The story begins more than a month ago, when I embarked for my two week (in theory, more on that much later) spring break, ready to leave the land I now call my third home and seek adventure. My first destination was a week on a Greek island with Amanda, Erica, and Emma.
Adventure, of course, has it's ups and downs and this trip began (and ended, or rather didn't end) with a decided down. Let me simply say that I have recently become well aquainted with the grueling, stress-full, and sweaty world of travel woes and it all began with this day. However, after some early morning panic due to a lack of boats on Easter Sunday, the realization that we wasted money on the wrong tickets, a mad dash to the airport with an amused cab driver, and a beautiful but coastly plane ride, we finally made it to the island. Clearly, we were determined not to be stranded in Athens (it's not fun, trust me, I now know!)
The owner of the condo where we stayed picked us up at the airport and drove us to the hotel, where he gave us a bottle of wine showed us around and then we immediately crashed. We woke up hours later and stepped dazedly into the sunshine, ready to explore the island. We had been afraid that nothing would be open on Easter so we poked our head into the first place with it's doors open and made loose reservations for dinner, then went to the next place we saw for lunch
We continued walking around, exploring the town, and eventually found our way down to the water. We strolled along the shore, happy to be in the sunshine near the sparkling sea.
As we passed the habour with it's sea-side cafes and restaurants, buildings all in white and boats adorned in Greek flags, we spotted something in the distance
Apparently, it's the ruins of a temple to Apollo. I love that even a random, not-as-touristy island like this could have historical sights thousands of years old. We climbed up the hill, from which we could see the whole town.
After the day of wandering, our time finally came to have dinner. We made our way to the restaurant and, once seated, were promptly served with a huge traditional Greek Easter meal of cheese, (something?), delicious sweet rice and lamb, all for 10E each. We of course also had wine, which was actually pretty bizarre tasting, but we drank it all anyway. (This is important to the story, I promise.) Aside from us, the other diners at the restaurant were a large table of Greek people who had some relation to the owner, the man with the giant moustash who served us. Smoke and loud laughing Greek drifted through the room and we drank more weird wine. Then someone broke a plate. At that moment we knew -- we were in Greece and it was going to be a good night. Plates were broken, wine was purchased for us, and some American tourist girls may have danced with a moustachiod Greek man on a floor strewn with shards of white ceramic.
The next day was, thankfully, very relaxing. We had invisioned this trip to be a continuous beach-going experience, but we turned out to only have one good beach day, which we took advantage of. We layed in the sun for five hours, only breaking to eat lunch (and to discover the amazing phenomenon that is Greek yogurt and honey).
When we finally left the beach, we returned to the hotel and decided to check out our rooftop patio, where we continued to sit in the sun for a while. Later that evening, as the sun was setting over the island, Erica taught us a short yoga routine. Thus began our daily pratice of rooftop yoga.
Our third day was probably my favorite. We continued our exploration of the town, this time heading inward, to the Old Town. This is where the Greece that I'd imagined really existsed. It was beautiful in a quite and subtle way.
As we walked back the sun was setting over the sea.
That night we made dinner in our hotel room with groceries that we'd bought earlier in the day and ate out on our baloncy. Pasta with mushrooms, greenbeans (cooked on a hotplate on a chair), grapes for dessert and the bottle of wine that George gave us. It was lighted by candles that we were given by the airline on arrival. Additionally, in lieu of going out for drinks we decided to buy alchohol and make our own cocktails. We made do with what we could find and came up with some fantastic creations, I must say. (Even if I don't remember how most of them tasted.) Some of the best names we gave them were "The Awkard Sunburn" and "All Our Names Start with Vowels." Let's just say, we had a great time that night, finishing by braving a lightning storm to get some ice cream cones.
The next day was still not a beach day so, after recovering with yogurt and honey for breakfast, we decided to explore the rest of the island and take a bus to the mountain town of Filoti. The bus ride up was one of the most enjoyable parts of the day -- winding through mountain roads, watching the beautiful views pass and spotting the countless churches dotted across the landscape.
Filoti itself was not the most impressive, though it probably would have been better had the weather not been so spotty. It was a cute little town though, and the surrounding area was stunningly beautiful. We walked around a bit, saw some goats and continued up into the mountains where, totally not dressed for the situation, we did some impromptu hiking.
It was nice to be out in a natural setting like that, surrounded by only goats and beautiful views. It felt like it had been a while since I'd done anything like that. We took our bus back, enjoying another lovely drive and when we got back to town we finally did something we'd wanted to do all week -- we walked to the Apollo arch and wached the sun set.
Our last day in Naxos was spent in a fairly relaxing manner. We spent some time on the beach, despite imperfect weather. (The others even decided to go swimming in the frigid water. I opted to take pictures.)
After our final session of rooftop yoga, we headed out for dinner, not really sure where we were going. Now, throughout the entire week we'd been laughing over the fact that all of the people we'd met and become friendly with were old Greek men (George, the moustashiod man, the man at our favorite cocktail place, the man who convinced us to eat at his restaurant, etc.). So of course on our last night we were approached by another friendly Greek man imploring us to eat at his restaurant in our last night on Naxos, and of course we did. We had another delicious traditional Greek dinner, with entertainment included -- the man did some tricks for us invovling eggs and matches. We were impressed.
We went out that night to a younger bar for the first time (the old man bars were just so affordable!) and even though nothing really came of it, it was a nice change of atmosphere and we enjoyed ourselves.
We departed Naxos the next morning, this time having bought the right ferry tickets.
We arrived in Athens five hours later, checked into our hostel after navigating the insane public trasnportation and headed out again to see one last sight before we left Greece: The Acropolis.
Unfortunately, we got there too late and it was closed. So we walked around the outside.
So we didn't see the Acropolis that day, but it ended up working out well for me. The others were leaving early the next morning for Rome, while my flight for Beirut was later in the day. Thus, I had an entire afternoon to kill alone in Athens. I returned to the Acropolis the next day, with only my camera to accompany me (as well as my passport, with my visa that got me in for free!).
They were doing a lot of construction on the monuments, so much so that it was hard to get a picture without scaffolding. Still, it was neat to be there, if a bit lonely. I wandered around for a few hours, not really wanting to find something else to do before I left. I spent that time not just taking pictures but reflecting on the strange nature of tourism and history. It was an interesting experience, and a strange way to end my time in Greece.
Next: Beirut!
