memoirs of greece: july 2011

my fascination with greece was a manifestation of my sister's interest in greek mythology. she was in high school when she bought that book, she loved those stories about the greek gods and their powers.


one fine day in singapore i came across a book sale and there was a travel book on greece being sold at five bucks. i bought it, and made a bet with someone whereby my reward for winning was a trip to greece. i won the bet three years later. but the reward didn't come by.


luckily, a good friend wanted to go for his birthday and there was no way i was gonna miss that! and so, we have conceptualized a 2-week adventure in athens, santorini and mykonos. this itinerary is very common to first timers as it truly showcases the country: the ancient greece, the romantic greece and the party-rocking greece.


athens was a morph of the ancient and the modern, a bittersweet contrast, really. all the ancient structures that the government is trying hard to preserve remain very beautiful and magnificent, and yet the city was almost in ruins due to riots and chaotic protests. 

a few years later, me and my book made it to greece!

                                          

at the acropolis with the birthday boy

the greeks were actually very friendly (and the policemen? hot. :P). some of them were chitchatting about why people were out on the streets. despite the chaos in the city we were able to walk around safely, and just avoided a few streets as advised by the folks. on our way back to the hotel in the late afternoon we noticed that some street ads and store glasses were broken and there are some burning debris all over. we also had our share of tears due to the teargas attacks.

graffiti all over the city

museum was closed due to the protest

near our hotel

protest assembly

aside from the usual city tour in athens we did a side trip to the outskirts. in sounio we had some lovely greek snacks (feta and wine) while overlooking the temple of poseidon and watched the sun set along with other romantics.

sunset at temple of poseidon

in corinth we passed by the corinth canal. spiros, our tour guide and chauffeur, said that sometimes they hold bungee jumping sessions in that bridge. too bad we didn't catch it that day.

corinth canal

we were supposed to leave athens after three days but due to the scale of the protests even the shipping lines were affected. we had to wait a day to get to santorini. we spent the extra day shopping, eating, and people watching (and trust me, you won't get tired of it!).

when we reached santorini it was very early in the morning. it was very foggy too so we didn't really get to see much.. but then when it cleared, we literally opened our mouths in awe. it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen.

first glimpse of firestofani

we did a bit of beach hopping, we've seen black, red, and white beaches.

black beaches of perissa

the out of this world looking red beach in akrotiri

i arranged for a wine tour in santorini on my friend's birthday and told vaios (connoisseur and tour owner) to help prepare a surprise cake and some drinks and i will pay extra for it. he asked the restaurant owner to especially bake a chocolate cake for him, and we had shots and shots of ouzo and rakki and he didn't get us to pay anything more. in case you plan on having a wine tour in santorini, make sure to contact this guy and he'll take care of you. 

vaios explaining the basics about winemaking

Vaios Panagiotoulas
www.santoriniwinetour.com

our tour group on emil's birthday night

the party didn't end there though. solemn as santorini seems to be during the day, it shines even more at night! and there are parties everywhere too, but one needs to be careful walking back to the hotel because one wrong step and you might be on the edge :)

santorini shines at night

pre club crawl

leaving santorini was really hard, but our journey was meant to end with us partying hard. and we were headed just to the right place. mykonos.

at tropicana club, where the party starts at 4

..and we came back for more the next day

mykonos is known for the exciting parties but there is a part of the town that's also interesting and pretty. we took a stroll and snagged some lovely snaps.

cute windmills

little venice

this summer trip was easily the best vacation i've ever had and i wish i could visit other parts of greece in the future. here's hoping! :)