Kalemara, Greece!👋🏻🇬🇷

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Last week I had a week-long vacation at my university and taking advantage of my free time, I decided to spend the first days of summer in a country where I wanted to go for a long time - Greece. Athens did not attract me very much, but the island of Santorini was one of the first on the list of places where I aspired to go.

I flew to Santorini by plane from Cologne, on a direct flight. The airport is miniature, built in the local style: a white facade combined with blue elements. Leaving the airport building, I boarded a city bus that took me to Fira, the capital of Santorini. In total, there are about ten towns-villages on the island. The main transport is buses that run around the island for a modest fee. When choosing a hotel, I advise you to choose an overnight stay in Fira: all buses go either from Fira or to Fira.

After the check-in, I was advised to climb to the highest point in Fira, where the very instagrammable panorama with white houses opens. They seem to be built on top of each other, differing little and creating the architectural style of the Greek islands. The streets here are narrow, you can walk them either on foot or on a donkey, the national treasure of the island.

It was time for lunch and I went to the most popular restaurant on the island, where they prepare a local salad (not classic Greek, but Santorinian one). I walked around the tourist places, went around the whole island and reached the beach of Perissa in the south of Fira.

Santorini is not the best place for swimming. There are solid pebbles and stones on the shore, and the sand is black. The Aegean sea was cool by my arrival.

The next day, I booked a tour with a local travel agency that was +/- cheaper than the GetYourGuide suggested. They also gave me a 15% student discount. Our first point was a monastery on the highest point of the whole island, from where, in theory, you could see the whole island. But on the first morning of summer, the weather was not ideal, and I saw nothing but a sign.

After we drove to the village of Pyrgos, where we also had a panoramic view, but because of the fog, visibility was minimal.

Then we boarded a ship that took us to the island of Therazia, where 4 volcanoes are located. Historically, there was once a powerful eruption here, due to which the center of the island collapsed. Therefore, Santorini is like a bagel with an open radius. There are suggestions that it was Atlantis, which drowned in the sea. After walking a couple of thousand steps, we finally reached an active volcano, which is currently dormant. You can see the steam coming from the gorges, as well as touch the ground - heat penetrates the surface.

Near Therazia there is an open reservoir of mineral springs with warm water. Swimming for people with chronic diseases (allergies as well) is better not worth it. My left arm was paraesthetized, and so were many of my shipmates.
Then we had free time on the island of Ormos Corfu, where we could eat in local taverns, I took Santorini tomato köfte, it was not bad.

In the late afternoon, we were at the port of Fira, and having changed seats on a bus, we went to the north of the island to meet the sunset. In the north is the most luxurious city of the island of Oia. If anyone else is thinking where to spend their honeymoon, you can safely fly here - I have not yet seen a more picturesque place.

Having met the sunset and having a bite of Greek frozen yogurt (it melted in my mouth!), my group left me at the airport, from where I flew to the capital of Greece, Athens.

The flight from Santorini to Athens costs ~20 euros and lasts 50 minutes. By ferry, the trip will cost three times more and 6 times longer. Leaving the airport, I took a bus and drove to my apartment. My advice: don't skimp on accommodation. It is better to overpay, but live in the usual hotel conditions and enjoy the journey.

The next day I started exploring Athens: it is a historically rich city with great archaeological potential and plenty of taverns and restaurants where you can get eat so much as your stomach can. I dined at the family restaurant ,, To Kyklamino”. Here you will be warmly welcomed and fed, and all this costs a little money. I ordered a Greek salad (juicy, powerful!) and fried anchovies with bread and cola (zero!). Dessert and water are served free of charge. Filtered water in Greece is generally a must-have: if in France a carafe is served when you didn’t order anything to drink, then here it is a must-have addition to the table - to flush your taste buds.

Acropolis is the Athenian Registan. It smells of history, archeology and myths of ancient Greece. There is a museum next to the Acropolis, with excavations in the basement and exhibits on three floors. Probably informative, but it didn't work for me. Vases and sculptures in the style of clothing minimalism are not my subject.

On the main square of Monasteraki there is a mosque built during the Ottoman Empire and converted into an art gallery. In general, after the revolution (200 years ago), the Turkish past does not smell here: the orthodox church has a great influence in politics. Only in 2017, Athens got the first functioning Votanikos Mosque, which is funded by the Greek Ministry of Education. Before this period (200 years!) there was no mosque in the capital of the country with a considerable number of Turkish Greeks.

As for the Turkish past and that it does not smell, this is not entirely true. Have you ever tried a baklava ice cream? I tried it, but I never thought that it would not be in Turkey, but in Athens. Baklava, kebap or sulaki, pita gyros, halloumi cheese - all this harmoniously combines the cuisine of Greece into a Mediterranean common with Turkey and Cyprus (northern and non-northern😉).

Dinner was in the city center at the Atlanticos restaurant with affordable prices and very (very!) delicious fish. Dorado was great. For an aperitif, I ordered pea fava, the guide in Santorini said that it tastes like hummus, but it's more like lentil porridge in the kindergarden. I liked Atlanticos so much that I spent the final dinner of this trip there, this time ordering salmon.

The next morning I went to the National Archaeological Museum. All the statues of Greek mythology are collected there. All characters are mostly naked, but modest ones were also present.

Having reached the parliament by metro, I was in time for the process of transferring the authority to protect the building.

Next to the Parliament is the National Park of Athens, in which palm trees grow. In addition to palm trees, there is a turtle pond and a lot of vegetation.

And the last tourist highlight was the Olympic Temple of Zeus. It is partly under renovation.

Greece opened up a completely new idea of ​​itself for me. Being one of the poorest countries in Europe, Greece uses its tourism potential by creating the necessary infrastructure and presenting the culture at a high level. The only limiting factor is Schengen. If there was no Schengen regime, it would be possible to concentrate a much larger number of tourists from Asia than now.