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Χαίρετε from Athens International Airport! Hope everyone had a great weekend and an even better Canada day long weekend. I've been in Greece for the past week and a half exploring the islands, eating chicken souvlaki for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and fighting the urge to shotgun beers from seeing the Greek letters all around me.

There are so many islands in Greece it's not actually agreed upon how many there are but according to google it's somewhere around 6000, of which only 227 are inhabited. So how the hell do you choose which ones to go to with so many options. First, I established what I wanted the vibe of my trip to be. After the intense partying of Barcelona and what is going to be another intense few weeks in Montenegro, I wanted a more chill vibe with not as many tourists but still plenty of stuff to do. Next, I consulted a trusted source who spent almost 2 months touring the Greek islands this summer and she told me about Paros, Naxos, and Milos.

Day one:

I arrive in Athens at like 530pm and I take a train to my hostel where I check in around 7. I only had that evening in Athens because I had a ferry the next morning to Paros but I still wanted to check out the Acropolis because how can you not. By 7:15 I crushed a chicken gyro and 7:30 I was at the Acropolis. It closed at 8 so I only had 30 minutes to explore. It was kind of rushed but I managed to read most of the descriptions of the landmarks and artifacts and take some pics. Greece arguably has the coolest history and mythology in the world. The acropolis itself operated as so many different things throughout its history based on who had control of the land. At various points it was a home for royalty, a fortress for soldiers, a mythical home for gods and of course when the Romans took over they made it into a church like they did with everything.

Paros:

Next day I took a five hour ferry ride to Paros (on the fast ferry too). They don't tell you how long the ferry rides are from Athens. Had I known ahead of time I probably would have flown directly to one of the islands so I don't waste half a day sitting on a boat.

Paros was a perfect mix of being able to relax during the day and party at night in a nearby town if you wanted to. There are two major cities on the island - Parikia and Naousa. The former being where the ferry lands, the quieter of the two and where my Airbnb was. The latter was more of a Mykonos vibe with lots of tourists and nightlife. I had three nights on the island so my routine was generally eating a gyro for lunch, going for a hike to find a nice quiet beach with not too many people and chilling there for the better part of the day while mixing in some reading, swimming, sleeping and listening to music. I'd head back home in the evening and go for a nice dinner at a restaurant on the shore and watch the sunset. After, I'd head home for a solo pregame and then head to the bus station that to wait for the bus that took me to Naousa. It had been a while since I'd been out alone because in Barcelona I'd go out with my neighbors so I was always with people. It was nice to be alone again but obviously at night you want to mingle. I have a few simple rules I follow that ensures I make friends every night I go out.

1. Don't bring headphones out

I love listening to music everywhere I go. Most of my screen time is just spotify so if tempted I will listen to it, but you're not very approachable if you've got headphones in.

2. Say hi to the first person you see whenever you walk into a place

When I walk into a bar to order a drink I always make conversation with the person next to me regardless of whether its a girl, guy, old, young (not jailbait though), or even if they don't speak english. If there's no one next to me I just chat with the bartender.

3. Don't look at your phone until you've conversed with at least 3 people

Reason is simple. You don't want to be that guy that's alone with his face in his phone.

The first night I met some girls from London at the bus station and pretty much hung out with them the whole night but I have no idea how I got back. Second night I met another girl from London at the bus station who was also travelling alone so we had a lot in common. When we got to Naousa there was a blackout there and she wanted to wait it out but I didn't so I went back home. Turns out the blackout lasted all night so whose laughing now Emily?? The last night I met some local Greek girls when I was out for dinner and they actually convinced me to change my plans of going to Milos as my last stop and instead go to another island called Koufonisia which is more of a locals place. I'll take local's advice over anyone any day.

Naxos:

The next stop was Naxos which is a 30 minute ferry from Paros and kind of the rival island because the locals s**t on each other constantly. I had another three nights here but it was going to be a little different because I had a friend from Barcelona who happened to be on the same island at the same time so we we're going to hang together for the last two nights.

The first day I landed and got to my Airbnb I was stunned at how nice the view was from it (I'm rarely stunned anymore). It was definitely the nicest view I've every seen from a place where I was staying because I had a private rooftop to myself and it was facing the sea and the sunset. I got there in mid-day and explored the town just to get my bearings and visited a local landmark called the Temple of Apollo (name is self explanatory).

I inhaled my 17th chicken souvlaki of the trip and called it a night early. The next day my friend arrived so after she got settled in we went to go rent a moped to explore more of the island because it was massive and there was a lot to see. The problem was that when I got my wallet stolen in Spain, my driver's license got taken along with it. I had my temporary motorcycle license but they wouldn't accept it because you need to have the license for at least two years to drive one. Then my friend tried with her driver's license but they didn't accept it because she was under 23 yrs old and that's the minimum age to rent it as well. So many stupid arbitrary rules.

We tried a few different rental shops until we found one that looked like the only requirements for renting was having a pulse. After some back and forth he gave in and agreed to let us rent one for two days but not before putting the fear of god in us with a 15 minute lecture on how screwed we would be if the police stopped us. We rented it with my friend's license but I didn't let her drive because she's American and I heard girls from there don't have rights anymore.

It took me a few kilometers to get used to driving with a passenger because turning is all about shifting body weight so it's harder when you have an extra person. I actually had been wanting to do this anyways because I need to take my motorcycle road test when I get back to Toronto so this was much needed practice for it.

The first day with the bike we went to a beach farther on the island that barely had any people. We just posted up on the shore and listened to music and chatted. The water in Naxos was the clearest I've ever seen, beating out the second clearest which was in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It's also not super cold unless there are strong winds. As a rule of thumb, the North facing beaches often get the bulk of strong winds.

After the beach, we went back home and watched the sunset from our roof and then went for dinner. We called it early because we we're planning to go see more stuff the next day with the bike.

The next day, we woke up earlier than I had been used to this vacation, grabbed some gyros and hit the road. Oh my friend is also vegetarian and lactose intolerant so finding food was like trying to find water in the desert. If you're either of those things, half of your culinary experience in Greece is going to be ruined.

The second day we went to the furthest beach from the town on the island where we were pretty much alone. The water looked even clearer than at the beach the day before. We chilled for a couple of hours and eventually I went and grabbed a yogurt with honey from the only restaurant in that town. It was absolutely fire. After that we went to a place that google maps told us was for cliff jumping. Now, I've never been cliff jumping so when I do it I'd like it to be under controlled circumstances with other people around doing it as well. This place we went to was so remote the only living things I saw were some wild goats on the road that scared the s**t out of me while I was driving and almost made me crash.

So I bitched out and didn't do it but I watched her do it, but I don't regret it.

We ended the day with another sunset watch / dinner at a stupid vegetarian restaurant.

The next day we said goodbye and I went off to my next island - Koufonisi.

Koufonisi: 

This is one of the smaller, lesser known islands in Greece. You can probably walk from tip to tip in 1.5-2 hours which made it a nice change of paces from the giant islands I had just stayed on. I checked into my villa and went straight to the beach where I think the water was somehow even clearer than on Naxos.

I only had two nights here so I went for dinner at like 7 and was surprised to learn that this was the most expensive island out of the three that I'd been on despite it being the least touristy by far. I think I was the only Canadian on the island. Then I went out at night and almost everyone I met was from Athens and visiting for vacation, though there were a couple of Italians and other European countries in the mix. There were only like 3 bars on the island open past 2am so I just stayed in one place till I felt like going home.

Next day I hiked along the coast until I found a beach worthy of my presence. Took me about an hour and a half to find one but it was awesome because it had a narrow shore, no rocks in the water and a good amount of people.

Note: I like to swim in waters where other people are swimming because of an irrational fear of stingrays and crocs. So if I come across one, in my mind there's less of a change of it going for me if there's other people around.

I stayed on the beach till I was hungry enough to go for my second last dinner in Greece (guess what I had). I called it a night early because I was going to Athens the next day where I was going to meet up with my buddies from Barcelona who happened to be there, and they like to drink.

Next day I took a friggin 6 hour ferry to Athens of which I spent the entire time trying to sneak into the VIP section where the seats are more comfy (I failed). I was staying at the Selina which is the most popular hostel chain in the world. Their hostels are more like mini-resorts because they have rooftop bars, pools sometimes and the rooms have very modern furnishings and they're impeccably clean. I met up with Brendan and Jamie (from Barcelona) at like 11pm and we went for dinner where I convinced them to try something else besides burgers and fries (I swear, these guys didn't even know what tzatziki was and they had been in Greece for 3 days at this point). We had a great last supper and hit the town. We drank more Ouzo than I had drank my entire week and a half.

Ouzo: a Greek spirit that tastes exactly like Sambuca (licorice taste) and goes down as easy as water. Seriously, I don't even like licorice but this stuff is incredible.

After some great conversation and a lot of laughs I said I'd call it a night because I had a flight the next day.

Edit: I'm no longer in Athens, I've been in Montenegro for a day but I almost missed my flight and lost my passport yesterday and today I realized I have a job so I didn't have time to finish this until now.

I'm going to be in Budva, Montenegro for at least the next two weeks. Two of my Canadian buddies from Mexico just landed so they should be at the Airbnb in a bit. Will have a lot to share about Budva.

Stay tuned

- MS