Sunsets and Doors

Doors and Sunsets. Sunsets and Doors. I think I can sum up Greece in those two words! I guess there are maybe a few more – white and wind and churches and stairs. For those of you who didn’t know, my mom came out to Greece to spend about 10 days with me. It was so wonderful to see her – it made me a little homesick when she left, especially when I was thinking about all the things I am missing at home. I knew I would be missing my family, but still seeing her was so great, just what I needed! When I was planning my trip, I asked her where in the world she wanted to join me. Without even pausing, she shouted out Greece. I think for at least the last 10 years, every Christmas day, there is a calendar of the Greek Islands sitting under the tree for my mom. I shouldn’t have been surprised at all that this was where she wanted to visit! We visited Santorini, Crete and Athens, then I went to Mykonos on my own. To get you started, here is a wonderful door picture from Mykonos:

Santorini
This wasn’t my first time to Santorini – I went when I was in Europe 2 years ago. To be perfectly honest, I was pretty unimpressed by Santorini. Yes, the sunset in Oia was pretty, but it was really overcrowded and kind of far away from everything. Other than that, I didn’t see why people raved about it so much. When I went this time, I realized we missed some of the best views and beaches on the island! This visit, I was able to see all of the best views of the island and now I understand why people love Santorini.

We got pretty lucky on the first night, because apparently there was a festival that day where they celebrate the volcano by setting off fireworks above it. Mom and I got a great seat in a café in Fira, where we watched the sunset, then had dinner, then watched the fireworks over the volcano. The fireworks were great – they simulated lava on the volcano, both flowing down the hills and exploding into the air – so cool!

Our second night we did the required sunset over Oia – we sat at a really nice restaurant with the perfect view of the water. We got so lucky, as we were the last people to get a table in the restaurant! Our third night in Santorini, we went on a cruise that went to the volcano, some hot springs and then watched the sunset. It was quite relaxing and nice to see the sunset from a different perspective. Our final night in Santorini we moved to a different resort, one that was quite expensive and had been hyped up quite a bit – even Angelina Jolie had stayed there before. We got there and I was SO unimpressed. Yes, it had nice rooms, but the pool was tiny, it was in the middle of nowhere and there was no sunset in sight. Wonder if Angelina Jolie was as unimpressed as I was, LOL. When I think of Santorini in the future, I will definitely think of all the beautiful sunsets!

Crete
We took the ferry across from Santorini to Crete since that is the easiest way to move from island to island. We met a sweet girl named Jenny who is my age and her mom, both from California, who were going to the same hotel we were. They offered to give us a ride from the ferry and thank goodness they did, because the hotel was over an hour away – imagine how much that cab ride would have been! While in Crete we stayed in an amazing hotel, the Blue Palace. It is set on a hill and the hotel is built in a number of buildings that sort of flow down the hill and many of the rooms had their own pools. It makes for beautiful scenery. Our building was the newest one and we had been upgraded to a junior suite, which was amazingly beautiful. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t have our own pool, until we realized that there was only one other family staying in our whole building. Outside of our room there was a library and a huge sitting room where nobody ever was – it made me think that this is what the mansions of some of the rich and famous are like. Also, in front of our building was one of the 4 pools on the property, but nobody was ever using it. We used it every afternoon and never saw anyone else, so we called that our own private pool – we were so lucky!

Our "Private" Pool

 "Our" Library

In addition to reading in our library and lounging at our own private pool, we spent part of each day at the beach. The water was great, but like most beaches in Greece, it was all rocks and no sand. There was a dock you could jump off of and we spent lots of time in the water. I know I love the water and could spend hours floating around, but my mom puts me to shame. I think if she had it her way she would jump into the water at sunrise and finally climb out at sunset! We spent our days in Crete jumping from pool to beach to pool and getting a fair bit of reading in too – it was so relaxing. At night we would go to one of the local towns for dinner, where we had some fantastic seafood and surprisingly good pizza. We were definitely beach bums in Crete and loved every second of it.

Athens
Everyone had warned me that Athens was not a very nice city and that there was nothing to do there, so we decided to only spend one day there. We were able to see quite a bit on that day but I have to say that I disagree with people – I think it’s a really pretty city and would have loved to spend an extra day there. I dragged my mom all around town and we saw the stadium used in the original Olympics, the Acropolis, the national park and a few of the hundreds of old historical ruins that are set around town.

Through all of that though, I have to say that my favorite part was just sitting down for desert and wine. We sat right at the base of the Acropolis and you could just glance next to you and see it lit up and towering over you – where else in the world can you see that sight? It is a huge piece of history and we were able to just sit and marvel at it – I loved it!

Mykonos
After I said a sad goodbye to my mom I took the ferry over to Mykonos on my own. All I can say about Mykonos is holy doors. When you look at pictures and calendars of Greece and they have the colored door pictures in them, I swear they were all taken in Mykonos. The city is one maze of white buildings and doors of every color – blue, green, yellow, grey, red, you name it. I would just walk through, taking turns at random and get lost, snapping away of course. Here are a few of my favorites.

The other thing I will say about Mykonos is that is the gay mecca of Greece! I knew when I booked my hotel that I was staying across the street from a hotel that was strictly a gay hotel. What I didn’t realize was that 90% of the people in my hotel would be as well. There was only one other girl at my hotel and the rest were men – some of them were so sweet! Our hotel didn’t have a pool so I went across the road with them and we had drinks and lounged at the pool – definitely met some interesting and wonderful characters J I don’t know if that’s how it is all over Mykonos, but James and Rob definitely made the island for me – thanks guys!

After a wonderful 2 weeks, it was time to leave Greece. It was a great time to relax and recharge my batteries, which I definitely needed after being on the go for so long. Hopefully between relaxing in Croatia and Greece I am ready for what’s ahead – namely Jordan and Everest. I can’t wait to see what comes next!