Greece
From the time we first studied ancient Greece in elementary school, I knew I wanted to go. Seeing all that cool ancient art and the amazing pillars and statues seemed like something I would see in a book, but never in real life. I wanted to go, I just didn’t think I actually would.
Once again, we weren’t writing for Jetset Wanderlife at the time we went, so I’m going off memory. Athens as a city was surprisingly gross. Just lots of garbage, very dirty, and stinky streets (not all, but some). It’s such a weird thing to see such phenomenal history and art surrounded by squalor. Lots of the sidewalks are actually a type of mosaic-like tile, and since it had been raining, my no-traction shoes were atrocious (RIP Chucks). I slipped so many times, but to the best of my knowledge, I didn’t fall all the way down.
Our hotel itself was decent, and the breakfast was good, but it was in a seedy-ish area with a few people passed out around it. However, it had a rooftop balcony, and we saw the Parthenon all lit up from up there on that first night. I know the photos I took aren’t great, but it’s an experience I’ll never forget.
As soon as we woke up, we climbed some big hill and I felt like Paul preaching (aside from the fact I’m not Paul and I wasn’t preaching). It was insane how dense the housing and population looked from so high. I would highly recommend it because you get just an incredible view of the entire city from all directions.
Of course we did every historical thing we could find, including Hadrian’s Library, the Parthenon, and the Acropolis Museum. Every single thing we saw and did changed my life. It’s so different reading this stuff in a book compared to actually seeing and experiencing it. I remember sitting in this stone seat in this amphitheater, imagining all the crazy stuff that probably happened there over the centuries. Just bloody amazing.
We wanted to see Santorini (always reminds me of the song Santeria, RIP Brad, but I digress) but we didn’t have time to make such a long journey, so instead we caught a ferry out to the island of Aegina. That ended up being one of the most fun times in all our travels, as we rented a scooter and just cruised. We had no destination, so, like I love to say, the journey was the destination. We ended up happening upon the Temple of Aphaea. It’s super beautiful because it’s up on this hill and is the prototypical Greek temple. We were the only ones around so it was amazing. We also cruised around to these nearly deserted beach towns (it wasn’t tourist season) and found some rad beaches. The memory of riding the scooter is one of the best I have in everything we’ve done.
Last, a word of advice: If you have a student ID, even one from a foreign country, bring it! Caitlin WOULD have had heaps of discounts, but hers had just expired literally days earlier so they wouldn’t take it. But it seems like almost everywhere we went had a student discount, some were substantial.
Unfortunately, that’s all my goldfish-brain can remember. It was dope and I can’t wait to go back.
To see the photo gallery, CLICK HERE.
GEAR
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Since this trip was 5 years ago, I truly have no idea what you should actually take. But here’s a few of our always-take-on-trips stuff:
Hotels.com gift card: Every now and then you can get $50 for $40 on Amazon, which we always do when the deal comes up. We know we’ll use it.
My Bag: As I said above, we travel LIGHT. This bag is not incredibly nice, but it has a lifetime warranty and it can cinch down to unbelievably small sizes. It’s made it through heaps of countries with no problems yet.
Space Saver Bags: These have proved invaluable on our travels. It’s amazing how small clothing can shrink down to in one of these! Highly recommended.
International Outlet Plugs: Of course, when traveling overseas you need a plug adapter. We’ve had these exact ones for at least 5 years. We’ve taken them to 4 continents and they’re still going strong. And, they’re super cheap and have everything you need all in one, so you don’t have to bring a bunch of different parts. Highly recommended.
Double Wall Plug USB Charger: Probably not essential but with so many things needing charged (both phones, camera, laptop, etc), it’s nice to charge 2 at once. And they charge super fast. We use at home and abroad.
Aux Cable: You probably already have a million of these. Our car had a USB that connected directly to the music, so we could charge our phones and blast tunes at the same time. The longer cable is nice so if someone is in the backseat they can still charge and control the music or navigate or browse Instagram or whatever).
MacBook Air: Since we had to travel so light, it was nice to have a tiny but powerful computer. I ran the business from the road with no problems.
