After saying goodbye to our tour group, the next morning Michael and I wanted to explore a little bit of Frankfurt before hopping on our flight to Athens. We walked along the waterfront and a neighboring square, and thankfully had some beautiful weather that day:
After that, it was off to Greece!
Athens
Athens is such a cool city! I have been wanting to visit ever since I was a little kid and my sister and I would geek out over Greek mythology books together. Michael and I only had a couple of days here, which people had told us would be plenty of time, but we both agreed that we could have stayed longer. I think from the outset, it can be easy to quickly judge this city - it's very crowded and somewhat polluted, a lot of the buildings seem dilapidated, and you see graffiti on almost all of the streets. Even in the NYT "36 Hours in Athens" video, a local admits that "Athens is not a pretty city by any means". But I just found it amazing to be able to walk around in a city that is more than 3,400 years old, and it seems like there are bits and pieces of history everywhere you go. I guess we'll just have to go back! In the meantime, here's a sampling of the cool places we saw on a walking tour of the city:
Temple of Olympian Zeus
The temple with the Acropolis in the background
Arch of Hadrian/Hadrian's Gate
Amphitheater in the Acropolis
View of the city from the Acropolis
In front of the Parthenon
After the walking tour, we just wandered around exploring. Our AirBnb host had told us that there are fantastic views of the city from Filopoppas Hill, and after going on a little trek, we made it to the top just in time to catch an amazing sunset:
So beautiful how the Acropolis lights up at night.
Not wanting our night in Athens to end, we decided to check out some of the nightlife. While I was in the restroom, Michael overheard the bartender say "pineapple" and "champagne" and looked over and saw him pouring a drink into this pineapple glass. He knew that all those things were right up my alley, so he ordered one for me. What a good hubby.
The next day before catching our flight to Santorini, we visited the National Archaeological Museum, which houses a lot of pretty amazing artifacts:
Damn, Poseidon, you sexy.
Some jewelry from way back in the day
Freso of young boys boxing, from about 16th cent BC.
The Spring fresco, also from about 16th cent BC.
Santorini
Wow. Just...wow. I've been lucky enough to do a fair bit of traveling and see some pretty beautiful sites, but Santorini has to be one of the most breathtaking places I've ever visited. We stayed in Imerovigli, which compared to the other towns of Oia and Fira, is one of the quietest places on the caldera with some of the most stunning views. We lucked out and had a beautiful room with a lovely terrace. (How you ask? A combination of: the tourist season is technically over and room rates had dropped dramatically + we stayed during the week as opposed to the weekend + we may have fibbed a smidge and said we were on our honeymoon so we got upgraded to the honeymoon suite). After the hustle and bustle of the tour, it was so nice to slow down a bit, and have time to relax and take in the amazing views without having any particular agenda. We both loved Santorini and it was hard to imagine that we would have to leave in a few days:
We arrived at our hotel in Imerovigli late at night, and all we saw was the caldera illuminated by the lights on the hill and some cruise ships on the water. We were so excited and couldn't wait to see it during the day. It was a pretty cool moment to wake up the next morning, open our balcony doors, and see this:
Voila!
*Happy sigh*
So happyyyyy!
During our walk from Imerovigli to Fira.
We had planned the trip so that we could be in Santorini to relax and celebrate for my birthday (woohoo!), and Michael thoughtfully arranged for us to go on a sunset cruise that day. The weather was perfect. It's going be hard to top this birthday!
For dinner, the boat stuff whipped up some delicious BBQ. We may have gone back for seconds....okay, thirds.
The next day we did a 5.5 mile hike from Imerovigli to Oia, which was gorgeous. It had some fairly strenuous parts (one part was quite steep and slippery, and happened to be right next to a steep cliff!), but it was so worth it to see some great views:
Almost there!
After about 3 hours, we made it to Oia!
Later that night, we enjoyed our last Santorini sunset:
This random Asian guy photobombed my awesome panorama shot.
And the next morning, we reluctantly said goodbye with our last Santorini selfie:
Mykonos
I wasn't really sure what to expect from Mykonos. Our friends who had been there before told us that it's seen as being primarily a party island, and 1-2 days there would be plenty. In retrospect, Mykonos wasn't my favorite place that we visited - it seems that the party reputation is pretty accurate, and is was considerably more expensive than Athens and Santorini - but it was still beautiful and I'm glad that we had the chance to visit!
The view from our hotel balcony
There are no street signs in the old town, so we navigated by remembering little shops or other landmarks. Thank goodness the hubs is a human GPS!
The Mykonos windmills...apparently they're pretty famous?
Little Venice, where most of the more popular bars and restaurants are located. We had some drinks at one place but it was really pricey (18 euros for a glass of champagne - really?!).
The next day we wanted to go check out some of the beaches that Mykonos is famous for, and the closest beach town to us that hadn't closed down yet for the winter break was Ornos. We had the option to take the bus, but it was such a nice day that we decided to walk instead:
The water was SO clear!
We made it to Ornos! Normally beach chairs cost between 7-10 euros each to rent, but because it's low season we got them for free and just had to buy at least one beverage. Done and done! It was pretty relaxing to sit here all afternoon with a drink and my book....
So relaxed!
Up next, Istanbul!