Adventures with Jack and Julia

Corfu

While we were in Sarandë we were actually looking out on Corfu the entire time funnily enough. It’s so close that on a clear day you can see the island from the shore! We hopped on the ferry in the morning and arrived in Greece less than an hour later. Corfu is so beautiful but it’s also expensive so we booked a flight to Athens that night but still had the better part of a day to explore the city.

So, we stored our luggage at a local facility and headed out on the town! What we didn’t know and were immediately made aware of due to the ginormous crowds was that we happened to arrive on Corfu on one of the most celebrated holidays of the year. As we were walking from the port to the old town, we started noticing that there were broken pots all over the street. We thought that was odd, but as we got closer to the old town, the broken pots became more abundant, so we had to google what on earth was going on. Turns out, it was Orthodox Holy Saturday, and part of the celebration involves throwing clay pots into the street at 11:00am. The Orthodox church celebrates Easter a day later than we do so it was such a fun surprise to be there! Unfortunately, we just missed the throwing by about thirty minutes, but we did get to see the aftermath and experience the lively energy throughout the old town. People were mingling, celebrating, spilling out of bars onto the street and browsing all the local shops. We accidentally picked one of the best and most fun days to visit Corfu! It’s a fantastic spot full of cute streets, lively restaurants and gorgeous parks. Our first taste of Greece was eventful, exciting and got us really excited for the next couple weeks that we would be spending exploring this beautiful country.

Athens

We finished off our day in Corfu at a souvlaki joint and had a delicious first meal in Greece. Gyros and souvlaki are their fast food and there’s an abundance of great spots everywhere in the country serving them up for about 5 euro a piece. Then, we made our way to the airport for our 10pm flight to Athens. We arrived at our hotel after midnight so we decided to sleep in and have a slow start the next morning. Athens is so full of ancient history and historical sights that we were so excited to explore for the next few days.

Day 2 was going to be our big sightseeing exploration day, so on our first day, we decided to just wander the streets and check out the sights. We ended up at the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Arch of Hadrian, which are both under repair right now, so we just saw them from the street. We were on the hunt for some Greek style coffee and stumbled upon a beautiful rooftop coffee shop to admire the view of Athens and the Parthenon. Greek style coffee is very similar to Turkish or Albanian coffee and is served in a little copper pot called a briki. It’s strong, but very flavourful and a must-try when you visit.

Athens has many different neighbourhoods to explore, but in particular, we really enjoyed wandering the streets of Plaka and Psiri. After every corner you turn, there is either a really quaint coffee shop or restaurant, or a really beautiful piece of street art. We were pretty exhausted by mid-afternoon, so we called it an early day.

Our next full day in Athens was our big culture and history day as we had reserved tickets to visit Acropolis Hill and see the Parthenon, which was incredible to see in person! You and every other visitor to the city will go there so expect giant lines and a sea of people around the entire site but we both agreed it’s worth it to go up there once. You can see the Parthenon from all over the city due to its positioning, but there are lots of other monuments and sculptures you get to see when you visit the site. We also noticed a large hill next to the entry gate with other view points and green pathways and trees that you could enjoy for free instead, however.

On our last full day, we did a hike up to Mount Lycabettus to enjoy amazing views of the city from above. After our hike, we decided to wander through the city and ended up at the National Garden where we saw a tortoise walking through the garden! If you know Jack, you know that turtles are his all time favourite animal, so this was really special! We also saw one at a distance as we were coming down from our hike, so 2 turtles in one day was such a treat!

Despite all that, our opinions of Athens are a bit of a mix. It is such a big and crowded city and while we never felt unsafe, it definitely has some areas that are a little rough around the edges, including the area where we were staying. If you are ever planning a trip to Athens, we definitely recommend researching the areas beforehand and choosing one that is closer to the main attractions, or in a cleaner zone. There’s a ton of filth around even in close proximity to the main tourist sites, so be warned. I think we’ve both just learned that we prefer the smaller, more rural and less busy destinations to the big cities so our opinions are a bit biased. Go in the off season if there is one would be our recommendation!

Next up are a couple of spots that are much more our vibe. We are glad that we came to Athens to take in all the history, but we are so excited to be hopping on a ferry and heading to some beautiful Greek islands next!

Naxos

We picked a hotel to stay during our time in Naxos that was about a 15 minute drive away from the old town. Since we were there during the shoulder season, we got a really good deal on a hotel that was usually pretty expensive. The owners were so lovely that they even upgraded our room, gave us a bowl filled with fresh fruit, stocked the fridge with some drinks, and baked us some treats! There are definitely some perks to being there when nobody else is. Our place did come at the cost of the fact that the area where it was located called Agia Anna was completely dead. The restaurants, bars and other hotels were just preparing to open as in about a month, it would be bustling and full of tourists. The few spots that were open, however, were very welcoming and it was cool to see everyone setting up for tourist season. We weren’t too bothered by this but it would have been nice if it had been a just a bit more lively. We took the public bus into town everyday and had to bring our groceries back from the main town since no grocery stores were open in our area.

One thing we found ourselves laughing a ton at were people who would cross the little bridge to visit the Temple of Apollo. Since the weather was so windy at times, we would sit and watch them get soaked by waves while we waited for the bus. We made friends with a cat we named Kitty Kitty Chonk Chonk after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but mostly because they were well-fed by all the people at the port.

It was also very windy the entire time we were here, but that didn’t stop us from exploring our area and wandering through the beautiful old town streets. Julia really wanted to do a popular hike while we were here called Mount Zas, but unfortunately due to the high winds, it wouldn’t have been safe so we didn’t get to do it. We did take the bus to check out some really cute villages called Filoti and Chalkio though which we would wholeheartedly recommend if you visit the island. We had an amazing lunch at Amvrosia thanks to our friends recommendation (thank you, Jenn!), walked to the small village of Chalkio to check it out, and ended our day back in Filoti with a delicious sangria sitting on the patio under a tree. This was probably the highlight for both of us while on this island.

The wind advisory finally let up, just in time for us to take a short ferry ride over to our next island: Paros!

Paros

Paros was Julia’s favourite place that we visited in Greece. This time, we had a lovely hotel right in the old town called Viva Margarita (Julia’s pick – who would’ve guessed that?!). Since we were right in the action, we spent many hours wandering the streets and bopping around into different shops. The weather was perfect while here and things were a lot more lively and I think this definitely played into our enjoyment of this island but it is truly so stunning everywhere you go. We were able to do a couple of hikes and check out the beach while there and saw many early season travellers doing the same compared to on Naxos where we were mostly alone in our little town.

On one day, we got out of the city and took the bus to the village of Lefkes. We explored the small area and then followed The popular Byzantine Trail to visit the next village of Prodromos. The trail was originally built around the year 1000 AD to bring marble down from the mountains and is now a scenic path through olive groves and tons of blooming wildflowers. We took a break in the next village and grabbed a quick coffee and some dolmades before continuing on to our next village, Marpissa. Here, we took a slight detour from here to hike up to an amazing viewpoint with a church and enjoyed the 365 degree views. Our final stop of the day was Piso Livadi, where we caught the bus back to Paros. Piso Livadi is really small but the restaurants along the waterfront were mostly full and they all looked tasty. We had such a nice time this day and getting to make our way down through the villages we couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to drag marble slabs around. It was so beautiful but man that must’ve been rough!

The next day, we took another day trip to Naousa, a small fishing village on the northern side of the island. We walked around the town, which was pretty quiet since the busy season hasn’t started yet. Then, we had a gelato, and explored the harbor and the very small castle which Jack climbed up to see the views from above.

We had an early flight the next day to our last city in Greece, and were greeted by a few days of terrible weather!

Crete (Chania)

Jack’s birthday was on our second day in Chania, but it was rainy and cold the entire day. April showers bring May flowers applies to Greece as well, apparently… We tried to make the most of it though, and went for a nice coffee and had some delicious vegan treats to celebrate. We decided to go out for dinner the next day when the weather was a bit nicer.

Jack’s birthday dinner was easily one of the best meals that we had in Greece. We went to a restaurant called Ela where we had some delicious local white wine, dolmades, cretan pork with honey sauce, and for mains, Jack had polpa in salsa rossa e sfumato con vino while Julia had chicken with veggies. They even brought us some complimentary raki and fruits at the end of our meal.

Chania had one of our favourite old towns, so we spent lots of time wandering the streets, petting the cats and checking out the local shops. When the weather finally cleared up, we did a short hike at a nearby town called Agia Marina. Julia had booked a surprise sunset boat cruise for Jack’s birthday, but since it was raining, it was rescheduled for our last night in Chania. This was definitely a highlight for our time in Greece. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset onboard a traditional wooden boat, complete with a crisp glass of white wine.

Our time in Greece quickly came to an end and we were certainly sad to be leaving. We love the food, the atmosphere, the history, the architecture, and everything else about this country. It’s been a bucket list spot for us both for so long and we know we’ll be back because we’ve only just scratched the surface of all the places there are to visit. Our sadness was very short-lived, however, as we are heading to the land of pizza, pasta, and wine… Italy!

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