Since January, my friend Katie and I had planned a little romantic getaway for just the two of us to Greece and then the Amalfi Coast. This would be my biggest trip yet. By the end of the semester, our trip for two expanded to include our new friend Ashley as well as some friends from San Diego. We would leave the day after finals and would be traveling out of our backpacks for almost two straight weeks. That shouldn’t be too hard… right?
Well, packing for two weeks in a weekend backpack was harder than we expected. Not only that, we had to pack up all our belongings in Barcelona since we had to move out of our apartment the same day. I will admit, I packed very poorly for this trip. You would think I would have learned by now after traveling for 8 months, less is ALWAYS more. However, I seemed to have over packed yet again. I was regretting that when I was lugging around my heavy backpack on ferries, trains, and planes. Lesson learned number one: pack smartly, not fashionably.
We flew into Athens and had a ferry to Mykonos that afternoon. We assumed that it would be cheaper to fly into Athens and then take the ferry, however ferry prices run around 50 euros give or take and then you have to take a very long taxi to get to the port. If I were to do it again, I would pay to fly into Mykonos because it would have definitely cut a day of transportation for possibly the same price. The high-speed ferry only took two hours and by the end of the day we had finally made it to Mykonos.
We stayed in an Airb&b, which was only a 10-minute walk from the main center of Mykonos. My first impression of Mykonos was one I will never forget. The town is painted in a crisp white with highlights of cobalt blue. The narrow streets that showcased all the touristy shops were lit up at night. The cobblestoned streets twisted and turned throughout the town. Surprisingly, it reminded me a lot of the city, Chefchauoen, in Morocco. The main difference is that this town was not run down in the slightest like grungy Chefchaouen was. Still, both places were uniquely stunning. Normally I don’t like touristy shops everywhere, but the city itself was just too cute not to love.
The next day we took the city bus to Paradise Beach. This was one of the only beaches we could get to with public transportation. We luckily had beautiful weather that day. We spent a few hours just relaxing under the sun and taking in our first full day in Greece. As you could assume, we were wiped out from our previous travel day.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get so lucky with the weather the rest of the time. We woke up the next morning and it was very windy. None of us had planned for that. We were expecting to have a nice beach getaway, sipping on fruity cocktails and getting bronzed but that just wasn’t going to happen for the rest of our itinerary. This was our second lesson learned, never assume the weather. The majority of the clothes I brought were bathing suites and beach cover ups, which I never even touched. All I wanted was to replace one of my 5 rompers for a comfy sweatshirt. So what we decided to do instead was rent ATV’s and go explore the island. At this point in the trip, our San Diego friends had joined us now.
With my driving experience (or lack of) I decided the safest option would to ride with Ashley. There were ATV rental shops everywhere around Mykonos. We each paid only 10 euros for an entire day! I highly recommend doing this in Mykonos. If you don’t have your own form of transportation, good luck seeing the rest of the island.
We spent the day cruising from hidden beaches to back country roads. All we had was a map and our intuition guiding us around. We had no idea where we were going; we just went exploring and decided to see where it would take us. We ended up stopping at two different beaches, which we had all to ourselves. Even though it was too cold to layout, it was still awesome to see Mykonos from this perspective.
Since all of us were on a tight budget, we ended up eating at a street food pita shop almost every night. For a full chicken pita wrap we could have dinner for just 2.50 euros compared to the swanky waterfront restaurants. We splurged by getting a glass of wine at one of the many bars to watch the sunset over the Aegean Sea. Not a bad way to end our days.
The next stop on our agenda was Santorini. When people think of Greece, this is usually the spot that comes to mind. Known for giving the best sunsets in the world, we all had very high expectations.
We stayed in the main town called Fira. This was cheaper than staying in the picturesque spot called Oia, but still had plenty to do. In fact, it seemed like there was more to do in Fira and wasn’t as expensive.
To be completely honest, when we first got to Santorini we were slightly confused. It was a lot more run down than we had anticipated. Sure we had great views of the sea, but we couldn’t find that picture perfect sight of the white villages lining the dramatic cliff side. It didn’t help that the weather was overcast and gloomy all day.
Later that night we went into town for dinner and we finally understood the hype on this place. We went down a narrow street and right in front of us was the most breath taking view I had ever seen. All the towns on Santorini sit at the top of a mountain, with the sea hundreds of feet below. I could see the entire island from Fira as well as many of the other islands dotting the horizon. I had one of those moments that I just thought to myself how there are so many beautiful places in this world to be discovered.
With the weather as bad as it was, we had to come up with some alternatives instead of going to the beach. This time we decided to rent a car. I know, sounds very sketchy, but surprisingly it was very easy! Actually, it was almost too easy and cheap, but we didn’t question it and just decided to go with it. We got to really see the island this way. If we thought Mykonos was bad with public transportation, Santorini is so much worse. Renting a car was definitely essential to getting around the island. We were able to see black and red sand beaches that would normally be impossible to get to.
In the afternoon, we took the car to Oia to see that iconic sunset that Santorini is famous for. Unfortunately it was so cloudy that we could not get one decent sunset any of the nights we were there. Even though we were all disappointed, I think it just gave me another reason that I just have to come back some day.
Oia itself was beautiful. It’s incredible to see all the white washed buildings and houses leaning against each other on top of a soaring cliff. The physical features of Santorini are what make those incredible views. It felt like it had been preserved in time and that it was still in its rawest and natural form, which was beautiful.
Before we left Greece, there was still one last activity to check off our bucket list. We just had to ride a donkey. We were expecting to have a “sisterhood of the traveling pants” moment, but that was not the case in the slightest. It was only ten euros in Fira to get a 30 minute donkey ride.
They take you down a (very steep and treacherous) stone pathway down to the port and then back up again. It was actually pretty scary and very uncomfortable on the way down. I was holding my breath, thinking the donkey would trip at any moment, and both the donkey and I would go flying off the side of the cliff. Katie was struggling in the back about to fall off of her donkey. It definitely wasn’t a nice leisurely stroll, but at least the views were great!
We had survived our first week of travel. We all completely underestimated traveling for that many days in a row. We developed two different mottos for our trip. The first one was to “always roll with the punches” and the second one was “at least we will be able to laugh about this tomorrow”. We clearly ran into many speed bumps on a daily basis, but each one was a learning lesson in disguise. Just from one week of travel, we had all become so much closer and each night we would laugh about whatever issue we came across that day. Ashley and Katie were great travel partners and I was so lucky to have them to share this experience with.
Next stop on our backpacking extravaganza: Italy!
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