Joie de Vivre - 2016, I'm Ready!

2015 is really over, wow, that was fast!

It's unbelievable to me to think that one year ago I was wrapping up work and about to set off on an adventure. An adventure that was planned as three weeks in South America, then back to the States, then to Europe, and ultimately come June 2015 I'd be back in San Francisco making a decision on life. A decision that would allow me to be in the position that I'm in today - feeling free and open to anything that comes my way. It's only when I really stop to think about it that I realize an entire year has passed, and what a fricken amazing year it's been. When I try to note all the places I've been, sights I've seen, and people I've encountered along the way it takes some serious concentration. Reflecting on the year I can say with 100% certainty that I never think twice* about my decision in July to leave Google. I know to my core that was the right move and that certainty gave me the chance to be much more open as 2015 went on.

*let's be honest... when I had to buy a new phone for the first time (ever!) I did wish I had a Google Christmas gift coming, but I decided to be a real adult and suck it up! 

Swinging free at Casa del Arbol, Baños, Ecuador

A lot has changed in the past year both for me personally and for the people and the world around me. Fear and sadness has crept into our lives. Tragedy is always around us in many forms and we must join together and love stronger to persevere through it. At the same time great hope and the thrill of life through new babies, new relationships, or a new found self emerge. I suppose this is indeed how the hand of life is dealt - with great joy comes great sadness, disappointment, struggle, etc. There have to be low moments to allow you to really appreciate the amazingness that one has.

In 2015 I learned that the world really does have so much to offer and while it's great to see so many things by myself and tell people about it after the fact there's an amazing joy in sharing the raw live moments with others. 'Others' doesn't have to be a pre-defined term it can be family, friends of many years, newly developed friends, or people I just met that day or the day before. Whoever it is, a real shared experience and conversation is so much more powerful than one that is perhaps contrived on Instagram, Facebook, or whatever your social media platform of choice is. Do I share on social media to get people a little jealous? Yeah, perhaps there's always a hint of that, but it's really to inspire and to get people intrigued and motivated to step outside whatever their comfort zone might be and see the world around them or even venture thousands of miles away. In 2016 I vow to see more and do more in this great big world of ours - whether I start the trip by myself or with someone else I will make a point to find others with whom to share the experience.

I still can't tell you that I've 'Discovered' what my plan for life is, but I'd say I have a fresh outlook on both life and the world around me. My list of mottos, for lack of a better word, would start something like take risks, go into the unknown, say 'yes' (assuming the situation isn't totally sketchy!), laugh at your mis-steps, and always take time to soak in your surroundings and the people near and far who are always there for you. The last is incredibly important - I always have a home, or perhaps a few homes, regardless of where my latest passport stamp indicates I may be at any given time. For those people and places I am forever thankful.

I think back and compare the first trip I took with the most recent one and see stark contrasts. I thoroughly enjoyed my initial trip, I mean come on, I did the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and the W Circuit in Torres del Paine - two of the most amazing treks in the world - but the travel was so prescribed, I was uptight, and there was little room for on the fly changes. I feel as though it was so 'American' - go somewhere for a short period if time, everything is pre-booked, never deviate from the structure, see all the major sights, come home. That's certainly a method of travel but not how I want to do it anymore, especially when I have no specific end date or looming deadline. I haven't become completely lax but allowing the days and weeks to lead you where they may (assuming it's possible) and not feeling like every single top ten item from the guidebook must be accomplished is both freeing and potentially much more satisfying. I still want to see the sights, don't get me wrong, but the pace and prescriptive nature is much more flexible. Not everything must live in a detailed spreadsheet.

So where does this leave me? What am I up to next you might ask.

There are loads more locations on the ever growing list of places (yes, I have a spreadsheet of locations and sights to see by region of the world) I want to go and after Ecuador I was seriously second guessing my previously determined 2016 plan. But I'm sticking with aforementioned previously determined plan and heading back to the South of France to spend at least two months on the sea attempting to immerse myself and learn a bit of French.

Somewhere between Cannes and Nice, April 2015

Since my April travels through France I've felt that I missed a calling from this lovely country and needed to somehow make up for lost time. I fell in love with the Cote d'Azur during the final days of April and have since been back three or four times - sea, mountains, coastal drives, and enough wine to make anyone happy drew me in.

So as of February I'll be using Cannes as a base with a Monday to Friday French language school commitment. This is a test; a test of French living, European living more broadly, and even more so living in one foreign place for likely a two month, potentially more, stretch. Given that it's been a year since I had any type of Monday to Friday commitment this should be interesting and potentially a rude awakening when I actually have to be somewhere at a specific time for a few hours every day.

I have no idea how the next few months will go but I can only hope for an adventure worthy of sharing (both the good and the bad of course). I successfully convinced the French Consulate to give me a year long visa so my options are hopefully pretty wide open, or at least longer than 90 days open throughout France and continental Europe. For this flexibility I am incredibly excited. I may hate Cannes, I may decide I don't want to be in France or Europe at all, but it's worth giving it a go and challenging myself to both learn a language and find people to share the adventure.

If you find yourself (or want to be) in Europe, France, or better yet the South of France over the next few months definitely let me know!

Adventuring through the Galapagos - on the cheap

Happy New Year! 2015 has come to a close and 2016 is now upon us. My laziness took over and I didn't get my full Galapagos post edited and posted over the last week so I figured I'd just go ahead and post it now. Something interesting about 2016 is hopefully coming next week :)

For those who haven't heard me say it I'll say it again - I absolutely adored the Galapagos! If it's not on your bucket list it should be. After eight and a half days there I was quite sad to leave. I would 100% go back if the opportunity presented itself but if it never does I am honored to have been able to go to this magical place. I could just put loads of pictures into this post but I've attempted to select a few of my favorite - for all of the photos check out the Galapagos album here.

As Darwin and others discovered many years ago there’s no other place on earth like it. I never lost the excitement over seeing sea lions and iguanas just hanging out on the beaches, park benches, in the middle of the sidewalk, or wherever they deemed appropriate. The ability the get up close and personal with all the animals both in the water and on land is unbeatable.

Also, all of the people who I met there were fantastic in putting up with me as I strung together sentences in my broken Spanish (as with everywhere in Ecuador). Because I was not on a ship with the same folks the whole time I met different people everywhere - both locals and travelers - so I felt like that gave me a much better taste of things. Yes, people do in fact live in the Galapagos and there's infrastructure on a few of the islands. The locals are very proud of their islands and there’s certainly a bit of a rivalry of which island is the best. For me it's a toss up between San Cristobal and Isabela as to which was my favorite, but I think San Cristobal has the edge.

For people who think that visiting the Galapagos is ridiculously expensive let me tell you that it doesn’t have to totally break the bank. Yes, it's more pricey than mainland Ecuador and you can absolutely do it first class luxury all the way but it’s possible to have an incredible journey for much cheaper - especially if you’re willing to wing it a little bit. Like many locations in the world getting there may be the most expensive piece but what you choose to do while you’re there and how you want to do it will really determine your price. From Quito alone the flight to the Galapagos and back was about $450 - that’s almost as much as I paid for my Newark-Quito-San Francisco flight! You might be able to get them for cheaper if you book way in advance (totally not my style these days!) but I’m not sure how much lower the prices really go unless you're very very flexible. In the airport you then pay $120 just to enter the National Park. That’s expensive but in the name of conservation and national parks I accept. I have read that there's been talk for a while about increasing that park entrance fee.

Once you’re there how you spend your time (and therefore your money) is up to you. Tour agencies abound - especially in the city of Puerto Ayora on the main island of Santa Cruz which has the primary airport - so it’s possible to book all sorts of boats at a wide range of prices. I talked to a few different places when I got there trying to determine if I wanted to island hop on my own or get on a boat for anywhere from 4 to 8 days. I was getting prices anywhere from $450/500 to $1000 and beyond.  What I discovered, and had read this before hand too, was that you need to kinda know what you want to see/do and if there are specific islands on your ‘must see’ list. For me I really wanted to see both Isabela and San Cristobal Islands but since the boats spend something like 8 days on the Isabela side of the archipelago and then 8 days on San Cristobal my timing wasn’t going to work too well for that.

Ultimately I decided that I’d island hop on my own visiting a few of the accessible beaches, snorkeling sights, animal centers, and whatever else I could find in the towns and then book into a few day tours for the prime snorkeling and wildlife sightings. Since I wanted to see the three different islands there are of course a few places that I didn’t get to see but I don’t feel like I missed out, I would have just had another amazing snorkel experience to add to the record books. I ended up doing two day snorkeling trips and they were each $90 - I found that trips range anywhere from about $85-$120 and you can pretty much always get a few dollars off. If you want to just check out local snorkeling spots without a boat tour you can always rent masks and snorkels for $3 per day.

From an accommodation standpoint there’s super cheap to expensive and I opted for what felt like super cheap but I know there was cheaper! Upon arrival I had only booked two nights to begin with so I could make a plan and go on from there. After Santa Cruz I’d just eye a few spots ahead of time and then pick one and upon arrival see what rooms they had and at what price. I paid $25/night on Santa Cruz with breakfast included, $15/night on San Cristobal no breakfast, and then $25 on Isabela with no breakfast. Each place I had my own room with bathroom including hot water. Over 8 nights I spent less than $200!

“…by far the most remarkable feature in the natural history of this archipelago…is that the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings…I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted.” - Darwin

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is not the largest island land wise but it’s the most developed. The town of Puerto Ayora is bustling with hotels, restaurants, tour operators, souvenir shops, and a harbor full of boats. This is certainly a town with the most services but for me it was my least favorite. However, because I started here it only got better.

Many flights come into the Baltra airport which is on an island just next to Santa Cruz. Once you get off the plane you take a bus (free) to a small ferry dock, get on the ferry to cross the channel ($1), and then either get into a taxi or public bus ($18 or $2 respectively) to make the ~45 minute journey across the island to Puerto Ayora. Upon my return to the airport I was unhappy to learn that the bus option back to the ferry dock apparently only runs a few times in the morning and not when I wanted to go at like 9:30 or 10 so I had to pay the $18 on my way back but took the cheapie option on the way into town.

Iguanas sunning on the beach

While in Puerto Ayora...

• Charles Darwin Research Center - just on the edge of town this was my first chance to see giant tortoises. I also passed numerous sea lions and iguanas napping on the sidewalks as I walked. The research center itself felt a bit sad. They’re doing some construction so hopefully it’s going to feel a bit more alive in the future but it really felt sad and neglected.
• Tortuga Bay beach - this is about a 30-45 minute walk from town out to a nice beach and then at the end of the beach there’s a protected bay with calm waters for swimming and kayaking. While walking along the beach you see iguanas everywhere both on the sand and the rocks and taking a swim. First time i saw an iguana swimming I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t have much luck with the snorkel seeing any turtles in the bay but apparently they’re there.
• Las Grietas - this is a nice snorkeling spot one minute water taxi and then about 10 minute walk away from town. It was suggested to me that I make sure to go over the rocks at the end of the first pool and into the second and third pools. This was a fantastic tip! While the first pool was quite nice and incredibly clear there were not many fish. After I not so gracefully attempted to scramble over the rocks without falling there were indeed many more fish to see - and also no people.
• Giant Tortoise Reserve, Lava Tunnels, and Craters - when I was in transit between San Cristobal and Isabela I had a few hours to kill back on Santa Cruz so I hired a taxi to take me to check out these three sights. I was going to try and just do them on my own but since I needed to be back for the boat I just went the taxi route and my new friend Eciro was very patient with my Spanish for about two hours. The tortoise reserve was fantastic. Here you put on some wellies and wander muddy paths through the natural habitat of the tortoises. These guys looked so much happier than those at the Darwin center just chomping away in the grass or having a soak in a puddle.

Under the water at Las Grietas

In the lava tunnel

Munch munch goes the tortoise

In order to get to the other islands of San Cristobal and Isabela you have to take a ‘Ferry’ from Puerto Ayora. There are two boats each day, one AM and one PM, going to and from either island and they cost $30 each. With my first ride to San Cristobal I quickly learned at ‘Ferry’ is a very loose term! I don’t know what I had in mind but these are 20-25 person speed boats with a covered top. They load the luggage in and then you grab a spot on the bench on either side and hang on! I’d read that the waters were choppy but good lord, these rides were ridiculous. I am pretty confident now that I do not get sea sick, Whew! I also quickly learned that my location on the first boat ride was not ideal (I felt like I was being thrown around like a rag doll) and I needed to make sure I positioned myself to get a spot at the back, but you don’t want to be in the back row by the engines because you’re guaranteed to be soaked a few minutes into the 2-2.5 hour journey! After the first boat there was definite strategy for the following three boats.

I will say, these 'ferries' were one of the least enjoyable parts of the trip and I wasn't even getting seasick. If you're prone to sea sickness you may want to just be on a larger cruise ship because these two to three hours felt pretty long each time!

San Cristobal

From Santa Cruz I went to San Cristobal for two days. Lucky for me the weather was probably the best while I was there. Sunny skies made the beaches and snorkeling even better! Arrival in San Cristobal immediately felt better than Santa Cruz with a small port town and a more relaxed feeling. I’d say that this was my favorite island experience.

View from the San Cristobal port

While here...

• La Loberia beach - a beautiful spot about 30 minutes walk out from town, much nicer than Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz. Initially you see mostly iguanas lounging on the lava rocks while the waves crash a few meters away but then as you walk along a sandy path you’re lead to a beautiful white beach with tons of sea lions. This was my first chance to swim up close with them in super shallow clear water. They were absolutely adorable, very curious, and playful.
• Las Tijeretas snorkeling - another easy walk from town the other direction past a few beaches and an informative education center with lots of info about the islands and history of the Galapagos. This snorkeling spot appeared to be pretty popular but large in size so even if there were a lot of people there's plenty of space - just drop your shoes on the little wooden platform and jump right into the water!
• Playa Mann and Amor - nice little beaches just at the edge of town and great sunset views. I walked over to these beaches a few times to check out the local scene and take in the sun sets.
• Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido) snorkeling day - I knew heading to San Cristobal that Kicker Rock was one of the day trips I wanted to do. I’d also heard that Cerro Brujo beach was a must see so I asked around at a few of the tour operators to find one who was going to be going to that beach in addition to Kicker Rock the next day. Both were absolutely amazing and Cerro Burjo was definitely the most beautiful beach that I saw - very Caribbean feeling. The snorkeling started off slow and I wasn't seeing much but once one turtle was spotted all of a sudden it got so much better. By the end we were swimming among turtles, sharks, sea lions, rays, and of course loads of fish. The GoPro got a ton of use here!
• On a side note people who can’t swim really just shouldn’t sign up for a snorkeling tour! A few people weren’t confident in the water so had to be essentially pulled around on a life buoy and were apparently grabbing on to two of the other girls I was with, glad they weren’t grabbing at me!

Baby sea lion rests on the beach

Kicker Rock

Peaceful turtle at Kicker Rock

Isablela

This was my final stop and quite a different feeling to the other islands. It’s the largest in size but least developed and according to a local tourism really only came to Isabela about 10 years ago. It was traditionally a fishing village with a small main town made up of sandy streets along a nice beach. You definitely feel the difference here in that there’s just less of everything but not necessarily in a bad way. It’s low key, more relaxed, and far fewer people. Even though my Lonely Planet book was published in 2015 a few spots weren't actually open - business seems to come and go here and it's all very causal. Just go with the flow and find a local to tell you where to go!

Blue Footed Boobies

While here...

• Los Tuneles - Walking and snorkeling among blue footed boobies, turtles, sharks, and sea horses. The GoPro was in full effect again on this trip. The turtles here were massive compared to the ones that I saw at Kicker Rock - these had to have been as big as me. And we swam right up to a shark den and just watched as ten or more sharks swam around. There were even some penguins as well - Isabela has loads of them.
• Tortoise breeding center - Here you can see land tortoises of all ages and sizes. There’s pretty much a zero chance of survival for tortoise eggs laid in the wild so this center is very important to continuing the population. It was neat to walk around the various areas where the tortoises of different sizes and ages are and see them moving in what really did look like slow motion!
• Flamingo lagoon - I don’t think I’ve ever seen flamingos in the wild before so these were another exciting wildlife sighting. They're definitely pretty in pink.
• Concha de Perla - a short walk through mangroves near the port brings you out to a great protected snorkeling spot where sea lions sun on the dock and then splash into the water to cool off and all sorts of other animals can be found while swimming around.
• Penguins and playful sea lions are all over Isabela. I could have spent hours watching these guys swimming around and enjoying the waves as the tide was coming in right at the town's main beach.
• Afternoon drinks at the Beto beachfront bar is a great spot to meet locals and others while staring out at the sea while lounging in a hammock.

Happy sea lion

Penguins!

Hello Shark Den

After eight and half days, three islands, four rough ferry rides, two fantastic snorkeling tours, and uncountable animal sightings my time in the Galapagos came to an end. Sadly that was it but the amazing time in the Galapagos kept me on a travel high for two more weeks throughout mainland Ecuador and I had many more adventures to follow.

Sun sets behind a boat off San Cristobal

Ecuador (in brief) Love Life

The last major trip of 2015 is in the books! With a few final passport stamps to round out the year I’m now giving that bad boy a rest for a few weeks. I feel a little naked without it on me and everyday needing to make sure that it’s still where I left it the night before. But now it’s time for holiday celebrations and ringing in the New Year. 

Apologies for not sending out Christmas cards this year, but stamps from Ecuador to the States were $2.50 and I've just been too lazy since I got back! So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from me and my sea lion friend...

The first trip of 2015 was to South America so it seems fitting that the last trip would be back there. Ecuador was amazing and three and a half weeks there turned into some of the best travel that I’ve had this entire year. The destinations were fantastic, hello the Galapagos(!), and obviously I saw lots between cities, beaches, rain forest, and mountains, but it was more than sight seeing this time. This trip was incredibly fulfilling and the shared experiences with others recharged my desires to keep these traveling shenanigans going we much as possible. The Ecuador tourism slogan is 'Love Life' and I was indeed loving it all throughout my time there. I was also pretty happy about the cheapness of almost everything there - 10 months without a paycheck needed a budget friendly destination! 

I went into the trip excited but I’ll admit that I was somewhat hesitant and just felt like I was filling time until Christmas. When I got on the ground in Quito I decided that I needed to fully embrace the time there and make as authentic an experience as possible and also go as much backpacker style as I could (I’m not 25 anymore so there are some comforts that I want and will pay an extra $5 for). This was definitely the right way to go - between hostels, day trips, buses, and just chatting with folks wherever possible, I met more people in these few weeks than in most of my other travels and traded tips and stories helping to shape my route. Even though I was by myself I was rarely alone. I worked on my Spanish with lots of patient locals and despite usually only talking in the present tense and often just conjugating verbs into ‘I’ or ‘You’ I made do. Compared with my first travel of the year I was much more successful and loads more confident!

When I arrived in Ecuador I had only one real plan and that was to go to the Galapagos. I knew the dates I’d be on the islands and everything else until my return flight to San Francisco - all of my other destinations, transportation, accommodation, activities, etc - was on the fly. It’s really a good thing that my overly planning project manager self is pretty much non-existent these days and a low key flexible self has emerged. I’m working on a blend of the two now and allowing indecisiveness to just be known as willing, able, and flexible. You never know where a day or a night might take you so just be ready and willing!

I’ll put up a few different posts about the specifics of each of the spots that I visited but for now here’s the super Cliff’s Notes version. Also, now that I’m back to 1st world wifi all of my photos (read... 1500+) are now uploaded and organized into albums. Between my phone, DSLR, and GoPro this was definitely a photo heavy trip especially in the Galapagos and Amazon. I admit I just couldn’t stop snapping pics of the sea lions everywhere I saw them for eight days!

The trip shaped up like this (you can see these spots on a map here):

• Quito [3 days] [Photos] - massive capital city of Ecuador, nice old town with squares and churches, questionably safe especially at night, easy half day trip to Mitad del Mundo to see the Equator

• Galapagos [8.5 days] [Photos] - 600km off the coast of mainland Ecuador this is a world unto itself and a stunning display of wildlife both on land and in the water. It doesn't have to break the bank to visit if you're willing to play it a bit by ear!

• Montañita [2 days] [Photos] - famous mainland beach town perfect for stoners, surfers, and partiers. It’s relaxing but not…

• Cuenca [2 days] [Photos] - well preserved colonial city much smaller and cleaner than Quito with a nice National Park nearby

• Baños [2 days] [Photos] - outdoor adventure town, Ecuador’s answer to Queenstown New Zealand, with rivers, waterfalls, mountains, volcanoes, and a very photogenic tree swing. Definitely wishing I had more time here!

• Cuyabeno Reserve [4 days] [Photos] - Part of Ecuador’s slice of the Amazon rain forest, home to all sorts of birds, critters, and creatures, and much more beautiful with rivers and lakes than I imagined the rain forest to be

• Otavalo [½ day] [A few photos in the Quito album] - town two hours north of Quito with famous craft markets perfect for last minute shopping before my flight

Enjoy the photos - more to come soon if you're interested in the location and activity details. And if you're curious what's coming for 2016 that's in the works too and let's just say it's going to be très magnifique! 

Ecuador bound

After a brief three weeks back in the States the passport is back out and my bag is packed. Next destination… Ecuador and the Galapagos. Iguanas, tortoises, seals, and all of Darwin’s creatures, here I come! I am quite sad that Lonesome George is no longer alive!

Let’s be honest though, I basically unpacked and re-packed immediately in San Francisco and only spent a few days there cramming in friends, new babies, Halloween, and enough glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge to hold me over for a little while. From there on to Minnesota and Philadelphia for more friends, kids, soon to arrive babies, and Mom time. Between trying to figure out how on earth to re-enroll for 2016 health insurance (and take advantage of this whole no income thing to get a subsidy), working on actual life plans for the start of next year (planning ahead but still with a healthy dose of procrastination), and watching the horrific events unfold in Paris and wanting nothing but love and hope to come out in the aftermath I’ve kept myself occupied for the last week. Time now for one last adventure before the end of the year.

While in San Francisco at the start of November I debated between a few different locations in which to spend Thanksgiving and these few weeks before Christmas. Warm weather was definitely driving the decision but so was cost. After a slightly more expensive October than I planned I figured I’d try and head somewhere where the dollar would go really far. With the exception of the Galapagos (the flight alone was almost as much as my US to Quito flight!) I think that three and a half weeks in Ecuador will do it. And to go with my attempted more budget friendly travels I’m going solely with my backpack. Having it with me for two months in Europe after Mont Blanc I think I grew attached to it. I figured I’d challenge myself to pack lightly and be really mobile. Let’s see how I feel about the bag in a few weeks!

The Galapagos has been on my dream destination list for a long time and one that falls into the category of ‘I need to get there before it’s ruined or doesn’t even exist anymore’. While most people plan months in advance for a trips to the islands, and pay an arm and a leg, I have no plans other than a hotel in Quito for a few days and then a flight to the Galapagos. The approach is to wing it and see what last minute boats are available for relatively cheap. After reading up a fair amount on different blogs this seems like a reasonable plan. I’ve given myself eight full days in the Galapagos and hope that’s enough to be fairly flexible on boat options. If getting on an overnight boat for three or four days doesn’t work out I’ll visit a few of the different islands on my own and take a few day trips. There’s more than enough to occupy myself with.  

After the Galapagos I have no specific destinations - there’s a lot highlighted in my Lonely Planet book from surfing the beaches of the West Coast to hiking and cloud forests in the Highlands. With two weeks I figure I can get a lot done if I so desire. So for now I’ll attempt to revive my rusty Spanish (I’ve been brushing up and practicing with the Duolingo app with hope that it will be better than earlier in the year) and see what Ecuador and it’s people have to offer.

Adios los Estados Unidos, hasta pronto!

Greek Sun & Relaxation

Greece was not part of any initial plan during this European leg, but then again I knew I had a month or so with zero plan after Iceland and Mont Blanc so anything was possible. While in London, and spending quality time in the travel bookstore, I was set to head to Turkey. I’d bought a flight from Budapest to Istanbul and was going to figure the rest out. Well, then there were bombings in the Turkish capital and additional State Department travel warnings that I thought it best to re-direct my course. However, I was still determined to find nice warm weather and beaches. Enter Greece. 

 

As it turned out the week in Greece was just what I’d wanted it to be - relaxing, a bit of sight seeing, and best of all mostly sun for shorts and flipflops rather than jackets and boots. The unfortunate piece was that my last minute changes and plans following made it so my friend Joanna couldn’t join. Next time! I also ended up with some unnecessary costs of hotel and flight changes but oh well, that’s what I get for being indecisive.

For this post I considered just using photos and letting them speak themselves but I needed something to pass some of the 10 hour plane ride from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Also, that little speck of dust in my camera (that was removed with one blow of an air can at the camera shop yesterday, ugh) has caused annoying black dots in my perfectly blue sky pictures so I'll need to do some editing outside of Google Photos for some of them. For now, please ignore and pretend it's a bird ;)

If you want only a pictorial view here are the photos: Athens, Santorini

From Budapest I flew to Athens with the plan to stay a few days to see the sights and then head to an island. Initially I was going to do three nights and two days and then head off but I decided to cut that down to two nights and a day and a half. This was more than enough to cram in many of the major sights, wander a few of the neighborhoods, and start my feasting of Greek salads, delicious meats, and cheap local wine.

I found a Greek travel website run by an American guy living in Greece so I started to do some reading and actually emailed him to get some ideas of what given my time frame might work island wise. He came back with a few suggestions and after some further research and changing my mind twice I settled on Santorini. This is definitely somewhere that I’ve always wanted to go and just had magical romantic images in my head. Given those images I’d pretty much always planned that I wouldn’t want to go by myself. I was saving the Greek islands for some far fetched future vacation. But at the end of the day after a few people were like ‘you must go to Santorini’ I decided to go for it - if I have the opportunity I might as well take it. The initial island of Kea that I was looking at would have likely been great and a short ferry ride away but oh well… Santorini was totally worth it!

Santorini is far from Athens though - it’s an 8 hour ferry ride (5 if you’re on the high speed one) - so I just sucked it up and bought a plane ticket. It worked it out such that I left at the crack of dawn on a Sunday and could get an equally early return to Athens on the Thursday in time to get my bags and re-check in for my already booked flight from Athens to Nice. Perfect, four full days to enjoy!

Let’s go back to Athens and Greece in general for a bit though. First and foremost I can see why Greece is in trouble. It just seemed to be so incredibly disorganized everywhere. I got off the plane and had planned to take the train into the center of the city to my hotel, seemed like a relatively painless two train trip and a short walk. Well, what do you know I get to the trains and they’re on strike - or at least for the few hours around when I wanted to leave the airport that section of the train was on strike. Really, jeez! So I took the bus. Dear lord, yes it was cheap at 5 EUR but it took forever and it was pretty much impossible to know where along the route we were. Luckily I figured out that I was going all the way to the end so that made things a little easier. Standing on a crowded bus with people’s massive suitcases rolling around wasn’t really my ideal afternoon. Then back at the airport when I was getting on flights and whatnot it was ridiculously chaotic. Perhaps flying RyanAir exacerbated it but it was definitely like herding animals and no such thing as a proper queue or for some just a complete disrespect for anyone who might have been in a line.

Considering the number of tourist who I imagine come through Athens each year their infrastructure seemed fairly weak. The nice thing is that you can get a single ticket for 12 EUR that lasts for four days and covers six or seven of the major sites/ancient ruins - sweet deal. But there’s not really much signage, description, or maps so I was just winging it with the map I got from the hotel. I suppose if I’d actually planned ahead on going to Greece and purchased a guidebook I might have been better off and use that to know what I was looking at. The sights were pretty awesome though and everything is very close in a condensed area so it’s super easy to pop between them.  

Lastly on my rant cash is key. Greeks can only take out 50EUR in cash at a time where as foreigners have no limits so locals are just hoarding all the cash they can. I get it and especially on smaller few euro purchases it’s expensive to deal with cards but more expensive things I was just annoyed. Many places won’t take credit card or will just tell you that their machine is broken. I also found that prices were totally variable and likely depending on who you asked you got a different answer. My taxi back to the airport at 5AM when heading to Santorini was like 10 EUR more than what I thought was the flat rate. The guy was trying to tell my why it was more and of course I didn’t understand what on earth he was saying so I just gave him the cash and got out in a huff.

Anyway, while in Athens I had a nicely situated hotel right near the Acropolis so I was right in the heart of it. I was able to easily check out a few different old neighborhoods and the key archaeological sights and the Acropolis Museum. With my 12 EUR ticket I saw:

The Acropolis (Parthenon, North and South Slope, Theater of Dionysus) 

Ancient Agora

Hadrian's Library

Kerameikos cemetery

Olympieion (temple of Zeus)

As I saw the sights I also I wandered through the nearby neighborhoods of Plaka, Monastiraki and Psiri. Lots of shops, vendors, restaurants, and bars. While the streets are quite dirty and there's a lot of graffiti and rundown buildings there's also some pretty great street art as well. Some very fun stuff to look at. 

Through the dirty and congested streets I checked out an amazing local market that should definitely not be visited by vegetarians! Along the way to the market there were loads of shops selling spices, teas, and other goods and then when you arrive at the market itself it's meat, meat, and more meat. There’s all sorts of meat, poultry, and fish for sale just hanging or sitting in the various stalls - refrigeration and whatnot somewhat questionable.

With enough ancient ruins seen and photographed Santorini was calling! As I discovered Santorini is a fairly large island with a few different towns with a variety of hotels and whatnot. I decided to stay in the town of Oia which I would soon learn was the home of picture perfect sunsets, cruise ship day excursion bus drop off, and a zillion stairs.

I’d debated whether or not to have the hotel arrange for an airport transfer and boy am I glad that I did. I would have definitely struggled to find where I was going because the town is really just stone alleyways and my hotel was down about 30 or 40 steps perched on the cliff side with no sign. Luckily the transfer also included someone to carry my bags!!

I definitely got a steal of a deal on my hotel room at Caldera Villas thanks to my last minute booking. I essentially had a massive apartment with kitchen and best of all fantastic patio looking out over the sea. It was a fabulous spot to sit any time of day. Not sure how I lucked out on the room but I was certainly happy with it. I’d usually sit for about an hour every morning on the hotel’s main patio enjoying the views and my breakfast while deciding what I might want to do for the day.

Once I’d explored a fair bit of Oia on the first day I decided that I’d venture out on the local buses to the main town of Fira and then off to beaches the following days. The buses were a hoot and the first time riding seemed to be very confusing for everyone! Once you had one ride under your belt you were a pro. They’re mostly older and well used coach buses and a guy just walks down the isle during each route to collect the fare. Every bus goes through Fira so regardless of where I wanted to go I always had to stop there and stand in the middle of the parking lot waiting to see which bus was going to your next destination. The schedule seemed to be just a guideline of when a bus might appear, I don’t think I got on one that actually left when it was apparently supposed to. But never having anywhere to be at any specific time it was never a bother.

The black sand beaches of Perissa and Kamari were quite nice and the water was nice and clear - a little chilly but felt good once you were moving around. Being that I was there at the end of the season the beaches were pretty quiet. Some of the restaurants and beach clubs were closed but plenty was open to serve my needs - a lounge chair and someone to serve me food and drinks :)

I discovered that there was a 10k coastal path connecting Fira and Oia and it went along the cliff sides with awesome views throughout. On my last day the weather wasn’t great so I figured this would be a perfect activity. I took the bus to Fira and then began to make my way back to Oia. When I’d first talked to the lovely lady at my hotel she made it seem like it was going to be really long and take like five hours. Once I’d done research on TripAdvisior and people raved about it and I realized it was only 10k I knew I had to do it - it took me about two and a half hours with a few little detours along the way. It was a perfect way to spend a few overcast hours still enjoying the views but not sweating profusely as I imagine I would have been if it was the height of summer!

The sunsets of Oia were indeed fantastic. There were loads of tour groups arriving throughout the day to Oia but usually between 5 and 6 at night was madness. The buses would arrive, the tour leaders waving their sticks or whatever item was being used to identify them, and the small alleys of the town, especially those heading towards the western edge, would be packed. I took to heading out some time shortly after six each day and either just finding a spot along the walkways or a table at a bar with a glass of wine to see what the sunset had to offer.

I was seeking relaxation, sunshine, and warm temperatures and Santorini scored on all! It was absolutely fabulous even by myself. Having now been to one Greek Island I know I need to see more - next time I hope to be able to do it from a boat and hop between them. I’d love to be able to do more swimming in the sea and finding small beaches and spots away from main towns.