A Grand Trip to Greece

Table of contents

• New Corinth
• Antiquities Day: Acrocorinth, Ancient Corinth, Mycenae…
• Three days in Nafplio
• To Delphi via Olympia.
• Delphi
• Monasteries and rocks of Meteora
• Metsovo-Ioanniya
• Mikro Papingo. Vikos Gorge.
• Mount Olympus and its surroundings
• Portaria
• The island of my dreams
• Matala - Faistos
• Rethymno
• Arrival in Chania
• Elafonissi Beach - Topolia
• Two days in Chania
• Athens

Preface

Greece smells of sun-warmed pine. Of course, there are many other scents there too: juniper, oregano, jasmine... Athens often smells of exhaust fumes—narrow streets, lots of not-so-new cars. In Nafplio, in places, there's a smell of sewage—a common problem in many truly old cities. One street in the mountain village of Mikro Papingo smelled intoxicatingly of ripe grapes—they entwined the beams overhead, creating a cozy canopy. For some reason, it smelled specifically there, although grapes were plentiful elsewhere. But now, sitting on the plane taking me from Athens to Copenhagen, I remember Greece exactly like this: blue skies, dry, rocky soil where pine and olive trees grow freely, and the joyful scent of pine pervades everything.

The Long Road to Crete

I started planning a trip to Greece five years ago. Our 25th wedding anniversary was approaching, and I wanted to celebrate it with a memorable trip. Especially since we hadn't traveled anywhere since our wedding: what kind of money did a graduate student have in 1993, even though I was working two jobs? I knew Natasha's childhood dream was to go to Crete, so I started looking into options for a trip to the island.

That time, going to Crete didn't work out: I couldn't find a suitable flight from Detroit. All flights required at least two stops and took an absurdly long time, over 20 hours. So we flew to Lisbon and took a wonderful road trip through Portugal and Spain. We also started a tradition of annual fall travel: we luckily got married in October, when most of Europe enjoys beautiful weather and there are fewer tourists. We missed the COVID-19 year of 2020, but every other year we've traveled to a new region.

This year, our 30th wedding anniversary was approaching, and I started thinking about Crete again. A flight search revealed that there still wasn't a convenient flight to Crete from Detroit, but now that I had more experience, I remembered our trip two years ago: we flew into Vienna and then took an overnight train to Venice. I really liked the idea: you board the train in the evening and get off in Venice the next morning, refreshed and well-rested. A double compartment (I didn't consider cheap seats—we're not students anymore, after all) from Vienna to Venice and back from Rome to Vienna was significantly more expensive than airfare, but considering we were saving two nights at a hotel, the cost was comparable. And most importantly, it saved time: any flight, even a short one, is at least half a day wasted… So I started looking for an overnight ferry from Athens to Crete. And it turned out there was!

So, the idea for the trip was solidified. All that was left was to put it together with plane tickets, an itinerary, and booked accommodations... I've gotten pretty good at this sort of thing, and every year there are fewer hitches. First, I had to decide on the length of the trip: I was only given two weeks' vacation, but I work remotely, and for that kind of work, all I need is a laptop and internet connection. So I planned four weeks: two weeks of vacation and two weeks of remote work. I've done this before and have learned to combine work and leisure. A week and a half before the trip, I learned that I couldn't work remotely anymore: I'd been laid off. Business activity had slowed, and I couldn't be assigned to a project. I thought I was safe since I was working on a fairly important internal project, but as it turned out, I was wrong. I shrugged and decided that this way I'd be able to see more of Greece. Although I still had to work a bit, because I also have a small business, and clients don't care whether I'm on vacation or not. Moreover, shortly before the layoffs, I very fortunately found a program that searched for jobs and sent out resumes using artificial intelligence queries. So, I quickly figured it out and customized it, and while we were walking through various historical sites, the program worked tirelessly. As a result, I completed one interview while on the trip, then another – a much longer one – and, a few days after returning, received a job offer. 

I've divided my four weeks like this: two weeks of travel around mainland Greece. Then we'll return the car and spend the rest of the day wandering around Athens (or rather, the Pireos port area). In the evening, we'll board a ferry and spend a week in Crete. On the way back, we'll spend another day in Athens and three days in Copenhagen. While searching for flights, I discovered that separate Detroit-Copenhagen and Copenhagen-Athens tickets are much cheaper than the Detroit-Athens route, and the flight is easier because you can rest after the long flight across the ocean. Copenhagen will be an added bonus: we've already transited through there, but only spent half a day there.