Greece

Sunday

I started my trip to Greece on a direct Emirates flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Athens, Greece. I arrived on May 30th at around 4 pm. The first stop was, of course, my hotel, The Stanley. I would highly recommend this hotel if you're staying in Athens, Greece. It has a fantastic rooftop pool and also is in a great location. It is a one-minute walk from a train that takes you right to the city center or the Acropolis in less than 10 minutes, or you can also take a 20-minute walk to the city center. There are also several restaurants nearby the hotel as well.

Once settling in, I decided to get dinner at a restaurant about two minutes walking from the hotel. I ordered a Gyro plate which came with pita, fries, and a lot of beef. The portion was huge and was extremely cheap. It wasn’t my favorite meal in Greece, but it was still definitely delicious.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Since this was a work trip, the next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, were filled with work-related events, with a little bit of exploring Athens. I did try some amazing food, including Moussaka, baked feta cheese, and of course, the well-known Greek Salad.

Thursday

I had the day off on Thursday and started the morning with a Greek Jewish Heritage tour. I met my tour guide at the city center, and from there, we went to the Jewish Museum, the Beit Shalom Synagogue, and the Holocaust Memorial. For the rest of the day, I enjoyed walking around Athens and did some shopping. 

Athens is a very beautiful city with all the outdoor restaurants, cobblestone streets, and Greek ruins. It is also extremely walkable, and you can walk to most of the major places in the city in 20 minutes. 

For dinner, I met up with a coworker, and we went to A for Athens, a rooftop restaurant with an amazing view of the city and the Acropolis. I enjoyed an amazing lamb dish, and we also got some delicious drinks. 

Friday

On Friday, I visited the Acropolis, which in itself is amazing. As recommended to avoid the heat and the crowds, I got there early, at 8 am to be exact. Along the hike up to the Acropolis, there were several other Greek ruins, including the first theater. After visiting the Acropolis, I headed over to the beach. To get to the beach, I took the above-ground train, also known as the tram. It isn’t the fastest train, so it took me about an hour to get to the beach. The beach I went to was Vouliagmeni beach. I noticed in Greece that all the beaches I visited were never super sandy and didn’t have much of a beach. However, the water was an amazing bright blue color. The water was also on the colder side- but not unbearable. 

Saturday

On Saturday in the morning, I went to Synagogue. It was cool to go to a local Greek synagogue, but it was definitely an older crowd. It was mainly set up as orthodox, separating the men and women. They also had a kiddush after the service with some Greek food.

The rest of the day, I relaxed but stopped by this cool diner, Cherry Blossom Diner, based on the tv series Riverdale. I got a milkshake there. At night I met up with some coworkers for karaoke. 

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

On Sunday we had a full company cooking class. It was super fun learning how to make some traditional Greek food. We made grape leaves, Tzaki, and spinach and cheese Souffles. Everything was delicious.

The next day- Monday- wasn’t super eventful. We had personal development through my job and then the rest of the day I spent working some and then relaxing. On Tuesday we had another day of personal development but then at night I went to a delicious Asian restaurant with some coworkers.

Wednesday

The next day (Wednesday) I started my Journey to the Greek Islands. I left my hotel in an Uber around 6:00 am to arrive at the Ferry Port. I wasn’t sure how the ferry boarding worked, so I wanted to get there by 6:30 (for my 7:00 am ferry). It only took me 20 minutes to get to the port, so I was super early. However, people were already in line to board. Boarding the ferry was extremely simple. I just showed my ticket on my phone and got on. The ferry was a lot nicer than I thought, with a semi-luxury feeling to it with cushioned seats.

I was on the ferry for about 2 hours before I arrived at Syros, my first stop. I decided to visit Syros since it is a beautiful island and less touristy. Once I got off the ferry, I saw some restaurants and a nice boating area. Syros is also known as a city center. From the port, I was easily able to walk to my hotel. I then started exploring the island. The island was right by beautiful blue water, had cobblestone streets, and was overall gorgeous.

I stopped by a local restaurant and got a fantastic tomato, prosciutto, and mozzarella toast. My hotel was right in the city center square and about a 10 -minute walk to a swimming area. This swimming area was also gorgeous, not very much beach, but instead had docks to relax on and a ladder from the dock that you could go into the water.

After relaxing there and taking pictures, I decided to explore another area of Syros known as Anos Syros. The walk was about a 20-minute walk, but you could tell the area became super local along the walk. It was nice to see more of the local culture on the island. Walking, I passed by a school and saw a mom picking her kids up from school. Anos Syros was higher up on the island and had great views of the island. I took some pictures up there as well, but since there weren’t many tourists around (it was still a lot of locals), it was harder to find people to take my picture. The area had a quaint local town vibe. There were also a lot of stray cats sleeping on the street, which made me nervous to walk by them.

The rest of the day I spent by the water. Syros is a lovely island that still has some touristy shops and is excellent for a day, but it is a little too quiet for me overall. I would possibly go back but focus on booking a tour to see some of the beaches that are further out.

Thursday and Friday

The next day I caught a 9 am ferry to Santorini. Of course, Santorini being a major tourist destination, the minute I got off the ferry, it was busy with people, taxis, and tour guides. I got a shuttle bus to my hotel with about ten other people for around $40. I chose to stay in Fira since it is the major city in Santorini and easy to walk places and catch buses.

By the time I got to my hotel and checked in, it was around 1:30. I then went to get lunch and walked around Fira. I was right in the center, so there were lots of shops, and if you walk for about 10 minutes, you get to the edge with views of the water. The edge is also where many famous picturesque churches are, and people take lots and lots of pictures. It is magnificently beautiful.

Afterwards, I took a bus to red beach. The bus drops you by the water, where there are two small restaurants. You then have to walk about 15-20 minutes to reach the beach. The walk includes a small hike up a cliff to then go down the cliff to reach the beach. The beach isn't necessarily the nicest beach since it's pretty rocky, but it is an excellent beach to see since the cliffs surrounding it are a shade of red.

Then I headed back to Fira for dinner, and I called it an early night. The next day, I got up early to head over to Oia, considered Santorini's glamorous area. I got there around 9 am to try to avoid the crowds. It was busy but not overly crowded, so I had room to walk around and take pictures. Oia is cool, but essentially there isn't too much to do there- its really meant to take pictures and stay in a fancy hotel with a pool and view of the water and volcanoes.

Afterward, I headed back to Fira for lunch and then headed to my scheduled boat tour. This tour was down at the Old Port, about a 20-minute walk from my hotel. I thought it would be an enjoyable walk; however, it involved walking down a bunch of stairs, which isn't necessarily bad, but these stairs were extremely slippery, making the walk not as enjoyable. I also walked by the donkeys, and I saw some people riding up. I am firmly against using the donkeys for this since it is essentially harmful to them taking people up these steep stairs. They also look miserable standing outside in the sun all day.

Once I arrived at the old Port, I got on the boat. The first stop on the boat took us about 10 minutes to get to and was the Volcano. It was super cool that the Volcano was essentially its own island- a Volcano in the middle of the Ocean. I hiked up to the top, which was mostly all uphill and took about 25 minutes. But of course, the views were incredible.

After visiting the Volcano, we went to the hot springs. I had seen hot springs in other countries, but they were usually more set up like resorts or visitor areas. This hot spring was fantastic since it was in the middle of the Ocean, and you just jumped off the boat to enter. The water started off deep and colder, and then as you kept swimming, it would get warmer and shallow.

Afterward, we headed back to the Port, and I took the cable car back up the cliff to the city center. The rest of the night, I had dinner and enjoyed some wine.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, I relaxed in the morning, and then, around 1 pm, I headed to the ferry port to catch my ferry that was supposed to leave at 3 pm. I got to the ferry port super early since I thought there would be traffic. Also, I took the shuttle the hotel was offering, which was $10 cheaper and way nicer inside. When I got to the port, I found out that my ferry was delayed till 4 pm because of the weather, so I ended up sitting at a restaurant by the port. The ferry kept getting delayed and didn’t end up departing till about 5:30. It was a long trip of 6 hours to get back to Athens. I ended up arriving around 11:30 and got an uber to my hotel. I stayed at a unique hipster style hotel with a record player in my room. The hotel was called Dave Red Athens. 

The next day (Sunday), I enjoyed walking around Athens one last time before heading to the airport.