In May 2016 I graduated as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. This was a huge accomplishment and something that I had dreamed about and worked towards for many years. As a gift for all of the hard work, my parents decided to take me on the adventure of a lifetime. An 11 day cruise through the Mediterranean, starting in Athens, Greece, finishing in Barcelona, Spain, with many incredible stops in between.
This was my first time travelling to Europe and I could not have been more excited. I have to admit, we didn’t do much planning. We decided to let the cruise ship do most of the work for us and we chose an excursion for almost every port of call. This was a great decision for us. It was a whole new world (yes, that’s an intended Disney reference) and we didn’t want to waste time getting lost, trying to figure out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do.
Our journey to Athens took us through Zurich, Switzerland. We had a very short layover there, but I made sure to get me some real Swiss chocolate. It was delicious. We got on to the next plane and were on our way to Athens, with a gorgeous view flying over the Alps along the way. While it may not seem like a big deal, this is also where I had my first experience with Coke in Europe, and wow what a difference the real sugar makes in the taste. While I’m not always a big soda drinker, that was something I was going to have to get used to throughout the trip.
One of my biggest fears for this trip was encountering language barriers. Going to a foreign country not knowing the native language was a little scary for me. Though, I have to say that there were only maybe 1 or 2 incidents where we had trouble communicating with someone, but we were always able to find somebody else that spoke English right away. This was a big relief for myself as well as my parents.
As with most big cities, the Athens airport was a good distance away from the center of the city. There were a few options that we had to get there such as bus, metro rail, or taxi. We decided to take a taxi as this was the easiest and fastest for us. We were surprised to find out that it was only about $30 USD. I would recommend this option for those looking to get to the heart of the city as fast as they can, though the other choices are cheaper.
We arrived at our hotel downtown in the early afternoon. We stayed at the Attalos Hotel, which was very close to several of the top Athens attractions. It was a very nice hotel with a rooftop bar/lounge, which we enjoyed later that evening. Our top site to see was the Acropolis, which includes the renowned Parthenon. It was a nice hike to the top of the hill, but we were rewarded with some incredible views of ancient history. We spent some time walking around the Acropolis, then trekked back down the hill for dinner. My main goal for this trip besides fun, was the food. Trying to sample traditional dishes from each country along the journey.
Our dinner that night was at an authentic Greek restaurant and I was not disappointed. I wish I could remember the name, because I would not hesitate to recommend this place to anybody that visits Athens. Each table is provided with endless bread of varying types (who doesn’t love bread?). My mom and I both got a Greek salad. It wasn’t what I was expecting as it is somewhat different from the Americanized version, the main difference being that there is no lettuce. But this meant more feta cheese, which is my favorite part. My dad got a “small” plate of meat. I say small because that is what the menu called it, but it was far from small. Piles on piles of various kinds of meat stacked on a plate; lamb, beef, chicken, pork, among others. We were all very pleasantly surprised with how incredible the food was. This along with the atmosphere of the garden area of the restaurant made this an amazing start to our vacation.
We headed back to our hotel and went up to the rooftop lounge. This area had fantastic views of the whole city, along with the Acropolis. It was the perfect way to watch the sunset over the mountains. There was a couple on the roof with us and interestingly enough, one of them was from a neighboring city of my hometown in Virginia! It really is a small world out there.
It was an early night for us as we knew that we had to be on our cruise ship the next morning. I did have a great time in Athens and I was very excited for the days to come as we continued our adventure through Europe.
It's a Magical Life 