Past POIs - Meteora [Greece]

While in Greece (specifically in Athens), try to make it to Meteora which is known for it's monasteries that are literally built on top of rock formations. Meteora itself is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There are currently 6 monasteries remaining of the original 24 that are built on natural rock pillars that you will stare at and wonder how it was made.

We visited this on a 2 day tour and it was a good enough time spent being there in my mind. On the 2 day tour you stay at Kalampaka where you will actually be able to see the monasteries if you have a good enough eye.

The tour itself consisted of us visiting the Great Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries and St. Stephen which is a small monastery, but is actually only for females. Both places are very interesting to see, especially when you look and wonder how it was built and when you are inside, it is as if you were just in a regular monastery.

Well worth the visit in my mind, although I would guess that you will need 2 days to visit it since it is a 4 hour drive from Athens.

Come back next time for another Past Point of Interest!

2017 - Greece (Summary)

Duration: 15 days
Locations: Santorini, Crete, and Athens Greece

In June of 2017, we visited Greece and here is a summary of things that I enjoyed the most, one for each location that we visited which are Santorini, Crete, and Athens.

Highlights

Fira to Oia Hike (Santorini), with clear signage and it being the #1 thing to do in Santorini on TripAdvisor (as of September 2017), you aren't really go wrong here. The hike itself is free, no money required, however, there is no shade on the way, so bring some sunscreen or stay covered and there are also no stops for water, so make sure to bring enough of that as well. There will be plenty of people along the way (at least when we went in June), so don't worry too much about getting lost and just enjoy the hike which takes roughly 3-4 hours. Try to start early, that way you avoid the high afternoon sun (unless you like hiking in the heat).

Samaria Gorge (Crete), a great and quite strenuous hike which does have an admission cost, but it was pretty low for us when we went at roughly 25 euros per person and this included all the transportation as well as a guide for the entire trip. You have the option to go from the bottom to the top or the top to the bottom which is what most people do. The hike itself will take all day with a start time of roughly 6:00am to an end time of roughly 8:30pm. There are plenty of water refill stations here, but do bring some hiking poles if you don't like going down. Make sure to enjoy the nice views!

Meteora (Athens), a long day trip from Athens, we did it as a 2 day trip and it was wonderful. Meteora is a collection of monasteries that appear to have just dropped from the sky and landed on top of mountains that literally just appeared out of nowhere. You'll have to see it to believe it. What's even more impressive to me was once I went inside one of them, it was like I was in a normal monastery on land. A must see if you are in the area and you have time to do this.

Lowlights

Nothing was particularly disappointing on this trip. The only part that was disappointing was that we started in Santorini, did Crete and then ended up in Athens where the environment and vibe completely changed. Depending on where you are, you can see that the city has/is undergoing some difficult times.

Food Suggestions

Lucky's Soulvaki (Santorini), a tourist favourite (or local, I can't tell). We ordered the pitas on several occasions and the plate and every one that we have tried were excellent. Bare in mind, this is compared to what we have in Toronto, Canada which I think is already quite good. The food here is great, quick, and fairly inexpensive. The only downside would be that it lacks seating. There are mainly just bar stools, no real sit down tables.

Paralia (Crete), a restaurant right by the water where they serve freshly caught seafood. Enjoy the food, the sights, and the sounds while here.

Thansis (Athens), come for the kebabs, they were amazing! A must try in my mind and very reasonably priced since the street that it is on is actually full of restaurants fighting for customers.

Tips

While in Santorini, rent an ATV. You may worry about the safety, but Santorini in the main areas seem to be littered with ATVs, so don't worry about being run over by cars. With ATVs, it also is a lot easier to park since most people just park on the side of the road and you don't require as much space as a car.

Final Thoughts

I can see why Greece is a place for tourists to visit. There is plenty of variety of things to see and do and it really is just an island hop away. I liked the food variety that was available and was shockingly not bored by the end of the trip which is a common issue that I noticed while travelling.

Until our next trip!

2017 - Greece Summary (Athens)

Duration: 6 days (2 were for the Meteora tour)

Highlights

Meteora is worth the 2 day tour that we did. While the food was disappointing, seeing the sights in person was fantastic. I have mentioned that it is a bit disappointing when you are in the monasteries since it seems normal, however, that in itself is a feat since it doesn't seem like it is built on the edge of a hill.

Panathenaic Stadium, the world's only marble stadium is a definite must see even if you just want to see it from the outside.

Acropolis, try to make it early in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the crowds and heat. A must see for anyone who comes.

Central Market, a must for people who like markets. While it is always similar, it is just always interesting for me to see.

Lowlights

Athens in general outside of the tourist area is a bit sad to see. Lots of graffiti and poor people. I knew that they were hit hard with the recession, but this was unexpected for me. While I wouldn't say it was disappointing, it was eye opening for me.

Food Suggestions

Meliltos, suggested by our Visit Athens volunteer and I would suggest it to anyone. It is a bit pricier, but the food was very good.

Thansis, you should stop by for the kebap. I think there are two restaurants next to one another, but I never found out what the difference was.

Tips

Negotiate! It doesn't take anything but a minute to ask for a discounted price. We got 15% off just for asking if they could give us a better price on the 2 day tour which is a sizable amount.

Final Thoughts

Athens has its charms although I feel like I enjoyed Meteora more. Plan accordingly since if you are not interested in ruins or museums, I felt like Athens does not have much to offer.

2017 - Greece Summary (Crete)

Duration: 3.5 days (Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning)

Highlights

Samaria Gorge was a definite highlight. I know that we don't normally go hiking much, but this experience was definitely worth it and highly suggested.

Monastery of Arkadi was a nice stop since we were driving to Chania for Samaria Gorge. I can't say that it is worth a visit if you aren't in the area though since there isn't much else nearby.

Venetian Harbour (either in Chania, Heraklion, or Rethymo) are worth visiting for the nice views. They are all a bit different, but all are very nice to look and be at.

Lowlights

Nothing disappointed me in Crete.

Food Suggestions

Central Park Cafe has a very large menu and the food that we ordered was great.

Paralia which is by the water serves fresh seafood

Ippokampos also by the water and serves fresh seafood.

Tips

Our first time driving here and we noticed that if you are slow, you should drive on the shoulder to allow other cars to pass. The same applies for when you drive behind a slow car, they will usually drive on the shoulder which means they are allowing you to pass. I noticed that the solid line rule did not really apply here.

Final Thoughts

Crete is significantly larger than Santorini and I can see why people say that even one week would not be enough depending on what you like to see and do. I think we had a good taste of what Crete had to offer and if we could rejig some days, Crete would have gotten some more time.

2017 - Greece Summary (Santorini)

Duration: 4 days (Saturday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon)

Highlights

Volcano tour - I know that a lot of people won't like tours, but I thought that the volcano tour was a very good way of covering a number of spots while at Santorini and I don't believe you can visit these places on your own.

Fira to Oia hike - Again, probably not for everyone, but I thought it was very enjoyable, although do note that there is no shade available during the entire hike. Plan accordingly.

Lowlights

Nothing disappointed me here. I did find Santorini very resort-like so it seemed a bit unnaturally friendly and clean depending on where you visit.

Food Suggestions

Lucky's souvlaki - not quite sure why we liked this place so much, but we did end up here a number of times. The souvlaki tastes very good and is very inexpensive.

Trani Taverna - very good food and if you luck out, a nice view to boot.

Tips

I think our duration was a bit long based on what we did. You may like to relax a bit more, but based on the things we did, I would suggest the following:

Day 1: Rent an ATV and drive the southern half of Santorini
Day 2: Do the volcano tour
Day 3: Do the fira to oia hike

That was sufficient for us in terms of things to see and do there. There are more things to do there, but that was enough based on our experiences.

Final Thoughts

Your duration is based on your interests. If you want to just relax, I would suggest a nice hotel with a view, otherwise, I think 3 days is a good amount of time to spend here.

2017 - Greece - Day 15 [Athens]

Today is our last day in Greece before we head back to home to Toronto and our goal today was to look for graffiti art. Since we fly out I'll write about our experience flying out as well in this post.

Athen's graffiti

Breakfast was the same as usual, no change at Athens Center Square Hotel.

Breakfast

We wandered to the Gazi area by foot in search of some graffiti, since it was early in the day, we didn't really worry about anything (we were told to be a bit careful when it is dark). I think overall, we never felt worried while being here at all. As long as you are in the tourist areas you'll be okay.

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti

Athen's graffiti (look closely, you'll see half of it on on a brick wall, the other half is on the side of a different wall)

Ended up finding some graffiti, but it wasn't as crazy as expected. My opinion on this is based on my desire to find graffiti that looks like art and not fancy tags (graffiti which is just words).

Kebap on the left, cheese on top, souvlaki on the right

With that done, we ended up back at Thansis for lunch and we ordered the chicken souvlaki, kebap, saganaki today which came out to 24 euros. The saganaki I would avoid, I think it is just an overall salty cheese and it seems a bit disappointing compared to the Halumi we had the other day.

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Central Market

Visited the Central Market by our hotel and it is well worth a visit for those who don't know markets, or those who like them. Imagine if you walked into a grocery store, but your usual areas like meats, veggies, fish, as all operated with different owners, but they all more or less sell the same thing.

Central Market

Central Market

You will see stall upon stall that sells meats in one section, an area that sells fish, and then outside it was fruits and veggies. Very neat place. Not, if you don't like looking at dead meat/fish, you might want to avoid this.

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum

National Archeological Museum was next and we walked there from our hotel, it wasn't too long of a walk and we ended up being there from 2:30pm to 4:30pm at a cost of 10 euros per person. This museum has a lot of things to see and it is a bit confusing in terms of layout in my mind. Your stay depends on what you like and you may not even be interested anyways. Unfortunately, it is a bit outside of the usual tourist area, it just happened to be near our hotel, so we paid them a visit.

Oddly, our hotel staff told us to just take the metro to the museum, we did opt to walk there and was a bit confused by the suggestion. Maybe tourists don't like to walk? We weren't really sure.

Aspro Alogo Greek Salad

Aspro Alogo Calamari

Aspro Alogo Anchovies

Dinner was at Aspro Alogo again where we ordered the calamari, anchovies, and greek salad for 20 euros.

So concludes our trip to Greece! Overall, a lovely country with lots of history to explore.

The next day, we walked to the nearby metro station which had a train to the airport. We noticed that is cost 10 euros to 1 person, 18 euros for 2 people, and 24 euros for 3 people. So it is actually to your advantage to have more people! Similar to our experience with the trams in Germany.

There was plenty of signage to get to the airport, so, no worries there. Note, the station that we were at has trains that operate on the same station, even though they are on different lines. In our case, we were at Monastiraki station and we needed to wait for the blue line and not the green line. There is a sign board at the station in case you get lost. In our case, we just followed the people that looked like they were going to the airport. Note, the train took 40 minutes from our station and the train itself comes every 30 minute, so check the schedule before heading out.

Once we made it to the airport stop, again, just follow everyone. It seemed like there we plenty of people going so you probably won't need to worry. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

Over the next few posts, I'll cover the summary of the areas that we visited in Greece.