Week 1 – Mainland Greece
My trip to Greece in 2016 was part road trip and (planned) part buses and ferries. Out of two weeks I spent the first on the mainland: Athens has a lot to offer! The obvious antique sites a vibrant bar scene and above all delicious Greek cuisine!
On the 3rd day I picked up two friends of mine at the Airport. They had also planned a trip to Greece, which fortunately we realized in time. So we could go to Delphi together, where you don’t see much of the Oracle of Delphi anymore. Still it is a great site embedded in beautiful mountain scenery. On the way there we visited Hosios Loukas, an ancient Byzantine monastery.
I continued my trip to Meteora, which movie nerds will know from James Bond – For Your Eyes Only. A fascinating area with the iconic monasteries placed on the spikes like icing on cake.
The next overnight stop was Litochoro for a stop by Mount Olympus. I couldn’t hike up there unfortunately due to bad weather conditions. My 7th day in Greece I spent in Thessaloniki before I departed mainland Greece to Iraklion on Crete.
- A – Athens, 2 days, Acropolis
- B – Hosios Loukas, Byzantine Monastery
- C – Delphi, 1 day, Oracle
- D – Meteora, 2 days, Monasteries on immense monolithic pillars
- E – Litochoro, 1 day
- F – Mount Olympus
- G – Thessaloniki, 1 day, Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments
Of the 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Greece I have visited only 5. Still plenty of things to see in Greece, but even these essentials were both impressive and wonderful to behold.
Week 2 – Island Hopping vs. Netflix
Here’s my plan for week 2:
A – Iraklion, Crete, 1 day (visiting Knossos)- B – Chania, Crete, 1 day
- C – Elafonisi, Crete, 1 day
- A – Iraklion, Crete, 1 day
- D – Santorini, 1 day
- E – Mykonos, 1 day
- F – Athens, 1 day
What really happened though was:
Me getting sick in Thessaloniki and spending the rest of my holidays in a nice little hotel in Iraklion. Delivery services kept me fed, some medicine kept me going and some books and Netflix kept me entertained.
Fortunately the latest season of House of Cards was just released. Also I learned: Netflix is not restricting the offer by your nationality/the country you live in and set up your account, but by where you currently are. So I got to see the show before it was even airing in Germany.
Always looking on the bright side… 🙂