Greece Was the Word

Twenty five years of marriage, a milestone birthday and a long anticipated trip to Greece felt like a pretty good reason to (over)pack a suitcase and head across the Atlantic.

And friends…Greece did not disappoint.

We started our trip in Athens, which is an interesting combination of ancient history and modern city life. You will walk through crowded, traffic-filled streets with buildings covered in graffiti and then glance up and see 2,500 years worth of history staring back down at you from the hills of the Acropolis. It is truly awesome to experience and it made us realize how young the United States is by comparison.

It is a long (and very slippery) climb uphill to reach the Parthenon, but absolutely worth the effort. It took just nine years to create, using no mortar and white marble blocks fitted tightly together like a puzzle.

Still standing after all these years. The Parthenon, too.

We were also able to witness the changing of the Greek Presidential Guard, an elite group soldiers who stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and outside the President’s mansion. Their service is mandatory and they are handpicked for their physical strength and go through five weeks of secret training.

The soldiers must stand completely still and expressionless during each one hour shift, which they perform every 4-6 hours a day.

A spectacular rooftop dinner with an even better view of the Acropolis at night.

We also enjoyed strolling through the quieter, more quaint neighborhoods of Plaka and Monastiraki, taking a break to have a balcony lunch and savoring some souvlaki and one of many Greek salads (can there be enough Greek salads? The limit does not exist). We had some beautiful moments, but the energy of the city left us ready for our next stop. We took a very short flight to Mykonos, which immediately felt like a deep breath of open air. It was time to put on our sunglasses and have a little fun. We drove through (extremely) winding roads filled with whitewashed buildings, blue doors, bougainvillea everywhere, and the bluest sea I may have ever seen.

We took a tour of Old Town Mykonos and wandered down winding little streets filled with every kind of shop imaginable—from high-end designer labels to art galleries, to t-shirt and souvenir stores. We learned a bit of Mykonos history and were rewarded for those efforts with a guided wine tasting (after all, you can’t work too hard on vacation). And since I forgot my black sandals back in Charlotte, our guide was great enough to show me to a fantastic Greek sandal boutique where I found a better-than-adequate replacement pair.

A walk through Old Town Mykonos leads to Little Venice, named for when the Venetians ruled Mykonos and lived in the small houses on the port.

From Little Venice, we walked up Kato Mili Hill to see six of the windmills that were once used for grain production. There are still old ruins of windmills scattered across Mykonos.

We came back after our tour with my new sandals in tow and headed to the spa for massages. If that’s not heaven, let the angels know I am fine to spend eternity just that way.

You know we cannot resist a gimmick: the concierge at our hotel told us about a restaurant where everyone gets to gather and break plates after the meal. The Greek custom of breaking plates is a celebratory ritual done at weddings, in tavernas, and on special occasions to express joy or release negative energy. You would not believe the fun of dancing around to live Greek music with a room full of strangers and breaking a giant stack of plates!

This is probably just the pile of what I broke (as always, I got a little enthusiastic).

Mykonos is also famous for its luxury beach clubs. If we must, we must…right? We booked these beautiful sunbeds at Principote for a fabulous day.

Staying hydrated, of course.

The only time we moved from those glorious sunbeds was to swim in the Aegean sea and for a feast in the restaurant: Saganaki prawns, grilled octopus, potatoes with goat cheese, and of course, hummus (but we will talk MUCH more about food in just a bit). It was, without a doubt, a perfect day and then they actually played “Suzie Q” over the sound system as if it were just for me!

I will admit, we were a bit hesitant about visiting Mykonos since we had zero intentions of taking advantage of the nightclub scene (Clint Googled what is peak time for Mykonos nightlife and we confirmed our advancing age when we were horrified at the search results: 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.!), but we did think it was worth its popular status. It is a picture perfect town with cobbled streets, historical sites, and sweeping views in every direction. From Mykonos, we took the ferry—which is probably the closest to experiencing the Hunger Games a person can get—on to Santorini. Every Greek we spoke to described Santorini the same way: romantic. It was where Greece really showed off.

A majority of the Santorini hotels are boutique “cave hotels,” which are literally carved into the side of the cliff. They look cool…until you walk up and down the zillion narrow steps to access your room a few times!

Santorini sunsets could not be duplicated by any filter or AI generated content. This was the view from our hotel at golden hour.

Opa! Clint is 50! We celebrated his milestone birthday during our trip, and he officially turned half a hundred the day we reached Santorini.

Happy birthday, Clint!

We had the incredible chance to visit the Akrotiri archeological site; a 3,600 year old city buried by ash from a volcanic eruption in 1650 B.C. It is Greece’s version of Pompeii and we were able to see remains of buildings, roads, frescoes, furniture and even indoor plumbing (!) preserved in the ash.

Here we are in the clifftop village of Oia (pronounced ee-ah). When you see pictures of Greece, this is likely what you see. We were so lucky to have a guide who knew where to take us to get pictures—people queue in lines literally for hours for shots with the blue domes behind them!

Here is another Instagram famous picture we took in Ammoudi Bay. It is a great spot for the freshest seafood meal you could get, since what you order has literally just been caught in the bay that day.

We sat right on the crystal blue water and, since everything on the menu looked so tasty, we shared the mixed grill with fish, squid, mussels, prawns, and of course, Greek salad.

Our last day, we went into the little town of Fira and visited the Archaeological Museum and strolled through the narrow streets to see the alarmingly steep cable car that runs up and down the side of the caldera cliff. We watched the donkeys carry both people and their luggage up the 588 steps from the Old Port to the town at the top. Then it was time for a quick gyro lunch and a leisurely afternoon by the hotel pool.

Our last dinner and one final gorgeous Santorini sunset. The restaurant, Above Bistro in Imerovigli, also served us the best meal of our trip and a perfect ending to the trip of a lifetime.

Greece is known for its history, beauty, hospitality, and of course, as I keep mentioning, the food. Everything we ate was better than the last bite and it may have ruined us forever for anything else. Coffee is a big part of the culture there and it was the best I have ever tasted (although my mother insists it cannot possibly be better than the Pike Place Roast at Starbucks, sorry Greece). I don’t know what we are trying to pass off as feta cheese here in the U.S. or what I thought I have been eating and calling it a tomato all my life, but NO MA’AM. We devoured fresh seafood of every variety, loukoumades, souvlaki, gyros, lamb fricassee, moussaka, tzatziki, fava bean spread, fresh sourdough bread, I could go on and on…but I will just quit drooling and share a few highlight pictures before I faint.

If anyone offers you fried feta with phyllo, honey, and sesame seeds, say yes every time.

This was part of our fresh seafood lunch at Dimitri’s Tavern in Ammoudi Bay, with prawns, octopus, calamari, and the catch of the day.

We were not leaving without having gyros. One of our local guides told us the real ones are either chicken or pork—not lamb!—and have french fries inside. We had pork gyros (and Clint may have had more than one…but it was his birthday).

With the columns made from feta, this is not just the best tasting Greek salad I have ever had, it is also the most beautiful. This is from our last dinner in Santorini.

I actually swooned when this Mediterranean lobster pasta came to our table. I do not think it would have been possible to end our trip on a better note than this outstanding dinner watching the sunset. (There was dessert as well but we were enjoying ourselves too much to photograph; a sign of a lovely time).

As mouthwatering as the cuisine was, the Greeks tend to get a little too creative in my opinion with their cocktails. This is one typical example of a signature cocktail we encountered (almost all of them were just as strange). Please note the combination of passionfruit, horseradish, and rocket—which is also known as arugula. None for me, thanks.

The hospitality we encountered was outstanding. The Cycladic winds on the islands can be very strong, and most of the dining is outdoors. Many of the restaurants offer blankets or pashminas if you are cold, and they do not just bring you a warm layer; they come to you and envelope you in it themselves until they ensure you are comfortable and warm. This pretty knit pashmina was so cozy, we asked if any were for sale. Sadly, they were not.

Nine days flew by, and now we find ourselves back in Charlotte, no feta in sight, saying hurtful things to each other such as, “have you folded the laundry yet?” or worse, “what do you want me to cook for dinner?” That is the real Greek tragedy, y’all.

Our upcoming twenty fifth wedding anniversary was a pretty good excuse to celebrate. Clint turning 50 gave us a very timely reason to have a big, fat, Greek adventure. And to sit down for long lunches together, look out over the bluest water, laugh with each other, and enjoy the fact that we had nowhere else we needed to be.

We came, we saw, we overpacked, overspent, and overate (as is our custom). Greece, you were a pretty fabulous 50th birthday party. OPA!