Chapter 30: On Atlas's Shoulder (Season)
Athens, Mykonos and Naxos, Greece, April 17-24
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
After an easy taxi to the airport, a very relaxing time in the Abu Dhabi airport lounge we arrived at Athens airport. The very first announcement we heard was regarding a strike of the muni train workers – a sure sign we’ve arrived in Europe! We shrugged it off and took a taxi into the city, admiring the sunset through the window. We were a little uncertain about the accommodation we had booked, but it was perfectly nice! It was a bedroom in an apartment shared with a few other people and suited us just fine.
By this point in the evening we were starving, so we followed the signs posted in our apartment to a walking street nearby that was lined with restaurants. We had scoped a place out online but didn’t make it there — we were tempted by a delicious-looking restaurant with a good vibe and one empty table. We had some incredible lamb pasta, a salad and a fava bean puree, with a funky table wine. It was delicious, and would end up being our best meal in Greece. Welcome to Europe!
Thursday, April 18, 2024
We only gave ourselves a couple of days for sightseeing in Athens, so we hustled out in the morning. In general, we try to look at what the people around us are eating and order that, so we had a couple of espressos and koulouri for breakfast. Koulouri are bread rings, kind of like a thin bagel, but not chewy and covered in sesame seeds. They’re fine! They, like most other things, are better when you add cheese and ham. I couldn’t get the name to stick in my brain so I just ended up calling them “sesame hoops”, which is dumb yet descriptive.
We walked uphill to the Acropolis and were a little alarmed at what seemed like a big crowd outside, but once we got in the entry gate, it had already thinned out. Lucky us, it happened to be a free day! As we wandered the monument, we listened to the Rick Steves audio guide. The Rick Steves Audio Europe app has been an amazing resource for us! We’re big “interpretation” people, meaning that we love reading signs, doing tours and listening to audio guides. This app has guides for many major cities throughout Europe, including lots of city walking tours. It sounds a little corny, or a little old school, but it’s truly enhanced our experience of some places more than anything else!
We walked around the monument, admiring the statues and the active refurbishment work that was going on. It was really windy, but a super clear day. I had heard that Greece was a big place for cats and met a few up at the top.
As we left the Acropolis, it seemed like all of Athens was arriving! Some guidebooks said to go early, so we didn’t think our 10 am arrival was going to make a big difference. Turns out that 10 am was early enough! We made our way back to our accommodation, stopping at a cute cafe for some brunch, then at a spritzeria for some refreshment.
Back at the apartment we took a little nap, then headed out to the Plaka neighborhood for dinner. The neighborhood we stayed in felt mostly like a generic big city, but Plaka had all the charm we expected coming to Greece: perfect golden light, restaurants with terraces, attractive people in linen clothes, the whole thing. We had some fab souvlaki and Greek salad for dinner, then called it a night!
Friday, April 19, 2024
We started the day slowly, and with more sesame hoops, these ones filled with cream cheese and ham. We went on a nice long walk over to the Museum of History of Technology. This museum was split between two buildings and the first was mostly diagrams of the inner workings of weapons and defense systems, which aren’t interesting to us in the least. The other building, however, was very cool! It had lots of hands-on demonstrations of mechanisms used for things like public works and church demonstrations. A favorite was the water-into-wine trick, where the fluid pressure and displacement made it so that the user could pour wine into the box and then receive a full cup of wine.
We settled into a cafe with a great view of the Acropolis for lunch, which we very much enjoyed. It was sunny and the people watching was great. We played a few rounds of one of our favorite games: “Tourist or Local?”
As a general rule, places with good views have terrible food, high prices, or both. If you’re familiar with the engineering trade-off triangle, it’s not dissimilar to that. This one seemed to be an exception! Eating on the waterfront anywhere is almost always a mistake, and the closer you are to a major monument the worse. It can’t always be avoided though, site seeing makes us hungry!
After lunch we weren’t quite sure what to do, but we checked our trusty Rick Steves Europe app and there was an audio tour for the Ancient Agora archeological park, which was right across the street. We paid the nominal fee, then enjoyed a couple of hours being guided around the ruins, learning about the day to day life of people who lived there hundreds of years before. Somewhat surprisingly, considering that we were in the middle of Athens, we saw a big tortoise walking through the ruins! It seemed like I was the only one shocked to see him there. This was also a great day for cats. I got to pet and coo at so many different cats all around the city.
The sky turned dark, so we started towards home, hoping to beat the rain. We didn’t quite make it, so we popped into a bar near home to warm up with ouzo cocktails. They were delicious, but unfortunately served hot and in snifter glasses, which made it impossible to take a sip without getting your eyes and nose assaulted by alcohol vapor.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
We woke up at still-dark-o’clock to catch our ferry to Mykonos. The weather was still wet and our seats were downstairs with no windows, so we just dozed, tried to keep warm, and tried not to miss our stop.
Our first impressions of Mykonos were intense, since the sea was high and we had to walk off the ferry between waves to try not to get knocked off. Our accommodation had told us to take the “sea bus to Old Town” and after about twenty minutes, it occurred to us that we probably needed to be looking for a boat, not a bus! Sure enough, the “sea bus” was a little glass bottomed ferry that took us into Mykonos town.
Our accommodation was able to check us in, even though it was barely 10 in the morning. The room we booked turned out to be a little one-room cottage surrounded by beautiful gardens, just a short walk into the main town. Our host said that it’s one of the few remaining gardens in town, since people have been building more densely.
Our host recommended a few places to eat, so we walked down into town for some very good souvlaki, with a couple of stops to pet cats on the way. I’ve seen lots of beautiful photos of Mykonos, specifically of the gorgeous white-washed walls and bright blue skies. I didn’t expect the whole town to look just like the photos! Clearly a ton of work goes into maintaining this look, painting and washing all of the walkways and buildings. It was so bright I couldn’t even leave our room without sunglasses!
This practice seems to have begun during the 1938 cholera outbreak, when the government demanded all buildings be whitewashed. The lime in the whitewash acts as a disinfectant, which helped prevent the spread of disease (in theory). During the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the color scheme became law once again, but this time as a show of nationalism. Can you imagine if we all had to paint our houses red, white and blue? Now, it’s done as a point of local pride and to attract tourists like us!
We knew there was some rain coming in, so we headed down to the waterfront to drink cappuccinos and wait out the showers. We didn’t realize it beforehand, but Mykonos has a reputation for the winds we were experiencing. Its nickname is “The Island of the Winds”! To experience the breezes at full strength, we walked through the winding passages to the top of Chora, where there’s an amazing view of the ocean and a couple of the old windmills that Mykonos is famous for.
After a big afternoon nap, we puttered around our little cottage, getting ready for dinner and giving my hair a much-needed trim. After a little while, we realized we were going to miss our only sunset on Mykonos, so we ran out the door and through the alleys to the point with the windmills that we were told is the best viewing spot. The sunset didn’t disappoint, and we made our way back through the walkways to a local’s place for dinner. We had a bit of a wait, but the food was delicious and the service friendly. When Al asked for a table, he was told by one of the men working there to “go ask my brother”. Of course, Al has no idea who this guy’s brother is, but he said that as soon as he saw the brother, it was obvious. The similarity was striking.
Mykonos is well-known for its nightlife, but we were chilled from the wind and weren’t able to find a bar that looked worth going in, so we headed home to our comfy bed.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Since we only had the one night on Mykonos, we woke up and packed our bags for another ferry. We ate breakfast down at the harbor before taking the sea bus back to the new port. The ferry ride was clear, but windy and pretty rough. Even with my preventative meclizine, I was pretty queasy by the time we arrived on Naxos.
We had a breezy walk over to our beautiful hotel, where we had shelled out an extra $4 per night for an ocean view. We’re pretty sure we were the only guests staying there! The place we walked to for lunch was also quiet, just us and a couple of men who were clearly regulars. We sampled some Naxian specialities, including a spicy cheese dip made from a tangy local cheese and grilled octopus that couldn’t be fresher.
We set aside the afternoon to rest. We enjoyed the beautiful view from our room and spent some time writing, only leaving the hotel for an ice cream dinner.
Monday, April 22, 2024
Realizing that we had fallen far behind in planning, we committed the day to outlining our time in Europe and getting some bookings made. We found a cute place to get some brunch and ended up chatting with a guy who “looked like a friend” as we say. It turned out that he lives in East LA and his parents live in Monterey, so we had plenty to talk about. He gave us a few recommendations for how to spend our time in Naxos, which we happily took!
Having outlined the next few weeks on the paper placemat, we went off to explore old town. The word "chora” in Greek means “town”, with the funny side effect that the biggest city on each island all have the same name - Chora! We enjoyed the winding alleys of Chora, feeling the Greek charm and popping into little shops.
Back at the hotel, we made concrete the plans we had ideated by actually booking our accommodation and transportation for the next few weeks. We had definitely left the planning later than we should have, Booking.com was mocking us, saying that “100% of places were already booked”. We had to make some concessions for location, but ultimately got it all done. I’m sure that reading about planning, booking and blog writing isn’t very interesting, but the truth is that it takes up a lot of time, even with all the practice we’ve gotten!
For dinner, we chose the cheap/good view compromise and regretted it. We’re both big fans of Greek food and should have known that disappointment was on the way.
Looking for redemption at a bar we were both excited about, we headed up away from the ocean into the labyrinthine old town. Eventually, we found the bar, which was closed, but we also found the Naxos Folk Museum, which was on our list and open! It was full of artifacts and excellent interpretation about traditional life on Naxos and we had a wonderful time learning about the cheese making techniques and traditional dress.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
We found another spot for brunch, where the food was just as good, but it had the added bonus of a mega friendly cat. He was so snuggly and friendly, but he also stunk. He was so, so stinky and drooled all over me.
We braved the windy day and walked out to a shrine to Apollo out on an outcropping. It was originally built in the 6th century BC, and was planned to be the biggest and tallest building on the island. A war broke out, interrupting the construction, and the 20 foot tall Portara is all that remains.
As we left, the wind really started to pick up and by the time we headed out for dinner, the sky was completely orange and the horizon line over the ocean was barely visible. We would later learn that it was the very same storm that had brought all the rain into Dubai that brought the Saharan sand and wind into Naxos. We had some delicious souvlaki for dinner and marveled at the strength of the wind before battening down the hatches for the night.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
On the recommendation of the guy we met at brunch a couple days ago, we booked a tour around the island. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we had a wonderful time!
We started the day with breakfast on our patio, provided by our lovely hotel. The bus picked us up around 9 am. We sort of expected a van or mini bus, but it was a huge tour bus, at least 30 people in our group. A little wave of disappointment hit, but it didn’t last long. We managed to get seats in the very front row and we had a sweet and knowledgable local guide.
The first stop of the day was the temple of Demeter. It was a big temple made of white Naxian marble, erected by the same tyrant as the Portara. During the rise of Christianity on the island, the temple gradually became less popular, and was eventually converted to a Christian church. Not long after, the church was knocked down during an Arabic invasion.
It’s the same story everywhere isn’t it? A powerful person somewhere declares that there’s a new state-endorsed religion, and the very same places of worship are converted to hail a new god.
After another windy drive further up into the hills, we arrived at our next stop! First was a pottery studio, where we got to see a fourth-generation ceramist throw a pot from a locally sourced red clay. It was amazing to watch him work. I took a pottery class not long ago, and although I didn’t do enough practice to make pottery I actually like, I did gain an appreciation for good ceramics. We witnessed him make a perfect pot without looking, like he’s done it a thousand times before, because of course, he has. He demonstrated a few of the more tricky designs he makes. Our very favorite was the Pythagorean cup of justice. It’s a cup that, when filled above a certain mark, pours all the drink out into the drinker’s lap, used to make sure that nobody pours themselves any extra. We bought two!
We walked a little ways through town to an old olive oil press and got to learn about traditional methods for making olive oil. We got to touch the goathair bags that are used to filter the pits and skins from the pressed fruit. The wheel used to press the fresh olives were still covered with the debris of the previous year’s harvest.
We had a long drive in the bus up to the town of Chalki, which, although it’s a small village, was once the capital of Naxos. There, we toured the kitron distillery. Kitron is a liquor made entirely from the leaves and fruit of the citron tree. We learned all about the distillation process and sampled all three variations that they make, with different amounts of alcohol. It was a jolly experience, but we hadn’t had lunch yet, so it hit a little harder than we expected. To tide ourselves over before lunch, Al ran into a shop and bought the local dessert speciality — a custard tart, still warm!
Our highest point for the day was the town of Aperathos, a town made mostly white stone that sits at almost 2,000 feet elevation! We walked around the old town for a while, then found a delicious local restaurant for lunch. Stuffed with carbs and wine, I fell asleep on Al’s shoulder so I don’t remember the next leg of the drive.
On the way back to town we made two more quick stops. One at a beach, where many of the people on our tour grabbed cups of coffee. We chose a different method of energizing ourselves and took a swim in the sea. Although the water is warm in the summers, it was pretty chilly in April! The last stop of the day was a statue of Dionysus. Well, it was supposed to be a statue of Dionysus. The carving process of the 30 foot tall statue began in the 6th century, but the marble cracked during the process, and was therefore never finished. Honestly, I think Dionysus (god of wine, festivity and ritual madness) would be happy that they didn’t finish the hard work of carving marble and went to drink some wine instead.
The drive back to town was mostly uneventful, except for a few sheep unsure of where to be other than the middle of the road. We spent the drive discussing which Greek gods we would be devotees of. For Al, it’s all about Dionysus (also known as Bacchus), while I prefer Demeter, goddess of harvest and food, with connections to the underworld. We both got to visit our favorites today!
After a short rest, we finished off the night with dinner in the old town, where we were entertained by an accordionist and a parade of cats hoping for a bite off our plates.
In all, our time in Greece was a perfect example of shoulder season travel. Our weather was very hit and miss, with a couple golden sunny days, some unbearable wind, and most days pretty uninspiring and grey. The famous beach clubs in Mykonos didn’t open for a few more weeks, and we hunkered down into our hotel to keep warm more than once. That said, we were able to book our day trip less than 24 hours in advance and didn’t have to fight crowds anywhere, even at the Acropolis. We were able to stay at gorgeous accommodations, booked last minute, for shockingly affordable prices. The hotel we stayed at in Mykonos costs $200 more per night in August than it does in April. It doesn’t always work out great to travel on the shoulder season, but it really helps us stretch our budget. You won’t see us in Japan during cherry blossom season or island hopping in August, but the pros have outweighed the cons for us so far!
What a dream!! 😍