The Amazing Race: Greece - Part 2 (Athens)

Our flight to Athens from Santorini was definitely the shortest flight I've ever been on... 25 minutes! We landed pretty late, at 9:00pm (or 21:00 as it is called over here), so we found our way to our hotel, and grabbed gyros for dinner.

We only had a short time in Athens, so this is really where our Amazing Race began. Karen originally had this idea to climb Philopappou Hill in the morning to watch the sunrise, but when we woke up, it was really dark out and we were too scared to walk by ourselves. Our hotel concierge had told us that although the Hill was a great attraction during the day, it was filled with thieves and overall bad people at night.

We decided to skip that, and head to the 2004 Athens Olympic stadium instead. Of course we couldn't end up finding it, and since we were short on time, we decided to scrap that idea as well, and just make our way over to Acropolis. On our way there, we stumbled across Hadrian's Arch, and the Temple of Zeus.

Hadrian's Arch

Temple of Zeus

We got into the Parthenon for free since we had our EU student cards, and made our way up the steps to the top. There were a ridiculous amount of stray dogs there! They were like the equivalent of squirrels in Ontario. I didn't mind it too much since I love dogs, but Karen was just not having it (she hates them). We saw a photographer taking epic shots of a group of guys. We pretended that they were a famous boyband. (They probably aren't.)

A dog just chillin in the middle of the road

At this point, we had not really started exploring the Acropolis yet, yet we were already an hour behind schedule, and were supposed to be at the airport in 35 minutes. Needless to say, we rushed through everything. It was literally "Oh wow that's soo pretty!" *take photo* *run to next monument*

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The Parthenon

By the time we finished, the Acropolis had filled up with crowds of people. We were so lucky there weren't as many people around when we were running about, otherwise things would've been even harder. We found ourselves the nearest metro station, and waited for the next metro. In the 3 minutes we sat there, we contemplated whether taking the metro would be faster (approx 45 mins), or whether we should just find a cab. At this point, it was already 20 minutes until gate closing, yet we were still nowhere near the airport. We opted for the latter, and ran out to hail a cab. We ended up finding a taxi driver who was seriously a lifesaver. Although it was rush hour, he managed to get us onto the highway, and then started driving 150 on a 70 road. His driving was so crazy, weaving in and out of lanes but I was grateful that he understood our need for speed. However, by this time I had already given up and accepted the fact that we were not going to get onto that plane. There was no way. He managed to get us to the airport 15 minutes before the flight was schedule to depart, so we gave him a huge tip, hopped out of the car, and literally began running through the airport to get to security/our gate. I'm pretty sure I almost knocked down a woman but I only had time to shout "Sorry!" and continued sprinting through the airport. When we got to security, the lines weren't too long, but of course with my bad luck, I got both my body and bag searched. Just typical, right? We then ran to our gate, which of course was at the opposite end of the building. 

Somehow, by some miracle, we actually made our plane. There was a woman at the gate before us, trying to board. Thank goodness for this woman! Had she not been there, our flight could very well have just left. We were sweating buckets and out of breath, but we got onto the plane and found ourselves seats as we tried to regain our composure.

Overall, I'm going to say Athens didn't really live up to my expectations. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I had not expected it to be so... urbanized. I was expecting more Greek columns and old buildings, but aside from the Acropolis, there wasn't much of that. We also didn't get to explore the Plaka markets which was something I was looking forward to. Maybe this just calls for another trip to Athens, one where I have more time, so that I can better explore the city and give it another chance.

When we got back to Paris, since we had flown into Orly airport, we decided to stop by Ladurée and have tea.

The Amazing Race: Greece - Part 1 (Santorini)

Let me first say this post is LONG overdue. It has been a month and a half since I went to Greece (Oct 20-22), yet I'm only finally putting up a blog post now. I have been doing so much travelling that I haven't had time to catch up on all this. I was even behind on putting up albums on Facebook, and usually I am on my A-game when it comes to that! However, I figured I better catch up on all my posts before I fly back to Canada, so without further ado...

Greece was easily one of my most anticipated trips-- Santorini, to be specific... and it did not disappoint. Let me just say though, this whole trip was also one that involved a lot of running, especially through airports. Getting to the airport from our apartment was a hassle in itself. When we got into the taxi, the meter was already at 20 euros (Note: this is common in France, they tend to include the cost of the meter when the taxi leaves the stand until it gets to your location). This did not sit well with us. We tried arguing with the taxi driver, in french no less, since we did not want to pay the extra 20€ we had never incurred before. Long story short, after a series of unfortunate events, we did end up paying him the 60 something euros, and had to run through the airport to catch our flight. 

Our first stop was Santorini, which is absolutely breathtaking. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. When we first got there, our hotel was closed for a 3 hour break, so we just went off on our own to explore Firostefani, which was where we were staying. The place was pretty deserted with many of the little shops closed, which we later found out was because tourist season had ended the weekend before. Part of me liked the fact that we were one of the few handfuls of people on the island... It just made it that much more peaceful and "our own". We then decided to grab lunch at the only restaurant that was really open.

Santorini Salad

Greek salad

Honey covered jelly dessert

After lunch, we went to explore some more and snap some photos. We ended up meeting this little Japanese woman who asked us to help her take a photo, and who we literally saw everywhere after that. She couldn't really speak English so the whole time she was just speaking Japanese to us as if we understood the language, with the exception of the occasional "shutter, shutter" to tell us to take a picture.

Our new Japanese friend! (She did the peace sign in every photo)

We then began our cliffside walk to Oia to watch the sunset. On the way there, an old man and his dog approached me and began to mutter a few Greek words at me. I politely told him I didn't speak Greek, and that was when I realized that both his dog and he had blue paint all over themselves. The man began to touch my face and say something else I couldn't comprehend. I backed away from him, towards the wall, when suddenly I saw him lift his cane and before I knew what was happening, he was hitting me on the head with it. I was completely in shock, and could not believe what had just happened. Karen was next to me, just as in shock. Luckily, a group of French travellers came up around the bend and had saw what happened, and proceeded to shout at the man to stop, and told us to "Allez-y" (to run away). Karen and I just ran for it, and the man's dog began to follow us. We were so scared the dog would attack us, but the next time we turned around, it was gone. "What the hell was that. Did that really just happen?" was all I could say, over and over. Even now, I still can't believe I got hit on the head with a cane by a crazed man in Greece. Who does that?! 

After that terrible incident, we continued with our journey to Oia. We hopped onto the bus that would take us there, but the sun had already begun setting. The bus had to stop occasionally to let cars coming from the other side pass, as the roads in Santorini were so small and narrow that two cars couldn't pass at the same time. Eventually we made it to Oia, where we ran to find the best spot to catch the rest of the sunset. It was a race against the sun! (Haha, lame I know) We managed to get there in time, as the sun cast a pinkish orange glow onto the section of buildings we were standing on. A sunset in Oia is definitely a must do; it's one of the most beautiful sunsets you will ever see. 

Running down any path that would take us to the sea

Two stray dogs bullying a cat who decided to hide behind the segways

After the sun set, it was completely dark. There are few lights in Santorini, so we found a restaurant where we grabbed a gyro plate and wine to go, and hopped onto our bus back to Firostefani. We made our way through the dark roads until we got back to our hotel, where we checked in, and proceeded to have dinner and watch the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (it was only fitting!) on our terrace which overlooked the sea. The view from the terrace was unbelievable, you could see the illuminated houses and buildings on the coast of Fira, and thousands of stars if you looked up into the sky. 

The next day, we woke up nice and early to watch the sunrise. It was completely freezing out, but we stood outside for a good 40 minutes waiting for/watching the sun rise. It was so pretty! 

We then headed back to our hotel to have breakfast on our terrace, where the view was, again, amazing. After breakfast, we walked to Fira and took the cable car down to the port, where we boarded the boat cruise we had bought tickets for the previous day. 

Our pirate ship

Our first stop was Nea Kameni, a volcanic island which was mainly dormant with the exception of one volcano. We had not expected the hike to be so rocky and steep, so we were really struggling with walking with our sandals, and backpacks on our back. To be honest, the whole volcano just reminded me of a landfill. We did make it to the top though, because we are troopers like that. 

Casual hairflip on a volcano..

Our next stop was a hot spring, where the water in that particular spot was approximately 23°C. We had not brought our bathing suits so we stayed onboard the ship and lounged around. 

You can call me.. El capitan

When we got back to the port, it began to rain. It seems like rain just follows us wherever we go... Typical. To get back up to Fira, we did one of our most anticipated things for this trip.... We rode a donkey. The donkeys had to climb up 594 steps, and at a few points during the journey I really thought I was going to fall off mine. My donkey kept slipping on the steps since they were still a little wet from the rain. Donkey themselves are pretty dirty creatures. There were flies and poop everywhere, the donkey in front of me kept passing gas, and my donkey even stopped on the steps to poop at one point. However all of these things did not stop my donkey ride from being one of the best parts of my trip. Even though it was just 15-20 minutes, it was super fun and now I cannottt wait for the camel trek I will be going on during my trip to Morocco (2 hours on a camel? Hellsyes!)

Once we got back into Fira, we perused through some souvenir shops and bought each other Evil Eye bracelets as a souvenir (Note: You are not supposed to buy these bracelets for yourself as that is bad luck. Always buy them for someone else, or if you really want one, get a friend to buy it for you). The woman who worked as the cashier was eating something that looked really delicious so we asked her what is was. She told us it was from her sister's restaurant just down the street, and told us that if we were to eat there, to find her sister and tell her that she had sent us there. We ended up going to this restaurant, which was called "The Greeks", and we got a 10% discount for being "friends" of her sister. 

The dish we ordered that wasn't on the menu

Greek froyo!

After lunch, we headed to Santos Winery where we did a wine tasting. We each had 6 wines which were all delicious (with the exception of one of the reds... I still have not grown to like red yet!).

We started with 2 whites, 1 rosé, 1 red, another white, & ended with a Vinsanto dessert wine

We then headed to the airport for our next flight to our next stop, Athens! Santorini is definitely one of my favourite places; I will definitely be back!