EUROPEAN VACATION PART 2: GREECE AND THE CYCLADES ISLANDS

Despite this fourteen-day vacation being a wonderful experience, there were two days that were complete and total nightmares. The day we travelled to Europe (28 hours from leaving our bedroom in Southern California till arrival at the Athens Marriott plus ten hours of time change) and the return day (25 hours from leaving our hotel near the Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy to my bedroom in what amounted to a 34-hour day). These were the only days on the trip that were mentally debilitating. On the plane ride back from Venice to San Diego, discovering that my body has a bizarre gluten allergy specifically to German made Hefeweizen beers (Which are fantastic) added a fun twelve hours of intestinal distress to the already irritating journey. Here is some ADVICE FOR FUTURE TRAVELERS TO DIFFERENT CONTINENTS.

If you book through a travel agency, make sure the trip only has one connecting flight. My partner and I did not contemplate how stressful the two connecting flights would be, especially if you must go through customs two additional times in two different countries.

We left San Diego at 8:00 am on Monday morning and arrived in Athens, Greece around 3 pm on Tuesday. Last week, I mentioned how difficult it was to travel through Canada and Germany. My partner and I got X-Rayed three times in 24 hours (TSA Plus does not work in foreign countries) passing through the customs of both countries. When you arrive in Greece, they made no effort to check my passport. We picked up our luggage and left. It was like flying domestic in the United States except without the TSA molestation. This relaxed attitude is something that is refreshing about Southern Europe (More on this in future posts). Flying into Greece and as an amateur historian, I was expecting to be blown away by the country on first impression. The airport is located on the eastern side and a mountain must be navigated around to reach the city of Athens. It requires a 40-minute car ride to get into the city center. Greece looks dry, desolate and dirty upon landing. The Uber ride was even more depressing. Until we got within a few miles of our hotel, Greece looked like the worst part of the inner cities of the United States. Burned out and abandoned buildings, trash everywhere on and off the streets, graffiti, and a real sense of hopelessness that permeated the air including our driver who seemed like a sad and beaten man. There are homeless people in Athens, but they are a minimal presence compared to a city like Los Angeles. Athens is loaded with apartment complexes that ALL LOOK THE SAME. Like they just build the apartment one floor at a time and stack the exact same design onto the next floor. These apartments are everywhere. The uniformity of their design was related to an era in Athen’s history called “Antiparochi” when housing needed to be built rapidly for an exploding population. The problem is these apartments are everywhere and leave an ugly blight on the city. After finally arriving at our hotel, my wife and I were so exhausted that after we ate dinner, we fell asleep at 630 pm and slept until 2 am. Ate some of our leftover Greek food from dinner and passed back out at 230 am till 7 am on Wednesday.

If it seems like this trip is going horribly and you are wondering when the fun begins, it only gets better from here. A couple of additional things about Athens. It reminded me of Latin American countries. While the Greeks have a long and complicated history and are often given proper credit for their philosophical ideas that led to our present-day civilization, the country just looks old. Side streets are very narrow and beat up. Stray cats are on the streets everywhere. But Athens has some wonderful things also. The area around the Acropolis is beautiful and touring those ruins should be on everyone’s bucket list. Since the ruins are located on a hill, the view of the entirety of Athens, including being able to see Mount Olympus (The home of Zeus) on a clear day gives you an understanding as to why this area was so inspirational to our ancient philosophers.

Greek food is INCREDIBLE. The restaurant that was recommended to us behind our hotel was amazing (If you don’t mind smoking which is legal in all indoor buildings unless designated and having cats laying around inside the patio.). A real Greek salad does not have lettuce. Even on the islands, a Greek salad contains only these ingredients:
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Green/Red Peppers
Olives
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Onions
Slice of Feta on the Top coated in Olive Oil or Vinegar depending on the restaurant

Public transportation is incredible and there are no stinky, drug-addicted, homeless people asking you for spare change on the bus like in Los Angeles. Bus rides were quiet with everyone minding their own business. The buses run on time. The subway system is fast and effective. It is a very efficient system run along very well-maintained highways. Greek people are not very talkative. Since Americans can’t keep their mouths shut, it isn’t very difficult to identify the “tourists” in Athens.

After touring Athens Wednesday morning and reaching our cruise ship late that afternoon, my partner and I woke up docked alongside the island of Santorini. A couple of facts about this interesting island.

1. There are seven different island groups off Greece and Crete, a large island to the South. Santorini is part of the Cyclades group, a chain that forms a circle around the sacred island of Delos.
2. When arriving in Santorini, you will notice that the whole area looks like a massive crater. Santorini is part of an edge to a monstrous volcanic caldera caused by the Minoan explosion 3600 years ago. Santorini is the largest island but on the opposite side, there is a smaller inhabited island which is also part of the caldera named Thirasia. Closer to the center of the caldera are four uninhabited islands, Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni, Aspronisi, and Christiana which can all be seen from the edge of Santorini.

I was jokingly told by my German “interrogators” that when in Greece, you will have a purely Greek experience. This happened in Santorini. I decided to reserve an ATV for the day mainly to tour the entire island. The cities on Santorini are a few hundred feet above the water overlooking the Aegean Sea. So, it requires a walk up a zig zag road or a quick journey up a tram. Since the electricity was out, there was only one way to get up to the city of Fira, BY DONKEY. Ten Euros later, my donkey who was a massive asshole (He kept bumping his other brethren out of the way to get me to the top as quickly as possible) got me into the city within about fifteen minutes. When in a country like Greece, you do learn to appreciate simple things like a functioning electrical grid. Once I reached the top, the lady at the nearby restaurant said power outages on Santorini are as common as full moons. Santorini is dry and dead like a good chunk of Athens. It does not appear that a vegetable has grown out of this soil since the time of Shakespeare. But the two main cities of Oia and Fira are both interesting places.

Once the ATV was rented, the rest of the day was magical. With my women holding onto me from behind, we toured every inch of that island over an eight-hour timeframe. From the incredible blue roofed churches and winding, curved streets of Oia, the wineries along the coast, the Akrotiri Lighthouse at the tip of the island, the red beach, an amazing lunch at a fish restaurant named Galini and the experience of driving roads that had more curves than the average mountain pass in California. One other thing to know about Greece. Hours of operation for a business are theoretical. One of the things I wanted to do was visit the Ancient City of Akrotiri. Admission was fifteen Euros, and the hours stated that, it was open till 5 pm. I arrived at 250 pm and the lady running the exhibit said they were shutting down for the day. But she had no problem taking my thirty Euros to see the site which I refused to provide. I did manage to sneak into the historical site to use the restroom and took a couple of pictures on my way out of the facility. When in Europe, restaurants, markets and other tourist attractions are often open on the whim of the owner. So, you may find yourself disappointed if you were looking forward to a particular attraction and find it closed.

Day Two was on the island of Mykonos, famous for its curved, difficult to navigate, streets and famous windmills. My partner and I also ate the best Souvlaki and Gelato we have ever had in our lifetimes in Mykonos. But the highlight of this day was a cruise over to the sacred island of Delos, the historical center of the Cyclades Island group. The entire island of Delos is a UNESCO Heritage Site. Upon landing, the ruins on the island are incredible. Just walking around and experiencing this living history is an amazing experience from the Terrace of the Lions to the art history museum. There are pieces of this history lying around everywhere alongside your feet. Wondering what civilization was like on this now dead, brown and desolate island thousands of years ago fascinated me. Delos is very small but at its height, they believed as many as 30,000 people lived at this sacred site filled with ancient temples. The remnants of this civilization due to the isolated nature of this island have been well preserved and is the best example in Greece of what living in their culture was like at the height of their Empire.

Part 3 will be next week. Enjoy!