Greece
I know I said it, but I need to say it again, low season traveling in Albania put a big damper on our experience. So when we arrived to Ioannina in Greece to see people out, and stores and restaurants open, our spirits were lifted instantly. We had no expectations, but we drove in and parked within the castle walls before setting out to explore the town and enjoy the comfort of a crowd. We enjoyed a nice sunset over the lake, then went out to dinner for souvlaki at a local grill. I don’t know what it is, maybe safety in numbers, or a break from the focus on just the two of us but eating in a crowded restaurant was such a simple experience that made us so happy. It also helped that Greece has incredible food and insisted on serving us a small complimentary dessert.
The next morning, we got up early to head out to Vikos Gorge, I think it’s the second deepest gorge in the world behind the Grand Canyon, but I could just be making that up. There was an easy road to the top where we would only have to hike a couple of kms, but we had all day and chose the long hike that also included the Vradeto Steps. It was a great hike, with beautiful mountain scenery the entire way, and an remarkable lookout over the gorge at the end where we were able to get our first good photo together of the trip. Yes, it took us over a month of travelling to get a good photo together.
After the hike, we drove back to Ioannina, with a stop at an old stone bridge for pictures on the way. We made it back in time to enjoy a second sunset over the lake, before enjoying some gyros from a little take away shop for dinner, and a dessert of loukoumades (Greek donut holes with honey) from a shop next door.
We only stopped in Ioannina so we could go to Vikos Gorge, but it turned out to be a charming little town with great character, and great food. We were disappointed that we didn’t have more time there, but also looking forward to our next stop at the rock temples of Meteora.
After a foggy morning drive from Ioannina, we arrived at Meteora around noon. The receptionist at the hotel gave us a great detailed map of the different temples to visit, which ones to visit first, and where to go for sunset, and we followed her plan almost exactly.
Our first stop was the Varlaam Monastery, which is known as being the oldest, and it has great views. Here a random guy offered to take a photo of us, and we suddenly had another good couple photo. We are not great at taking photos together, so two photos in two days was a miracle. Then we moved on to the Holy Trinity Monastery, which had a staircase built into the rocks in order to enter the monastery, and you can walk out through the garden onto the rocks to see what these monasteries are built on. And we ended the day’s monastery tours at the Monastery of Agios Stephanos, which is out on the end, but really more of the same buildings, paintings and views as the first two.
After three monasteries, we made our way to the sunset lookout. It was still some time before sunset, but we wanted to beat the crowds, and it was such a nice view that we didn’t mind some extra time here. The way the rocks jutted straight up out of the ground all around us was otherworldly, and it felt like a beautiful dream sitting up there as the sun fell and started casting an orange glow on the rocks. We also met this nice Swiss couple who helped us get even more nice photos together.
We spent a nice 30 minutes enjoying the sunset on this quiet lookout until about 10 minutes before sunset, the tour buses arrived. They suddenly overwhelmed the lookout and it was impossible to get a photo without someone jumping in front to take their own. It was a bit of chaos, but it also led to one of my favorite photos of the trip.
After escaping the chaos of sunset, we found a nice little Greek pub. Despite the crowds in the monasteries and at the lookout, this pub was excellent, and we were quickly finding that Greek pub culture is up there with British, Czech and Australian. The food was incredible and once again, they served us a complimentary dessert. This one was a syrup cake called Ravani, and it is a dish I will definitely be making in the future.
The next morning, we got going early to visit last monastery before starting the drive to Athens. This last one was the Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen, which is the largest of the Meteora Monasteries. We did another walk through the chapel and museum before hitting the road to Athens.
The drive down to Athens was long and uneventful other than slowing down for a toll booth every 30 minutes, and the tolls slowly increasing as we approached Athens. I thought Sydney was bad, but this four hour drive cost us 40 euro in tolls.
When we finally made it to Athens, it took us another two ours to drop the car off and take the train into the city. It didn’t help that google maps was telling us the wrong train lines, but eventually we made it to our hotel, a nice place just outside the city center. After a long travel day, we wanted some comfort food, so we found a nice Indian restaurant nearby, enjoyed some curry, and retreated to our room for the night.
We were hoping for a rest day after the non-stop movement on our little road trip, but we only had one nice sunny day, so this wasn’t to be. We managed to have a quiet morning, before we set off to climb up the Acropolis at 10. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and the scale of the structures, and the preservation after 2,500 years was incredible. I’m usually more interested in finding the natural sites over the historical sites, but the Acropolis was worth every bit of its popularity and is something everyone should visit.
After descending from the Acropolis, we went across to the Temple of Zeus, where we saw a tortoise, and finally to the Panathenaic Stadium, which is not original, but I couldn’t help but go inside to sprint down the track. Millie didn’t join me in this, instead she stayed in the stands so she could take a video of me embarrassing myself. Thankfully, that won’t be uploaded here.
After seeing the sights, we made our way back toward the center of town where we had a great Greek salad and saganaki for lunch. This was a touristy restaurant under the Acropolis, but the food was still excellent. We had not found any bad food in Greece yet.
After lunch, we climbed back up the little neighborhood of Plaka, where we wandered through the narrow passageways between the white houses overlooking the rest of Athens. It felt like we were out on a Greek island.
The sun was getting low by the time we finished here, so we started making our way to the last site of the day, the Greek Agora. But before we got there, we had to stop for a Gelato to keep up our energy levels. This gelato was almost our downfall, because the Agora was closing just as we arrived at the gate. We had to take the last couple of bites and throw the gelato in the bin so they would let us in.
Kept ourselves busy watching the trains while eating gelato
We had to rush through the agora because of our gelato stop, but we also were able to wander through right at sunset, capturing the golden glow on the ancient marble structures. This was the finishing touch to a day I won’t forget anytime soon.
Despite having a great day, full of good food and impressive sites, the day wasn’t over, and we went to a nice pub for dinner. We had another great Greek meal, and the owner was really funny, greeting everyone and asking a few questions about our lives and where we come from before he would let us pay.
And after dinner, the night continued with a visit to Clumsies, a cocktail bar rated in the top 50 in the world. We had a couple of very unique cocktails with combinations we would never have imagined or ordered anywhere else, but fitting end to an unexpectedly incredible day.
By the next morning, the rain had set in, and we weren’t too motivated to get going. We had a sleep in and a slow morning, before eventually we left the hotel to go see a few more sites. The primary place we visited was the roman Agora, and we spent about an hour wandering around here before heading in to explore some of the other parts of Athens.
It was a slow day by comparison, but it didn’t take away from our satisfaction with the last five days in Greece. Other than dinner this last night, we had only incredible food everywhere we ate, the landscapes were stunning, and the historical sites were inspiring. We were looking forward to visiting Greece because we have heard a lot of good things, but it blew all our expectation out of the water. Up to this point we have enjoyed the places we visited, but we’ve also been satisfied with the amount of time we spent in each place. Greece was different, we had such a great time that we didn’t want to leave, and will have to come back, possibly in summer so we can have a nice Greek island holiday.
