Greece 2014

November 30, 2014 at 8:42 PM · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Acropolis, Athens, family, Fira, Greece, Oia, Santorini, trip, vacation

Currently listening to: —

Feeling: 

I don’t have any excuse. I am a lazy bum.

When did I return from my trip? November 11. What day is it today? Yeah.

Oh oh oh, sort of a small excuse, but I went to New York 2 days after until the 17th? 8D…

*ducks as objects are thrown at me*

I AM ALIVE. But still lazy.

In all honestly, I just don’t know what to type. My trip to Greece was something else. I was in Santorini for 3 days and in Athens for 4.

ARGGGGGGGG SANTORINI.

ARGGGGGGGG BLUENESS.

ARGGGGGGGG NO PHOTOSHOP REQUIRED FOR PHOTOS.

ARGGGGGGGG see this is why I had no motivation to blog, because words have become too foreign to me, too facile, to describe my trip. I guess I could just post 2873823 pictures, and since a picture is worth a thousand words I’d be done 8D! Speaking of pictures, after deleting blurries and doubles, I only took around 1600 pictures. SHAME ON ME. FOR SHAME. The majority of them are blue and white. Santorini is a great place for selfies because pretty much every building acts as a reflector.

Anyway, if a chance ever arises for you to go on vacation, I highly, highly, so highly (but without the drugs), recommend you to visit Santorini. I went when the weather was cool (chilly if there’s wind, and there was wind 90% of the time), and I didn’t get to swim, but I can imagine it would be absolute perfection if the weather was warmer. It did get quite warm during the early afternoon, but I’m not sure if that was from the sun, or if it was from me walking 28736823 flights of stairs and wearing a very Canadian winter jacket.

CAN I PLEASE MENTION (wow, I have ADHD) THAT I STAYED IN THE MOST EPIC HOTEL/RESORT IN SANTORINI?! Okay, that’s it, since I’ve typed so much already I might as well keep typing. Ummmm so my mom originally booked a hotel called…something about volcanoes…but but but when we arrived it was apparently “closed for the season” (why did they allow us to book it online?) and we got a FREE UPGRADE TO A BEAUTIFUL 5 STAR HOTEL/RESORT ARGGGGGGGG! Look it up if you want, it’s called Petit Palace, and TELL ME IT’S NOT AMAZING. I DARE YOU. I was so tired and cranky from flying (as I mentioned in my previous entry, Toronto to Milan, Milan to Athens, and finally Athens to Santorini, not to mention wait times at the airport totalling around 5 hours), and it was dark when we saw our “hotel”, which was a door, and I was so confused like WHERE IS OUR HOTEL and then I stepped through the door and then OH HELL YEAH BABY WELCOME TO PARADISE I think I’ve found it.

Our “room” had 2 floors, WHICH IS LIKE INSANE because IT JUST IS, and we had our own balcony and private pool that was SO SQUEAKY CLEAN IT LOOKED LIKE THERE WAS NEVER ANY WATER INSIDE BECAUSE IT WAS THAT CLEAN OKAY. Unfortunately, like I mentioned before, it was too cool to swim, BUT IT’S STILL COOL TO HAVE A PRIVATE POOL. I’m rhyming AND making puns oh snaaaaaap.

And and and I would also like to mention the taxi drivers (well…the taxi drivers we interacted with) are soooooo nice and friendly. Basically we kept the card of the taxi company that picked us up from the airport and just kept calling them to drive us places every day haha. By the end of the short trip in Santorini, we were all like best friends and I pretty much knew their life stories and stuff. Intense.

So so so OMG THIS ENTRY IS GETTING TOO LONG. I ate so much Italian food in Greece whaaaat.

Time to summarize. Olive oil. And tomatoes. Um. Cats. There are a lot of wild cats and kittens in Santorini.

The first day in Santorini! My parents and I conquered the town of Fira! We first walked there (took us about 35 minutes, and then when we found out the taxi ride would only be 7 Euros for the three of us back to the hotel we never walked there again) and my is it a gorgeous little town! I went trigger happy obviously, and left no path unexplored! Fira is very white and pastel-ish. IT WAS ALSO AT FIRA THAT I DISCOVERED MY FEAR OF RIDING SKINNY SMALL DONKEYS WITH WEAK KNEES DOWN STEEP STAIRS WITH LOOSE ROCKS AND 2 FEET OF WALL TO PROTECT ME SHOULD MY DONKEY SLIP AND I PLUMMET DOWN THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. I justified fear I think. I was coerced. Never again. I should have just given the man money to take pictures instead. My parents were also terrified.

The second day in Santorini! My parents and I called our friendly taxi driver to drive us to the further town of Oia! It was about a 20 minute drive (I would like to mention here that the roads in Santorini are really narrow, and there were several times where I got nervous and wondered if licensing exams even existed), and wow, Oia is something else. It was like a beautiful maze of adorable stairs and residences that refused to line up properly, and did not follow conventional building guidelines. I poked my head into so many buildings, restaurants, hotels, you name it. If there was a path, I WENT ON IT. And I’m glad I did, because with my curiosity came beautiful, post-card-worthy views. I’m so glad I have 2 batteries for my camera. Quaint little blue domes everywhere. Oh, I learned this from my taxi driver. The little blue domes in Santorini are actually private churches. They are passed down to the eldest son. The son doesn’t get the house. If a family had a son and a daughter, the son would get the small little blue-dome church, and the daughter would get the house. Most interesting.

The third day in Santorini! We called our taxi driver again and he gave us a deal! 50 Euros for him to drive us all around the Eastern parts of Santorini. Best deal ever! Went to Kamari beach (the “sand” is actually small black pebbles!), Akrotiri, he even drove us up a really high mountain so we could see Pyrgos (SCARIEST DRIVE EVER HOLYYYYY THERE ARE SO FENCES TO SAVE YOU AS YOU DRIVE ALONG THE ONE-WAY NARROW AND WINDING ROADS). Unfortunately when we arrived at the top of the mountain, a rain cloud decided it would pay us a visit, and blocked our view grrrrrr!

Oh mannnnn this entry is getting long! I’m missing so many things but maybe I’ll stick some photos in later to make up for it. Maybe.

Let’s fast forward yet again.

BYE BYE SANTORINI YOU WILL BE MISSED. Thank you for giving me 10 years worth of exercise.

I’m on the plane!

Boom, Athens.

Unfortunately, my first day in Athens wasn’t so great. After a very long taxi ride through traffic, we arrived at our hotel (which was considerably smaller than our SUPREMELY DIVINE COME HITHER AND BELIEVE IT hotel in Santorini) and I was plagued with lady pains. I slept the afternoon away. My parents explored the area and nearby streets while I cursed myself for being a girl.

The next day, I was in much better spirits! BUT THE WEATHER DECIDED IT WOULD BE FUNNY TO SPIT SOME RAIN so yeah. Went to the Acropolis, saw several ancient buildings, tried not to slip and die, breathed in way too much second-hand smoke, marvelled at the size of marble columns, stalked cats, hopped on and off various hop-on-hop-off buses, it was nice.

After a somewhat uncomfortable night of sleep (I always hate sleeping with my parents because their combined snoring would put Beethoven’s symphonies to shame), I was woken up by my dad telling me there were many street vendors outside selling old and antique things. EXCITEMENT ENSUED. While impatiently nomming breakfast at our hotel, I spotted a nice vintage camera from the corner of my eye. My dad and I went outside to check it out, and after some bargaining, I SCORED MYSELF A NICE KODAK CAMERA (made in Germany!) AND AN AWESOME TRIPOD AHHHHH! THANKS, DAD ;___; Thank goodness my dad used to be a photographer because I saw 2736823 other vintage cameras that I thought looked cool but after consulting my dad, I found out that they were overpriced. Had some trouble fitting the camera onto the tripod, but after some fiddling my dad managed it. We did more street shopping once my mom finished up her breakfast :) Once that was over, my parents and I decided to give the bustling city a break. We went further south via the hop-on-hop-off bus tour thing and stopped by the small harbour town of Mikrolimano. Ate at a nice restaurant with really yummy food, took some pictures by the harbour like we owned 28376823 yachts, and called it a day.

Our third day in Athens was a shopping day! I was a little disappointed with Golden Hall mall, but I did end the day with a few purchases. AND WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, THE NEXT DAY WAS OUR LAST DAY IN ATHENS. And we went back on the plane to London, and then went from London back to the good old country of maple syrup.

I can’t believe this entry is done. If I’m not lazy I’ll put up tiny pictures.

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