In this article, I went in depth about each day we were in Greece. We travelled from the north to the south and ended along the coastline, so we covered a lot of distance and were able to see many different places! I hope anyone reading this gets to see more of the world, albeit virtually, and enjoys learning more about Greece!
October 11,
It’s the first day of our trip, and so far it’s going as expected. I’m super excited for Greece now that we’ve packed all of our things and taken off. We met some of the people from our church that were in our group at the airport and talked a little bit with them. Most people seemed friendly, although there is a really big age difference. I got a mango dragonfruit lemonade from Starbucks Once we boarded the plane, I worked on physics and watched some movies before taking every possible sleeping agent I could think of, and still failing to sleep.
October 12,
We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany for our layover, and treated ourselves to a pretzel and a pizza square with salami and peppers. I liked the pretzel, but thought the pizza was cold and unappetizing. Since I hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane, I took a short nap in the airport by layering the blankets and pillows I stole from the previous flight, and was successfully able to rest for a bit! We had a super long seven-hour layover but eventually boarded the flight to Thessaloniki, Greece, where we checked in to the Grand Hotel Palace, showered and got ready for bed, quickly ate some delicious Greek food, then, seeing that we were already half asleep, went to bed.
October 13,
We went to the ancient Greek agora in Thessaloniki where we found an adorable clowder of cats that were way more interesting than the few columns that formed the marketplace. Next, we visited the Basilica of St. Demetrios, a Roman soldier who was murdered for his Christian faith. We drove on the via Egnatia, a repaved old Roman road that millions of people traveled on, on the way to Philippi. At Phillipi, we were able to experience what layout of the ancient cities would’ve looked like, including a Byzantine church with a baptistry and agora ruins. It was fun to hike up through the ruins and climb the stairs on the ginormous amphitheater. Additionally, we saw a Roman-era crypt that was thought to be a prison for the apostle Paul. For lunch they served us chicken or meatballs and saw even more cats before heading to the baptism site of Lydia, one of the first Christian converts to be baptized on European soil. This was easily my favorite spot of the day. It was green and flowery, and there was a mini manmade island with a shrine to Lydia in the middle of the stream. It felt so nice to reconnect with nature.
October 14,
We drove to Verea (spelled Berea in the Bible) and visited a monument dedicated to Paul for preaching. It was a little chilly outside, especially atop the roof where the monument was, but it was nice to listen to my dad reading a short scripture. We got some free time to explore the city, so we walked through some coffee shops and tried corinth grapes, one of the fruits that the area we were in, Corinth, Greece, is famously known for. We found really cool old churches with thatched roofs and of course, more cats. We then drove to Meteora, which was breathtaking, stopping the Lion of Amphipolis, set up in honour of Laomedon of Mytilene, an important general of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. The monasteries rested on gigantic stone mountains that had been carved down by nature to form pillars. We were able to visit one of them, the Saint Stephen Nunnery, that was converted to a nunnery in 1961 since it was connected to the mainland with a bridge, but the other one we saw, the Monastery of Great Meteoron, was off limits and inaccessible except for a basket connected to a rope. We had no idea how they built the monasteries there, because the cliffs just dropped off and there was no easy access. There was a gorgeous courtyard in the middle of the monastery we visited, with gorgeous flowers and stone tiles. The roof shingles were the cute traditional red ones so the atmosphere was picturesque. We went further into a room that was covered in gold decorations and paintings of Christian idols, but I thought it was kind of stuffy in there, with the incense scent and the dense crowds of people. After we exited, we walked to the back of the monastery where we were able to see the mountains again, and over the fence a garden that was apparently a cemetery. There were a few other small church buildings but we didn’t enter those. We had lunch in a cool restaurant overlooking the cliffs, which was gorgeous, although there was some confusion over the lunch options and they ended up overcharging us. Overall that experience was amazing.
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Overlooking the St. Stephen Nunnery
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Up close with the Parthenon!
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Lion of Amphipolis statue
October 15,
Today I definitely enjoyed myself. We rode on the bus (again) to Delphi, the religious center of the ancient Greek world. On the way we stopped at a truck stop and saw kittens rolling around and playing with each other! I joined in with a piece of grass and it was amazing watching them pounce and jump on it! When we got to Delphi there was an archeological museum at the front, and ruins in the back. Thankfully we started with the ruins, because I had no interest in being inside when the weather was so nice. There were a ton of cool ruins and temples, but the tour guide was moving especially slow so I went off by myself to try to see as much as possible. The further up the mountain you went, the cooler it was, and so even though the guide said it would be difficult to make it all the way up and down the free time that we had to see the theater and bigger temples, I did it twice! I needed to get some exercise because I was feeling really stiff and anxious, so that helped. It was a pleasant hike up the hills through the woods, especially since we had been sitting on the bus for hours. The only thing I was a little disappointed about was that we didn’t get to see the actual old site of the Oracle of Delphi, where people would come to get their questions answered and ask about the future. Although construction was underway, I still enjoyed Delphi. We drove to Athens in the evening, where we ate more delicious Greek food.
October 16,
We drove to Corinth after stopping at a truck stop where we stretched our legs, and an icon shop run by a family who had been painting the gold, shimmering figures for years. At Corinth there was a small museum full of interesting artifacts like pottery, jewelry, and weapons leading the way to the main attraction: the ruins. We explored a room full of headless statues, which was apparently a style back then, and my dad cropped his head out of a photo he took to “fit in,” which was funny. There was a vast stretch of fertile land with temples (including the Temple of Apollo), columns, and statue ruins, of course with no heads. A group of elementary school kids were at recess on the hill above us and wanted us Americans to yell the current meme- “6,7,” so my dad, being the person that he is, delightedly entertained them with his very own horrific interpretation of a Greek accent. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. My favorite part was all of the fruit growing on the trees. There was so much that the branches hung over the fences of the houses and dangled, almost tempting me to pick some. I would’ve if I hadn’t been on the bus. Luckily, our tour guide was nice enough to stop and let me pick an orange, which was delicious! We returned to Athens and had a couple hours to walk around, where we found picturesque colorful houses on the hills and another agora. We also found a cute little flea market where I found an old compass with an illustration of the Birth of Venus, or her Greek name, Aphrodite. We ended the day with delicious gelato: Dubai chocolate for my dad, which I recommended, and pistachio ricotta ice cream that had fruit in it, maybe apricot, fig, or raspberry.
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The temple of Apollo at Corinth
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The flea market we explored where I got an old engraved watch
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The best gelato in Athens
October 17,
We boarded the cruise ship in the morning to set sail on the Aegean sea. I was so excited to experience the Mamma Mia lifestyle on the island of Mykonos. However, we realized we weren’t going to dock until four in the afternoon, which was really disappointing. We still got to wander the whitewashed town, ate a gyro and more gelato, saw the three famous windmills, and took so many pictures of the little cute streets and the even cuter cats!
October 18,
The boat docked in Kusadasi, Turkiye overnight, and we left early for Ephesus. We had a different tour guide who was really funny and looked exactly like Mr. Wilkins, the English teacher. I did get a photo for proof! Ephesus was huge. There were so many ruins, and it seemed like the further we walked, the more palaces and temples there were. Most of them were in really good condition. We started out over a flat expanse of land with scattered ruins, but as we walked onto an ancient cobblestone road, they began to come together. When we reached the end of the road, a huge Turkish temple stretched above the horizon. It was near the remains of bathhouses, shops, and other alleys. It was super cool to see the theater, stadium, agora and more, but I was expecting to see the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and we didn’t. I double checked the agenda when we got back on the bus and we were supposed to see it, so I don’t know what really happened. Other than that it was enjoyable. We then traveled to a really cool traditional carpet weaving place that empowered young women by teaching them the craft, consequently keeping the trade alive. They showed us how the silk was extracted from the silkworms, the different types of materials, and how different rugs are made. We also got delicious cheese rolls and Raki, the Turkist version of Ouzo. I didn’t find the extremely strong licorice taste pleasant, but my dad didn’t mind it. When we got back on the cruise we ate a yummy buffet lunch and chilled while the ship sailed to Patmos, the island where John was exiled for being a Christian and challenging the authority of the emperor. It was really pretty. The sun setting over the rocks and trees was straight out of a movie, but the church built over the cave of St. John was a little underwhelming, with only a few “holy” pictures on the wall. We had a different tour guide for this part, and she definitely liked to take her time. However, the experience was certainly entertaining. When we went into the room built around the cave, the guide explained how the place where John was said to sleep in the cave had been blocked off because a random little girl had claimed to have visions of an old man sleeping there. I thought it was a little ridiculous, but the guide just said some people had been “more touched” by the experience. My dad held a little communion after that, which was nice, before we journeyed to the Monastery of St. John. It was a gorgeous white open-roofed building with greenery, tunnels, a huge cistern, and shadows that danced on the walls. There were huge paintings of the disciples on the walls, and a lengthy museum in the back, which featured original copies of paintings and the gospel of Mark from around the sixth century which was really cool. By then we were exhausted, so we headed back to the ship and prepared to set sail for Crete.
October 19,
We had docked at Crete overnight so were able to directly leave the ship and start walking to the center of the town. There was a cool architectural fountain and ruins, but apart from that it was pretty normal. It was empty since all of the shops were closed, but as we got further into the city we were able to find a nice restaurant (The Philosopher’s Cafe) that featured outdoor seating and seemed to be popular with the locals. My dad ordered a “Cretan’s nest,” which was a flaky pastry filled with cheese, and I ordered an omelet. The “birds nest” was delicious, but my omelette was filled with a sort of sour cream, and not at all appetizing to me. Me and my dad ended up trading, and although the meal wasn’t bad, it definitely wasn’t my favorite. We decided to try and see both the featured ruins and go to a beach, so we took a taxi to the ruins of the ancient palace of Crete. I’ll admit, it was cool, but I naively expected to see the mythological labyrinth that Theseus navigated to kill the Minotaur, a magical half-man-half-bull. The ruins were brightly colored on the inside, with colorful frescos on the ground and excavated rooms underneath the wooden bridges that we walked on. The ruins had apparently been restored by an earlier scientist, so everything we saw wasn’t original. It was cool to see what it would’ve looked like in person. We didn’t spend a ton of time there because we really wanted to go to a beach. We took an Uber to a pristine beach that was a blast, albeit freezing. It was definitely the highlight of my trip because I had been looking forward to a true Mamma Mia experience the whole time. When we left the beach my dad was super stressed about making it back to the boat on time so when we got in a taxi he asked the driver to hurry. I’m not sure what he was expecting, but the driver booked it. We were going at least 100 miles per hour and I felt like I was going to fly out of the window any second. We hung out on the boat until it departed and landed at the island of Santorini. I had been looking forward to this the whole trip. This was the epitome for me. I wasn’t super impressed by Fira, the town we had to port at to get to Santorini, just because it seemed like every other city, but it did have some cute white buildings and scattered domes. However, as we ascended the mountains in the cable cars, it was apparent that the island was gorgeous. After we got up to the top, we took a short bus to Santorini and fully got to see what the hype was about. Santorini was gorgeous. The light reflecting on the water and the blue domed buildings captured the essence of the Mediterranean. There were so many cute alleyways and corners to explore, each with its own charm. From flowers to colored windowpanes, every aspect was picturesque. Unfortunately we got there just as the sun was setting, and although the sunset was pretty, I wish we could’ve explored more in the daylight. The restaurant that we ate dinner at overlooked the water, which was spectacular, and I had one of the best vegetable pastas I’ve ever had in my entire life. My dad’s fish was pretty good too. Almost every shop catered to tourists and featured similar items, but we found cute windmills and sweatshirts. I loved exploring the nooks and crannies, especially since there were cats everywhere. As it got darker it was a little scary so we decided to head back. Before we got on the bus my dad got gelato, but I wasn’t hungry, so I waited. It was a good thing because the bus driver made him gulp it down quickly before getting on. I got some delicious raspberry cheesecake flavored gelato back in Fira and ate it on the way down the cable car, which we almost missed. Turns out we were the last ones on the boat because we were trying to take in Santorini as much as possible. It was an amazing day.
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Amazing view of Ephesus
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One of the women in the process of weaving a rug
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Posing with the famous dome of Santorini
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Swimming in Mediterranean sea off of the island of Crete
October 20,
We arrived back in Athens for our last day of exploration. We saw the Acropolis, including Mars Hill, Dionysus’ Theater, where drama originated, and the Temple of Nike, and the Parthenon. We had previously been able to see the Parthenon from our hotel, but being up and close to it was incredible. The detail on the sculptures was impressive, even after tarnish. We were really lucky, as they had just removed the scaffolding off most of the temple for the first time in roughly 20 years. It started raining and was a little chilly, but we managed to find a cute outdoor covered cafe that had amazing chicken shawarmas and Greek dolmades- grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat. Those were delicious and almost addicting. We went back to the hotel and I worked on my dance for the next football game so I could still be in it, then went to bed early since we had to get up at three in the morning.
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Up close with the Parthenon!
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View of the Parthenon at night from our hotel
