Greece - Sunshine, Sailing, Swimming... Sensational!

This blog has taken slightly longer to produce than I intended; mostly due to bringing myself to undertake the daunting task of sorting through both mine and Shaun’s photos. From what must have been well over 1000 photos, I’ve managed to select 165 favourites. Obviously I can’t put them all in the blog, but the rest will go on Facebook.

Our trip to Greece was a year in the making. We booked our sailing trip through MedSailors at a travel expo in October 2014, and managed to rope in 8 other friends to fill the entire yacht (including Gemma, who came all the way from New Zealand to join us). After counting down every month since, September finally arrived. We flew to Athens and enjoyed an evening and a morning taking in the sights of the Acropolis, Parthenon and the old town before meeting the boat on Saturday afternoon.

Note the marble streets

There are no straight lines in this building, all the columns are thicker at the bottom. This was done on purpose so that it all looked straight from a distance!

Hard to imagine what this would have looked like in all its glory - apparently behind the intricate frieze was painted blue!

Temple of Zeus

Apparently the pieces of the columns were so well fitted together that the wood running through the centre of the column still smelled when they took them apart centuries later!

Our sailing trip takes us around the group of Islands closest to the mainland, not too far from Athens, called the Saronic. Here is the map.

The first night we stopped at Perdika. We watched a beautiful sunset and then had a feast of Greek Meze with seafood, salad and a lot of Ouzo! It turns out that the dark liquid in the orange cups on the table was not designed to be added to the ouzo, as someone suggested, as it turned out to be red wine! Note to self!

Our home for the next six nights

Captain Shaun

Following an incredibly rocky and stormy night, the sun was out and we set sail (or started motors, rather) for Ermioni. We stopped for a swim in the beautifully clear and warm water, and took turns at mastering the paddle board (and doing bombs off the side of the boat).

Tucked in a bay on the mainland, Ermioni was a quiet town with interesting ruins. The number of bars and restaurants along the water front suggested that the town was probably anything but quiet during peak tourist season. That night we were treated to a free dinner of the best souvlaki I’ve ever tasted, and then treated to entertainment from the crazy bar owner (dubbed Ron Papadopolous / Ron Jeremy) who’s favourite pastime was lighting his bar on fire and flinging napkins at all the patrons on the dance floor. The combination of napkins and fire was a disaster waiting to happen, so we retired to our boat (where at least the drinks were free).

Bar on fire!

The following day we went to Spetses, probably my favourite stop on the trip. The town was gorgeous and we hired scooters to explore the Island. Unfortunately this didn’t work out quite so well for Gemma, who gave up on scootering and spent the rest of the day exploring the town.

Around the island we made our way to check out a cave and several more beaches. Unfortunately the 4-wheeler that Shaun and I hired didn’t have the guts to get us both up some of the hills, so at one point I ended up squeezing on the back of Shae and Isaac’s scooter to save myself a long walk!

Inside the cave looking out to sea

After Spetses we spent two nights on the Island of Poros. We explored the town and made friends with a little dog we named Shaun Junior. We ended up running into this guy repeatedly for the next two days – he was like our little furry tour guide. I must say that he lost a few brownie points when he started bullying the locals cats though…

We had the most amazing meal here on the second night; the fresh tuna pate was second to none!

We also took a day trip to Hydra, which was supposed to be a stop along route, but as the bay is so exposed, we would have been in for a rather unpleasant night sleep. So instead we took the ferry across. I’m surprised we made it there alive given the unbearable petrol fumes.

Hydra was absolutely stunning. I had a delicious breakfast (ok, elevensies) of greek yoghurt and fruit. We then hiked up to the top of the hill behind the town to see the monastery. It was quite an impressive complex with absolutely stunning views. There was also a crazy dog who liked to chew on everything and everyone…

Titanic moment...

Clock tower

Shaun Jnr

View from the clock tower

Photo credit to Isaac

Chilling with Shaun Jr after we bumped into him at a night club!

Hydra

Hydra

Selfie inception

Dog ringing the bell

After Poros we headed to our final stop, Agristi. This island was a little bit run down and you could definitely tell that we were the last boats of the season, as most places were closed. Nevertheless, we all donned our togas for the MedSailors party and had a cracking good time. Thankfully the Irish guys on one of the other boats was a great singer and entertained us all before I had the chance to offer to rap Gangster’s Paradise.

Sailing crew. Our skipper Tom top left.

Back in Athens, we all met up for a meal out, and then said farewell to Gemma. The next day, having already seen the Acropolis, Shaun and I went to the Archaeological museum and expored the old town again before meeting everyone to celebrate our last night together by finishing off all the booze we didn’t manage to get through on the boat!

So many sculptures

The next day Shaun and I were up bright and early to catch the ferry to Santorini. Santorini is too beautiful for words! We arrived in the early afternoon and after checking into our apartment in the town of Imerovigili (kind of in the middle of the caldera rim), we went to Oia to watch the sun set. The next day we walked from our town back to Oia to have a better look at the town with it’s small cobbled streets and white buildings with blue domed roofs, and I treated myself to a rather bizarre foot treatment – with kissing fish (should have been called tickling fish – there was an eight year old there who handled it better than I did!). After lunch we hired an ATV and explored a bit more of the Island. We eventually made it to the Red Beach, which was absolutely stunning with cliffs of red scoria towering above the beach – even the sand was red.

That evening we enjoyed a delicious meal on the balcony of a restaurant overlooking the caldera. They had a wedding on earlier that day, and no one must have realized that they were still open, so we had the entire place to ourselves!

Our apartment building

Sunset in Oia

View over Oia

Being tickled to death by fish.... Turns out they weren't hungry enough to make my feet smooth

The next day we caught the ferry to Mykonos, where we relaxed on the beach all afternoon and took in some cocktails as well of course. The next day we explored the old town and its warren of streets of white and blue, before catching the ferry back to Athens in the evening and back to reality.....