Just spent 10 days in Greece, and I’m seriously considering defecting. Everywhere we went were beautiful sights, delicious food, and friendly people (except for the 2 cab drivers who totally robbed us, but we were warned about that in the guidebook).

We started our journey in Santorini for our friends Jay and Fotini’s wedding. We arrived in Athens and took a tiny commuter plane to the island (there are no direct flights from island to island, all travel is done through Athens Airport). Our hotel was built into the caldera cliff, which was breathtakingly gorgeous and had a spectacular view of the volcano and famous Santorini sunsets.








Of course, staying in the side of a cliff meant that we had to climb UP and DOWN the cliff every day to get to the town of Fira proper, which Peat counted was 172 steps, each way. Steep steps. Steep stone steps. Steep stone steps people use donkeys for. Scary steep stone steps. Seriously.








So our first day, we arrived and immediately dropped our stuff at our hotel and ran to Jay & Fotini’s pre-wedding beach day on the black sand beach of Perivolos. We had a few mojitos there, then went back to Fira and had a marvelous dinner with our friends Jon & Nancy, consisting of fresh fish and moussaka.




The next day was Jay & Fo’s Big Day. We awoke around noon (jet lag sucks) and had a lovely breakfast of giant waffles with Nancy and Jon and Fo’s cousins Flora and Demetria (I doubt I spelled that right), who we just happened to bump into on our way to find a café! (Fira is very small.)




The wedding that night was wonderful! The ceremony started at 6, so at 5:30, Peat and I started ascending the 172 steep stone steps to go to the beautiful church at the top of the cliff. Luckily, the wedding program could be used as a fan, cos it was HOT!







After the ceremony, buses took us all to the reception site in time for yet another breathtaking Santorini sunset. And then we danced and ate and drank till 3am when the buses came back to pick us up. Greeks are known for partying all night, so I have no doubt that if the buses hadn’t shown up, they’d still have been going till daybreak!







So the next day, we woke up at noon again (to the sound of church bells, which is one of my favorite ways to wake up), and moseyed over to Jay and Fo’s hotel, where folks were chilling (aka nursing hangovers) by the pool. We splashed around for a bit, then went and had drinks with Jon, Nancy, Jeannine and the Brad, and met Jay, Fo, and their friends for dinner and gelato. It was a lovely ending to the first leg of our journey.




Sunday we traveled to Rhodes (via Athens) and almost missed our connecting flight! We had to run across the airport to make it, only to find out it had been pushed back to accommodate our previous flight’s late arrival. Argh! Luckily, our second plane was a jet, not a propeller plane like the first flight. It was such a bumpy ride that I spent the entire time squeezing Peat’s arm, until he told me to look at the stewardess’s face – when I saw how bored she looked, I ceased worrying.

Our resort in Rhodes was the most luxurious place we’ve ever stayed, with a fabulous view of the Aegean and the pool, and a huge bathroom with a bidet, yet the bed was really 2 twin beds pushed together. Weird.







Dinner in the Rhodes resort – which was included, by the way – consisted of a buffet of appetizers like fish croquets, moussaka, spanikopita, salad bar, spaghetti Bolognese, and a carving station, plus a main course, plus a dessert buffet with baklava and petit fours and ice cream and loukoums (Turkish delight) and cakes and fruit. All of it fresh and delicious and homemade and wonderful!

Monday was our first beach/pool day. The Aegean was warm and crystal clear, though very salty. If you looked down at your feet, you could see tiny fish scurrying by! The beach had very soft (and hot!) sand, juxtaposed by the beautiful rocks and pebbles down by the water. It was so rocky, people wore their shoes into the water!




The next morning, we rode a catamaran the size of the Staten Island Ferry to the island of Kos to meet with a Greek publisher that’s interested in Peat’s book. Two of the three owners of the company met us at the boat and took us around the island, showed us some ruins, past the tree under which Hippocrates used to teach his students, and had some drinks in a shady bar by a swimming pool. We discussed Peat’s book, and then they treated us to lunch. And what a lunch! Since Kos is only a half hour by boat to Turkey, there are a lot of Turkish restaurants. We had a mouth-watering Turkish-Greek lunch, with souvlaki, fried cheese, salad, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), tzatziki, and other delicacies. We also had baklava and a delicious flan-type pudding. And two bottles of Greek wine. This was by far my favorite meal I had throughout the entire trip.











We stumbled back to the catamaran and returned to Rhodes. It was still early evening, so we decided to wander around the Old Medieval Town, which was right by the harbor. A medieval wall surrounds the area, with turrets and statues and gargoyles. But once you get inside the wall, you realize the entire area is dedicated to tourist shops and tavernas. It was disconcerting, to say the least. But we wandered for a bit, managed to find some ruins, and returned to the hotel for a light dinner (and more dessert) and bed.









Wednesday was another beach day. Aaaaaahhh.




Thursday we left Rhodes for the last leg of our trip: Athens, the cradle of Western civilization! Our hotel was literally down the hill from the Acropolis, and we had a great view off our terrace. We got in with enough daylight left to go exploring, so we climbed up to the Parthenon, which unfortunately was full of scaffolding and tourists. But the view from the Acropolis is amazing, and we got some great pictures. Later that night, we had dinner in the restaurant on the roof of our hotel, which looked out onto the lit-up Parthenon. Beautiful!








Friday was Explore Athens day and our last day in Greece. We wandered around through the Plaka, to the Temple of Olympian Zeus to Hadrian’s Gate, Arch and Library, and back through the park. It was a long day of sightseeing and shopping, but we did manage to have our only Official Greek Gyro of the trip before we left!
















I think Greece is a magical place, and am ready to return!