When amazing opportunities to visit exceptional places appear, the answer is always yes (shut up bank account, you’re not in charge anymore). Plan a trip to Greece and Turkey with two weeks notice – no problem! The notice was a bit too short for Greg, so my awesome friend Nicole came along for the ride (I needed her to eat all the olives Greece and Turkey would try and poison me with!).
A real treat for this trip was that none of our flights left in the wee hours of the morning, which is not at all normal for us. We got to the airport at a lovely mid-morning time of 10, checked in (the process is always slower right now, with the poor check-in agents having to verify that you have all the things for wherever you are going, and it was the first day they also had to check vax records), finally got to see the newly renovated departures lounge (looks great YFC!), had a nice coffee after security (for those familiar with YFC, this is a very welcome addition), and hopped on a plane to Toronto (I didn’t hop, but I might have had some excitement to my walk).
In Toronto, we had an outstanding five hour layover – couldn’t be helped right now (and I’m just happy to have lift back at YFC at all), it is what it is. The domestic section was pretty busy, but the international section was a ghost town. About half of the shops/restaurants in that section weren’t open, but there was coffee and we found food. We did a lot of walking back and forth to kill time. Our plane got changed and our seats got switched, so we had a nice chat with the Air Canada desk hours before our flight and got better seats back again (heck no on the terrible middle). Our flight to Athens had about 80 empty seats and they had to move a bunch of people to the back to rebalance the weight, which made lots of room for people to move around. Our section of three was full, but our seat mate moved across the aisle as soon as the doors closed. Empty seat in our row on a 10 hour flight – WIN!
Fast forward 3.5 movies, 2 shows, and a failed attempt at a nap and we arrived in Athens at 10am. Easy peasy customs (Greece required a passenger locator form), suitcases came too, and our driver was waiting. No traffic into Athens (always a plus) and we arrived at our hotel in about 45 minutes. Excellent travel karma continued and our room was ready for us, even though it was hours before check-in. We stayed at innAthens – great location, with everything we needed for our two nights there.
My key to survival after flying through the night and to get sorted on a new time zone (we were five hours ahead at this point)… stay awake. We stayed in the hotel for a bit, washed off the travel ick, tried to un-zombie ourselves, and generally had a mask break (with masks required in airports and on flights, we were masked for about 20 hours). Then we decided to take the easy route and ride the Athens hop-on, hop-off bus. There was a stop near our hotel, so we did the main route – a great way to see some sites without having to make a lot of decisions when you are a barely functioning human. Afterwards, a walk down into the Plaka area (lots of shops, restaurants, cafes), some delicious eats outside at a restaurant near the Agora (I would love to live somewhere warm enough to eat outside most of the year), some more walking around (stretching the legs was so lovely after the long day of travel), and coffee (because in Greece, you take time for a coffee break). It wasn’t a late night, but we made it to darkness before we went to bed.
The real day 1 – sleep was had, likely not enough but more than none, and off we went. Delicious eats and coffee at our hotel (a very pleasant surprise) in the lovely outdoor courtyard. Then we decided we would make further use of our 2-day HOHO bus ticket and use it for transportation (and to take it in a bit more well rested) – and off to the Acropolis we went. Into November is the off season, which means a lot of the sites move to half price admission. It also means they aren’t as crowded (pandemics also help with this). There were a couple of school groups touring when we were there, but there was plenty of room to move around. The wait to get in was very short (just those school groups again) and plenty of guides were available if you wanted to hire one. Staff were trying very hard to get people to move around in one direction, but honestly it wasn’t really working anywhere but at the entrance/exit. We stopped to view the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (cool amphitheatre) and then continued up the hill. The last time I was there, the bulk of the restoration work was happening in the back of the Parthenon and now it appears to be in the front, so I’ve gotten to see both. They’ve also added a wider (and controversial) concrete walkway to make the site more accessible – but there’s still plenty of uneven places.
Want a quick and dirty history lesson? The Acropolis (from Greek words that mean highest point and city) sits above the city of Athens and is home to the remains of several historically important structures, including the Parthenon (former temple to Athena, patron goddess of Athens), the Erechtheion (had many uses throughout history including temple to Athena, temple to Poseidon, home to cults and harems, as a church, and more), the temple of Athena Nike (the name gives this one away), and the Propylaea (the immense gateway into the site). These structures date back to before 400 BC (but there’s evidence of other structures and uses back nearly another thousand years before that). The site has survived destruction from wars and repurposing from new rulers and the restoration project started the year before I was born. Mostly, it’s just plain cool and you should go. There is something incredibly amazing about walking through sites with so much history. Imagine who has walked there before you.
From the Acropolis, we walked down the pedestrian area along the slopes, through to Hadrian’s gate (heads up, the temple of Zeus in behind Hadrian’s gate is also nearly completely covered in scaffolding right now for repairs), and back to our hotel for a quick mask break (we left our masks on anywhere outside that was crowded and they were required indoors unless eating/drinking). Then it was time for a food tour!
We did a gourmet food tour with Athens Walks. Our guide, Irini, was excellent (and incredibly amusing in her giant puffy coat and sweater when it was over 25C and sunny) and it was only us on the tour. It was about 4 hours long, starting from Monastiraki Square and through Psiri. It was part cool alleys and street art (which I love), much walking (also excellent), and probably too much eating. We visited restaurants, cafes, and markets, tried olive oils and spirits, and we did not leave hungry. By the end, we took our food from the last stop to go because we were so full. Highly recommend. Some places required we show our vax proof. We called it a night after this – we weren’t quite on the local time zone yet – and chilled at the hotel. I am not a late night person these days and I need breaks from having a mask on my face… so while Athens has an amazing night life generally, I pretty much ignored it on this trip.
Day 2 – After another tasty breakfast at our hotel, we decided to get some extra steps in and explore the National Gardens. These are really pretty, full of citrus trees, ponds, flowers, ruins, and some wildlife. Athens has a lot of people (they don’t even know how many) and a lot of traffic (so much that they need to limit who can drive to the city center – license plates ending in odd numbers can on odd days of the month and the same for even plates on even days), so a nice break in some nature was perfect. After our walk, it was time to check out of innAthens and head to Piraeus (it’s not actually that far, but traffic can slow the process when there’s a lot of ships in port and ferries to the islands are running more often).
A brief wait, a covid test, another brief wait for results, check-in, and we were on our way to our home for the next week – Regent Seven Seas Splendor. The whole process took about an hour. Cabins weren’t ready yet, so we had some lunch with a view of the port, explored the ship a bit, and found some coffee. We had to rearrange some plans while drinking our coffee… a port in Turkey got changed to a port in Greece, so we booked a new tour. A marathon in Istanbul also required us to make some changes. We’d later find out another Turkey tour was cancelled and needed to be replaced. Excursions are included with Regent, so we went with mostly ship tours (but we were permitted to leave the ship and tour on our own in all places).
Our suite was pretty outstanding, I have to say – it’s the biggest and nicest cabin I’ve ever stayed in on a ship. Huge bathroom with tub, shower, and double vanity, walk-in closet, easily five times more storage than we needed, seating area with couch and table, and huge balcony with two chairs, a table, and a lounger (it definitely was put to good use). We’re ruined for normal cabins now.
We wrapped the day up with touring the ship, dinner at the Italian restaurant (we ate too much), a visit to the sail-away party (not a giant party as the ship has a capacity of 750 guests and we weren’t sailing at capacity), a walk (see comment about eating too much), and a cocktail named after the ship in the Observation lounge.
This is getting long and we just got on the ship. Hanging in there? Need a coffee break?
Let’s explore…
Lesvos, Greece – Today started early, as we were out on a tour in Lesvos before 8am and coffee was required first. Tours were very smooth and organized and they kept the groups quite small (I’d say our largest group the whole week was about 20 people). We visited a Greek Orthodox church, admired the beautiful rainbows the windows cast inside (religion is not my thing, but churches often have amazing light), and checked out the views. Then it was off to spend some time up in the mountains. Lesvos is known for olive products, which isn’t surprising since it is home to 11 million olive trees. In the mountains, it was olive trees as far as you could see. We had some time to explore the charming town of Agiasos, including the monastery, before heading back to the port area. We still had a fair bit of time before the ship was leaving, so we went exploring – the marina area was lovely, with lots of shops of restaurants (which we mostly ignored, because honestly I can only eat so much food in a day and I was still full from the day before). If you like to shop, there is much shopping here. There’s also a huge church, a medieval fortress up on a hill, and likely some nearby beaches (but Greeks are not going to the beach in November!).
At night on the ship, we mostly ate, walked, maybe had a drink, or watched a movie in our room. We tried trivia once, went to none of the shows, didn’t go in the casino (it was small but there was one), and the entertainers weren’t really our thing. Mostly, it was just nice to take our masks off… so you’ll pretty much see no further references to night life on the ship in this blog. Many of our days started early and sleeping is fun.
Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey – I was ridiculously excited to have this port on this itinerary since I hadn’t been before and there was much I wanted to see here. Regent offers included excursions in every port, and then additional options you can pay for and we opted for one of these here. It was a full day, visiting the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar. We woke up very early, more due to the ship’s horn from sailing in very thick fog than anything else. Our guide (who was excellent and whose name I forget… I’m out of practice remembering stuff for weeks for the blog) for the day was surprised we even made it into port. Istanbul has a state-of-the-art shiny new cruise terminal and it’s huge – you’ll get your steps just transiting through it.
So, Istanbul (not Constantinople). It was bonkers foggy but warm, so that was something. They were setting up for the marathon that was happening the next day, so there was infrastructure for it all over the place (if you’re a runner, it’s a cool one – you start in Asia and run to Europe, since Istanbul sits on both continents). Our first stop of the day was the Blue Mosque (built in the 1600s). Sadly, this was the second of two disappointments of the cruise. It is nearly completely covered inside and out in scaffolding… it’s pretty big, so the whole outside isn’t covered, just the parts we had access to). As a tourism attraction, ignoring all religious aspects, it isn’t worth visiting right now. You can only see a few windows and a small piece of one dome. The entrance and exit are the same, very congested, and you’re essentially trying to put your shoes back on while walking down the stairs, and trying not to get trampled on by people who want around you. My highlight was visiting with a cat. This first stop, where I was admittedly a touch cranky, also made it very clear we were going to annoying some annoying assholes with us all day (you know the types… the ones that are more important than you… they’re my fave… and some racists… good times). Anyways, enough about that… I was fine soon enough (assholes were thankfully few and far between on this trip)… onto Hagia Sophia (about 2500 years old), also on my must see list, and thankfully devoid of scaffolding! It is AMAZING. I don’t have words, so you can have pictures. While I definitely don’t know the ins and outs of Islamic culture, and I don’t agree with anything that makes women second-class citizens, I feel very thankful to have gotten to visit this mosque. Related, the call to prayer ringing out from mosques throughout the day all around the city is beautiful, even when you’re not very familiar with the religion behind it.
Next up, Topkapi Palace and grounds – started in the 1450s by Sultan Mehmed. We spent a few hours there exploring most of the grounds. It’s beautiful. Stunning tilework, beautiful gardens, and very nice to be outside. There’s several different courtyards to explore and several buildings like a library and kitchen. Eventually, the sun even started to come out.
From there, we went to the Pera Palace Hotel, for lunch. This hotel was built in the late 1800s and was where Orient Express guests would stay. It’s also said that Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express here and they’ve kept room 411, where she stayed, as a memorial. Our lunch buffet was meh, honestly, but the hotel was beautiful (and it has the oldest electric elevator in Turkey).
Last stop – the Grand Bazaar. While cool to see, this is not my thing. It’s huge, with many shops selling the same items (knock-offs were definitely plentiful, but also plenty of jewelry, candy, clothing, carpets, ceramics, lamps, pipes). Generally it’s bonkers crowded (over a quarter of a million visitors in a day crowded), but it was not when we were there. There’s over 60 covered streets and 4000 shops. It is considered one of the first malls in the world and the architecture is cool though (if you go, look up… amazing ceilings). It has been damaged and restored many times in its history. If you’re a shopper, definitely go. There’s a lovely mosque near the entrance, and lots of cats (in Turkey and Greece, there are cats everywhere and people feed them… yay!), so I was entertained. I did buy some cool Turkish-made items, but from some nearby shops instead.
That wrapped up day one in Istanbul. We were there overnight, so we could have gone back out to explore the city some more… but tired and mask breaks. We did spend some time looking at the beautiful cityscape that is Istanbul all light up at night from the top deck though.
Day 2 in Istanbul, we had to change from our original plan to visit some other amazing spots (a mosque, a church, and a basilica cistern) and the famous Spice Market because of the marathon – vehicles couldn’t get into the port area or even near it – so instead we did a boat tour of the harbour (it was nice to see more of the cityscape from the water) and visited the Balat neighbourhood. To me, it was pretty hipster, with lots of quirky little spots, street art, colourful buildings – I liked it (but I’ll have to come back to see much more in Istanbul, and Turkey in general). Early afternoon, we left Istanbul and its fog behind and headed towards our next stop in Turkey.
Kusadasi, Turkey – I loved this port. The last time I was in Turkey, we docked in Izmir to go to Ephesus and Kusadasi is way better. It’s a charming port with lots to see when you walk around and it’s closer to Ephesus, which means less time on a bus. If you’re a shopper, there’s plenty there for you too. The sail in is lovely, seeing the rainbow spectrum houses up on the hill, pigeon island, and their snazzy Kusadasi sign (like the Hollywood sign). The weather was amazing and it was so lovely to explore the Ephesus with no crowd (and when it’s not like 40C). I was a very happy girl with all my old rocks that day. We visited the terrace houses as well, and they have done so much more work there since my last visit, which was really interesting to see. They’ve also opened up more of the site for visitors in general.
Back at the port, even though I knew it was a trap, we went to see the Turkish rug demonstration. It is interesting to see how they make them, and they are beautiful, but we had no interest in purchasing them and they make it awkward to leave. I did want to know what they did exactly, so I could let future travelers know what to expect though. We walked through their bazaar, made a few purchases, and talked to some lovely shop owners. We also checked out the sculpture garden along the water, before heading back to the ship at sunset.
The day formerly known as Rhodes. It’s always a good time when you hear from the captain early in the morning (not that early, but we should have been able to see Rhodes by then and couldn’t, so something was up). He, of course, had excellent news. The tug boat operators in Piraeus were going on strike on the 10th (we were scheduled to return on the 11th). They requested permission to bring the ship back into Piraeus without tugs and were denied. So, to be able to disembark us and bring the new guests on, we had to go back early. So Rhodes became a sea day. Rhodes is awesome and I was looking forward to returning, but such is cruising. We did pretty much nothing of interest except a cooking class, so I’ll talk about that instead.
Regent is known for its Culinary Arts Kitchen and the class we did was a lot of fun. The instructor did a great job at accommodating dietary restrictions, the stations weren’t too close together, it wasn’t dumbed down too much, and we were stuffed after eating our creations. We made shakshuka, a cake, and a filled pastry dish.
Next up, the day formerly known as Santorini (this broke my heart a bit since I have been wanting to go there forever and haven’t been yet, and I’m admittedly still a bit disappointed about it, but I still have a long list in Greece and I’ll get there yet) – now the day known as arriving in Piraeus at like 3am and spending more time in Athens because walking around Piraeus wasn’t super appealing. We picked up a driver at the port, spent a couple of hours in Athens doing stuff we planned to do once we got off the ship, had some lunch, headed back, and enjoyed our balcony. Eventually we packed our stuff.
Officially back to Athens. Got up early, did a covid test on the ship so we’d have it to come home, met our driver, and headed to our new hotel – Grand Hyatt Athens. The location is meh (unless you like strip clubs, there was plenty on the other side of the throughway), but the travel agent rate was excellent and we just needed a place to sleep. The hotel is really nice and has a nice view of the Acropolis from the pool area on the roof (warning, there is construction happening right next door). Checked in, left our suitcases (room not ready yet), and went off to visit the New Acropolis Museum (to me, from afar, it looks like a VCR with a VHS tape sitting on top of it). It’s really interesting though – a lot of what remains of the decorative bits from the structures on the Acropolis, including the original caryatids from the Erechtheion (on site, those are replicas now). Definitely worth a visit, and there’s a great view of the Acropolis from the roof there too.
After our museum adventure, we found something to eat, wandered around some more, and then we were off to meet the guide for a free walking tour. I love doing these in major cities – not just because they are free, but because the guides are usually really entertaining (since they work for tips). Our guide was an Irish guy who has been living in Athens for a decade and our group was really too big (like 40 people, which is too big for a walking tour), but it was fine. We covered more than 6km and hit some spots we hadn’t seen yet. Stops included the Olympic stadium (where they were setting up for another marathon!), the national garden, changing of the guard at the old Palace (now parliament) overlooking Syntagma Square (except that there was a big protest happening, so the palace was surrounded by riot police and military), the university, more of the Plaka area, and up through Anafiotika (a small neighbourhood with white houses on a hill that has more of a Greek island feel). It was about three hours and the guide was good – definitely worth free.
For our last full day in Greece, it was time to get out of the city. Our awesome driver Dominic picked us up at the hotel and away we went to Delphi. It’s a couple of hours away by car, and the site isn’t huge (and some of it is closed because it’s on the side of a mountain essentially and rock slides), but it is definitely worth seeing. We spent a few hours there exploring (there’s a museum on site as well), with barely anyone else there (some school groups again), and it was amazing. Delphi is known for the temple of Apollo and having been home to the oracle. We had lunch in the nearby town of Delphi (a town created so that residents of the town that had been built over the original site of Delphi would have a place to live and Delphi could be excavated) and then made our way back to Athens.
And then it was time to go home… check-in at the Athens airport was easy peasy, there’s lots of shops and restaurants etc. there and they were all open (and they don’t charge you bonkers prices for stuff like ours… a sandwich and a water was like 4 euro). Had some eats, killed some time, boarded a plane to Montreal, and lucked out with another empty seat in our row.
Three movies and four shows later, landed in Montreal. For my birthday, the government of Canada gifted me a selection for random additional covid testing (they gifted many people on my plane this same treat). Since you already need a PCR test to enter Canada, this is a colossal waste of time and tax dollars. Customs was quick (other than the stupid extra testing). Ate some food, found some coffee, walked around a bunch to kill the rest of a four hour layover, boarded a plane, flew home, hugged Greg, found suitcase, drove home, and that was that.
Regent is a lovely cruise line, the ship is beautiful, and the staff are outstanding. There’s a lot of value in what they include and it’s worth considering if you would like a smaller ship and a more luxurious overall experience. There’s some pretty fancy suites on their ships (there’s one with more square footage than my house).
Greece is amazing. I have been before and I will return (likely more than once) – it’s been one of my favourite countries since I first visited a decade ago and there’s so much more I want to see (and every time I go, my list gets longer).
Not everyone may be ready to travel yet and that’s fine – you do you. There’s definitely additional levels of complication that weren’t there before. I followed the rules, I filled in the forms, I washed my hands, and I wore a mask (I cannot wait to have a bonfire to burn every single mask that I own because I hate them… I miss smiles). You need to be able to go with the flow and you need to be ready to deal with the consequences if you test positive in destination. But for me, travel is essential and it’s taken traveling this fall for me to start to feel like myself again for the first time in over a year. Travel is a very important part of my life. It was missing and the weight of that was definitely felt every single day (and not just in my bank account). Visiting some new places and returning to some favourites was just what I needed.
I can’t wait to get back out there again.
Ange out.
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