Off we go! Leaving the house at 8:45 for a 9:30 coach to Stansted airport, changing at Victoria coach station. Little did we know that we were going to get stuck in traffic and the second half of the trip taking an additional hour. Once at Stansted we bimbled around duty free, finding a very British christening gift and a number of gifts for various people in Greece. The flight was smooth which was great for me as a nervous flyer although I still wasn't able to concentrate on anything other than the unlikely possibility that something would happen and we could drop out of the sky. We arrived at half past midnight Greek time and was met at the airport by Alkis' uncle who took us to the ferry that we crossed to Salamis where his nan then met us. We were absolutely exhausted from the whole 16hrs of travel and I was feeling a bit queasy yet we still went back to her house for our first experience of Greek food, Souflaky. The Souflaky was interesting...I personally wasn't a fan, partially because of the queasiness meaning I barely ate much - try explaining that to someone that doesn't speak English. We were then dropped back at Alkis' house to sleep which was small but lovely, a perfect size for the four of us.
Day 2
24 degrees and the sunlight is streaming into my room, for breakfast I am introduced to a really sweet bread that most eat dry. I opted for putting butter on it because straight bread for breakfast sounds a bit strange. We spend our morning driving around the island taking various photos from different angles, getting a glimpse of Greece in the daylight. Honestly it wasn't what I anticipated, it has that slightly run down look that too me by surprise but now at the end of the trip I can understand why it looks like what it does. White buildings with orange rooftops and a whole aray of cafe's and bars by the seafront. Back home for lunch and we are presented with a seafood pasta containing mussels, calamari and some of the biggest prawns I have ever seen, off come the legs, head and tail and they taste delicious. There is also some bread, a cheese pie, octopus tentacles and some salad which was then followed by homemade cheesecake for dessert - for a first experience of Greek food I can honestly say they eat ALOT and I lived the fear of offending Alkis' nan from eating too smaller portions. We learnt that it is common for some people to put a piece of octopus in their ouzo, I decided to let my slightly more daring housemate try this as I wouldn't call the octopus my favourite however I couldn't be sure on whether it really tasted that great after his reaction. With our bellys bulging we head back home to crash for an hour before heading up a mini mountain to _____ church which meant climbing hundreds of stairs. The view from the top was definitely worth it tho and we all agreed we could happily spend hours up there!
Day 3
So Saturday was a bit of an unusual day, we had a Greek Orthodox christening to go to. First a quick lunch consisting of Mousakka whilst trying not to spill it down our dresses before an hour and a half's drive to a picturesque church looking down on Athens, our first trip in the daylight through Athens and I couldn't help but notice just how many stray cats and dogs there were. The view was mind blowing and unfortunately I didn't have a camera to hand, we all felt a bit anxious about being intrusive in such a personal situation but it was ok in the end and the people we spoke to were very welcoming.
Day 4
Today we took a ferry to the island of Aegina (no not Vagina as I originally thought). Now Aegina is what you imagine Greece to look like, you'll be able to identify it in the images below whether or not I remember to put a caption below the images. We visited some temple ruins/museum and a monastery as well as taking a ride on a horse and carriage which was super cute!
We spent most of our days on the beach just chilling so I am going to fast forward to the day that we went to Athens...
Day 6 (I think?)
Up early and aboard the ferry we go, this time a people ferry which took us to Piraeus which from there we took a train into the city of Athens. We had heard a number of things about the increase in pick pockets because of the refugee crisis so we kept a close eye on our bags however it wasn't much different to walking through the middle of London. Athens was an interesting city, it had quite a dirty appearance to it yet held its own hidden treasures in the Agora and national gardens, two places that we decided to explore. We also went up to the Parthenon which is a giant temple building on a massive hill above the city, from there we had the most amazing view again and although it was unbearably hot we were still able to appreciate the beauty of these ruins. From the top of the hill we could see the Temple of Olympian Zeus which even from where we stood looked massive. We then went for lunch before through the city to the parliament building and national gardens which were beautiful and we found a tree full of wild parrots which we found crazy! 5pm soon came around meaning the train strike was over and we could get a train back to the port where we caught our ferry back to Salamis.
The rest of our days were spent chilling on the beach and meeting new people mostly but all in all it was a great trip and one that was definitely needed (and deserved) after a very stressful third and final year of uni. Our journey home was crazy, starting at 2am Greek time, fast forward 36 hours after a ferry, taxi, bus, plane, two coaches and another train I finally made it home exhausted but looking forward to my bed. I know this post is a bit sporadic in terms of how I tell you about my trip but I wrote half of it whilst on a beach in Greece and the other half from home but I am super busy at the minute with 1001 things going on and I just wanted to get this post up. Might come back to it one day but lets be honest...this is me...I probably won't.
Feel free to enjoy some of the photo's I took below!
