Grecian Honeymoon

We did it! On September 8, 2018, Toren and I got married in a beautiful, emotional ceremony, surrounded by our friends and family. 

About a month later, we went on our honeymoon. There were so many places we wanted to go, but we eventually picked Greece! 

First, we spent a long (12 hour) layover in D.C., because Toren had never visited. I think we overextended ourselves a bit; we were completely exhausted by the time we left. We should have set up our phones to use the scooters first thing when we got there because by the time we thought about it, we were about to leave and we couldn't find any nearby that were charged. Nevertheless, we hit the major sites and experienced the heart of (touristy) D.C.!

Then we headed to Santorini! We got a hotel transfer from the airport to our part of the island, Oia. I expected the island to be filled with little towns, but we were instead surprised to see mostly rocks and a few run-down buildings until we got into Oia itself. Other parts of the island are cheaper to stay in, but we were glad we decided to stay in Oia because it's the part of Santorini that you see in the movies, with the white buildings and blue roofs.



We spent our first night in Santorini chasing the sunset and finding some seafood before settling down at our comfy hotel, Oia Sunset. We thoroughly enjoyed our patio chairs that overlooked the hotel pool, and we spent several hours reading outside.

Usually, I plan our trips to be chock-full of touristing, but we decided to spend more time relaxing. We spent the next morning casually exploring town. 

Then we went on what turned out to be Toren's favorite part of the trip, a sunset cruise with Santorini Sailing! We went on the Escape Sunset tour and saw a black beach, red beach, white beaches, and hours and hours of the lovely Aegean Sea. We almost went swimming, but the water was so cold and dark, we decided it wasn't worth it. We were much happier snuggling in our jackets, drinking wine, and watching the sunset. 

We also got one of my favorite shots of the entire trip: 

The next day we took public transportation to Fira/Thera (not the worst experience) then walked to Pyrgos (not a pretty walk, better to walk to Fira and take the bus to Pyrgos). We stopped in Fira to grab some drinks and look out over the water.











The purpose of our trip was to go to Santo Winery for a very relaxing (though super sunny) flight of wine and a gorgeous view of the water. 

Then we came back to Oia and walked way down a set of stairs toward the water to get away from the crowds and watch the sunset. 

The next morning (day 5) it was time to head to our next island! We got to experience GMT ("Greek maybe time") when waiting for our bus when our intended bus, or maybe the two buses scheduled after that, showed up about an hour late. Luckily we had left really early! We could have taken a plane to our next island, but the views from the water are gorgeous, so we decided to take a ferry. 





Stop #2 was Naxos, a little island about halfway between Santorini and Athens, and the amazing Hotel Grotta. 





The manager served us a snack and some wine before sending us out into the little town to explore the labyrinth-like streets around the castle at the center. 







We took a chilly but super romantic walk along the beach. 











The highlight of Naxos is the portara, which is supposed to be the door of an Apollo Temple. We headed across the bridge (with the really rough water) to watch the sunset.  











We got another one of my favorite shots: 



For dinner, we went to Ammos. Look how gorgeous that seafood is. 







After dinner, we headed back to swim in the hotel pool and go to bed early.

We had no idea how much we would like Naxos. We really only stopped there to break up the long ferry ride to Athens, but we would definitely have wanted to spend more time on Naxos. 

The next morning, we got on a HUGE ferry to go to Athens. We spent the long trip playing games and listening to an audio book. We also had some pretty terrible food on the ferry...but otherwise a fun time!



We definitely had the coolest hotel in Athens because it had a bathtub in the living room and was above a cafe.



We took a quick walk of parts of the city before grabbing dinner and settling down for the night. One cool stop was to see "Pond with Turtles," as our map app, maps.me, which we use for all our international travel, called it. You can see Pond with Turtles below, with the bright blue water and white statue. And, of course, the turtles. 











The next morning was the highlight of the trip for me and pretty much the entire reason I wanted to go to Greece, the Mythology Highlights tour with Alternative Athens! 

We met at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We stopped at the Theater of Dionysus, Acropolis, Temple of Athena Nike, the Temple of Erechtheion, the Propylaia, and the Parthenon. 

My favorite part of the tour was the Athena tree. The myth says that long ago, the city was thriving, and the people wanted a god to protect them. Both Athena and Poseidon were interested in having the city named after them. The people of the city said they could not decide between two gods, so they asked for a gift from each of them to help decide. Poseidon gave a well of salt water, rough, wild...and not useful for drinking or anything else. Athena gave the present of an olive tree, which could be used for all sorts of things, including food and the golden liquid, oil. The people loved Athena's gift, and so the city was named Athens. 



Then we went to the Ancient Agora, the  Hephaisteion, and the Ancient Cemetery of Keramikos. 









We grabbed lunch at the Acropolis museum (okay food, expensive) before going back to Alternative Athens for their Acropolis museum tour. Overall, the museum was great (Toren's favorite part of Athens), but we would have been happier going by ourselves or with another tour group. The Alternative Athens one was too interactive for us ("Write down the arguments for rebuilding the Acropolis and argue against this other couple, who wrote the arguments against rebuilding."). 









We were so exhausted after the day with Alternative Athens that we could barely eat dinner before falling asleep. It was a great, eventful day!

Our last full day in Greece was much calmer. We went shopping, got two beautiful paintings from a lovely Macedonian lady, and ran around trying to find lunch. We looked the entire trip for gyros but could only find what were essentially deconstructed gyros, rather than the sandwich we are used to. Of course, we were already full when we found these, actual sandwich gyros, so we should really go back to try again! 

Our afternoon was devoted to a lovely spa, Al Hammam Traditional Baths, where we got a hammam bath in the room pictured and then a massage.



We floated back to the hotel after the spa, napped, showered, and changed to head to dinner at the Galaxy Bar & Restaurant. We got a seat on the balcony overlooking the Acropolis, which was amazing. Also expensive but really good. The patch of lights above the plants next to me are from the Acropolis.




It was a wonderful end to a wonderful honeymoon with my husband! Thank you to everyone who contributed to our honeymoon fund and helped make this a beautiful trip!