I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I have majorly slacked off on my blogging duties. I bet you all thought I was accosted in Prague and sent to Czech prison after my not so rave reviews about the city. Luckily, that is not actually the case, I am now safely stateside and am ready to fill you all in on the last bits of my trip. So, my apologies for not doing this sooner, but once in Greece, my schedule was so full of important tasks, such as lying on the beach and eating Greek yogurt, that there was simply no time for writing. So after a delay roughly the length of the one I faced in the Newark airport, I return to blogging!
Greece Part One – Athens and Paros
After a quick flight from Prague, I whisked through the Athens airport and headed right into the city. Because there was no customs of any sort I was able to get out of the airport very fast, but unfortunately this meant I didn’t get a Greek stamp on my passport (they must be saving costs on ink).
Greece is the last new country I visited on my trip and it was the twenty-first country I’ve been to. This is a fun coincidence as I’ll be turning twenty-one in September, in fact I think I should go to a new country every year so I can keep this matchy matchy thing going.
I found my hostel and headed out to explore the city right away. I only had a day and a half in Athens so I didn’t want to waste anytime. After a tour of the rainier, chillier Northern European countries, Athens was hot! It was about four in the afternoon when I left and the sun was beating down hard. Luckily I’m a hot weather girl, so I was more than ready for the heat, but it appeared most other tourists weren’t as thrilled about the weather, so I was able to have a mostly deserted visit to the acropolis!
The acropolis was more basic than I expected, it was old (duh), it had a look of degradation about it, but I liked it a lot nonetheless. It seemed very real, more of an actual archeological site than a tourist attraction, and the views were of course amazing!
I spent the rest of the night and my next morning in Athens just wandering around the city, in true Lindsey fashion. Plaka, the area where I was staying, is the neighborhood surrounding the acropolis, it was bustling and touristy, but still hip and happening and I enjoyed plodding along the cobblestone roads, peeking into all the cafés and jewelry stores as I went.
The Athens surrounding that main square had a completely different feel to it. It was the Athens that had been hit hard by economic trouble, full of closed up storefronts, bashed in windows, and a variety of sketchier characters milling about. That’s not to say that there was nothing nice left in Athens though, the city has been there for thousands of years, there was plenty of architecture, temples, and of course, the original Olympic stadium to see.
I wasn’t even in Athens for a full twenty-four hours, but I had already fallen in love with Greece. Hot hot weather, greek salad, creamy yogurt, and beautiful architecture and flowers were quickly drawing me in as I got ready to head to the islands.
I hopped on the ferry in the afternoon and headed off to Paros, an island in the Cyclades. Only having five days to spend amongst the islands, I had a lot of trouble deciding where to go. Very last minute I decided to stick to Paros and then Santorini, instead of trying to fit in too many islands or tackle islands that were to large to see without a car.
Greek ferries seem pretty hit or miss, they either shipwreck or they don’t. Um, just kidding, but truthfully, some are way nicer than others. Luckily, this first boat was a nice one, and I spent the seven hour ferry ride happily munching away on Greek salad and reading a book on introverts. For any of you out there who feel that you are on the more reclusive side of the spectrum, I recommend checking out Quiet: The Power of the Introvert for some interesting insights! At some point as the night continued, as I finished my book, and as my salad dwindled to soggy capers (does anyone actually like those?), I realized that although I had made a hostel reservation (actually more of a ‘studio’ as it was called), my ferry didn’t get in until eleven in the evening, and it was possible that this small island wouldn’t host the same twenty four hour reception policies that I found at almost all my hostels in the larger cities I had been visiting. However, I quickly pushed this worry aside, reminding myself that there were hundreds of other people getting off the ferry with me, surely hostels stayed open to welcome the ferry guests.
We arrived in Parikia, the port town of Paros, around eleven as expected, and I walked along the waterfront for about ten minutes until I arrived at the studios where I had rented a room. There were lights on inside, good sign! The door was unlocked to go into the lobby area, good sign too! Inside the lobby area the actual reception room was dark and had an “open 12:00 to 18:00” sign on it, BAD SIGN! I plopped down on a nice padded bench and considered the pros and cons of my situation. Pros: Someone could still show up from the ferry dock to let me into my room, the bench I was sitting on was nice and comfy and would make a good bed if no one actually ended up showing up, I could walk down to the beach and watch the sunrise. Cons: There was no rest room available, and I’m sure you remember from my time in Paris that I’m a frequent visitor, I drink a lot of water. As I was considering if there were any wildebeests lurking in the tall grasses across the street that would disturb me if I squatted there, and if I could get thrown into Greek prison for public urination, a fellow studio stayer who had passed by me earlier stopped and asked if I’d “missed an appointment,” don’t you just love how Europeans phrase things?
I explained my predicament to my new friend and he hashed through the same contingency plans I’d already nixed (no I don’t have a cell phone, no I don’t have enough money nor a desire to go book a room at some tourist joint down the street that has twenty-four hour reception, yes I am planning to sleep on this bench, thank you very much!) I learned that he was from Denmark and after I expressed my love for Copenhagen he seemed to warm up to me and lose some of the initial astonishment that I was traveling on my own for two months without a cell phone, the nerve! Clearly feeling sorry for my pathetic little cell phoneless self, Mr. Denmark (his name was too Danish for me to understand) said that he and his friend were staying in a room with three beds and I was welcome to stay in the extra one, and even better, to use their restroom! I gave Mr. Denmark another once over to make sure I hadn’t missed any serial killer like traits, and after confirming an absence of handguns or creepy mustaches, I happily agreed. I met Mr. Denmark #2, brushed my teeth, visited the water closet, had a nice little chat with Misters Denmark 1 and 2, and then plopped into bed, my bench and beach plans forgotten!
After my first eventful night in Paros, I had three more days and nights to enjoy the island. After working hard on farms and bustling around big cities for the past month and a half I decided (and the weather encouraged) I spend some quality relaxation time. So here’s how my days in Paros were generally spent.
8 am: Wake up and grab a cappuccino freddo (a cinnamony-sweet, cold and frothy cappuccino).
8:30 am: Go for a hike on the beach trails before it got too hot (it was about 85 degrees at this point).
9:45 am: Head back to my ‘studio’ and eat a creamy greek yogurt with honey and a fresh nectarine. Fun fact: you know how in the U.S. the 2% yogurt is the fatty kind and the 0% is the healthy kind. In Greece, the 2% is the healthy kind, and the normal kind is 9% fat! My morning yogurts had about 16 grams of fat and were so so so good. I’m not recommending you eat full fat yogurt all the time, but seriously try it, you have not lived until you’ve enjoyed 16 grams of fat out of a 6oz container of tangy cream.
10:30 am: Walk to the beach, sunbathe, read, snooze, swim swim swim, sunbathe some more.
1:00 pm: Eat some bread, maybe a tomato.
1:15 pm: beat the heat, take a nap or read inside my cool room (yes, I finally got access to it when reception was open. You can get a beachside studio complete with bathroom and refrigerator for 27 euro a night in Paros!).
3:00 pm: eat more yogurt, drink more coffee.
3:15 pm: More beach time.
5:00 pm: wander around the winding white washed streets of the old town, take pictures, buy jewelry, get lost (except I’m not actually capable of getting lost, I just pretend).
7:00 pm: Head to the store for greek salad making supplies, a bottle of wine, and more yogurt.
8:00 pm: assemble and eat greek salad, drink wine.
9:00 pm: sit on beach and watch the sunset, consider such subjects as the meaning of life and the possibility of becoming a Greek citizen.
11:30 pm: go to bed, dream about yogurt.
Needless to say, I had a wonderful time in Paros. As someone who usually hits cities at full speed, taking a break and slowing down enough to enjoy island life as it was meant to be enjoyed was wonderful. I’ll wait until I give a summary of Santorini (coming up next) to give a full description of the culture and feeling of Greece, but if it wasn’t already apparent from this post, it’s an atmosphere I love!
Soleil et Café 