Opa Efcharistó: Summer Trip to Greece
Summer trips are the best. Everything in your city likely slows down a bit, kids are out of school so traffic isn’t traumatic and at this point in the year you’ve probably got some decent time-off racked up.
Travel secrets: my favorite way to go about planning said summer trip is to think of places you and a friend (or friends, but never more than three people) want to go that you’ve never been before. Make a list of those places, then compare costs for plane tickets and hotel stays separately, then as packages and lastly, travel time. If you’re taking say a week for the trip, you don’t want to be on a plane for three of those days. Whichever equation is cheapest, that’s the one you go with.
The flight we strategically selected for the trip to Greece included a 12-hour layover in Paris. Causal, right? Only a few hiccups here: we flew out of Houston since it’s between San Antonio and Dallas where we live, respectively. Never doing that again. I had to take a Megabus from San Antonio to Houston, an Uber from the bus stop to the airport and wait for takeoff in the less than remarkable AirFrance terminal. Not convenient, not in the least.
So, Paris: first time for my travel buddy, second time for me. I reached out to one of the amazing locals I met on my solo trip to ask if we could stash our things at his apartment while we explored Montmarte. Meeting new friends abroad is a beautiful thing. We were able to safely stash our bags and head out into the world. Paris is a delight- specifically this area- for me at least. We ate, we drank, we ate some more, experienced some excellent people-watching, wandered into the fashion district and…you guessed it, ate and drank some more. Then it hit us: jet lag. Like a ton of bricks. We still had three hours left on our layover. Another cappuccino, please?
The impending feeling of our bodies wanting to shut down continued at the airport, and of course, we were delayed, but we stuck through. How much can we really complain, anyway? We’re delayed for our connecting flight to Greece in Paris. Even so, the struggle was real.
The first part of our Greece experience was spent in Athens. We arrived in the wee hours and after our adrenaline finally died down, off to sleep we went. In the morning we had a delightful breakfast and set off to decide what in the world we were going to do with our day. Luckily, the hotel was right above the train station and we were able to quickly ride into town. Cobblestone roads, bustling sidestreets and amazing gelato. I mean AMAZING.
The next stop was Santorini. A shuttle, not so relaxing boat ride and second shuttle later, we were at our AirBnB, Casa Bu. It was the perfect apartment with amazing hosts, separate bedrooms and TVs that helped us ease into sleep. While there, we went on an escapade into town (Thira), had an amazing dinner overlooking the ocean, tried the fish on your feet thing (SO. WEIRD.) and had Irish coffee at 11pm, as one does. Next stop: Mykonos.
Another day, another shuttle, another ship and we were in Mykonos. Everyone kept telling us we should have organized our trip the other way- Mykonos first for the partying, then Santorini for the relaxation. Truth be told, Mykonos was super chill and we were able to be way lazier there than in Santorini. While on the island, we laid on the beach all day with food and drinks being delivered to our cabana and got ourselves into some water sports. The “sofa” was recommended to us, which we anticipated would be a leisurely ride, but no, that was absolutely not the case. The boat took us out and after a few short seconds it started whipping side to side and we were holding on for dear life. It was a blast and as an added bonus, there was a professional photographer on the boat documenting our torment, I mean joyful laughter. For a mere 20 euros, the pictures were airdropped to our phones.
The next day, it was time to head back to Athens for the final leg of the trip. We added two days on the end to try and reset ourselves for the trip home after running ourselves ragged with shuttles and boats and so, so much walking…so many stairs. Initially, we planned on staying in the same hotel at the end that we stayed in at the beginning, but they were not very accommodating and even tried to charge us extra for their own foolishness. That’s a whole other story though.
Anyways, we ended up booking a snazzy hotel through Marriott that was in what seemed to be more of a suburb of Athens, a little farther out and very Americanized, but it had all of the amenities we could ask for and was just a short walk to the train. Best sushi I’ve ever had, I had it in Kifissia, Greece.
On the last day in Greece, while we were in central Athens, after climbing the Acropolis (if you go wear comfortable shoes, it is truly a climb and thoroughly exhausting), I’m assuming after we had lunch, I lost my wallet. Didn’t realize it until we were headed to said sushi dinner at the hotel, but my wallet was gone and the wifi (or secure apps, rather) wouldn’t allow me to connect to my accounts to freeze any cards. Luckily, I had my driver’s license and passport, but all of my cards…gone.
That night, we stayed up way too late, until around 1am and getting up to leave the hotel at 4am for our flight was beyond painful but we made it. I was finally able to freeze my cards at the end of the first leg of our journey back home, standing in the airport in Paris.
Things I learned/were reinforced on this trip:
Get Global Entry, it will make your life easier
Don’t check a bag, just travel lighter and consider bringing detergent to handwash your threads for reuse
If you’re traveling with others, carve out some time to be apart so no one gets on anyone’s nerves or has to hear you poop
Don’t try to do a million things on one trip, especially if you’re over 30. Take it easy…spread things out, no need to hit everything at once
Don’t fly AirFrance
Do carry your charger EVERYWHERE
