Greece is the Word

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The Greek Islands have been on Anna's list of places to visit for some time now and if we hadn't fit it in before our imminent departure I would have never heard the end of it. And, after getting back on Sunday I'm very happy we went.

It all started with a pretty crazy and Friday night. We flew into Athens on the Friday night at around 10.30pm, but weren't due to fly out to Santorini until 6am the next morning. There is only one (very expensive) hotel next to the airport and rather than travel all the way into town to just spend a couple of hours lying on a bed waiting to get a taxi all the way back again, we decided to hit the town instead. Unconventional and ambitious perhaps, but it worked really well. We decided to start the evening with a really good meal at one of Athens top restaurants - 48 The Restaurant. Arriving at a late 11.45pm, the place was really cool, all modern and minimalist inside - which is Anna and I to a T. We shared a delicious octopus carpaccio and setting the scene for the week, we both had fish for dinner - with a good Greek Sauvignon Blanc to wash it all down. Leaving the restaurant we headed out into Kolonaki, a posh part of town with lots of bars and cafes. With luggage in tow, we had a few drinks at a couple of bars, one really cool place with a relaxed atmosphere and chilled-out jazz. We managed to keep this going until 4am when we caught the bus back to the airport (which was crazily busy for 5am in the morning), starting to feel a little weary.

Planning to check out the views on our flight to Santorini, our all-nighter finally took its toll and the only thing either of us can remember from the flight was taking off and landing. Arriving pretty early we were able to rest up at our accommodation (where we stayed in a cave built into the cliffs) and wander the picturesque village of Oia when it was quite empty in the morning. And Santorini is stunning - the land of white-washed walls, sleeping dogs and American tourists. From Oia you always have amazing views over the caldera that is Santorini and the blue and white of the buildings is everything you expect of the Greek Islands. Not surprisingly, we spent the first day relaxing, only venturing down to the little bay of Ammoudi for some very fresh fish and an amazing whole grilled squid. The next day we went on a great walk (about 12kms) from Oia, along the cliffs, to the main town on Santorini, Fira. It was a great way to get a feel for the island and also confirmed to us that Oia was the place to stay. The next day we decided to hire a scooter and tour the island. Unfortunately, they would only rent us a scooter if we had an International Driver's License - I didn't actually think such things existed anymore - so we had to hire a quad-bike instead. Of course, this was the one day in all our holiday that the weather decided to be cloudy and rain a little - not much fun when you are driving around on a quad-bike in only shorts and t-shirt. We had planned to visit some of the beaches around the island, but with the non-compliant weather we decide to visit some of the wineries instead. We ended up picking up a bottle of an award winning Vinsanto (a sweet dessert wine) from the Canava Roussos winery - and with all such purchases, when we actually started drinking it we wished we had bought more but could no longer go back (though at €35 it wasn't cheap for a 375ml bottle, I think there next wine was only €13 - but it was oh so good!). That night the weather put on one last show for us before becoming brilliant fine for the rest of our week, putting on a big electrical storm - what I liked to call "Greece lightning" (and no, I am not a born again T-Bird).

Regretfully we had to leave Santorini the next day - we could have easily stayed another, it was pretty tough getting up each morning and having breakfast served to us looking across the caldera. Taking the ferry that afternoon, where noticeably we seemed to have dropped the American tourists (who probably all fly), we arrived at our next destination, the island of Naxos. In Naxos, we had hired a studio apartment out on a beach on the southern coast of the island. As we were driven out there, it couldn't have been more different to Santorini, we were pretty remote, being driven about 3kms past the closest town along a dirt road. But stunning as Santorini was, Naxos was idyllic. The apartments along our beach (Plaka) stretched out in a row along the 5km beach with just enough tavernas dotted along to keep us well fed. In fact, after initially thinking we would hire a car or a scooter (if they would let us) for the 3 days, we ended up not even hiring a mountain bike and didn't venture any further than our legs would take us. So we didn't get up to much except relax, read, play Euchre, swim, and baste in the sun (well, that last one was more Anna than me). That's not to say we didn't get a little bit of exercise, I decided to swim out to some rocks one day which were a bit further than they looked, and we went for a 4 hour walk along and back a never ending beach the next bay over in search of a taverna we had heard about (which we didn't even find in the end), and of course there was the 30 minute walk to our favourite taverna each night. One comical part of where we were staying was that we were smack bang in nudie central. It was the first morning when we got up, went to the balcony and looked down on the beach that we saw a couple, starkers, playing paddle tennis. In our time there, we saw plenty of other nudists on the beach, erecting tents (no pun intended), picking up stuff, and other activities you don't really want to see elderly nudists getting up to. But all very amusing. The other thing that struck us in our time in Naxos (or our little microcosm of Naxos) was that we never met or heard another English speaker the whole time we were there. In fact, we seemed to have been transported in the world of the German tourist - which does help to explain the nudist thing.

At the end of our 3 days in Naxos we felt very relaxed, and once again, we could have easily stayed another day. But our next destination was a night on the island of Mykonos, which again was very different to the other two islands. Mykonos is known as more of a party island, and we certainly got the feel for this when getting off our ferry, we arrived at the same time as a ferry from Athens and a hoard of 20-somethings. But Mykonos is also very picturesque in the same vein as Santorini, with all the buildings painted in blue and white. With such a short time there, we immediately took off to one of the renown beaches on the southern coast of Mykonos - Super Paradise. Looking around the little boat by which you get to the cove that Super Paradise beach is situated on, surrounded by about 20 young and nubile Greek girls (Anna was there....I think), I knew I was were going to the right place. The beach itself was amazing. In a deep cove, the water was so crystal clear it was hard to believe it was sea water. The beach itself was already filling up and was dominated by groups of young Greeks having a good time. Grabbing ourselves a couple of loungers, and in between swims, we sat back listening to the chilled out tunes coming from the bar at the back of the beach, sipped our beers, and watched the young Greeks posing, posturing and preening (and that's just the guys - waxed legs and all). At about 4pm, the bar turned up the bass and before we knew it there was dancing on the beach and people were starting to congregate back at the bar. Anna and I were just too relaxed now to really get into this, but it looked like you could make a really good night out of it all and I would love to go back there in a big group. So come 6pm, we left the young and the restless to it and got the boat back into town and made the most of the pool (and diving board) back at our hotel. Back in the Mykonos old town that night, we wandered through the attractive narrow lanes and alleys and could not help but notice the number of gay couples were saw (Mykonos is known for being gay-friendly). Despite Mykonos supposedly having some of the best nightlife in Europe, we were still too relaxed to muster up the enthusiasm and we had a relatively early night (though in Greece this is still being out to around 1am), deciding to get up early to take one last swim in the pool before getting the ferry to Athens the next day (though again we wished we could have stayed an extra day).









After much debate, we had decided to try to get to Athens reasonable early the next day, not for any sight-seeing mind you, but to make the most of the hotel we were staying at. Fresh Hotel looked really cool when we booked it - once again stylish and minimalist, a 'design experience' - and we wanted to be able to make the most of the roof top pool. With a bar, chilled-out sounds, and views of the Acropolis, we didn't really need to go anywhere else for the afternoon. After a few cocktails and beers over the sunset, we eventually had to venture out into Athens once more and found our way to a small little restaurant recommended by the Time Out guide that was some of the best food we had on the whole trip. There was no menu - a huge tray of starters was brought out to you and you chose which ones you wanted, and then the mains on offer were read out to you by the waiter. It was a really simple place with great food - and was obviously a popular spot for locals rather than tourists. Bulging with this great dinner, we then went to the Craft Microbrewery Brewpub (see Pub Watch) to try some Greek beers a bit more exciting than the very average 'Mythos' I had been drinking all week.

Not flying out until 7pm the next day, we ventured out into a very hot Athens day to do the obligatory sight-seeing. I always like a good ruin, and Athens has plenty of those in quite a confined area. Athens is definitely a very walkable city, but after doing the circuit of everything we wanted to see - including the Acropolis and the original Olympic Stadium - we decided that the best way to spend our last few hours in Greece was poolside back at our hotel (we didn't want to leave there either).

So....the one word that sums up our trip to the Greek Islands has to be "relaxing". We were so chilled the whole week (and we are still pretty chilled out now), we just wanted to stay longer. You could easily spend months island hopping rather than days. Its a cliche, but each island is amazingly different, but we liked each island equally as much. We had brilliant weather and great food - stuffed calamari, grilled octopus, fresh fresh fish, yummy eggplant, and plenty of Greek salads (and yes, even I was eating the feta - much better than the stuff we get back here at home). It is just going to have to be added to the list of the many places we want to return to....