon, and could even see it from our balcony! We found some goodies in the flea market and ate some yummy food. It was a short stay, but a fun one.
The only bad thing that happened was we got jipped by a taxi driver. But, ya live and learn.
Rule #6: Always pay taxis first, before you get in the car.
We traveled to our last stay, Villa Vravrona, which was incredibly cute. We rented a car (because it was easier that way) and traveled from there to the Villa. It was already stocked with breakfast materials when we got there, and they even had a restaurant on site! They recommended a good place by the waterfront for lunch, and we had dinner at their restaurant.
We then flew back to JFK, stayed a night in NY, and took the train home the next day. We drove again to go pick up Buoy, and now we’re back! We’re no longer jetlagged, and we’re back to work and on a normal schedule again. All-in-all, life is good and our trip was amazing.
Obviously, we had quite the adventure and learned a lot. Luckily, we got to do it together and man- what a wild ride!
Until next time – Cheers friends!
Skye
Mentally Sailing 