Some Hard and Fast Truths about Greece July/Aug 2023

My family is returning from a three week vacation in Greece.  I spent nearly a year and countless hours preparing for this trip during which we traveled from the ancient ruins of the mainland to the beauty of the islands.  I was terrified to finally embark on our journey.  I had traveled to Greece only once before.  I was 16 and remember very little.  I had concerns and preconceived notions about travelling to a country where we did not speak the language.  Well, when you spend three weeks in a foreign country, you really start to learn some things about how life is lived.  These are my "facts about Greece" I learned over the last 21 days.  I hope that they will be helpful for anyone planning their own Greek vacation.

1.  ENGLISH IS THE DEFAULT LANGUAGE.  Everyone speaks English and MOST, especially the 35 and under crowd, speak it really well.  No matter what your country of origin, you will likely be addressed in English first.  At no time did we have any trouble communicating, not at restaurants, not with our lodging hosts, not with anyone, seriously.  Signage is in English is everywhere, often ONLY English signage.  Though I tried to order in Greek and use it when I could, it was really unnecessary.  When we were on a Catamaran cruise on Naxos, I asked a family from Amsterdam how in the world does everyone speak English so well (her kids were 19 and 15).  She said that all the television is in English and that is how they learn.  SOOOO you really don't need to worry about speaking Greek.  That being said, however, brings me to #2.

It's all English here!

Movie in English, subtitles in Greek!

2.  IT IS VERY HELPFUL TO HAVE SOME ELEMENTARY KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE:  Before I left I had been doing daily Greek Duolingo for 6 month.  This gave me a rudimentary knowledge of easy words---foods, please, thank you very much, excuse me, good morning, numbers, where is the toilet--but almost more importantly, the alphabet.  This came in handy in the local grocery stores, when reading street signs in more remote areas, when reviewing our restaurant receipt and when deciphering script in churches.  The locals do appreciate efforts to use whatever words you can.

This very rare Greek sign says "Zeus' Peak"

The writing tells you this is St Nicholas Planas,
not the St Nick known as Santa Claus

3.  THE GREEKS EAT DINNER LATE AND PARTY EVEN LATER.  This is no joke.  I was aware of this and made all of our dinner reservations at 8 pm or later.  We found that if you go earlier than that, you just wind up looking dumb-or old-or American.  On at least three occasions, we went to dinner after 10pm and there was no trouble getting good food at that hour.  Just a word on reservations...I made them for about half of the dinners we had, especially at the more highly recommended restaurants, but I would say they were not always necessary.  Most hosts will do whatever they can to get you in, frequently moving and setting new tables to accomodate unexpected guests.  We were never turned away, even at highly recommended Tamam in Chania, Crete, and Skolarchio in Athens.  The restaurant experience is a bit different in Greece.  Usually, you will be brought bread and cold bottled water without having asked for it and this will appear as a charge on your bill.  On the flip side, freebies, such as dessert and after dinner drinks are common.  We returned to one restaurant a second night in a row on Naxos and they brought us an extra liter of house wine and several extra desserts.  We never ordered dessert because it was so often provided.  Many dishes are served in a way that it is easy to divide them and share.  Nightly we ordered an appetizer, frequently a delicious fried cheese known as 'Saganaki', a Greek salad (Horiatiki), and three entrees, all of which we shared.  More would have been too much. Another bonus--tipping is not expected anywhere and is only an expression of really appreciating your service.  It is not even an option most of the time you charge a meal to your card.  We tipped about 8-10% usually and sometimes a bit more.  It was a joy to give even a few euros to our wine hostesses or tour guides as they were so gracious in the receiving, not like in the US where now kids want 22% after serving you a cup of coffee!  But I digress.  One more thing about eating in Greece.  When you are ready to leave, you need to ask for your bill.  They will not bring it until you ask for it.

Seated at Scholarchio without a reservation

Also seated at Tamam without a reservation
Free baklava and raki!

Did I mention the partying?? Omigoodness!  We had a bar under our apartment in Chania that carried on until 5am.  When we went to hike Samaria Gorge our meeting time was 6am.  We stumbled sleepily through the streets that we shared with the kids that were returning home from the bars...

4.  NO MATTER HOW NERVOUS IT MAKES YOU, AND HOW MUCH OF A HASSLE IT IS, OUTSIDE OF ATHENS, YOU NEED A CAR.  Driving in Greece is no picnic.  The roads can be narrow, and everyone seems to want to to push the limits of how many "objects" (cars, parked cars, mopeds, motorcycles, pedestrians, etc.) will fit across any given street.  The fact of the matter is, if you do not have a car, you are dependent on public transportation. This works fine in Athens, but it took exactly one hour on the island of Naxos before we decided we needed a car for the entirety of our stay, once our airport transfer driver reported to us the price of taxis and the overcrowding of buses that come around only twice an hour.  Our car afforded us the luxury of driving to wineries out of town, to out of town beaches and to out of town ancient sites such as Mycenae and Epidavros.  The only other time we did not have a car was in Kastraki in the Meteora, and we were literally stuck within walking distance of the hotel.  

How is this going to end?

Anyway, the driving is not THAT bad.  The roads are well signed and are in pretty good shape.  Free parking is readily available. We made sure that our accommodations came with a parking space.  One note...finding a large car that fits five adults and five people's luggage is expensive and cars few and far between.  Our last car was so tight we had to strap one suitcase to the roof.  Book early.

We were thrilled with this ginormous car!!

But not quite as happy with this one!

5.  THE GREEKS DON'T SMOKE AS MUCH AS THEY USED TO, BUT SMOKING IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL  The last time I came to Greece in 1984, the country literally stewed under a constant veil of cigarette smoke--airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants, taxis--everywhere.  Good gracious it was bad.  Now you can really only smoke outdoors, and many take advantage of this opportunity. Cigarette smoking has largely been replaced by vaping, especially among the young crowd.  I was shocked by how many interrupted their meals to suck on those vape pens!  One of the worst instances of smoke is at the beach clubs, where if you are unlucky enough to park yourself next to a pair of smokers, you are inhaling their second hand pollution all day long.

6.  GREEK PLUMBING  Well , this could almost be its own blogpost.  Yep this a real thing and a tough one for Americans to get used to.  Pretty much across the board, no matter if you are in the airport, on the ferry, in a restaurant, or in your own rented AirBnB, it is forbidden, and I mean forbidden, to put any paper of any kind (yes, this does include TP) into the toilet.  Every bathroom is equipped with a pedal operated trash can for the deposit of your potty paper after cleaning up your business.  While I mentioned that not only do old habits die hard, the bigger reality is that if you are in a rental without maid service for days on end, that can is gonna stink, and fast!  We did our best, but generally if we were staying in our own place, we tossed the paper into the toilet.  In public, we used the can-but NEVER EVER did #2 paper go anywhere but down the pipes.  Anyway, public restrooms in Greece are better than they used to be.  They were generally free, clean enough, and readily available.  A few of the previously ubiquitous "squatters" still remain, but most public restrooms have been updated with more civilized facilities.

7. GREECE IS SAFE  It really is. This was really where my preconceived notions got the best of me.  I really had visions of pickpockets everywhere and little gypsy children distracting you with bracelets while their cousin sliced open your back pack and made off with the spilled contents. Yeh, well, it really wasn't like that at all.  On the metro and the bus and in crowded places in Athens, such as the Monastiraki Market, it is advisable to watch your personal belongings by keeping a hand on your purse or your backpack. I also would not advise a late night visit to the area north of Omonoia Square or near the Central Athens Rail station.   Otherwise, there's just no problem.  In Athens, we felt perfectly safe walking at night to our lodgings. On the islands we were advised not to leave belongings on the beach and all go for a swim, so we did not.  There are a few homeless (though far more in California).  Men in general are also far less aggressive than I remember them being.  Shop and taverna owners are also far less aggressive-they don't follow you or resort to tricks to get you into their store. Quite refreshing actually.

One thing that is unsafe in Greece is the uneven slick surfaces!!!  These stones have been worn down by years and years of wear and are slippery as can be!  This is pretty universal.  I saw people totally bite it in broad daylight. Mars Hill was like climbing a glacier. Bring sturdy shoes!  NO JOKE!  Many staircases in the ancient sites do not have safety railings.  If you misstep on the side of a staircase, you might be taking a nice 10-12 foot tumble.  This added to the fact that you really can walk wherever you want, can be potentially the most unsafe aspect of Greece.

Actually another potential hazard is that they'll pretty much let you do whatever you want.  If your car fits, park it.  You want to dangle your legs over the fortress wall?  Go ahead.  Want to ride a motorcycle in your bikini, walk on the highway with a flashlight, run in front of a bus?  Have at it.  They really don't care.  It's your life.  In Greece they are definitely not focused on being sued by tourists.

If your car fits, park it!!

8.   GREEKS BEACH DIFFERENTLY:  You know how in Hawaii you have to get down to your pool chair at like five in the morning to lay your towel down to reserve the chair for the day?  Well, while you can bring your own umbrellas to the beach and spread out wherever you like, it is far more common to spend your day in a lounge chair under a fixed thatched umbrella.  The sunchairs and umbrellas are owned by the local businesses usually behind the beaches, usually delivering food and drinks to hungry and thirsty sun worshippers. They are first come first served and they do fill, but more likely by 11am, AND they come with a price.  A pair of sunbeds in the first row may run you about 50 euros, but they are generally fluffier and with better sun coverage.  We wound up buying four sun chairs about 5 times and we usually paid about 20 E for two chairs further back. Once we paid like 12 and it came with 2 beers!  Nice! The choice is pretty obvious, the sun is extremely intense and you need some shade, otherwise, it can be quite miserable. It is nice to have a seat with a back and have ice cold beers delivered without having to leave your seat.  The vibe in the beach clubs is fun.  There's usually music playing and generally people are just having a good time.

More about the beach.  We brought our own sunscreen because we heard 50 SPF was not available-not true.  Another biggee is that nudity/toplessness is just not a thing anymore.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of beach goers on 6 different beaches and saw about three pair of naked boobs.  I was relieved that this was the case.  When we went to Mykonos in 1984, there were more bare breasts than covered ones. 

The beach club at Falasarna Beach, Crete

And joining the party at Agios Prokopios

Agios Prokopios

9.  IT IS PRUDENT TO HAVE SOME CASH  Before we left I took a stab at how many euros we would need on each day and my husband ordered euros from Bank of America free of charge and had it mailed to our house.  This meant Craig carried about $1300. This avoided the hassle of trying to find ATMs and all the transaction fees that would have been incurred.  Though a credit card is accepted just about everywhere, and the connections to the servers are lightning fast, there are definitely times when cash is preferred.  Most credit card transactions do not give the option to add a tip, so most of our gratuities were left in cash.  Cash was also great for paying for donations to churches, entrances to monasteries, ferry fees, tolls, public transportation, and dropping a few coins to the little boy playing the accordion in the restaurant.  We had more than we needed, but we just used it at the end of the trip.

10.  IF YOU ARE GOING TO GREECE FOR THE FIRST TIME, PLEASE DON'T JUST GO TO THE ISLANDS, AND PLEASE DON'T JUST GO TO SANTORINI.  You would never guess how many people asked me 1) if we were going on a cruise and 2) if we were to Santorini (as if Santorini was the only Greek island).  My answers were no and no.

There is so much to see in Athens and throughout the mainland, and this may best be where the culture and beauty of Greece is best discovered.  Go to Nafplio (highly recommended by our friend Rick Steves), Delphi, Olympia, Thessaloniki, and Meteora.  On our trip we stayed in Athens, Nafplio, the Meteora, Naxos (island), and Crete (also technically an island but a lot to see).  I thought our trip of three weeks was the bare minimum.  I hope to maybe write about planning your trip so I won't get into too much here.

I can understand why someone might need to see Greece on a cruise.  A cruise takes the entire planning aspect out of the works.  It also provides security and safety for those that might need more assistance.  For the able bodied though, why a cruise, why??  Port, boat, bus into town, dumped off in town for sightseeing or a shore excursion and back to the boat for dinner.  Same this next day on another island. You really miss Greece and see a lot of Holland America.

Why not Santorini?  I know I'm goin to catch grief here. Rick Steves loves Santorini and lists it as not to be missed, but Rick can go in the off season!  Santorini is the most expensive commercialized island in the entire country.  The port teems with cruise ships and yachts.  Santorini is crowded with rich Europeans.  One of our wine hosts told us that going to Santorini is like not going to Greece at all.  Santorini might be worthwhile during the off season, but during July and August stay away!  Yeah it's beautiful.  It's not the only island that is beautiful.  I am not alone..just Google 'why not Santorini.'

This blog is getting pretty long winded so I will try to be a little less wordy on a few remaining facts:

WATER GENERALLY IS DRINKABLE, AVAILABLE AND NEEDED. Ice is harder to come by.  I debated bringing my Hydroflask and wound up bringing it and I am really glad I did.  The only place we were advised to not drink the water from the tap was Naxos.  In the Samaria Gorge in Crete, you can drink the water right from the stream.

ONCE YOU GET HERE IT IS CHEAP.  Our accommodations were about half of what they would have cost in the US, and there were none of those pesky taxes that make your $100 per night room suddenly $200.  A beer is like 3 euros, a gyro 5 euros, breakfast for five 10 euros, a hearty snack for my son 2 euros, dinner for 5 with drinks for all, under 100$ across the board.  Gas is expensive, so are cocktails.

This is long! I must stop now.  Going forward I will tell you all about the sights and give you my thoughts and advice!

Three great short hikes and one great adventure on Oahu Jan 28 - Feb 4 2023

Well, I have been blogging a lot over the last few weeks but I promise that this is the last one.  It is pretty hard to have such great experiences on such a great island and not want to share them with everyone!

THREE SHORT HIKES:

We took three great short hikes while on the island of Oahu.

Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail: Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail is a 2 mile out and back hike to none other than...the Makapu'u Lighthouse.  Makapu'u Point is the easternmost point of the island of Oahu so the drive to get out there takes a while past Hanauma Bay, the Lanai Lookout, and the Halona Blowhole.  Parking is free and is a piece of cake, ya just pull in off the Kalaniana'ole Hwy.  The path is busy, so if you cannot find parking immediately, someone is bound to arrive at their car shortly.  Be forewarned, there are no restrooms at the trailhead.

Sooo, the trail is not actually a trail, it is a service road, and it is paved all the way.  It is not at all difficult, just a gradual incline of about 520 feet.  The lighthouse is cute but not accessible.  The views from the top are quite sweeping, and you can see both sides of the point from this spot.

Anyway, its a good quick hike to a great viewpoint.  Incidentally, this is supposedly a good spot for whale watching during the winter months, but though I watched and watched, no whales appeared.  There are a few little concrete buildings up here, evidence of how the point was put to use during World War II.

I might add that we had pelting sideways rain while on this trail and it really made me want to cry.  Don't avoid this trail because of my experience with bad weather.  I would do it again.  Just for your planning, we did this the same day we did Hanuama Bay, the Halona Blowhole, and the Lanai Lookout.

Lovely view of windward Oahu from Makapu'u Pt.

The Makapu'u Lighthouse

Manoa Falls Trail:  The Manoa Falls Trail is a 2 mile trail out and back trail to none otherthan...Manoa Falls!  The beauty (or one of the many beauties of this trail) is the ease of accessibility from the Honolulu area--up through the upscale University of Hawaii, Manoa neighborhood and there you are.  It costs $7 to park--quite frankly a little steep considering the hike will take less than one hour.  Anyway, the parking lot is abutted by a building, the purpose of which I never did ascertain, but there are CLEAN bathrooms (certainly for a trail head!), a few vending machines, and a hose for spraying off muddy shoes.  The guy at the booth sells snacks, mosquito repellent, and sunscreen.

Anyway, it's about a mile each way and about an 800 foot gain.  We are quick and we did this in about 20 minutes (to the falls).  Water shoes were advised (and this is what we hiked in) but the trail was not muddy.  Mosquito repellent was also advised but we did not see any mosquitos.  

The trail, for being so close to civilization is lush and beautiful.  The reward at the end is a 160 foot waterfall dropping into a small pool below. Now there are people in the pool below, climbing over the warning sign and taking a dip.  It did not look particularly inviting, and the thought of a rock dropping 160 feet onto my head was not at all appealing.

The Manoa Falls Trail branches out to the entire Tantalus Trail System as per the map above.

We got to this trailhead I would say about 3ish and we were done less than an hour later. We did this trail after our day at Pearl Harbor followed by a delicious lunch at Ono Seafood in Waikiki/Honolulu.

And finally, Manoa Falls!

Diamond Head:  Now THIS is the crown jewel mac daddy of short hikes on the island of Oahu, and everyone knows it too.  A hike to the top of Diamond Head is pretty much imperative when visiting Oahu.  Diamond Head, like the two other hikes we took, is a 2 mile out and back trail.  The trailhead is accessed south of Waikiki at the Diamond Head State Monument.  There are restrooms at the bottom of the trail at the visitor center.  Anyway, the trail is narrow, and like I said, because hiking Diamond Head is a necessity, everyone is on it, so we found ourselves having to overtake the advanced in years (good for them, by the way), families with children, and those who had failed to exercise a single day in their lives and now were taking this not to be missed hike, with some frequency.  The trail gains about 560 feet over one mile and the views come about quite quickly.  There are some stairs to negotiate and a portion of narrow dark tunnel.  On the way down there is a spiral staircase and more stairs.  We completed the ascent in about 25 minutes and found it to be easy.  

There are a lot of people at the top, and there is some jockeying to get the perfect selfie with the incredible views of Waikiki and Honolulu in the background.  The day was very clear when we went, and the views breathtaking!  Well worth it!

Well, here is the rub.  As of May 2022, you need a reservation to hike Diamond Head.  We arrived at the entrance at about 8:30am without one.  A timed reservation needs to be made through the Hawaii Department of State Parks at dlnr.hawaii.gov. The park is open daily at 6am with the last entry at 4pm with the gates closing at 6pm.  It costs $5 for each person to hike and another $10 to park your car.

Well, we quickly pulled into an available parking spot, outside the main parking lot before the tunnel, but still reasonably close, and looked at what our options were.  The only time available with parking was at 2pm, which was going to mess up our entire day's plan.  We did however notice that we could get entrance to the hike without parking quite a bit earlier at 10. Since we were already occupying a parking space, we took this reservation and decided to wait it out.  Then someone had the idea to just march on down there and see if they would let us in early.  They did, a full 45 minutes early.  

I highly recommend a stop by Leonard's Malasadas following your semi-strenuous hike up Diamond Head

Jockeying for that perfect selfie!

Beautiful views of Waikiki from the top!

AND ONE GREAT ADVENTURE:

On the windward side of the island, north of Kane'ohe, there is a over touristed stop at the base of the Ko'olau Mountain Range known as Kualoa Ranch.  This place offers a wide variety of tours ranging from horse back riding to movie tours to ATV's to trips to their "Secret Beach."  Tours can satisfy people of all ages and relative desire for adventure, as the movie tour has you in an open jeep with no physical exertion required.  People came in skirts/white pants/flip flops and others were dressed more like, well, we were.  What tour did we choose?  The experienced (as opposed to novice) 2 hours E-bike tour--the most active tour offered by Kualoa Ranch.  We had considered the ATV tour, but it was more expensive and only one person could drive the ATV, so the E-Bike tour it was.

Though I signed up for the experienced tour, I had never ridden an e bike.  None of us had.  It rained the entire way to the ranch, and the tour made no mention of cancelling because of weather.  My daughter was not warmly dressed and it was on the cold side.  I started to get a bit nervous- saw a lot of visions of slick mud, cliffs, and narrow steep paths--i.e. one of us plunging to our deaths.  Our guide, Christian, however, set our minds at ease.  We equipped my daughter with a $2 poncho and her dad's extra sweater, and off we went.

About to set out!

Besides the four of us, there was only one other couple on the tour, so with the guide there were seven of us.  Except for some very rare and light rain, it did not rain during our tour.

Now the e bike is pretty cool.  There are four settings which basically give you a boost as you ride.  Wanting to actually get some exercise, I kept mine in the lowest assist mode almost the entire time, but the lazy a men in our family kept their bikes in "turbo" mode.  Pretty much as soon as you start to pedal you can feel the power kick in, and it's pretty cool.  On an uphill climb you can pretty much turn your bicycle into a motorcycle.

Anyway, what an experience!  The tour winds through 12 miles of rolling single track and some more open dirt roads.  The scenery becomes outstanding really quickly.  The tour leads you by several deserted movie sets, including Jurassic World, King Kong, and Jurassic Park.  It is a good workout, but not really that hard.  We finished the tour early because we were all good riders so we got to see some additional stuff, including going into an old WWII bunker.  Our guide was really awesome and made sure that we were all ok.  At one point the chain on my bike broke.  He immediately gave me his back and within minutes a bike had been delivered to us by another staff member.

Still clean...

Can you see the dinosaurs running behind us?

Ok so why was this an adventure really?  Sounds just like a bike ride so far, right?  Ok, the one thing we did not expect was how dirty we were going to get on account of the muddy conditions.  Every muddy puddle or stretch of wet dirt road you cycled through flew right off your bike tire and up your entire back, as far as your hair.  Now the mud was one thing, but you had to make darn sure you did not ride through any rain drenched fresh cowshit, of which there was much.  The thought of this stuff flying up onto my back made me literally nauseous, so I was really attentive as to where my tires were going, and I made sure my family did the same!

Anyway, this was the dirtiest I had been in my entire life.  People from other tours gawked at us in disbelief.  After the ride was over, there was a hose to wash your legs and water shoes, but hosing down the rest of your clothes and your backpacks was not really an option.  We pulled some used ponchos out of a garbage can and gingerly changed into some swim suits, the only other clothes we had, and wrapped our defiled clothing into one large muddy ball.  We had plans to go out to eat in Honolulu-nope, no way.  We weren't fit to even grocery shop.  When we got home I spent 30 full minutes in the shower scrubbing mud out of everything.  THEN we threw it all in the washing machine.  OMG.

you've got to scroll in to see how dirty he was..

I am on the left with the hose, trying to un-mud..

and now from the front!

But it was fun and I would recommend it, but I did tell them in a review that they should let people know about the dirt factor.  

Thank you for reading this post!!  No travel for a while but I am planning a Greek Odyssey in July!  I will let you know how that is going!!

Oh yeah, baby--Lunch at Ono Seafood

Aim for this sign after your 
Diamond Head Hike