Yesterday, thanks to social media “memories” features, I was reminded that 2 years ago I was in Greece with a group of friends from Study Abroad. It’s hard to name a time when I haven’t been dreaming about my time studying abroad, but now being stuck in quarantine I think about it every single day. On this particularly cold and rainy day, I would have given my first born child to be back traveling with my friends.
It was our last trip before we left study abroad to go back home, and a lot of us were feeling burnt out after a whole semester of traveling to new countries every weekend (I know how privileged that sounds, and believe me, I can’t believe that was my life either). Because of this burn out, we let our friend Blake plan the trip. He chose the flights to take and picked out the Airbnb, and we all just went along with it. Usually I’m such a planner and I do thorough research before traveling anywhere so I can plan logistics of activities, transportation, and meals, but this time I trusted someone else to figure that out because I was mentally exhausted. (Maybe not my best idea, but it was easier than fighting with Blake to plan everything.)
Our first day, we flew into Athens bright and early, but our connecting flight to Santorini wasn’t until later that evening. This gave us the perfect opportunity to explore Athens for the day, and we didn’t even have to drag our luggage around because there was a great luggage storage kiosk at the airport for around $25.
As we wandered through Athens we did our fair share of shopping at markets, stopping to eat, and getting a taste of the busy city. We were mostly killing time until our flight, which I was fine with, but it was hard to please everyone in our large group, so we got pretty worn out that day. I’m still so glad that we had that layover, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see Athens and all of the history it holds. When it was finally time to head back to the airport, all we could think about was getting to our villa and getting in bed.
The next day, our first full day in Santorini, was spent lounging by our pool, drinking, and getting (a little too much) sun. Our villa was beautiful, although it was in a neighborhood of a bunch of unfinished villas and kind of seemed like a construction zone. If it had all been finished it would have been an awesome luxury neighborhood.
Like I said, we let Blake plan most of the trip, and we let him choose a villa far away from the main city of Oia under the assumption that we would be able to rent ATV’s to travel around the island. Upon arrival, we discovered that there were strict rules about renting ATVs, which we did not expect at all since we had seen so many friends visit in the past and rent their own. We made several phone calls, checked various websites, and eventually gave up on our dreams of galavanting around the island on all-terrain vehicles. We decided to blame that one on Blake.
Luckily, our Airbnb host helped provide transportation wherever we needed to go, and she had recommended a cute little vineyard where we could do a wine tasting and then walk to a local restaurant. Our rowdy group that had been drinking in the sun all day probably wasn’t the most polite group at the vineyard, but the owners were so sweet and we left with souvenirs of wine and olive oil. It was also a gorgeous spot to watch the sunset and toast to our last vacation abroad.
We hiked along the road a few miles to get to the restaurant, and had our fill of Greek food before heading back home to apply aloe lotion and get in bed. Once we had all settled into bed to prepare for our activities the next day, Sarah was woken up by about a dozen phone calls from a very panicked Lindsey.
Our other friends, Lindsey and Jozie, were in Santorini the same weekend as us but had booked a separate hotel and planned to meet up with us later. As it turns out, the “hotel” they had booked was a vacant lot in the middle of nowhere on the island. So it was late, it was dark, and two 21-year-old girls were stranded with their luggage in a remote area of Santorini with the howls of wild dogs surrounding them. Next thing we knew, they were at our doorstep, making the pullout couch, and telling us their crazy story.
Thank goodness Lindsey ended up with us, because she did not hesitate to take the reins and plan a fabulous day on a chartered yacht. Before we went down to the docks, a few of us hiked to the other side of the island to see the famous Red Beach. It was a bit of a rocky climb to get down to the beach, but the color was stunning and unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
Later that day we embarked on our fancy boat and spent the afternoon being spoiled with flowing drinks, a freshly cooked meal, swimming in the hot springs of a volcano, and lounging on the deck. It was everything I would’ve imagined Greece would be, and more. And I know this sounds ridiculously extravagant, but we had a pretty large group and it ended up being fairly reasonable considering all we got to experience that day.
On our last day, we made the trip up to Oia, which is the main town on the island that you picture when you picture Greece: white buildings with bright blue roofs on a cliffside overlooking the mediterranean. We couldn’t drive ATV’s there, but we figured out a way to get there via bus for pretty cheap. We dined, shopped, drank, explored the beautiful city and soaked in the sweeping views. It looks just like a postcard. It’s unreal, and hard to even explain. I hope my pictures can help do some justice.
Someday, I want to go back to Greece and see more than just Santorini. But I’d also love to spend a whole weekend in Oia, at one of the luxury resorts with the private pools and all of the views you could ever want. Hopefully, someday soon, the world will be back to normal and we’ll be able to experience these places again. Take my word for it and definitely put Greece towards the top of your bucket list.
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