And those who want to be Greek.
In honor of Father’s Day tomorrow I am going to (finally) post about my father’s homeland – Greece. My dad is full-blooded Greek, making my sister and I about 50% Greek. I have visited the homeland several times now over the years to visit our grandparents in Vrachati, Corinthos. It’s about an hour train ride from Athens if you board the train in Piraeus towards Korinthos.
I am also writing about Greece due to how often it has been mentioned in the media lately because of the economy.. and how basically Greece is going to be screwed because they can’t pay back their debts.
The most recent visit I have had to Greece was last summer, and it made me incredibly sad to learn how much the economic crisis has affected Greece. Comparing my first visit to Greece to my most recent one, it seemed like a completely different country….
I arrived in Athens Airport on a flight from Venice, Italy early in the morning, than proceeded to take the Athens underground train into the city center. I had booked a hotel in Omonia Square, which is the center of Athens. Usually one would think that the city center is fairly safe or at least NICE – wellll not in Athens.
My boyfriend, Elliot and I walked from where the train had left us (we got on at the airport) and walked towards our hotel, on the way there we not only passed a man urinating on a wall maybe five feet from us but a guy walked by and literally tried to grab my phone out of my hands… OKAY. When we finally reached the hotel the man running it showed us to our room, it was a very nice room – but he seemed to be the only person working. As we relaxed in the room I decided to check the Yelp ratings on our hotel and voila’ I found out that the area we were staying in was not the best we could have chosen. We walked across the street to grab something to eat, we asked the waitress about the area and she assured us it was becoming much safer than the past years – and as she did this a police car pulled up and chased a man for God only knows what reason. Great. Elliot and I then grabbed a few beers and went back to the hotel where we locked our door and drank until we passed out.
our beautiful view from the hotel.
I had set my alarm clock for 8 AM and when we awoke we took the train to the boat port, Piraeus, and booked a boat to the nearest island, Aegina. Thankfully, even though it had been several years since my last visit to Greece I still could remember where places were. In the past years I have been to several Greek islands but never Aegina. It was nice, decent for only being about 45 minutes away from Athens but obviously if we had more time I would have went to Mykonos or Santorini. We stayed at a very nice place that a woman seemed family owned. We spent the day swimming in the ocean and a nearby pool, we had a nice dinner and called my uncle who was staying at my family’s home in Corinth and planned to meet him the following day.
Aegina
Now we visited Greece in late May/ early June, but I would recommend visiting Greece in mid-summer months (July, August) otherwise it can become a bit depressing. This, however is just my opinion, but I HAVE been there quite a few times, and my family is extremely Greek… so…
The next day we had to take a bus from the hotel to where the boat would take us back to Piraeus. Here is the thing about Greek busses, they told us it would leave sometime around 11:15. We did not know if this meant some time before or after – so we went to wait for the bus around 10:45 – the bus came at 12:30. Yep. We then took the boat back to the port in Piraeus and the train from there to Corinth. Without a cell phone this was more complicated than it should have been but thank GOD for my uncle because he was waiting for us at the station in Corinth and took us out to eat in Loutracki. We then bought 3 liters of wine and my boyfriend, uncle and I drank at the house in Vrachati, until I was too drunk and had to go to sleep.
The following morning I had a hangover… so we went with my uncle into town and tried to help him get some things taken care of with my family’s house, afterwards we went swimming in Loutracki but the waves were a bit too choppy. On the way there my uncle did not know how to turn off the road so we ended up almost going up a mountain and ONCE AGAIN, as I have mentioned so many times I hate heights. But heights in Greece are unlike any other place, you see you will be driving up a mountain and other cars with Greek drivers will go in the opposite lane to pass you up – even though they can’t see if a truck driver is coming there way in that lane or what. So yeah, pretty terrifying. We visited my family’s orange farm and the Corinth canal. Later that night Elliot and I went to the carnival that they have basically every summer near my family’s house in Vrachati.
The next morning we finally took the train in to Athens so that we could visit the Acropolis (something I have done 3x in my life now) when I was younger my sister, cousin and I actually ran passed the fencing and TOUCHED the Parthenon! You have to walk up a decent amount of stairs that are made from marble so it can be slippery and a bit frightening but the few you get from up there is beautiful, and the architecture is amazing so it’s obviously worth it and the best thing to do in Greece. Oh! and if you have a European student ID (I’m not fully sure if any student ID works) you get access to practically every sight for free! After the Acropolis we then went to the Acropolis museum, which was new for me because it has just been built within the past few years. The museum had a lot of cool artifacts and replicas, it also had a great view and a restaurant that had delicious food. Afterwards we visited the Olympic stadium and then the temple of Zeus. It was starting to get late so we went to the train station to try and go back to Corinth. This was when my (too polite) English boyfriend accepted to watch a sketchy man’s bag for him while he LEFT the train station. Thankfully, the suitcase did not blow us up, but we boarded the train and left the station and the man never came back of his bag. The following day was our last in Greece so we stayed around Corinth, we visited ancient Corinth and saw the ruins and the museum. Afterwards we ate at the restaurant near our house that my family had gone to for years which has amazing traditional Greek food. The following morning we were leaving to fly back to London very early (5AM) so we went to bed pretty early.
Unfortunately I do not remember any names of restaurants I ate at while in Greece – whenever I go I have ate at these places so many times that I never bother remembering a name just where it is located! We did eat at the Acropolis museum restaurant though, and I will tell you (coming from a very picky eater) practically anywhere you eat in Greece is going to be great, especially if it is family owned. Despite how I may act like I feel about Greece – I may wish that they took better care of the city and didn’t embrace ALL of the graffiti everywhere, and I may think that the people can be a bit depressing – I do love my country. The food is phenomenal and parts of Greece are so beautiful and relaxing that people never want to vacation elsewhere.
Obviously, for many reasons, one should attempt to visit Greece at least once in their lifetime. Athens has such a rich culture, the islands have such beauty, the coffee, the lamb, and the Greeks have a lifestyle that will teach you what it truly feels like to just relax and do nothing else. As a child I did not like being Greek, or fully embrace my heritage but finally, after 23 years I have, so I guess I am lucky to have been born Greek because I love being Greek and if I weren’t I sure know I would want to be.
Runaway Blond 