Greece: The Beach, and Not Much Else

Honestly, there’s not a terrible amount to say, because we weren’t there that long, and while we were there we didn’t do a whole lot.  We flew to Athens and arrived at our hostel around 5, which gave us just enough time to drop our bags and race to the Acropolis before it closed. I was obsessed with Greek mythology as a child (and to answer your question pre-emptively, yes, I was the coolest kid in school), so seeing the Parthenon was pretty fun.  However, we were both so hot and so tired, we wouldn’t have made it much longer, even if the place hadn’t been closing. We grabbed food on the way back to our hostel and collapsed into bed before getting up at 5:45 in order to catch a bus to the port for our 7:30 am ferry to Santorini. We made it to the boat with five minutes to spare, like, they were pulling up the ramps. No matter how much time we give ourselves, we always seem to end up sprinting through train stations and airports and docks, in our giant backpacks, inciting laughter in all who see us.

But we did make it, and 8 hours later we got to Santorini, where we immediately went to our hostel (which was actually a hotel, and by far the nicest place we’ve stayed, yet one of the cheapest). We dropped our bags and headed for the black sand beach, which was a mere 100 yards down the road. That evening we asked our concierge where a restaurant listed in my guidebook was, but he immediately told us that we could go there, but it was not very good. He said we should go to a restaurant just to the left of the hostel, where he ate every day, and it was authentic Greek, and everything was caught fresh, and if we didn’t like it we could come and tell him. We ate there, and he didn’t steer us wrong, it was delicious. Plus, when we asked for the check, they brought it out with “second dessert,” for free. That pretty much sealed the deal, and for the next 48 hours we didn’t leave that triangle of space. We went from our hotel to the beach, to the restaurant for lunch, back to the beach, the restaurant for dinner, after dinner walk on the beach, and back to the hotel to have a drink on our porch and talk. It was glorious. Did we see the adorable village at the top of the island that you’re supposed to see? No. Did we hike to the volcano crater, or go snorkeling? No. We lay around and read and ate, and I do not regret it for a second. It was perfect.