When planning where to visit in Europe we have so many choices. There are so many amazing countries all within such close proximity to one another. It would be easy to jump from capital to capital and see only a tiny slice of what each place has to offer. On our trip so far we have made a real effort to visit more than just the capitals (or tourism capitals).

At the same time this is also difficult because we know we can’t “see it all” even with the large timeframe we have. When deciding to visit Greece we initially wanted to visit the North, South and multiple islands. This was definitely not possible with only eleven days and we even thought to ourselves, do we even bother going if we’re not going to see the North, but I’m glad we did. Some people come to Greece and only visit Santorini or Crete so we are lucky that we were able to visit Athens, Santorini and Paros during our time.

When tossing up between Croatia or Greece (we only have a small window of warm weather left) Greece was the clear winner. Having the chance to visit Athens where democracy and modern civilisation was formed makes it an incredibly fascinating destination with the best ancient history we have learned about so far. Athens City has suffered during the financial crisis but is starting to rebuild its tourism industry with many modern museums, restaurants and hotels constantly opening. Although most of the city is quite run down with a lot of construction work taking place I absolutely loved it. Seeing a city that through major ups and downs is still managing to thrive after being established for 2500 years was really quite special and shows the resilience and positivity of the Greek people. Walking on the old concrete footpaths knowing that there is probably ruins of past eras buried underneath was fascinating.

Of course, the real jewels of Athens are the intact ancient ruins which are dotted around the city. We visited the Acropolis on our first day, of course arriving ten minutes before opening with our tickets already purchased. We were able to admire the grounds, the Parthenon as well as the other temples almost alone without any crowds for an hour and a half. As we were leaving actual bus loads of tour groups were arriving and filling the grounds up very quickly. Arriving at 8am also meant the buildings were lit by the most gorgeous golden light.

In the afternoon we visited the ancient Agora where men cast the first ever votes on decisions to be made in their community thousands of years ago. Here, there was an incredibly well preserved temple which looked like a mini Parthenon.

The following day we visited the stadium where the first Olympic Games took place, the temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Library. It is cool seeing parts of history linking together as we saw Hadrian’s wall when we visited York in England.

In the afternoon we walked up Mt Lycabettus to watch the sun set over Athens City and watch the Acropolis light up. We have never seen anything quite like it.

On our last day we visited the Acropolis museum where there are hundreds of original artefacts to view from the excavation of the acropolis. During our time in Athens we ate Gyros the whole time. They are a fresh pita bread wrap with either chicken or pork inside with salad, tzatziki and hot chips. So delicious.

After a busy couple of days in Athens we were looking forward getting out to the islands for a week. First stop was Santorini with our five hour ferry leaving at 7am.

Travelling off season definitely has its perks. Our room at our hotel got upgraded to one with an ocean view balcony and there were apparently not as many crowds (even though we thought it was quite busy!). We stayed in Oia which is where people get the traditional ‘Santorini’ photos of the blue domed churches and incredible sunsets. As we had three nights here we did one sunset night on our balcony, one at the top of another hill next to a church (highly recommended) and one night down with everyone else at the point where the windmills are. All spots had beautiful sunsets.

During the rest of our time on Santorini we explored the village of Oia and also did the Oia to Fira walk. This 10km walk was a really nice way to see all three main villages and we managed it in just over two and a half hours.

On our fourth day on Santorini we moved accomodation to a village called Messaria because it was closer to the port and we had another 7:00am ferry ride the following morning. This was also a good idea because we managed to book our room using some united airlines points that they gave us for losing Matts bag temporarily when we visited the US a couple of years ago – Score! Messaria is a super laid back inland village and we had an incredible lunch feast at a local restaurant of fried cheese, tomato fritters, Greek salad and skewered chicken + drinks for around $40NZD. Afterwards we caught the local bus to the black pebble beach for a swim.

Although Santorini is super hyped up and very busy, we can see why. It is an absolutely beautiful island with amazing architecture and views. There is definitely more to it than just the town of Oia however!

The following morning we had another 7:00am ferry to the island of Paros, about five hours from Santorini.

Paros is a very relaxed island known for its small fishing villages. We spent three days here in another upgraded ocean front room with an incredible sunset view. We visited a couple of different beaches here as well as visiting the two villages of Naoussa and Lefkes. Naoussa being a small waterfront fishing village and Lefkes being the highest point inland. With our accomodation only costing us $65NZD a night we managed to live pretty cheaply here for three nights, usually feasting at lunch and then having fresh veggies, cheese,hummus and pitas our balcony for dinner.

Two other awesome food places included this takeaway shop which did traditional home cooked Greek dishes for 5 euro each. The meatballs with grilled veggies were delicious. The other great find was a traditional bakery in the city which did small pieces of desserts so we could try a range of things. The baklava and orange syrup cake are faves.

There is so much to see and learn about in Greece. We are definitely wanting to return to visit the North of the country as well as a couple of weeks to see Crete.

Feeling super relaxed we are currently catching a ferry back to Athens to get the bus to the airport to catch a flight to Rome. We have another 12 days in Italy woo hoo!

*update as of 29/10/19, currently in Cinque Terre finally getting around to posting this.