Greece: It’s all Greek to me

In 2012 we von Yarralls had our first proper summer holiday for a couple of years, as 2010 was spent partying at the football world cup in South Africa, and 2011 exploring Canada. So we were overdue for some down time in the sun - and a bit of a change from the planning involved in independent travelling. London’s rubbish weather (grey and wet for months on end) wasn’t helping matters, so when the alarm went off at 4am for our taxi to the airport, there were no complaints – the idea of guaranteed sunshine was enough to see us bounding out of bed!

Dean - not happy at the new closing hours

We first flew to Athens, as we wanted to see the Acropolis before heading to the islands. The metro to the city from the airport took about 30 minutes, and we came out to scorching sunshine and a pretty empty street – seems most Athenians are smart and stay indoors in 35 degree heat. Not us though, we checked in to our very clean and cheap hotel Athens Center Square Hotel, then ambled our way up the hill to the Acropolis, taking in a couple of markets and the atmosphere as we went. We got there at about 3.15pm to find a hand-written note saying the Acropolis now closes at 3pm on Sundays (not the 8pm on the website). We, and many other visitors, were extremely disappointed at this, and after speaking to a taxi driver, found this is a by-product of Greece’s financial crisis, with the government not able to stump up with wages for staff to keep the Acropolis open. We were super annoyed, but took ourselves off to the airconditioned, very modern (and cheap) Acropolis museum instead. Although informative and good, it wasn’t a replacement for the real thing (and let’s be honest, we’ve been to the British Museum and seen it all already, thanks Elgin). We were somewhat amused at the video which said something along the lines of ‘Elgin took advantage of the times and plundered the Acropolis’.

The following morning we were off to the ferry terminal to head to Mykonos. Again, the metro was reliable and fast, and then we settled in for the 3 hour journey. The ferry port is huge, so it’s worth getting there early to find the relevant ticket booth, we wouldn’t have wanted to be running around at the last minute.

Mykonos was beautiful, hot, relaxing, delicious, fun, and many more adjectives. We stayed in a bungalow (big room with a private balcony) at Rhenia, by the new port. This location, a 5 minute, €1.60 bus ride to the main centre rather than inside the town, meant we weren’t too tempted to explore each day and instead did what we’d planned to do – sleep, sun, read, swim, and head out for delicious meals in town most nights. Meal highlights include Jimmy’s gyros for the best gyros (kebabs) all holiday, Niko’s Taverna for fresh seafood, and Matthew’s Taverna at the bottom of our hotel’s road (for lazybones who can’t be bothered going further). We went exploring one day, hiring a quad bike and seeing Ano Mara, Elia beach, Super Paradise beach, Paradise beach and Ornos. This was a great adventure, we spent most of our day at Super Paradise, hiring loungers and an umbrella and having food and drinks brought to us. Very luxurious. And if you're into a party this is the right place to come as this video shows!

After five nights in Mykonos we waved goodbye and boarded a ferry to Santorini, a 3 hour journey away. Here we were staying at Sofia Hotel in Firostefani, a ten minute easy walk from the main town of Fira. Santorini is beautiful, perched on top of a steep cliff, with all the white buildings looking like snow (one of us thought for a moment it was snow as we pulled into the harbour, and it wasn’t the ‘von’ part of the team.) We didn’t find Santorini quite as relaxing as Mykonos, our hotel was more central and the pool smaller, but we still lazed around doing pretty much nothing each day, starting the morning with fresh fruit and greek yoghurt, and ending it with an al fresco meal around 10pm each night.

Not snow, but snow white buildings perched on the top of the cliff

 The highlight of Santorini was the day we walked 10kms to Oia, a town famous for its beautiful sunsets. The hilly walk took about 2 1/2 hours in the hot sun, but meant we got some excellent views of the island on the way (top tip - wear normal shoes, jandals wouldn't cut it). After the sun went down we visited Santorini Mou, an excellent restaurant recommended to us by family, where the owner and his friends sing all night long. Lots of wine, ouzo and food that night especially.

Both islands seemed pretty busy, but we did get the impression they were quieter than normal, and heard in Santorini during the peak season they usually have 11 cruise ships in the harbour, where we saw 3 or 4 most days. This possibly made for a more relaxing trip for us, as although both towns had crowded, narrow streets, we didn’t feel quite as squashed as we would have during a usual visitor year.

We would happily pop back to Greece for a laid-back holiday in future, definitely the most relaxing trip we’ve done so far.

Next up – the von Yarralls don their kilts for the Edinburgh tattoo, can’t wait!