Sharing our Traveler's Diarya

We got a taxi to the Athens airport. Despite it being an international flight, we didn’t even have to check in in-person and had our mobile boarding passes ready. Security wasn’t even that bad. It felt so wrong that everything was going so smoothly. We remembered back to the first flights of our trip when we needed all kinds of paperwork like COVID tests, proof of insurance, health affidavits, etc. Now: nothing. Only one person even looked at our passports.

As a precaution, we had arrived at the airport way too early. So we killed some time in duty free. We were a little worried about buying wine because we would have to go through security again in Oslo. But the duty free lady assured us that if she sealed the bag it would be fine.

Then we decided to get some dinner. One of the places had a deal of draft beer and hot dog for €8. It felt like the right meal for our send off from Europe. And it was delicious indeed.

The flight from Athens to Oslo was on Norwegian airlines. They claim that, Norse, a subsidiary, is their budget airline and different than Norwegian, but Norwegian was pretty budget too. We didn’t sit together because to pick seats would’ve cost extra. I had the duty free bag with wine under my seat and could barely fit anything else. Then the carefree young woman (Gen Z!) next to me fell asleep and had the audacity to spread her leg and bag onto my tiny side. I was so done with traveling.

We landed in Oslo just before 2am. There is one 24-hour restaurant there so we got an orange juice and a hot chocolate. The airport was completely wood and tile floors and most of the seats had arm rests so you couldn’t lay down across them. So we camped on the padded benches in the restaurant. I’m not sure that we slept at all but then at 5:30 am we had a gate for our flight so we went to board.

We didn’t end up having to go through security. But we did go through immigration because we would be leaving Europe. The man asked us when and where we entered Europe. We said, “Italy…a month ago?” and then I had to look it up on my detailed planning calendar to confirm. He looked at us confused. He asked if we had been to Budapest. Oh, that’s right! Technically we had entered through Budapest. We apologized for being sleep deprived and he didn’t seem to care, he just stamped our passports and moved us along. So our passport stamps say Hungary and Norway, even though we spent less than 5 hours in either.

Despite being a 10 hour flight, meals were not included and would have cost $30. So we got two sad looking sandwiches in the Oslo airport for $20. They were weird, but at least we didn’t go hungry.

Again Carl and I weren’t sitting next to each other. When I found my seat I discovered it was between a mom and her 5-year old son. I looked at them like, ‘don’t you want to move over?’ But instead the mom got up to allow me to sit in the middle. I had to move the boy’s fleecy blanket in order to sit. He started playing a video game on his iPad at full volume. I looked at him, then at her, and then I ever so politely asked, “would you like to sit together?” She said, “no thanks.” So I tried to text Carl about how hilariously terrible this was, without her seeing.

As people boarded, the mom pointed out that the flight would likely be pretty empty. She explained it had been empty on the way over. Then I realized the dad and daughter were sitting in front of us, also with kid at the window and parent in the aisle. The dad turned around and told me the flight looked empty and I could probably move seats. So I took the hints and gathered up all my belongings from under the middle seat, and went to the other side of the plane where Carl had grabbed us our own row. I can see what the mom was trying to do but geez why did she have me sit in the middle? even for only 5 minutes?

Carl and I watched the movie Belfast and then I found my very own row and laid down to sleep. I wrapped my thin tie-dyed scarf around me like a blanket because the plane was freezing but blankets cost extra. Before we landed I moved back to Carl’s row. He had watched another movie so I knew he didn’t have as much sleep as me. We watched a couple episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and then, before we knew it, we had landed in LAX 40 minutes early.

Carl’s mom, Lisa, generously picked us up from the airport. She is the one who let us store all our stuff in her garage AND watched our precious baby, Bubba, the whole time we were away. Picking us up from LAX during morning rush hour traffic was the cherry on top of the giant cupcake of incredible nice things she has done for us. After our long, sleepless journey, we could barely form sentences so we were especially grateful to have such VIP curbside pick up for our return home.

In-and-out wasn’t open yet so we went to a breakfast burrito spot that Lisa likes. We shared two different kinds – one with machaca and beans and one with chorizo and hash browns. Both were so good. We had Jarritos to drink. They even had a salsa bar and I nearly cried because I had missed California so much.

Once Carl had finished his burrito he realized that hunger was the only thing keeping him awake and he nearly passed out on the table. So we went back to Lisa’s house.

When we walked in, Bubba was sitting in the first room just staring at us. We went for pets and he walked away like, “whoa, you just got here” but in a few minutes he warmed up again and I was head nuzzling him in no time. I missed him so much!!

We dropped off our bags in ‘our room’ and, at first, said we never wanted to wear our travel clothes again. But, before we had left for our international adventure we had moved all of our stuff from DC to Southern California and left it all in boxes in Lisa’s garage. We had kept out clothes that we needed for Christmas time and our travels, and packed away the rest. Now we realized that we had no readily accessible clothes for warm weather, except our travel clothes, and there is a heat wave for SoCal this week with temperatures expected to go up to 110F. So, we washed and dried our shorts and tank tops to wear while we dig through the garage.

Carl took a little nap and I hung out with Bubbs and tried to get my mind around the fact that we were home.

We had been on such a great adventure that it was difficult to remember it all. We visited 17 countries in 8 months. We saw so many of the wonders of the world (depending on which list you follow): Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, the Great Pyramids of Giza, Petra, and the Colosseum. We swam in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, hiked through the Colombian Amazon, marveled at the Bolivian salt flats, walked on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, partied at the biggest Full Moon Party in Thailand (biggest since before COVID), dove with thresher sharks, whale sharks, reef sharks, turtles, and Humphead parrotfish.

We reunited with friends in South Korea and made so many new friends along the way. We tread on dirt in Australia that only a handful of people have ever seen, and also slipped on marble steps in Rome that have been worn from centuries of foot traffic. We had set out for a worldwide tour and had accomplished even more than we planned (and way exceeded our budget!)

While we were traveling I started a list of things that I missed about the U.S. Because, sure, we are politically divided, and access to health care or safe abortion aren’t rights while owning an AK47 is, BUT it is home and there are some wonderful things about this country.

First on my list is getting the bill at the end of the meal, without asking. Dining out anywhere else in the world you have to ask for the bill and it can be so painful to wait for the waiter to notice you or to have to wave them down. This is a silly cultural difference, but it’s what I missed most.

Also I missed CVS. Not just CVS but stores like CVS that just sell all the little random things you might need. Like sometimes you need Bobby pins and chips and a writing pad and sunglasses and it is so convenient to get these all from the same place. I had spent the last month of our trip going into random pharmacies in tourist towns, praying there would be travel sized dry shampoo and I never did find any.

And of course we missed our IPAs: hazy for Carl, west coast style for me.

For dinner we treated Lisa to sushi at a local place that she likes, the first of a lifetime of meals that we will treat to try and thank her for caring for Bubbs. We got some Sapporos and a few rolls and had spicy scallop hand rolls for desert. It was really good. When our plates were empty the waitress asked if we wanted anything else and we said, “no thank you” and then she brought us the check.

…

I plan on writing a few ‘tips and tricks’ posts for specific places, in case we can help anyone to avoid our mistakes or to get the most out of an experience like we were able to. But because we are not traveling anymore, we are going to stop blogging about our day-to-day activities, for now. It’s amazing to hear how many people are out there following this blog, which started only as a way to keep our moms updated. I wish we could keep traveling and blogging (maybe even turn it into a career?) but for now our true passions of medicine and disaster management are calling to us.

From our trip we hope to keep and apply the lessons of going with the flow and having better work-life balance. We plan on using up all our vacation time and even taking unpaid leave so we can keep traveling in the years to come. When we set off again, we will dust off the blog again. Thanks to everyone that followed our incredible journey. Now we’d love to follow you back and read about your travels!

Friday, August 26

We landed in Athens at about 9:30pm and got a taxi to our hotel. We decided not take bus/metro because we had heard that pick-pocketing has become a problem on public transport in Athens, and it was late, and we were tired.

When we got in the cab Carl said, “Orion hotel” and the driver said he knew it and how to get there. We were a little skeptical because we’d found this budget hotel through Booking.com and didn’t think it would be that well-known. We watched the drivers route and compared it to google maps.

When we were in downtown Athens the driver started pointing out historic sites. He slowed down and pointed, “see there?! Hadrian’s Arch! And behind it?! Temple of Zeus!” He pointed out some other important buildings, like embassies and universities.

He seemed really excited to be showing us his city so it was hard for us to convey to him that we were all of a sudden going the wrong way. We said, “Oh-Rye-On” and he said, “yes, yes, almost there!” So we let him drive. He pulled up in front of Royal Hotel which looked like a 5-star hotel. We laughed and said, “We wish we were staying here but we are actually at a cheaper hotel, further from the center”

We could tell he felt really bad for mis-hearing so we just laughed it off. He still couldn’t understand the name of our hotel so Carl just gave the driver his phone with google maps directions pulled up. Instead of looking at the address, the driver just held up Carl’s phone in front of his face as he drove. Somehow he kept touching the screen so he kept having to hand the phone back to Carl to recenter the directions. There were several times his eyeballs were 100% on the phone and 0% on the road and it was terrifying.

Luckily no one was run over or into, and he figured out where the hotel was. He dropped us off at the bottom of a steep hill. We paid, said thanks, and walked up.

The front desk woman was very cheery. She showed us to our room and we passed out not long after.

Saturday, August 27

We enjoyed breakfast on the terrace with a lovely view of the Parthenon in the distance. The ‘continental’ breakfast was actually very good with fried eggs, bacon, and lots of Greek foods like olives, hummus, salad, and feta.

Then it was time to venture to the main event. We walked through town toward the Acropolis. We had bought combo passes online the day before so we were able to skip the ticket line. There wasn’t much of a ticket line to skip but the entrance line went quick anyways.

It was 10am and already so hot and there were so many people. We felt like we were being herded up the switchbacks. But, as we approached the Propylaea (gateway), we could feel the awe and grandeur.

Besides the Parthenon, there are several other ruins on the Acropolis. Most notably are the Erechtheum, which has a section of pillars carved to look like women, and the old temple to Athena.

We did our best to read the descriptive signs, of which there were several, but it was hard to concentrate with all the humans buzzing about and the sun bearing down on us like it hated us. We made our way to the Parthenon viewpoints and snapped a ton of photos. Feeling satisfied, we meandered back down the hill.

Our combo ticket included entrance to several other archeological sites. As we walked back into town we walked into the Roman Agora which was really not much to consider. Then we headed toward the Ancient Agora which was much, much larger and had a museum. We wandered around the site which was like a large unkept garden. It was nice to walk ‘in nature’ a bit, under shady trees.

Then we went to the museum. There were tons of artifacts from the area, and a lot like things we had seen already in the Crete museum. But they did have good overall descriptions of Athens throughout the time periods starting from Neolithic until the Roman period. We knew a lot of this from our Wikipedia searches but it was helpful to see the rooms separated according to the time period.

We were trying to leave when we found the museum also had an upstairs. The main event upstairs were replicas of paintings done by European explorers in the early 1800s. This was during the Ottoman Empire. The paintings were coupled with descriptions and quotes pulled from their travel journey that really shed light onto what it would’ve been like in Athens back then (very different than now!)

Then we left and decided we needed something cold to drink, or even food. We had just picked a well-reviewed restaurant and found an open table when it started to sprinkle rain. About the time we got our salad it was pouring rain and we felt very lucky to be sitting under a strong-looking awning. We sat next to a group of young adults with English accents and got to eavesdrop on their conversation. There was also a (Greek?) couple sitting behind Carl and the woman talked and laughed SO loud the whole time we were there while the man never said a word. They were drinking Ouzo out of tiny frosted glasses.

We ordered Greek salad, dolmas and moussaka. They were all so, so good. The dolmas kinda tasted like they were from a can and not homemade like the others we’d had, but they were delicious. We also got some house rosé that was some of the best house wine we’ve had. We were especially surprised with how good the food was because the restaurant is located so near the ruins sights, right in the heart of tourist land. Despite being a tourist spot, it was not too pricey and so good.

By the time we’d finished, the rain had totally dissipated. We tried to do one more site on our combo ticket. We walked to the Kerameikos Ancient Cemetery. This site also had a museum so we figured we’d start with walking around first, then go cool off in the museum. There weren’t many signs and even fewer identifiable landmarks to look at. Perhaps if we had a guide it would’ve been cool but it was just too, too hot to be wandering around a field with old rocks that meant nothing to us.

So we went to the museum. And it was closed. Since June. So we leaned against the museum wall in the shade to try and reset our temperature before walking home.

On the way home we bought some cold sodas and beers. When we got back to our hotel we were so hot and tired that we didn’t want to leave the air conditioned room. So we had two cold beers for dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday, August 28

Delphi

We had an early start to meet our tour group at a hotel down the street at 8am. We got into a bus and were a little confused when, at the next stop to pick up more tourists, they moved some select people to another bus. We were given a brochure with a code to get an app and audio guide on our phone but then a real person started talking over the microphone.

Stavos, our guide, was great. He chatted to us as we drove out of Athens toward Delphi. He had a lot of interesting things to say but he would take long breaks between his stories so there were a few we missed because we had fallen asleep.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant to use the bathroom and get drinks. Carl and I shared the largest donut we’ve ever seen, and two hot coffees that we had to choke down in order to get back into the bus on time.

One of the passengers with us was a middle-aged woman wearing pants, a big, baggy sweatshirt, a scarf, and a big straw hat that had “Aloha” written on it. She had been talking on the phone (on speakerphone) when we’d first left Athens. Now that it was time to get back into the bus I overheard her trying to borrow a phone charger from one of the kiosk workers. She was the last one on, but only a couple minutes late.

Stavos continued telling us things all the way to Delphi. When we got there he first showed us around the museum. We had felt a little burned out on archeological sites and museums but having a really great guide there made it all so interesting again. He explained the meaning of the statues we were looking at.

He also told us that even though most of the statues we see today are marble, the majority of statues back in the day would’ve been bronze because this allowed greater detail. But, bronze can be melted down and reused for other art, tools or weapons, so that has become the fate of most of the old statues.

There is one large bronze statue that is on display at the museum that was likely saved from being recycled because a rockslide had crushed and covered the building and the surroundings. The bronze statue is of a man riding a chariot and other pieces -like horse legs- were found nearby to confirm that the whole statue would have been massive.

Then we walked into the site itself. Stavos tried to stop in areas with shade but it was still ridiculously hot. He led us up a switchback path to the spot where the oracle’s temple was. On the way up we spotted someone we recognized. Rudy- our guide from Krka park in Croatia- was walking down the hill. We didn’t say hi (and now regret it!) but it was definitely him. Small world!

We got to the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle saw her clients, and Stavos left us here. Carl and I decided to walk the rest of the way up the hill, curious to see what was up there. It was a steep hike but eventually we got to the top where there is an old stadium. We tried to imagine what kind of games would’ve been played there. Then we hiked back down, took a bunch of photos, and met up with our group again just in time.

The bus then took us all to a restaurant for lunch. We had decided not to pay for lunch ahead of time, in case there were better or cheaper options around. But, we ended up at a restaurant that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere so we accepted our fate. Carl and I got house wine, green salad and lamb. All of it was really good.

We sat at a table with other people who had not paid for the lunch ahead of time and were ordering ‘a la carte’. There was a South African woman who was in Greece for a work conference. She worked for some kind of international bible organization and said her job involves helping to write sermons for specific groups like abused women or for new pastors. She was very nice and at one point on the tour revealed that she had lent her phone charger to the Aloha woman, who had mysteriously lagged behind. We wondered if she would ever see that charger again.

Also at our lunch table was a couple who are living in London. The woman was from Ukraine and she said she has family there in the safe areas and dangerous areas but that all are safe and accounted for now. Her partner said he was from a part of the country of Georgia that is still disputed territory. He said the name of his country several times and even spelled it for us once, but all we know is that it’s in Georgia somewhere on the coast of the Black Sea.

The other person at our table was a younger woman from Pennsylvania. She told us she is about to go to NYU to study in a masters program for Animal Studies. When we asked what that meant she said, “like Gender Studies, but for animals” which did not, in any way, give clarity. Later on in the lunch she told us she is vegan and that she would “never ever be a vegetarian”. When bible studies lady asked what was meant by that, the girl responded that she could never eat products from animals that were tortured and abused. The five of us looked at our plates of pork and lamb and the conversation died there.

Besides that one tiny awkward moment, we had a good conversation the rest of the time. And then it was time to get back on the bus. We made one more pit stop at another ruin of a temple. There wasn’t much to see but the base of what used to be one of the few round shaped temples. Then we had to hike back up the hill to the bus and I honestly wasn’t sure our whole party was going to make it.

It was about a three hour drive back to Athens. When we got dropped off near the city center we realized it was almost 7pm and we weren’t hungry at all. So we got some cold sodas and beers and hiked up the hill to our hotel.

Monday, August 29

Our last day of the trip!!

We slept in, knowing we had a tiring 36 hours ahead of us. Then we went to the rooftop to have breakfast. This time we got a table right on the edge of the balcony so we had the best views of the Acropolis. The woman who runs the breakfast is so nice. Again we ate eggs, bacon, salad and this time some Greek yogurt with honey. We watched pigeons fight over some bread and then left to start our day.

First on the agenda was a hike to a nearby hill. The hill has sweeping views of all of Athens. The trail to get up there was steep and in the sun, but it was a short walk to the top. The hillside was covered in cactus and most of the cactus plants had juicy looking prickly pears growing out of them.

We navigated to the top and enjoyed the views while sitting in the shade on the steps of a church. There was a little breeze.

When we walked back down Carl found a prickly pear that didn’t look too prickly and had recently fallen from the cactus. He squeezed some of the juice into his mouth and said it tasted like sour pomegranate. Later I noticed he kept spitting and touching the roof of his mouth. Somehow he’d gotten a couple little prickly spikes in his mouth. He was able to get rid of the first and then I pulled one out of his cheek. In case you needed a reason why not to eat prickly pear found on the side of a hill.

At the bottom of the hill we started our path to cross the city and see the other archeological sites included in our combo pass. We ended up walking through the National Garden which is a little park with different garden areas. We walked next to ponds with koi and turtles to the small lake. There was also a whole area of the park dedicated to birds, but it was temporarily closed. The park was wonderfully shady and cool like a jungle. I could’ve just stayed there all day.

Not long after leaving the park we came to Hadrian’s Arch. The arch is impressive, and right next to the modern day road. Then we went to the Olympieion. The main attraction in this area is the temple for Zeus which was built during the time of Hadrian. The temple used to have 104 marble columns but many fell over or were purposefully repurposed for other marble buildings.

From here we crossed the main road to get into the neighborhood of Plaka. Our taxi driver from the first night had been really insistent that we visit this area. It was nice, with lots of shops, restaurants, etc. But it did feel weird to us because it wasn’t that old. After looking at Ancient Greek ruins all day it almost feels like you should be walking on ancient cobblestone alleys to get to an ancient market. But Athens wasn’t the capitol of modern Greece until 1834. And the paintings we’d seen from about 1800 showed that there just wasn’t much around the ruins besides huts.

Still, the area was nice and vibrant. We found a cute bar that advertised ouzo, flavored licours, and wine tasting. So we split a wine tasting of the best white wines in Greece. The bartender left a book for us that explained all the wines so we could take turns sipping and describing. They were all good but we determined our favorite was the last one, a blend of Assyrtiko and Semillon.

Then we walked north along Tripodon, one of the oldest streets in Athens. Carl found an old family run restaurant with good reviews called Ristorante Scholarchio. We sat outside, on the first level, underneath a terrace covered in very ripe grapes. On some bunches it looked like all the grapes has turned into raisins.

We ordered Greek salad (duh), moussaka, and fried pork with balsamic vinegar and honey. The moussaka was served as a slice, like lasagna, and the top of it was so fluffy and delicious it was unbelievable. The fried pork was tasty and very different from anything we’ve had in Greece. It almost tasted like something from the Philippines. Again, another great meal in Athens for relatively cheap.

We had mostly finished eating when we noticed a bunch of little birds were having the feast of their lives in the grape vines above us. It was cute to watch them but, do you know what happens when you sit under a bird? Carl felt one poop on him and as he was wiping it out of his hair I watched as another one did it again.

Carl was a good sport about it and didn’t mind because he planned to throw away his entire outfit at the end of the day anyways (perk of last day of travel!). Still, he got up to go to the bathroom to wash off his hair and hands. The second he left, a bird pooped into my water glass. I laughed maniacally and then decided it was time to get out of there.

We walked back up to our hotel. Very kindly, the hotel had let us store our bags there all day. And they even let us use the shower in the hallway bathroom which was absolutely necessary because we were drenched in sweat and about to go to the airport. They even gave us towels. Eleven out of ten stars for Orion Hotel!

After we had showered and gotten all packed up, we talked to the front desk woman for a little bit while we waited for our taxi to the airport. We explained our life story- quit our jobs to travel for 8 months, around the world, during COVID, with just carry ons- and she listened patiently. I don’t know if she actually cares or if she was just being polite, but it was such a nice closure to tell our story to someone just one last time.

Tuesday, August 23

Our Airbnb was a nice short walk from the port and we had an easy self check in of finding the apartment and the keys in the lock box. The apartment was really nice and well furnished with everything including strong wifi, a coffee maker, and coffee.

We decided to go out to dinner and worry about getting groceries later. The forecast predicted rain later in the evening and for the next several days. I brought a sweater with me to dinner in case the pre-rain wind made the air cold, but otherwise didn’t think it necessary to bring a rain jacket.

We went to a restaurant called Katsinas that looked authentic and not too pricey. When we arrived we had to wait for one man to finish his drink before nabbing the last outside table. I thought about asking to sit inside, but the temperature outside was so nice.

We ordered food by filling out a paper form. We put a check next to stuffed grape leaves (dolmas), mixed eggplant, garlic dip, Greek salad, fried cheese, moussaka, and house wine. The waiter said the food was made by his mom and we weren’t sure if she was back there cooking or if the recipes were hers.

Pretty quickly they brought out the salad, dolmas, and dips. It started to sprinkle rain so we got the busser to put up an umbrella for us. Then it started to rain harder. The table was slanted ever so slightly downhill so I started to get a lap of cold rain water. The rain started coming in from the sides. I stood up to look for a solution and noticed that the people at the other outside tables- which were protected by a big awning- were looking at us. One woman was motioning for me to come sit at the empty chair at her table with her family.

I asked the waiter if we could move to one of the tables under the awning that someone had just left (they had left to go sit on one of the few inside tables). He said, “no” for some reason I couldn’t hear or understand. Then it was ridiculous. It started raining SO hard. I was considering whether to just run home or steal the open table. Then Carl stood up, saying “huh uh ooo! Wowooo! Uuoooh!” because cold water from the umbrella had just dripped down his back. I can’t remember if the waiter let us or if we just did- but we took the abandoned table.

We looked around to see the people we thought had been well protected under the awning were also getting wet and that the people on the outer edge had pulled their feet up because there was a river of storm water running under them.

Our food was a bit wet, but we finished off that first course. It was really good. But then we sat, and waited. They never brought the rest of the food. We debated whether we should ask for it. But then it was after 10pm and we didn’t really want the rest of it anymore. Eventually I caught the waiter’s attention and got the check.

He didn’t realize we never got the rest of the food. He told us we just owed him €20 and he apologized because of the chaos from the rain. We felt bad because the food had been really good, and we wanted to try the other things, but the service had been abysmal. So then we walked home and went to sleep.

Wednesday, August 24

Rain was predicted for the middle of the day. So we decided to have an easy going morning, check the forecast, then attempt to go out to Knossos palace.

We did a great job of sleeping in and having a lazy morning. At about 11:30am we set out to get ‘breakfast’. We found a café that didn’t look authentic at all, but had breakfast and good looking drinks. We got some dessert churros (because why not) and a croque monsieur that was actually pretty good. I got a cocktail and Carl got a ‘Greek’ (Turkish) coffee. We sat outside and people watched.

Afterward we walked across the main square to a church we had watched tourists going into. The church used to be a mosque that was converted into an orthodox Catholic Church. It was very pretty and there were many modern style paintings inside.

We walked around a little bit and then decided it was time to head to Knossos. There is supposedly a public bus that goes there but we would’ve had to walk for a bit to get to the stop and we weren’t sure it was even the right stop. So we got a taxi for €14. It was easy to get the taxi and she dropped us right in front of Knossos palace, so it was worth it.

The line to get in was long, but it went by quickly. Once we got inside we got out our headphones to listen to the audio guide app we had downloaded the night before. This was our first time doing this, and it worked out really well.

The palace of Knossos is considered one of the oldest cities in Europe. It was developed sometime in the Neolithic period and become the center of Minoan culture in the Bronze Age. The British archeologist Arthur Evans bought the site to excavate it in 1900. His study and renovations were controversial because although he made the site famous, he took some creative liberties in restoring things that made them likely inaccurate.

One of the most interesting things about the site is how little is actually known about the culture that created and inhabited the palace. They had a writing system that’s been discovered but not yet successfully translated. Our feeling was that people (archeologists) were just making things up as much as Evans did. Still though, the site was impressive.

Knossos showed evidence that Minoans had a plumbing system with flushing toilets. This would’ve been about 2,000 BCE. Our audio guide made a point to note whenever Minoan civilization far outpaced that of other parts of Europe (like the Brits), which was often through the tour.

We walked around the site, listening to our guide, for about 2 hours. It started to sprinkle rain a few times but just as soon as we put our rain jackets on, it would stop again.

We got the bus back into Heraklion city center. We thought about going to the Heraklion archeological museum to see all the artifacts pulled from Knossos, but we were mildly burned out on history and had two more days to visit. So instead we got ice cream.

As we were eating our ice cream we got an email from the tour operator for our gorge hike scheduled for the next day. They said that, because of weather, the park where the gorge is would be closed, so our tour was effectively canceled. We looked around us at the blue skies with some clouds, noting that the weather forecast had said every day would be thunderstorms and rainy, and accepted our fate.

We went to the grocery store to get stuff to make dinner and found a wine tasting tour for the following day. We predicted (accurately) that the weather was going to be great, so we might as well go drink some wine outside.

Carl made a yummy pasta and Greek salad and we drank our rosé from the wine tasting in Santorini.

Thursday, August 25

At 10am the driver picked us up in front of a hotel next to our Airbnb. He was friendly, but not overly talkative. He stopped at a five star hotel to pick up the other tour participants. Two boys – probably 17 or 18? – got in the car with us. They were from Salzburg, Austria, where The Sound of Music was filmed.

It was about an hour to the first winery. The tour description said we’d drive by two historical sites, including Knossos. We did drive by them and, when the driver said absolutely nothing about them we just said, “oh. There they are!”

At the first winery, Domaine Paterianakis, a woman showed us around the grounds a little bit and showed us the cellar. Then they sat us all at the same table for the tasting. This is about when we realized how young our two Austrian friends were, and how high. One of them had straight blonde hair and he was nice and talked with us. The other one, with curly black hair, kept his sunglasses on for the whole tasting, even though we were inside.

The woman that gave us the tour then began to pour wines for us. She poured the smallest amount, explained it, and left. They provided a little bit of olive oil and very hard, crouton-like bread that I was worried I would crack a tooth on. So we had some awkward quiet times as we sipped our wine, crunched loudly on dried bread, and then looked longingly at our empty glasses.

Halfway through the tasting the primary staff person left and instead the daughter of the winery owner served us. She was very nice and obviously very knowledgeable about the wines.

The wines were nice, but we didn’t like them quite as much as Santorini. Most surprisingly the dry Muscat was not too sweet and it was our favorite. They also gave us a small taste of Raki, which is like grappa (they said Raki is the Turkish term and the Greeks are supposed to call theirs something else, but I can’t remember the Greek name so Raki it is). It was actually really good!

After the tasting, Carl went to buy the Muscat and I followed the Austrians outside to help them take a picture. Blondey gave me his phone and I waited for Curly to join him in front of the vista. Blondey said, “it’s ok, I’ll do some photos by myself first”. So I was the photographer for Blondey’s winery photo shoot while Curly just stood there and watched. I did get one of them together, and then rushed back to tell Carl about it.

Our driver picked us up and took us to the next winery, Lyrarakis. When we arrived there were more people there waiting to do a tour of the winery. The larger group of us then followed a staff person around, through the vineyard grounds.

The vineyard itself was gorgeous. They had planted roses at the end of each row as a kind of organic disease alarm. The clouds above us grew darker and darker and threatened rain, but it never did. Instead, the occasional light that poked through a dark cloud provided the most magical lighting as we wandered around the gardens.

In one part of their garden they had rows of each type of grape variety. They let us try each kind of grape (lucky it is almost harvest time!). We liked the Vidiano, which is a green grape that makes one of the most popular white wines in Greece.

When it was time for the tasting, we got the last table in the back, looking out at the view but also at the back of all the other participants. We enjoyed the tasting but none of the wines blew us away. They again served us hard bread, oil, and tapenade this time.

After the tasting we went back to the vineyard to have our own little photo shoot. Then we thought it was about time our driver should be picking us up, but we didn’t see him. Instead another man, the owner of the tour company apparently, drove us. We awkwardly admitted that we had left our purse and bag in the other driver’s car and the owner said, “ok, ok, ok, no problem, no problem”. So I tried not to be stressed as we drove on to the next place: lunch.

The owner was a very friendly, talkative guy. When the Austrians both wanted to sit in the front seat with him, he just laughed it off and said it was fine. Blondey did a good job asking the owner about how he runs his business. Like he asked how the lunch restaurant is chosen for the tour. The owner said that his 10-year old son picked it out. “My son says this one is good, this one is shit, etc, and I trust him. Here in Greece we say listen to little kids and to crazy people”. Honestly this left us very curious as to how the restaurant would be.

He took us to a little, historic town that we read about in the tour description but otherwise did not get to see at all. We were led to the restaurant where they sat us outside, under a trellis covered in grapevines. There was a standard menu as part of the tour so we said, “bring it on”.

They brought us a white wine, Greek salad, tzatziki, and dolmas, my favorite! The second course was meatballs and French fries. We’d asked for souvlaki but I think the waiter switched our order with the Austrian’s. It didn’t matter because the meatballs were good.

While we ate, two little orange kitties came over and played and begged for food. They were very cute and made me miss my Bubbs (who I get to see so soon!) The Austrians gave the cats some meat and I think they regretted it instantly as the cats then tried to jump in their lap. I also gave them meat but they seemed to understand empty hands meant “no more!”

For desert they brought chocolate cake, banana ice cream (too bad for Carl), and a carafe of ice cold Raki. This Raki was not as good as the one from the winery. In fact, it tasted like it could remove my nail polish. The Austrians didn’t even touch it. But Carl and I are always ones to get our monies worth, so we squeezed our eyes shut tight, and threw back 2.5 shots of it. In case you were wondering, the banana ice cream was an awful chaser.

After lunch, our original driver picked us up and he still had our stuff in his car-yay! It was about an hour drive back to Heraklion. He went to the Austrians hotel first and they shook our hands to say goodbye. At the last second Blondey asked if we had Instagram. So I gave him my account and now we are friends.

When Carl and I got back to our Airbnb we hung out on the patio for a while, until the sun went down. Then we had leftovers and drank our dry Muscat while watching Netflix.

Friday, August 26

We didn’t have to check out of our Airbnb until 11am so we took our time to pack up and eat breakfast. Then we hiked over to the bus station. We’d seen on google maps (and Airbnb host confirmed) there was a cheap baggage storage place at the bus station. It ended up being €3 per bag per day. So we slapped the receipt stickers on our bags, left them in the luggage room, and set out to enjoy our last day on the island of Crete.

We hiked uphill to the Archeological Museum. The museum holds all of this artifacts found in Knossos as well as things found from similar archeological sites all over the island. The museum was huge, full of stuff, and things to read. There were a few points where I had to take pictures of the descriptions because my brain just wasn’t processing information anymore.

The museum was laid out chronologically which made it really interesting to see how the artifacts, like pottery, weapons, ceremonial offering art, etc., evolved over time and also the similarities that connected the different civilizations.

By the time we had finished the two floors of approximately 20 rooms we were done learning. We went over to the main city area and found a touristy restaurant to eat.

We ordered a sampler menu that came with Greek salad, dolmas, moussaka, stuffed tomatoes, and meatballs. We also got a carafe of house wine, which was surprisingly nice.

Afterward we walked the touristy streets again. The day before I had seen an interesting looking necklace in one of the tourist shops. It looked like two bees around a flower. In the museum we had seen the original version of the necklace, which is called the Malia Pendant, and was described as two bees depositing honey into a honeycomb. The pendant was found in 1930 in Malia, Crete and dated 1800-1650 BCE. So we went back to the tourist shop to see if I could get a replica.

The woman working at the shop was very nice. She let me try necklaces on as she talked to Carl about traveling and New York. Her shop has items from all kinds of local artists. I decided to get the necklace.

We had about an hour or so before we planned to take the bus to the airport. So we found a brewery. The place was very homegrown, off a random side street back toward the museum. We were the only people there. We got an IPA and a hazy IPA. They were both good! We sat there and sipped and enjoyed the WiFi.

Then we got a bus to the airport, which was a super short ride. The Heraklion airport is old and it felt like we had gone back in time as we looked for our flight on the old style departures list. Eventually we were able to check in our bags (Volotea airline special) and went to the gate to wait.

There were a million people buzzing about the departure gates. We ended up getting some delicious gyros while we waited and tried to not constantly be in the way of people pushing by.

But finally we boarded and the flight was another incredibly short one-as soon as we got up we headed back down. Next (and last!!) stop: Athens.

Sunday, August 21

When our ferry pulled into the new port area, it felt like we were walking out onto a movie set. The port is located in the middle of a bay surrounded by sky-high rocky cliffs. We squinted up to the top because the whole thing just didn’t seem real. It almost felt like the set of a western with desert cliffs overlooking the strand of shops below. Except these shops all sold Greek food or rental cars.

As soon as we walked off the ferry, Carl spotted the bus to Thera. It was a mad scramble but we were able to throw our bags below and hop on in time. We even got a seat! Which seemed unfathomable given the crowds pushing to get on. It only worked because everyone got on, and as we were moving, a man came and sold tickets. The bus driver expertly navigated the extreme switchbacks going up the cliff side and soon we were on top of the island.

We looked across the water to the mountain tops and -for a second- thought the peaks were covered in snow. But that would be impossible because 1) we are in Greece 2) it’s August and so so so hot (omg it’s so hot). Then we realized the white peaks are actually all buildings. All of the cities on Santorini only have square, white buildings that cling to the cliff sides, and look a lot like snow from far away. We felt dumb for thinking this but then overheard a couple behind us go through the exact same thought process.

Not much further we arrived to the town of Thera. We walked through the town, along some pedestrian streets, and then hiked up along the main road to our hotel, Hotel Afrodete. The hotel advertised having a hot tub but I guessed (correctly) it was probably a small, cold pool. When we approached there were two little girls playing with plastic toy boats in the pool. They were so adorable that we think they work for the hotel in order to melt guests’ hearts right as they enter.

The woman that checked us in was so nice. She gave us a brochure for some boat excursions and gave us information about walking into town and hiking to the town of Oia. They had water waiting for us in the fridge and the AC worked pretty well, so we were very happy.

We wanted to explore Thera, but first we needed a snack. We walked into town along a back road that the woman had told us about and found ourselves in cobblestone alleys lined with souvenir shops. We stopped at Meat Corner Grill and got two gyros and sodas.

The night before Carl had showed me an old SNL episode with Adam Sandler where the gyro shop owners ask Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld) if he liked the gyro sauce. They say, “you like-uh-the juice ah?? Ah! He like-ah-the juice!” The episode is dated BUT I swear the guy at this shop pulled the stunt on us. We ordered a Fanta and a coke and he said “you ah-like-ah the Fanta huh?” with a huge creepy smile.

As we walked further we saw a place advertising Crazy Donkey IPAs. We had seen the Santorini brewery t-shirts at every tourist shop, but the brewery is located outside of town (too difficult to get to) so this seemed to be our chance.

We sat and tried the Crazy Donkey IPA and the Yellow Donkey Pale Ale. Both were good but I think we actually liked the pale ale better. Then we were hopped up and ready to go explore.

The town overlooks ‘the caldera’ which we stupidly thought would be a volcano standing across the water. Actually, the whole island is a string of volcanos and so the ‘caldera’ views are really views into the mouth of the old volcano. The island that’s out in the middle is called Nea Kameni and was actually formed from molten lava cooling.

We enjoyed peeking into souvenir shops and into hotel backyards. Most of the hotels overlooking the caldera have really nice, bright blue pools. It looked like a lot of the rooms have their own private plunge pool (goals).

We circled back and found a fish spa where you pay to put your feet into a tub filled with little fish that will eat the dead skin off. Carl did it but I didn’t like the idea. He said it felt “ticklish for the first minute and then you get used it and it feels like having your feet in a whirlpool bath”. I saw a sign for gel manicure so went and got one while Carl finished his foot soak.

Then we just felt very sweaty and tired. So we went back to our hotel and took a dip in the very cold plunge pool. Even though our hotel was very close to town, it is actually located on the eastern side of the caldera ridge. So we could see ocean views from the pool, but only to the east, past the flat farmland areas.

For dinner we decided to go to a place called Kokkalo. Even though, like our hotel, it didn’t overlook the caldera (so no epic sunset views) it did overlook the ocean on the eastern side. The food here was amazing and probably our best meal in Greece so far.

When we sat they brought us Raki, a Turkish traditional drink made of twice-distilled grapes. It tasted strong, and kinda like tequila. They also gave us some Kalamata olives, croutons, and pear tomatoes. We ordered the house rosé and some feta cheese balls to start. The cheese balls were so creamy and delicious and came with some kind of spiced mayonnaise dip.

Because we ate gyros for lunch we decided to get salad for dinner. We got a salad with pomegranate, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar. It was huge, and pretty good. We also got some sides to complement our big salad. We got Greek sausages which had cheese inside that squirted out when we cut them open. We also got some mixed marinated mushrooms and then grilled halloumi cheese. The halloumi was perfectly cooked and topped with an apricot jam. It was ridiculously good. When we left we weren’t stuffed, but we were completely satisfied.

Monday, August 22

We slept in a little bit more than we should’ve, but we were still ‘on the trail’ before 10am. Our plan was to hike from Thera to Oia, along a walking trail that follows the Santorini ridge line. The first part of this hike goes through some touristy areas with souvenir shops and between hotel patios. We ogled at all the private patios with private plunge pools. We even saw one where a breakfast had been laid out that had champagne and iced coffees. I was jealous but we looked up the price of some of these rooms and found the cheapest to be over 500 euro.

As we walked it seemed that every few steps was a new angle of the same amazing view, so we took a ton of pictures.

At one point we took a little detour down to Skaros rock. This rock formation was created by the volcanic activity. At one point a castle had been built on top, but it is now a ruin, and falling down more every day.

We walked down and around the rock and grimaced when we overheard an American family strategizing how to climb to the top. I could tell Carl was curious to explore it too, but it wasn’t even 10:30am yet and we had the whole hike ahead of us, so we saved the scary rock climbing for another time.

Finally the trail broke away from the town and we hiked along a dirt path with rocks on either side of us. The trail led us up the ridge to a church for views over the whole caldera. We trudged along, ready to get a cold Fanta. Finally we descended on volcanic rock scree, into the town of Oia (pronounced eee-ah). We wandered the cobblestone alleys a bit and then found a good gyro spot with views over the east side.

We walked through Oia a bit, to see all the views and the end of the city on the north side. Then we walked over to the bus stop to get the bus back to Thera. There were a million people also waiting for the bus. It was madness, but it actually wasn’t that long of a wait and we were able to get on and, surprisingly, get seats.

The bus dropped us off back in Thira town. We had been waiting all day to jump into the pool but, being back in town we figured we should just go sweaty to our next activity rather than go all the way back to our hotel pool which we might never be able to get out of.

So we walked along the main road to Anhydrous winery. We got the wine and cheese sampler and our sommelier, Yiannis, was great. We found out he was a bit younger than us but he spoke with such authority about the wine and he had such well rehearsed jokes. Like once he said, “the grapes for this wine come from all over the island: North, South, East, and…there is no West, it blew up from the volcano”.

We tried 7 wines: 4 whites, 1 rosé, and 2 reds. There were a couple we didn’t really like but the rosé was good and the white served after the rosé was my favorite. It was made in an oak barrel and tasted like vanilla. But it was €33 so when we left we got the rosé and our second favorite white (and cheaper).

With every glass of wine there was a cheese to pair it with. With the whites we started with soft cheeses and there was one that was a ball of soft goat cheese that made us lose our minds. Then with the reds we had harder cheeses that were good, but not mind blowing.

Near the end of our tasting Yiannis asked us if we wanted to tour the winery. We joined a few other couples and Yiannis led us on a mini tour. He showed us the orchard outside in the front of the building and explained how they have to bend the grape vines into circular wreaths to protect the grapes from the strong winds. Also how the black volcanic rocks provide warmth to the plants while the white volcanic rocks absorb and disseminate moisture.

The winery started in a different part of Greece before coming to Santorini and it was clear from Yiannis’ explanation that they had done a lot of science experiments with grape growing over the hundreds of years.

Yiannis led us into the cellar where we got to look at some barrels and enjoy the cooler temperature underground. He also had us stop by the beauty boutique where we sampled some beauty products all made from grapes. They had lotion, some sort of face oil, and body hair oil -which all the boys on the tour put in their beards. Again, this winery obviously likes playing with food science.

When we were all done we thanked Yiannis for being so cool, bought a couple bottles to take (perk of ferry travel), and hiked back up the ridge to our hotel. We jumped into the plunge pool and just sat, enjoying being cold. We could’ve stayed there for hours but we decided to catch the sunset on the caldera side.

So we put real clothes back on and hiked up and over to a nice spot along the wall. The sunset was as amazing as we had been told it would be. We watched the sun sink behind the volcanic island of Thirasia and then meandered back to our hotel.

Tuesday, August 23

Even though we had to check out, our ferry to Crete wasn’t until later so we decided to leave our bags at the hotel and do a day activity. We opted for a sail around the caldera tour which was scheduled to leave the ‘old port’ at 11am. After Mykonos, this is the second place we’ve been where there is a new port and an old port and the new port is used for all the inter-island ferries while the old port is used for the touristy day trip ferries.

Thira town sits on the very top of the ridge so, in order to get to the old port, you have to find some way down. There is a cable car but it costs €6 and there can be a long wait. So we opted to walk down the ‘stairs’ which is a long, stone path that switchbacks the whole way down.

The hike down wasn’t that bad until we ran into a traffic jam of tourists and donkeys. The donkeys are kind of a tourist gimmick but they are also one of the only ways to get up and down. There were so many of them and they all looked so cute and sad.

We got to the bottom and figured out where we were supposed to meet our boat. We got a ham sandwich to save for lunch and ordered a sweet looking thing for second breakfast (first being the packaged croissant provided by our hotel). It was like pastry hair wrapped around a mixture of pistachios and honey. Weird, but yummy.

Finally our boat came and we crowded aboard. We went to the top because it seemed like that was the only place left to sit but it ended up being a great spot to see the views, despite nearly burning alive in the midday sun. The captain told us a bit about the islands and then played some Greek music for the rest of the ride.

The boat took us to Nea Kameni, the island formed by cooled volcanic matter. The captain was hilarious in the way that really serious people can be hilarious without knowing it. He explained the volcanic island hike as, “on the island, you will see nothing…nothing but rocks, and a view”.

We were given a couple hours to hike around. It was disastrously hot, and full of other tourists, but even so the island was really cool. The black volcanic rocks seemed almost shiny, and we had panoramic views of the whole caldera- all the islands surrounding the island we were on.

We hiked to the top, over to the other side, and finally descended back, taking a million photos along the way. Back on the boat we prepared for the next spot, swimming in the ‘hot springs’. The captain explained that we’d be jumping into the ocean from the boat and swimming over to the springs which he said “are not hot. They are kinda warm.”

As Carl and I deck changed (literally) into our swimsuits we eavesdropped on some American girls whose friend had just gone to the bathroom to change. The boat was wobbling back and forth and we all were thinking, “that poor girl in there”.

She came back and somehow we ingratiated ourselves in their conversation. She told us that she was trying to change in the tiny, hot room but that the toilet was clogged and nasty and the boat was tipping all over the place. She was hysterically laughing at herself but then when she exited the bathroom the people sitting there looked at her like she was crazy. Somehow she told it in a way that was even funnier than how it sounds now, and we were crying with laughter.

Then the girls told us about the hostel they were staying at called Camping, where they were actually in a private room with three beds and a bathroom. Again, I was crying with laughter because everything they said is so typical of round the world budget traveling. She said their shower was the whole bathroom so everything got soaked. The best part is they didn’t flush their TP, they threw it away, but they only had one trash can for the room, in the bathroom. After the first night they took out their bathroom trash and threw it away. When they asked the hosts for another trash bag, they were denied. Only one dirty TP bag per stay, I guess! The girls said that they’d rather be camping outside.

Then we were at the next island with the hot springs. We jumped off the boat into really cold water and then swam toward the island, past the church, into a little muddy bay where the water got progressively warmer. The captain was right, it wasn’t hot, just kinda warm. We played in the shallows with the weird, orange, soft mud. As we swam back to the boat, we could feel how cold the sea water was again.

Then it was time to go. We all got back into the boat, so grateful to be cooler. It was a short ride back to Santorini. As we approached, Carl and I eyed the line for the cable car to the top. We had to get to the top, walk to the hotel to get our bags, then walk to the bus station to catch the 3:30 bus from Thira down to the new port in time for our ferry at 4:40pm.

We were a few minutes late docking at the old port so it was already 2:20 when we looked at the cable car line. I went to the front of the line to ask someone how long they had been waiting. The first woman skoffed and made a gesture like she couldn’t possibly know because it had been so long. The next guy, further back, said 30 minutes. So, we decided we didn’t have time to wait and that we’d have to walk back up the death stairs.

For a second we considered getting donkeys, but they didn’t seem that much faster than us. So, we accepted the fact that we’d be literally dripping with sweat, and we walked up. At one point, near the bottom, some donkeys got loose and there was a mini stampede of them, right towards us. We stuck close to the side, and avoided injury. But we heard a British man behind us swearing. We assume he got his foot stepped on. So, wanting to avoid anymore donkey encounters, we walked quickly up. It turned out that the fear of donkeys catching up to us ended up being a huge motivator.

We got to the top in record time and I don’t think I’ve ever been more sweaty. My white shirt was soaked through as if someone had poured a bucket of water on me. We beat the donkeys that started about the same time as us though. Hot and bothered, we pushed past tourists in the cobblestone alleys to get back to our hotel. The hotel actually offered us a bathroom with a shower to use, but we didn’t have time. We took the main roads down to the bus station.

Another public transport chaotic nightmare. Most of the buses didn’t say where they were going. In the teeny tiny parking lot, all the buses had to turn around and nearly run over a group of passengers who were trying to ask where the buses were going. Finally we heard “port” and pushed our way through to get our bags on board and get a seat. We’d learned hard lessons in Italy and we are probably worse humans for it, but now we get bus seats.

In no time we were back down at the new port, at the ‘movie set’ as we called it. After a ferry staff person rudely told us that we ‘didn’t have tickets’ (by which she meant that there’d be a €2 fee to print our tickets) we were told to wait an hour and board at gate 4.

The ferry was late. At one stage we thought a different boat was ours and the hoard of people walked across the pier to try and board. A cop came out of nowhere and was yelling and blowing his whistle at us, telling us to get back and away from the docks because it wasn’t our boat.

After everyone got pushed back they all just waited outside in a big crowd. About 15 minutes later a man shouted to all of us that the ferry would be late (thanks man, we know). We overheard people guessing which boat out in the distance might be ours.

Carl was about to say, “I wonder what type of boat we-“ when, mid-sentence, a huge ship came out of nowhere from behind a rocky cliff on the left hand side of the port and interrupted him with a loud, “bmaaaaaah!” sounding of the horn. It seemed everyone standing there was startled by it and, simultaneously, all thought it was funny and started laughing.

We had assigned seats this time and were right on the front. After about an hour on the ferry I decided to get us a spinach pie and a couple of beers. The man serving the food and drinks misunderstood me when I said something like, “all I have is €50 in cash” (meaning, “I’m sorry, I need change”) and he thought I said, “this is my last euros”. He laughed so hard and when he gave me my change and the food he held my hand with both of his and said, very sincerely, “I hope that you enjoy this.”

I walked back to Carl with the spinach pie under my arm, hot grease burning my side, and two beers in hand, trying not to spill as I walked like Johnny Depp through the undulating ferry boat. I couldn’t stop thinking about how genuinely worried the ferry kiosk man was that I was spending €13.50 of my last €50 on a spinach pie and two cheap beers.

Next stop: Crete.

Thursday, August 18

We got to Mykonos airport at 11:30pm and there was a driver from the hotel waiting for us. Even the airport is a square, white building, and it has triangular shaped holes cut out in the walls. It was lit from the bottom and reminded me of something from Star Wars.

When we got to our fancy pants hotel (we figured if we were going to go to Mykonos we may as well live it up) an older man greeted us. He spoke very quietly and calmly and at first I thought he just seemed very posh and serious. But when the bell hop came to carry our bags to our room, the older front desk man sized up our backpacks and said, “guess you won’t be needing him to carry anything” and then laughed too hard, like an evil villain would have. I liked him even more for it.

The poor bell hop led us the wrong way and even tripped on the stairs at one point. When he led us to our room he waited for us to put all of our luggage down, expecting a tip. We felt a little bad but said “thanks so much for showing us to the room! Good night!” And he left. And we passed out.

Friday, August 19

We slept in and woke up just in time to get breakfast. I had read some negative reviews about the breakfast, like you had to pay more for coffee and the only vegetables were tomatoes, but we thought the breakfast was amazing. It was a full buffet of mostly pastries- savory and sweet- but they also had fresh fruit, multiples types of eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh OJ, and a coffee machine. We stuffed ourselves.

Then it was time to explore Mykonos. We started to walk from our hotel in Agios Stefanos to downtown Mykonos. This meant walking along the freeway which wound around the cliff side, and it was terrifying. We soon spotted the Sea Bus, a ferry that runs between the new port and the old port, and we ran to catch it just in time. It cost €2 each, one way, but it saved us 30 minutes of walking on a scary freeway.

We got out at the middle stop and walked along the beach to the town. We walked around the seafront to the old church called Panagia Paraportiani. We listened to a tour guide explain that the church was made to look like it wasn’t a church. It did look like a 5-year old had gotten carried away with the paper maché project and has covered the whole thing.

Then we walked into some narrow streets, through souvenir shops and restaurants until we found ourselves on the water again. We had been looking for Little Venice and when we looked back we realized we had just walked through it. I guess the buildings over the water gives the area its name.

We walked up to the iconic windmills and took some photos before going back to the Little Venice viewpoint to get some overpriced cocktails. I got a honeydew melon something and Carl got the ‘greek lover’ which had gin and rosemary in it. We took more photos and enjoyed getting sprayed by the sea a little bit.

Then we wandered through some touristy shops before getting the sea bus back again. This time we tried to find a shortcut up the hill instead of along the freeway. I was wearing my very slippery sneakers and I quickly discovered how prone to erosion the hillsides are. With both my feet slipping down the hill I reached out to grab something and found everything around me was a sharp cactus, weed, or some kind of dried out dead plant. Thankfully, Carl came back down the slope a bit and helped me up, while I complained the whole way. Needless to say we would not be taking that shortcut again.

We finally got back to our hotel and immediately changed to put on our swimsuits. We went to the pool and found two beach chairs with our names on them. It was so nice to hang out in the pool and stare down at the ocean below. We stayed there for the rest of the day.

For dinner that night we walked up the hill to Limnios Tavern. The place was a little on the classy side, but we ordered to share. We got half a carafe of house wine, dolmas (with meat), eggplant salad, and a lamb shank. The lamb was good, but the real winner was the eggplant salad. It was like Baba Ghanoush but with onions, tomatoes, and some kind of red pepper.

They were in a rush to serve us and take our empty plates away and then, like always, we sat for forever trying to ask someone for the bill. This is the number one thing I miss about the US. Going back to the hotel we had to go back down stairs in the dark. But at least we didn’t have to walk along the death road!

Saturday, August 20

We woke up at 8 and went downstairs to get breakfast, trying not to over indulge this time. Then we went to the bus stop to avoid having to walk on the road again. When the bus came, the driver turned it around so skillfully in such a tight space that I had to pull my legs up from the wall i was sitting on otherwise he would’ve crushed them.

We got on and watched as the driver grew impatient with a woman asking him to wait for her boo that forgot something in their room and then, when the boo came running out, the driver went to get himself a coffee.

After a short ride to town we had to walk along the beach and boardwalk again to get to the old port. Here we met our tour boat.

We took the ferry out to Delos island. We ended up booking a tour with a guide and we’re really glad we did. Our guide told us that she had worked as an archeologist on Delos for five years, before they had electricity there, before UNESCO came. She also had a newborn baby with her for some portion of that time, which boggled our minds, especially as she explained how she kept food cold using an old stone barrel and a piece of leather.

She was well suited for the job and she told us so much that it was hard to follow everything. She told us about the islands early inhabitants, the related mythology stories, and how the town grew to 30,000 at its height. (Mykonos island now has 10,000). It was so so hot and all the plants on the island were dry as a bone. We wondered how so many people had lived here.

As our guide spoke, she scattered some cat food down. Stray cats popped out from everywhere and some of them followed along with the tour group like they were eager to learn. It was very cute. She told us that the island has a kind of lizard only found on the island and so they feed the cats so the cats won’t eat the lizards. We thought about telling her that this is a terrible plan, especially because we could see the cats were not being neutered or spayed. But they were really really cute.

After the tour we were given free time to explore to the top of the mountain. It was an awful hike to the top and I don’t know how so many people did it in flip flops. But the views from the top were wonderful, 360 views of Delos, the surrounding islands, and the beautiful clear, blue ocean.

We were about to leave when a girl asked Carl to take a photo of her. I was admiring the view off to the other side when I looked over and noticed that the girl’s skirt had blown up. She smoothed it down and apologized, but the moment was still a little awkward and flustering. That’s when I noticed Carl was standing on my phone. I had put it next to my purse to take pictures without it and hadn’t picked it up yet. I yelled at him and found it had a big chip in it. I was mad at the time, but now looking back on it the whole moment was just a flustered, awkward mess that we laugh about.

We hiked down and got back into the ferry for a quick ride back to Mykonos. When we got back we bought two Fantas and chugged them right there, outside the store. I could’ve drank a gallon of Fanta at that moment. We walked up the hill to a phone shop and I got a new glass screen for my phone.

On the way down we stopped to get some pictures of Mykonos from above. We shared the photo spot with two guys which made us realize that we’ve seen more male model influencers taking photos in Mykonos than anywhere else in the world.

For lunch we went to a spot called Sakis. Their specialty is souvlaki, which is grilled meat, usually on a skewer. We got the grilled meat platter and sampled all the meats but also a good tzatziki and slaw. We chugged more sodas and then got a large water to go for our journey back to our hotel.

We took the bus back again and felt bad to see the same driver at 4pm that we had seen at 9am that morning. He remembered us and I think he was telling us jokes but his accent was thick, so we just laughed and nodded along.

Back at the hotel we changed into our suits and headed to the beach. The beach is right across the street from the hotel and even though it isn’t necessarily private, it was less crowded than the other beaches on Mykonos. We laid our towels on the sand and then had to quickly move them a few minutes later when we saw how high the water came in.

We relaxed on the beach until the sun went down. I befriended a little beach lizard that I almost picked up. There was a woman who was very proudly topless. She seemed to be strutting around the beach and frolicking in the water to attract attention. Then a crazy (local?) lady sat very close to Carl. When I was in the water I saw her taking selfies and there is a 100% chance that Carl was in the background (perhaps purposefully?)

A couple came and sat next to us, tied up their dog to a beach rock, and went into the water. The little dog whined and barked the whole time they were in the water. The only time it paused was when the topless lady came over to pet it. So it was a fun time for all.

Once the sun went down, we decided we should get something to eat. The bodega across the street actually had a pretty good grill. We ordered a Greek pizza and got a bottle of Rose. While we waited for the pizza, we (I) had a whole sleeve of brownie Oreos as an appetizer. We took the pizza back to our room and sat on the balcony to eat, drink, and enjoy the view of the beach at dusk.

Sunday, August 21

At breakfast we enjoyed the company of a cute orange cat that the hotel staff were obviously wary of. Then we took the public bus – with the same driver! – to the new port.

We got tickets and waited for our ferry, the Golden Star. When it arrived we watched as the mass of people pushed toward it. As we boarded the ship swayed side to side and the gangplank slide back and forth. The staff person said “watch your legs”, or maybe he said “bags”. We watched both. They let us on the ferry all at once in a big crowd and then, when we were standing in the very hot hull with the cars we realized we needed to turn around and go up the stairs.

Somehow the mass funneled into a single door where a man was checking tickets. I was impressed with their ability to get the humans inside and push off on time but the process was horrific. Onwards to Santorini!

Wednesday, August 17

To return our rental car we met a very large Montenegrin man in the parking lot of the Podgorica airport. He seemed very serious up until he confirmed there was no (new) damage to the car and gave us back our deposit, €150, in cash. Then he smiled a big, goofy smile that made his big, bald head seem even bigger. He squeezed his body into our tiny rental car, and drove away.

We took a teeny tiny plane from Podgorica to Athens. We could see the plane’s propellers on either side. When it came time to shove our bags into the overhead compartment, mine didn’t fit. Luckily I had a plastic bag with me so I just started taking everything out of the front pockets and putting it in the bag. Even then, Carl had to put his weight into it to shove it in. He also had to pull it out later and I worried for a moment it would be stuck forever.

The flight was about 1.5 hours and we changed time zones to be one hour ahead. Despite the short time in the air, they still served us food of a ham sandwich and a cereal bar that were both pretty good! The airline staff were speaking in Greek, but it sounded so similar to Spanish that it made us pause and try to remember where we were.

We were only staying in Athens one day, to allow flexibility for delayed flights, before going to Mykonos. When I booked the hotel I thought we’d be leaving Athens in the morning so I got a hotel near the airport (with a free shuttle), but far from everything else. It turned out we wouldn’t leave Athens until almost midnight but our hotel’s weird location ended up being a positive thing because we explored the Athens suburbs and beaches.

We got to Athens about 3pm. We had to wait for our driver outside, near one of the parking lots. It was so so hot. And it was predicted to get hotter. Finally he pulled up in the van and took us on a 10 minute drive to the hotel. He was really nice, and kept asking us if he was pronouncing words correctly. At the hotel he got out and checked us in.

We got settled and then decided to walk to the nearest beach suburb which was 45 minutes away. As we started walking along abandoned dirt roads, in the heat, it seemed like we may have made a huge mistake. But we trudged on.

The route took us through farmland, suburbs, and strip malls. We saw fig trees overwhelmed with figs, grape vines everywhere, and gnarled olive trees everywhere else. On the main road there were many thrift shops.

Finally we made it to Artemida. Despite being a ‘beach’ town, it wasn’t touristy at all and seemed kinda run down. I tried two different nail salons that had no availability and then we gave up and went to a grill for gyros. We got two pork gyros that came with meat, tzatziki, tomatoes, onions, and potato wedges wrapped up inside. They were sooo good.

We walked down the street and found several bakeries. We ordered some baklava and tried to eat it while we walked, which was difficult but delicious and worth it.

Then I wanted to find a place to have a drink and look at the ocean. There was a huge beach bar called Albatross but it was crowded. So we walked down the beach a bit to Mojito beach bar. There was almost no one in the bar itself and the place looked like it was still recovering from a hurricane. We got two beers and watched the stray beach kittens playing with each other.

Then we walked back, sticking more to rural roads this time. Every house we walked by had a dog that barked at us. One house even had a guard goose. We saw a fig tree that was surrounded by rotting figs that had fallen onto the ground. We saw some ripe ones that were about to fall, so we reasoned it would be ok if we had some. They were sooo good. For the rest of the walk we looked for trees that seemed abandoned that had ripe figs.

We also tried some grapes that were amazing. The green ones were predictably good. The purple grapes were so ripe and juicy and tasted just like Welch’s grape juice. Carl also tried an olive, but it wasn’t ripe yet so it just tasted like a bitter leaf.

Eventually we made it back to our hotel, and settled in for the night.

Thursday, August 18

Happy Birthday Mad Dog!

With our dark, air-conditioned room, we had no issues sleeping in. We had a light breakfast of some leftover baklava and figs gathered from the day before.

The hotel staff helped me to try to find a place to get my gel nails redone but they said everyone was closed for the holiday. We later found out the holiday was the Dormition of the Mother of God, which we had never heard of before.

We decided to go to another beach for the day and have the hotel watch our bags. We again thought it was an ok idea to walk all the way. This time it was over an hour walk and google maps literally took us on a path through a field filled with tons of sharp and pointy dead plants. We again picnicked as we walked and eventually made it all the way to Vravona beach.

A place aptly called Beach Bar had a restaurant and beach chairs for rent. We ordered the mixed meat grill and a couple of beers and sat in the restaurant, on the beach. It took forever to get the food, but it was good. Then we migrated to the beach chairs which we got to sit in for free because we’d ordered food and drinks.

The beach was nice, with soft sand, calm waves, and a shallow entry. We swam, read, blogged, and repeated for several hours.

Then we got an Uber back to the hotel and got the same guy to drive us to the airport. We went early because I’d read about a nail place IN the airport. Unfortunately, the nail salon was past security. So I had Carl watch my stuff and went through, hoping to sneak in an appointment. They were still open (and would be for 1.5 more hours) but the lady said, “sorry, no”. She had no idea how disappointed I was.

Then, getting back to the check in desks was a real challenge. I had to explain my life story to one of the security guards and I doubt she even understood, but she let me go back. The next security lady made me scan my boarding pass to leave, as if that made any sense…So I gave up on getting new gel nails and just ripped the gel off myself. So it goes.

Then the check in process was easy enough and, having been through it once already, security was a breeze. Luckily our ticket allowed me to check my bag and Carl was able to shove his into the tiny overhead. The flight to Mykonos was about 30 minutes which is one of the shortest flights of our lives. It felt like as soon as we reached cruising altitude we started to descend again.

Thursday, August 11

To go through immigration, our bus driver had collected all of our passports and handed the huge pile over to the border guards. After passing through Croatia’s immigration gate, we got back in the bus and drove a bit to the Montenegro border.

The bus driver split the pile of passports and handed it back to us, those sitting in the first row, and told us to find ours and pass the pile on. I’ve never been so grateful to sit in the front. We started to read names aloud, but bus driver said ‘no, no, no. Take and pass’. We found ours, passed the pile back, and heard as people accidentally dropped one or two and then scrambled for it under the bus seats.

At the Montenegro border we got out and handed our passports over ourselves. They barely looked as they stamped it and waved a hand for the next person.

Our bus finally approached the Bay of Kotor. We had assumed the bus would drive around the bay to get to Kotor on the opposite side but to our surprise the bus pulled up to a ferry terminal. The whole bus went quiet as we watched our driver skillfully navigate getting onto the ferry. Then he waved at us, motioning that we should get out of the bus to go stand on the deck and take photos. So we did.

It was almost 7pm, so about an hour before sunset, and the light was beautiful. It was a nice little treat for all of us cheap backpackers on the bus to get to ride across the bay for free. As we approached the other side everyone anxiously got back on, not wanting to see what would happen if we got left on the ferry deck.

We got stuck in traffic again as we entered into town but I was able to have enough cell service to maintain contact with our Airbnb host who met us at the bus station on his motorcycle. He had us follow him- he was on the bike and we were on foot- up the street so that we could see how to walk to the apartment. It wasn’t that complicated but I’m guessing that some previous guests got lost enough times so he thought it was a good idea.

He led us into a housing commune that seemed very 1980s Eastern European. Between the ugly apartment towers were recreational fields and little shops like veggie stands and hair salons. He led us up the creepiest elevator I’ve ever been in to the top floor. From the apartment’s balcony we could see out to Kotor Bay and the old town. We also had a prime viewing spot for the soccer field below us.

Our host said he wasn’t a fan of the communist architecture, but was surprisingly positive in his comments about former Yugoslavia, which was a big change from what we’d heard in Croatia.

Our host then left and we went to the grocery store. We made dinner and drank some wine and tried to find something on TV. They had old music videos (Queen) on one station. The retro apartment plus watching Freddy Mercury on screen was a mind bender and we felt like we had traveled back in time.

Friday, August 12

Our primary goal of the day was to explore old town Kotor. Kotor is teeny tiny so we relaxed in the morning and didn’t make it into the city walls until about noon. Still, in less than an hour we had seen the whole town and more.

Outside the walls of the city was a farmer’s market. We got a half kilo of mixed figs that were divine and provided energy throughout our waking. We didn’t even know there was more than one type of fig, and we liked tasting the different types: green, kinda purple, and full deep purple (the best, obvi).

We started our Kotor tour at a cute little cafe called Niente and ordered some coffees. Turns out they host live music there and make fancy cocktails so we thought about returning some night. Then we strolled through the old city.

Something I did not know but quickly realized is that Kotor has a ton of stray cats and is very proud of them. There are cats everywhere you look and every tourist shop is stuffed with cat souvenirs. At one point we even found the ‘kitty projects’ where cats were hanging out in little cat houses and there were food and water bowls everywhere. Even though they are strays, most seemed clean and well cared for.

We ducked into a couple of churches which – even though we are ‘churched out’- were interesting because they are Orthodox and have a noticeably different style than all the Roman Catholic churches we saw in Italy.

Kotor still has some sections of its old medieval wall although the whole thing is not intact and walkable like Dubrovnik. Still, we were able to walk up to one of the corners and walk along the north side for a bit. Of course, there’s a restaurant on top. The views from the wall were nice, and made us realize how high up the mountain side of the wall goes.

Then it felt like we had seen the whole town so we decided to go to the Kotor Cats Museum. It was €1 person and totally worth it. The man at the desk handed us two large laminated sheets that gave a one sentence description of every item in the museum. Though only two tiny rooms, they’ve done an amazing job collecting lots of different old things with cats on them. For example: postcards, stamps, books, celebrity photos, coins, propaganda cartoons, calendars, etc. Humans have been drawing cats onto things for a while.

After slipping down a very slippery stone street in my flip flops and seeing my life flash before my eyes, we decided it was time to get some wine. I’d read a blog that had recommended a good wine tasting in town, the Old Winery Wine Bar, so we headed there. A younger guy told us the wine tasting wasn’t until later, which seemed ridiculous (if anything, wine tasting is a day time activity!) but we said ok and decided to come back later.

We walked down the boardwalk to the ‘beach’. We found a spot to sit along a cement wall and took turns jumping in. The water was a bit dirty and the rocks were sharp. But it was cold and the scenery of the surrounding mountain and old city are absolutely stunning. We sat on our wall and read for a bit until it seemed like maybe it was finally wine time.

When we returned to the shop we discovered an older man (the owner?) had replaced the younger punk, presumably it was now ok to taste some wine. Of course the restaurant got a little busy then but the manager guy made time for us. He brought out 5 different style wine glasses- one for each of the different wines we would try.

Before pouring any, he gave us a sermon about wine in Montenegro. It was long-winded, but very interesting. His thesis was that Montenegro’s wine industry is still struggling because the country got out of the communism game just a little later than Croatia. For too long Montenegro held on to their government-run, large, industrial winery in a desert region while the coastal, grape-growing land previously owned by wine-making families changed hands and went up in value. He said that whereas Croatia has about 500 family wineries, Montenegro now has only about 50.

Whether our brains really wanted to support this fledgling industry regain its foothold in European markets or if we were just really thirsting for some wine, we found the wines to be spectacular. We were also very proud of ourselves for putting into practice all of our wine-tasting etiquette that we had learned throughout the trip. We swirled our glasses, looking for legs, and asked each other, “what notes do you smell?” We ended up getting some bottles to go and got a little discount on them.

Saturday, August 13

Carl picked up the rental car at 9am. I decided to stay in the apartment while he went to get it and I’m glad I didn’t go because it sounded very disorganized. The rental car was the cheapest we could find because the company does not have a physical building. Instead, a guy met Carl in a gas station parking lot. When Carl described it, it sounded like it was a borderline drug deal interaction of “hey, you want a car?” to which Carl said, “…yea?” Again, glad I missed this.

With the car we had freedom to go anywhere in Montenegro. We decided to check out the closest spot, Perast, another old city on the bay. The town is only a 20 minute drive from Kotor but we quickly realized that parking was going to be the limiting factor. We drove all the way through the town and passed it, before turning around to find a spot alongside the road.

Despite having to park so far away, the city didn’t seem that crowded. Perast is somehow even smaller than Kotor so in a short time we realized we had already walked all the cobblestone streets. So, in accordance with our developed medieval city standard itinerary, it was time to start seeing some church things. We passed on the €3 church museum but did spring for the €1 bell tower.

The bell tower is infested with pigeons (like the attic of our Airbnb) so it was a little gross. It also seemed likely to crumble and fall down at any second. So we walked gingerly. Luckily, there weren’t too many other people to have to pass. At each ‘level’ we had to crouch down to not hit our heads before going up the next set of stairs. But at the top, the view was worth every euro penny.

Despite the weather forecasting some rain, the skies were bright and sunny. Any clouds only made the scene more beautiful.

Then it seemed the only thing to do was take a boat out to one of the islands. There are two islands off of Perast: Saint George island which is a tomb and people are not allowed to set foot on, and the artificially made island, Our Lady of the Rocks, which is basically just a church.

The artificial island was supposedly made by locals who dropped lots of rocks and large debris (like old ships) in the same spot for a very long time to create the island. Apparently every year there is a festival and locals go out to the island and drop a rock or two, just to be sure.

We got a €10 taxi boat out to the church island and, like suckers, paid another €3 to go into the church and museum. The church was actually kinda cool and had some modern looking art in it. The museum part was awesomely kitschy-lots of little rooms with random old things in them. One room had old keys, guns, pottery, and blacksmith tools. Basically if you’ve ever seen an object and thought ‘that seems from the olden times’ they would have had it and 5 other types of it in these rooms.

We took pictures and then our taxi boat picked us up and took us back to the mainland.

We didn’t really know what else to do with ourselves, so we went in search of a lunch spot. We landed at Konoba Skolji. We ordered seafood pasta, pear and gorgonzola salad, and a traditional Dalmatian side dish of potatoes and chard. The potatoes and chard were incredibly bland and disappointing but the pasta was really nice.

Afterward we walked along the boardwalk and found a cafe to get a coffee. We went to one place that seemed like it was in a really old building that had recently been redone. The stone barrel vaulted ceilings were lit by recessed lights hidden behind the table booths. We got some coffees and contemplated next steps.

The forecast still predicted rain so we decided to drive around the rest of Kotor Bay to see it and to have a rain-friendly activity. Kotor bay is the weirdest shape -like an hourglass added to the landward side of a normal bay. The drive was right along the water the whole time, and it was nice. We made it back to the ferry and decided to take it across and then go a slightly different way to Kotor than our bus had.

When we got off the ferry we turned left. All of a sudden the road was much narrower. We questioned whether it was supposed to be a one way road. But no, cars were going both ways. So we eeked along, still driving along the water and through very old little towns, occasionally holding our breath while trying to pass a car by creeping to the side, or backing up again.

By the time we got back to our apartment, we’d had enough adventure. For dinner, Carl made us a yummy dinner of gnocchi and salad with Camembert and peaches!

Sunday, August 14

The weather forecast for the next 3 days predicted: 1) rain and thunderstorms, 2) sunny, 3) rain in the morning. So we decided to save hiking and beaching for non stormy days and risk our luck with a visit to the nearest lake for the stormy day. When we left the sky was partly cloudy and it didn’t seem like the weather would be bad at all.

Our first stop was Lipa Cave. This is currently the only cave in Montenegro that is open for tourists to go into. We got there a few minutes too late for the 11:30am tour so we waited for the 1:00pm tour. The parking lot is on top of a ridge that overlooks a beautiful valley. There is also a sweet little cafe. We ordered two coffee drinks and I got a little crazy and got a ‘Mexican coffee’ that had chocolate and some kind of sweet liquor in it. When the waiter brought out a huge parfait glass with whipped cream piled high, I knew I’d made the right decision.

When it was time we rode a little ‘train’ (tractor with attached cars) down the hill to the cave entrance. We got off and went to stand in front of the cave entrance. Immediately we could feel freezing cold air drafting out of the cave. They should get a big pipe and funnel that air down the hill to the cities that need it. Grateful for bringing a sweater for once, we bundled up as best we could and walked in. There was a huge group of us, yet our guide did a good job keeping us together and explaining things clearly.

It was a small cave and not the most magnificent that we’ve seen, but it was still cool. The cave ring formation was new to us. This is when water drips off a stalactite into a pond below and the drop creates a splash of drops around it, creating little circular dams of calcium.

After the tour we got back in the car and continued on our journey. We headed toward Skadar Lake with a planned stop at a scenic overlook on the way. The overlook spot is on a cliff and we had to take some sketchy switch backs to get to it. The road was barely wide enough for us, and we held our breath turning every corner in case we confronted another car and had to squeak by.

We finally made it, and the view was breathtaking. We ate our packed sandwiches while looking over the lake and the surrounding mountains.

Then we drove down to the lake, toward Virpazar, the most popular town along the lake. Immediately when we pulled into town a man stopped us and asked if we wanted to go on a boat ride. We said yes and followed his instructions to park in the free parking area.

Then we met a man in a cafe and he gave us a rundown. I’d read about boat tours of the lake that will take you far into the fingers but it was already late in the day so we agreed to the tourist version of the hour out on the water and went with it.

We followed a young guy to his boat- it was a small, shallow hull with a wooden deck and a canvas canopy. We motored slowly out of the marina and then up a narrow bend before getting into the open lake. The guy explained some things about the lake, like that carp is the tastiest fish caught there and that there is a special pelican that lives there that we probably wouldn’t see. He pointed out some ruins on land that used to be an island before they built a highway through it.

There were tons of birds and lake plants and it was beautiful seeing the big, dark mountains looming just past the lake’s edge. Our driver took us to a ‘beach’ in case we wanted to swim. It was late in the day, not that hot anymore, the water looked full of algae, and we didn’t have swimsuits. So we passed. There was also a restaurant on this tiny lake beach so we got a couple beers and sat on the beach chairs to enjoy the quiet. Then we motored back to the shore, to the mainland.

We decided to go back to the apartment and have some leftovers for dinner to prepare ourselves for the next day’s adventure.

Monday, August 15

We woke up at the same time as the pigeons, had some coffee, and walked over to the old town. Taking advantage of the clear weather, we decided to make Monday our hike to vistas day.

The first hike started in the ‘back’ of the city, on the mountainside. If you go through the gate before 8am you can avoid the €8 fee to walk up the wall to the Kotor Fortress. We made it through at 7:40am. The path switchbacks, back and forth, with stone steps and a gravelly ramp. Immediately we got cool views of the old town below us.

We trekked to the top, grateful that hiking at that early hour also meant cooler temperatures and fewer people. At the top we explored the old fort a little bit but didn’t spend long because it seemed like it might crumble away beneath us and that some people had used it as a bathroom. We took some panoramic shots at the top and then hiked down, politely smiling at all the suckers who had woken up too late and paid to do the same hike.

We walked back to our apartment and Carl made us a hearty eggy breakfast. Then it was off to the next adventure! We left the apartment at 10:30 and were proud of ourselves for having already done a hike by the time we’d normally be leaving for our first activity of the day. We took the windy road up and out of Kotor toward Lovcen National Park.

Our Airbnb host had told us about a cafe with a great view and a family run restaurant near the park. So we stopped at the cafe to admire the view. They only had packaged bottles of chilled coffee but we decided to get a couple to pay rent for a table with a great view. The coffees were bad, but the view was probably the best view of the city.

Then we drove further up the mountain to the restaurant recommended to us, Kod Pera na Bukovicu. We were told to get ‘ham and cheese’ which means prosciutto and cheese. The cheese from this town, Njeguski, is well known in Montenegro. We were also told about Medovina: honey wine.

We walked into the tiny room where a man seemed to be taking orders and asked if he was serving lunch yet. He said ‘only ham and cheese now’ so we said, ‘perfect! We want just that’. We also asked for the honey wine. He seemed a little surprised so we added, ‘just to try!’ He smiled and motioned for us to sit outside.

He brought us a platter with two types of prosciutto, cheese, olives, bread, and two small glasses of honey wine. The prosciutto was really, really good. The cheese was weird. It didn’t have a lot of taste and the texture was very light like solidified foam, or like a damp sponge. The bread also had a weird texture. The honey wine was delicious but there were literally 10 bees swarming around me that got even more excited when I lifted the cup to my lips. So it made for a challenging meal.

As we ate, a tour bus arrived, answering my question of how this tiny place could stay in business. As they sat down to eat the same things as us we noticed there weren’t as many bees buzzing around them, and they continued to swarm us. So it was totally personal. We finished and left, mildly disappointed.

But, the next activity exceeded our expectations so it all works out in the end. We wanted to see THE Lovcen mountain so we drove up and up and found ourselves at the pay booth to enter the area for the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos. We hesitated, but figured the views would be worth it, so we paid and drove up.

The views were worth it and the mausoleum itself was actually a really amazing building (of course we had to pay another fee to go in). We started up the stairs into a huge domed tunnel that led us all the way up the hill. At the top of the mountain, the tunnel opened up and we had 360 degree views. It felt like we could see all of Montenegro from up there.

Then we entered into a courtyard and walked toward two columns that were statues of carved women, something surprisingly rare in the architecture we’d seen around the world. Past the columns was a room with a nice, modern statue of Petar II. In the basement lies his creepy crypt. Carl started Gregorian chanting random Italian words that sounded really cool in the hollow space but people were shushing each other too so I elbowed him to stop lest people think he is part of the show.

Walking out of this building leads to another path on the other side to a round terrace on the mountain peak. There were incredible views in every single direction. It was a magnificent monument to a man who we didn’t even know he who was. We googled him later and Wikipedia taught us that Petar II was an influential prince, writer, and philosopher who helped shaped ideological views for Montenegro. It would’ve been nice to learn something about Petar II there, but we were happy enough to see the impressive monument and views.

It was only 2pm and we had accomplished so much. Feeling hot, we decided it was beach time. We drove down the mountain and then northwest to a beach called Plavi Horizonti which is actually on the ocean coast and -has sand!

At the beach we found a nice spot (in the sand!) and laid out our towels. We had missed soft sand beaches after a month of going to rocky beaches in Italy and Croatia. But then the sand got everywhere, as it does, and as we re-applied sunscreen to sandy areas we realized why Europeans like the rocky beaches. The water also wasn’t as clear, but it was calm and actually a little warmer and less salty than the bay had been. We read for a couple hours, taking breaks to cool off in the water, and then headed back to town.

I had read about a restaurant on Kotor Bay called Restaurant Galion that was a bit fancy but enabled great views of the mountains, bay, and the city wall creeping up the cliffs. We were able to get a table easily, inside, which meant it would be harder to see the city walls light up at night but that we’d have AC and Carl wouldn’t be chewed alive by mozzies- so we took that as a win.

We had lower expectations for the food because we hadn’t been that impressed by food in Montenegro. We got an appetizer and two mains and a bottle of wine. The waiter was overly nice (I miss that sacarine American hospitality) and he recommended we get a bottle of wine from Serbia, slightly pricier but better. We said what the heck and got it. And it was a good choice. It was a red blend that smelled like damp, dark soil. It was dry but still smooth. We loved it. We are still learning wine and we don’t know how we would’ve picked this one out on our own, so props to the waiter.

Before the appetizer they served bread with sides of dill sauce and olive oil. The bread was the same style as what we’d had earlier on the mountain so we were skeptical, but this loaf was much better. And the oil and dill sauce were great. Our expectations were being topped when they brought the appetizer- gravlax with beetroot chutney and dill sauce- and then we were speechless. Carl literally looked like he had a stroke, he stared at the plate, expressionless, like his brain couldn’t compute how good it was.

For mains we got a steak and a shrimp risotto that were pretty good (not as good as the app tho). Our waiter was very intent that he be the one to pour the water and wine for us, which helped to stretch our meal time a little longer. We savored and enjoyed. Best meal of Montenegro.

Tuesday, August 16

We woke up to the sounds of rain and thunder. It was nice to have a lazy morning. We watched some poor souls play soccer in the rain as we sipped our coffees on the balcony. The forecast expected the rain to stop by about noon so we got ourselves together and set out for the old town of Budva. We figured we could walk around the old town while the sky still threatened and then go to one of the beaches nearby once it cleared up in the afternoon.

To get to Budva proved harder. There was a huge traffic jam almost all the way from Budva, up along the coast. Google told us to go up the mountains and around, but as we did that we ran into other cars turning around and finally a taxi man told us ‘no, not possible’. So we turned back around and joined the masses. It seemed everyone else also thought that no one would be going toward the beach on a rainy day.

Impressively, Carl spotted a parking spot next to a restaurant parking lot, way up on the hill overlooking the town. He grabbed it and we later realized it was likely the last spot for a while. We followed a ramshackle path between apartment complexes, down the hill, to the old town, which sits right on the beach.

We walked around the old town and paid to go into the Citadela Fortress. The ticket advertised views, a library, museum, and a chapel. The views were nice, the library was real, but the museum was literally just a room with 8 figures of wooden ships in it. One woman asked us where the museum was (we said we didn’t know) and later found us to say ‘that room is it. Not what I expected!’ Indeed.

The town was teeny and full of tourist shops so we got tired of it quickly. We took a break at a pub and ordered some beers, a burger, and a sausage. Everything was good and cemented our idea that burgers are one of the best things to order in Croatia and Montenegro.

With the skies a brilliant blue, we figured it was a good time to beach. We found an entrance to the beach through an old door in the city walls and stepped out to find the area with chairs and umbrellas to be surprisingly empty. We rented two chairs a couple rows back from the water.

We went to jump into the water and immediately realized why all the other rocky beaches had been considered so nice. The walk into the water was treacherous. Smaller pebbles turned into much bigger rocks that were small enough to be picked up and tossed by the strong waves but large enough to hurt when they hit you. Then the big rocks that didn’t move were covered in algae and it was impossible to find safe footing.

I normally like to wade into water slower than a grandma who doesn’t want to get her hair wet, but that wasn’t possible here. Carl ran past and dove in, swam out and back just in time to come back to the shore and see me with both feet and both hands in the water, doing an involuntary bear walk to keep from falling over. So I had to dive in, and I dove right into a mucky spot, with sticks and a mask floating around.

Once I swam out further though, the views were amazing. I could lay on my back in the ocean and see the old, medieval city walls glowing in the sunlight and the dark, shadowy mountains looming in the distance. It was so pretty that I really wanted to take a picture but bringing a phone out there would’ve meant certain destruction.

Back on land I realized it was my mom’s birthday so I ordered an Aperol spritz to toast her from many miles away. I hoped her day would be as good as mine was going.

After 6 the sun snuck behind the nearest large mountain and it all of a sudden didn’t make sense to be on the beach anymore. So we packed up, drove home, and feasted on homemade charcuterie boards. The next day we’d leave Montenegro to go to Greece.

Monday, August 8

We took a ferry from Hvar to Dubrovnik. We didn’t get a window seat when we first boarded but managed to snag one after the first stop. Still, the windows were nasty so the views weren’t great, but it was nice to look out onto the water.

We were able to get an Uber from the ferry terminal to our apartment easy enough and the host was there waiting for us. It was one of the nicer apartments we’ve stayed at for a while. We had a full-size fridge with a freezer (and ice cube tray!), a strong AC, a TV with Netflix, and even a washer. There was also a patio that looked out onto the old walled city but it was hotter than the devil’s armpit so we just used it as a space to dry our laundry.

We unpacked and rested for just a little bit and then set off to explore the old walled city. We walked in through the east gate, over a wooden draw bridge, and it really felt like we were on a movie set more than in a real place. We meandered through the city, took a peek at the harbor where kids were swimming and playing, and wandered to every corner of the tiny city.

We recognized a set of stairs as the spot where the character Cersei walked on an episode of Game of Thrones and, of course, there was a bar selling Cersei-themed cocktails next to it. So I got a ‘Cersei’s shame’ which was like a Hugo Spritz with real slices of apricot in it. We sat on the steps and people watched. It was fun to overhear every other person yelling “shame! shame!” as they walked by (fans will understand).

After some more wandering we realized it was almost 6pm and a popular restaurant, Lady Pi Pi, which doesn’t take reservations, was soon to open. So we hiked up the (slippery!) stone steps and got to the restaurant 3 minutes before 6pm. It looked like they had JUST opened but they had already sat people at most of the tables. We waited around for about 20 minutes and then they miraculously sat us and a group of three girls. Everyone else was told they’d have to wait for about an hour for the first round of people to finish.

The sky darkened and threatened rain, which would’ve meant the end of our meal in the restaurant because the only roof was a wooden terrace with grape vines. Somehow it didn’t rain and we enjoyed one of the best, if not the best, meals in Croatia.

We got the seafood platter for two and a bottle of white table wine. We watched as they carried huge trays of meat and seafood from the kitchen below ground to an outdoor wood-fired grill. We could smell all the things cooking and it was marvelous.

Finally they served us the platter: it had tuna, squid, prawns, and some kind of white fish. The tuna was some of the best tuna steak I’ve ever had in my life (shout out to my dad for cooking it’s only rival). We enjoyed the food and the ambience but we didn’t dally so that another table could sit and enjoy too.

We hiked over to the grocery store to get breakfast supplies before hiking back up the hill to our apartment to watch Netflix on the luxuriously big couch with the AC cranked all the way.

Tuesday, August 9

Conveniently, our tour meet up spot was the same gate we’d entered through the day before during our amateur exploring and was the gate nearest to our apartment. I tricked Carl into going on a Game of Thrones tour of Dubrovnik with the promise that it would include ‘normal’ city history too. It ended up that half of the tour participants hadn’t even seen the show!

Right off the bat we could tell it was going to be a good tour. Our guide, Jelena, did an amazing job describing historical events, Game of Thrones filming locations, and giving insights on modern-day life in Dubrovnik. Though Dubrovnik still looks entirely like a medieval city, it’s been rebuilt several times due to catastrophic events like an earthquake in 1667 and the war in the 90s.

She led us through the city, stopping at all the major and minor GOT filming locations. She also took us to a souvenir shop with yet another iron throne for a photo opp. We had one pit stop for iced coffees on the shame stairs, of course.

We exited the city through the west gate entrance and then went up to Lovrjenac fort for views of the city from above. Jelena pointed out the terrace where the scene of the purple wedding took place, telling us how she and some residents want there to be a plaque there to commemorate Joffrey’s death.

Then the tour was over so we said goodbye to Jelena and set off to do a little more exploring on our own.

Our first stop was lunch. We went to a place called Bura which we had read had good cocktails and tapas style food. We got chicken liver mousse with a side of some kind of fruit (could’ve been really squishy apricot or maybe persimmon?) and crostinis. We also got toasts with fried sardines and greens on them.

The best dish by far was the Gnudi, which were like spherical raviolis. They were filled with ricotta and covered in a sweet butternut squash sauce. The cocktails were also pretty nice. I got a Pink Rosemary Fizz that had grapefruit juice in it and Carl got the Raspberry and Rosemary Collins.

Then it was time for more tourism. We had bought the Dubrovnik pass for 250 kuna each (about $35) because it was the same cost as walking the wall, which is a ‘must do’ of Dubrovnik. The pass included entrance to a bunch of other museums but none of them strongly appealed to us. But Jelena had recommended going to the Rector’s Palace – essentially the mayor’s house turned museum- so we started there.

The building itself is very beautiful with Venetian architecture and ornately decorated ceilings and walls. The ground floor included old prison cells that were fun to explore. The top floors house all kinds of different artworks including paintings, sculptures, and -most interesting to me- furniture.

Before we left we strolled through a gallery of black and white photographs that had been taken in December 1991 when Dubrovnik was attacked during their war for independence. It was very sad to see photos of the old town, UNESCO-designated heritage site being bombed. The residents tried to maintain positivity by painting the wooden panels that had been placed in windows to protect historic buildings.

After the museum we were feeling the mid-afternoon slump. So we headed to a bar that Jelena had shown us. There are two bars along the southern side of the city that you have to go through the city wall to get to. Buza means ‘hole’ in Croatian so both of these secretive feeling bars have the word Buza in their name. We found the unmarked entrance and went through the wall, popping out onto the other side onto a rocky cliff perched above the sea. It was still early afternoon so it wasn’t too busy and we were able to get a table.

The Buza bar we went to is actually right above the public ‘beach’ (rocky bluff with cement platforms and metal ladders). So we jealously watched people swim as we admired views of the ocean and sipped our overpriced light Croatian beers.

Then it was time for the main event- to walk the wall. People had advised that we walk it before 10am or after 5pm to avoid the intense heat because there is no shade on the wall. But because it was the first overcast day we had seen in weeks, it felt ok to go a little earlier than 5pm and also try to beat the crowds who had been given the same advice.

The wall encircles the entire old city and offers amazing views of the city and sea from above. The pass only allows entrance one time, and it is required to walk counterclockwise around which is said to take about 2 hours. Even without the sun shining bright, the views were amazing.

We took our sweet time and took a million and one photos from every angle. At one spot we could go around the Minceta fortress, where another GOT scene was filmed, the one where Daenerys is stuck in the house of the undying.

Towards the end of the walk, rays of light were streaming through the dark clouds giving the whole scene a very heavenly vibe. At the end of the walk we spotted a water polo game being played in the sea below the wall. So, we were sad to have to leave the wall but we decided to do one more fun activity and go watch a little of the game.

We had to walk around the boardwalk and pier to get to the outer area of the little port where the water polo court was floating. There were a TON of fans. A bunch of little kids had painted their faces and bodies with red and blue body paint and they were holding handmade signs.

It seemed we were there at half time so we had to wait for the action to start. When it started up again a bunch of fans opened their colored gas canisters. It was cool to see, and pretty, until everyone in the stands started coughing. All the kids that had lined up in front of us started screaming and crying and running away-through our legs and up and over the rocks and cement walls to just get away. It felt like we were in the middle of a battle which was even more surreal since we were hanging out on a bluff at the base of a real medieval wall.

The smoke was awful but it cleared out enough fans that we were able to get a good viewing spot. It was so fun to watch the game! I can’t imagine how the guys could play with waves smacking them in the head and saltwater stinging their eyes. Finally it seemed like it was over, though we couldn’t really tell who had one. So we left, and walked back up the hill to our apartment.

For dinner I made fancy grilled cheese and was actually pretty impressed with my ability to melt the cheese well despite only having olive oil and an electric stove.

Wednesday, August 10

Without any set plans for the day, we let ourselves sleep in and have a lazy morning. We decided to pack some sandwiches and head to the island of Lokrum. We didn’t really know what to expect on the island except Jelena had told us it was worth seeing and that it has cooler temperatures than the mainland. Also, lots of peacocks and some more GOT filming locations.

We got the ferry for 200 kuna each, which includes the island entrance fee. It was only about a 10 minute ride over.

Once we got to the island we hiked first to the Monastery complex in which sits the visitor center. We read all about the island, it’s history, and the different sites to see on it, and watched a couple of videos of GOT cast members saying how much they love Croatia.

There are about 15 ‘sites’ on the island and we unknowingly set out on a scavenger hunt to see them all (including big water reservoir and little water reservoir which looked very similar in size). Before leaving the visitor center we got one final picture on an iron throne- the real one used in the show and donated by HBO to sit at Lokrum island. It was by far the best throne so far, but the first time I didn’t dress up for it, haha. Let this be a lesson for future fans.

We walked through some gardens before going down to the ‘dead sea’ which has reconnected to the ocean underground anyways so it was more like a really salty lake. Then we went to ‘the rocks’. It really was just rocks on the sea side but it seemed that some people had dug holes to collect salt from the drying seawater between tidal periods.

We watched as people jumped into the ocean and then decided we couldn’t resist. So we changed into our swimsuits and jumped in. The waves weren’t bad until the moment where I was trying to get out via the one metal ladder and then they knocked me into it before I could hoist myself up. But it was fine. The water was so nice and cold that our mood was improved immediately.

There were also fresh water showers, a nice treat, so we used those before finding a shady place in one of the nearby gardens to air dry and eat our sandwiches. The peacocks were all hanging out in this garden because, we immediately realized, people were feeding them. As we munched, the peacocks got closer and closer, eyeing our sandwiches. We watched as one guy had to aggressively shoo them away. Probably the prettiest animal to ever be shooed.

Our next item on the list was the Path of Paradise. This path leads up the island to a fort on top. The views were indeed divine, but it was hot as hell. We took our time walking slowly up and then enjoyed the small respite of the shade inside the fort, despite the lack of breeze.

Then we walked down the other side to an area where there had been a famous shipwreck. Now it was a swimming spot. We found a little rocky area to put our stuff and jumped into the water. The water was sooo cold it was shocking. The sun moved behind the clouds and I actually felt cold for once.

We sat out on the rocks and read for a couple hours, enjoying the breeze and the views of Dubrovnik from afar. Then I got hungry so it was time to go. We hiked back over to the ferry port and didn’t have to wait long for the next ferry to arrive. There were even more peacocks here, and a mama and a baby peacock decided to come sit right next to us as we waited.

Back on the mainland we hit up the grocery store again and for dinner Carl made us some really delicious burgers, also with no condiments- just olive oil!

Thursday, August 11

To get from Croatia to Montenegro we decided to take a bus because it was the cheapest, fastest option. Our check out wasn’t until 11am but the bus wasn’t until 3pm so we needed to spend some time somewhere.

We decided to take an Uber to the bus station area and find places to eat, drink, and loiter around there. Conveniently, Dubrovnik Beer Company was right across the street! We got a sampler flight and then a couple pale ales. The beer was really good!

Unfortunately they didn’t have food yet so we migrated to a pizzeria. We got a simple cheese with oregano pizza (they called it Margarita, but ok) and a ‘salad’ that was a ball of mozzarella with tomatoes on top. We got some snacks from a little grocery store and then waited to get on the bus.

The bus left on time but we had to cross the border which also meant leaving the E.U. The line to get out of Croatia was long but when we made it through we saw the line to leave Montenegro was even longer. All in all we were there for a little over an hour.

Bok Croatia and Zdravo Montenegro!

Friday, August 5

Our ferry docked in Hvar on time and the hike up to the apartment wasn’t too bad so we were at the place by about 4:30pm. Feeling a little hungry, we set out to explore the town a bit and find a snack. We walked back down the hill to the main city square. The city square sits in a valley between two hills- one hill was where we were staying, the other had an old fortress and wall.

Hvar town is teeny, so there wasn’t too much exploring to do but we liked looking through the narrow, cobblestone alleys. We found a place with cheap pizza slices and then wandered up the hill to the Spanish Fortress.

The path up switched back several times and it ended up being further than we thought it would be. But the area was planted as a Mediterranean garden and was teeming with cicadas so it felt like a real nature hike.

The sunlight was getting weaker and an ocean breeze was picking up, so it wasn’t unbearably hot. Near the top we explored a little temple before looking out at the view of the city. We opted to not go into the fortress itself because it seemed overpriced for what it offered (and we’ve seen similar things recently).

So we hiked back down, to the grocery store, and then back up the hill to our apartment. There was an older Swedish couple staying in the apartment next to ours, with which we shared a kitchen. As we prepared dinner (it took forever to boil water on the electric stove) we chatted with them about Sweden, California, and motorcycles because the guy, Christian, has a dream of riding a motorcycle along Highway 1 someday.

Carl made us a delicious pasta with red pesto and Croatian prosciutto. We ate and drank some Croatian wine, Plavac Mili, while talking to the Swedes. Christian told us we should rent a scooter or motorcycle the next day and he recommended getting one with a bigger engine to manage the steep hills. The WiFi was awful but we somehow managed to watch a show on our IPad before passing out.

Saturday, August 6

We set out to get a scooter to explore other parts of the island. Down in the main square there are several rental kiosks that rent out everything from scooters to motorcycles and boats – even VW bugs! We had to stand in line for a bit but were surprised when they said they still had bikes to rent.

The staff person was about to give us a 125cc bike but then, at the last second, asked if Carl had a motorcycle license. Carl tried to act like everything was all good without straight up lying, but the guy didn’t accept it. So he gave us a 50cc scooter. We asked if it would make it up the hills with both of us on it and he waved his hand in dismissal saying ‘or course, you’ll be fine”.

To get out of Hvar town meant going up a hill to the ridge so we figured we could test out the hills and return back down if needed. We charted a course toward Brusje, which is famous for its fields of lavender.

There was no one else on the road and it was absolutely gorgeous as we wound up to the hill crest and then popped over to see the Adriatic Sea from the other side of the island, welcomed by a cool ocean breeze. The hills weren’t too steep after all, and since no one else was on the road, it didn’t matter that we puttered slowly up. We even passed a girl on an electric standing scooter – like the ones you rent in cities- and even she seemed nonplussed to be slowly creeping up the 6 percent grade.

As we neared Brusje we could smell the lavender, although we didn’t see fields of it. Probably the wrong season. Along the road were stands selling lavender products. We stopped and got a few small items, to support the locals.

Then it was downhill again to Stari Grad, one of the bigger towns on the island. Right in the center of town was the motorcycle and scooter parking. We parked and walked along the boardwalk a bit before returning to the parking lot to find a restaurant.

We had thought the motorcycle parking was capped at 15 minutes, which seemed weird, so we wanted to keep an eye on the bike to not get a ticket. Then, after we had sat down, the waiter said the sign referred to cars on the other side of the rope. This mix-up was serendipitous though because it caused us to choose the restaurant more inland, instead of a touristy overpriced one on the harbor.

I ordered a glass of lavender champagne and my eyes rolled back into my head because it was so good. One of the top 10 best drinks I’ve ever had. Carl ordered the fish soup, a Hvar specialty, and we were surprised how buttery, and not fishy it was. We also got meatloaf balls (i.e., meatballs) and rigatoni pasta with gorgonzola and mushrooms. It was a lot of filling food, but it was tasty.

We got back on the scooter and took the main road – which had all the cars and other scooters- back to the south side of the island to go to a beach. Every time we passed a fellow scooter, the riders would wave enthusiastically as if we knew them. It was so cute! We were all puttering around, praying to make it up hill, but at least we had each other.

We got to the stretch of road where you turn to go down a gravel road to the beach, called Dubovica. The road down looked treacherous and we saw a bunch of cars and bikes parked at the top so we did the same and walked down. The path led through an olive tree grove before we suddenly emerged onto the little beach.

Dubovica is a small beach that is sheltered by a mountain jutting out on one side. There is also an iconic little stone house on the other side that people have in all their photos. We couldn’t figure out whether anyone lived there or if it’s a hotel. The only other building down there is used as a bar and restaurant and the family that owns it must be making a killing.

We didn’t bother to find shade this time and just set our towels close to the water. We both jumped in and kept an eye on our bags as we swam out to the buoys. The swimming area was sheltered and big enough that it was possible to do laps. I used goggles that we’d found in the Philippines and did a few laps, dodging children and drunk guys on inner tubes.

The water was so cold that we’d actually get a chill and then need to sit in the hot sun again to warm up. But then the sun was so hot, we’d have to go back in and dunk our bodies in the cold water. It was a repetitive ritual. By about 5pm it felt time to go, so we packed up and trekked back up the hill.

We saw another couple struggling to get their scooter up and over the ridge back to the main road. They made it but then later we saw them walking their bike up the hill. They said it had just puttered out on them while they were going up. They were going to try to use the momentum of the next downhill to get it going again. They seemed confident in finding a solution, so we wished them luck and rode away, hoping they could make it back to town ok.

Once we were back in town we got a few more snacks from the grocery and then hiked back up to our apartment. We had a nice snack-dinner of crostinis with cheese and honey (from the lavender stand). We continued to nibble on the prosciutto and popped open a bottle of Debit, a Croatian white wine so named because the French once accepted barrels of it as debit toward taxes.

We looked out over the sea as the sun set and the sky turned pretty colors of pink and purple. Then the yellow moon came out and it was so bright despite being a half moon.

Sunday, August 7

We walked down to the pier about 930am to meet our tour, a sailboat that would take us to the islands off of Hvar for some swimming. While we waited at the tour agency office we grabbed some nitro cold brew lattes from the cafe next door and got a jolt because we haven’t had that much caffeine in a while.

Finally they lead us down the boardwalk onto the boat. There were three other couples on the tour with us: one from France, one from Sweden, and one from Australia. The French guy didn’t speak much English but every one else was politely chatty as we pushed off and motored out into the bay.

The captain explained that the first two weeks of August are known for having little wind (lucky us) so instead of sailing very far the plan would be to motor out to some secluded beaches for swimming. We didn’t go very far at all but we did pass between two islands and anchored on the other side of a tiny island on a beach that had nothing on it except rocks and a little cabana made from sticks.

We jumped in and swam around, grateful for the opportunity to cool off. The captain pulled out a bag of snorkels and masks for us to use, but there was barely anything to look at. We found some sea cucumbers and some red coral and a bunch of fish with a little black spot at their tail. Nothing else.

I got cold at one point and tried to hang out on the beach. Though there was no one else there, the beach was incredibly rocky and some rocks had slick algae on them -not ideal! So I forced myself back into the cold water to swim back to the boat and sit in the sun.

The captain served cookies and Carl found the bottles of wine that had been advertised for the tour. We think they had taken boxed wine and put it into glass bottles but it was still alright, and we meant to get our moneys worth. Carl turned into the bartender and was pouring everyone a cup.

Then we motored over to a different area where there were several restaurants. Our captain told us we would need reservations for the small family place he was taking us to. He implied it would be cheaper than it was. We all sat at a big table together. Despite the place being called Bacchus, none of us ordered wine. The Australians didn’t drink at all, explaining that they had just been to Ibiza and had drank so many mojitos that mint was triggering.

Carl and I got a meat and cheese platter to share. Everyone else ordered the oven baked lamb or octopus that came with veggies and potatoes cooked together. Their portions ended up being so big that they shared some with us. The lamb was predictably amazing but the octopus was so so surprisingly good. We had talked about giving up eating octopus because they are too smart and usually don’t taste very good. This dish made us doubt that decision.

Then we got back on the boat to go to one more swimming spot. This time there was some wind so the captain put up the sail and we cruised back over to the side of the island where we could see Hvar across the sea.

We stopped at an area to swim again. It was less sheltered than the first place and the waves were noticeably choppier. We saw a little bit of yellow coral, and not much else. The water was so salty that it was so easy to float. We all hung out in the water for a little bit before climbing back in the boat to dry in the sun and sip some cheap wine.

Then it was time to go back to Hvar. It felt like we’d only been out for a couple hours but it was already almost 5pm. We hiked back up to our apartment, showered off, and chilled in the AC and on the patio for the rest of the day. We ate Carl’s delicious pasta leftovers for dinner and watched a tv show we had downloaded when the WiFi had been working slightly better.

We wished we could’ve explored more of Hvar island and the surrounding islands but we had other places to visit too. Next stop: Dubrovnik.

Tuesday, August 2

Before leaving Venice we sat at a cafe for a couple hours to kill time before going to the airport. Of course the weather forecasted rain for the exact hour that we would be checking out and walking outside with our bags, but we got lucky and stayed dry. The shuttle to the airport was straight forward and then we had to hang out in the airport for a few hours before our flight.

We had purchased tickets on Volotea airlines which allow a 10kg checked bag and a personal carry-on item. Last time I weighed my bag it was about 14kg (full of souvenirs for my better-be-grateful family and friends), so I had some rearranging to do. We found an abandoned part of the airport that had luggage scales and we played around with weight distribution for a while- what fun!

At the moment of truth we were each exactly .1 kg over, but they let it slide. Because we were checking our bags I didn’t have anxiety about finding space in the plane’s overhead compartment so we were able to take our time boarding. It was the shortest flight ever and then we were in Croatia!

The airport shuttle drove along the beautiful bay to the old town of Split. We hiked through the old palace walls to our Airbnb. The host made us trek to another place to get the keys which was annoying but we got to see just how close our Airbnb was to the center of the old area with all the restaurants and bars. We trekked back, dropped our stuff off, and set out for food.

During our key pick up excursion we had seen (and smelled!) two good looking burger places next to each other, right on the old wall. We went back to that spot and were able to get a table outside, in a cobblestoned alley. The beers were fine but the burger was so good that my eyes teared up. It had raw red bell pepper and pickles and it was just beautiful. We also got wings which were great. We had been on a mostly pasta diet for the last month so the mostly meat meal was a nice treat.

We walked to the nearby grocery store to get some food for the next few days and then went back to the Airbnb and passed out. Even though our apartment was right over a noisy bar there were new, airtight windows that blocked out the sound. It was amazing.

Wednesday, August 3

We started the day with a walking tour. The guide, Rocko, was great. He started by explaining that the old town area of Split was built in 305 CE to be the emperor Diocletian’s retirement palace. After he died the inhabitants of the surrounding area moved in to use the protection of the stone walls.

They threw their trash and human waste into the basement, which ironically helped to preserve this area from the centuries of modifications which occurred above ground. The cellars are also famous as the set for where Daenerys held her dragons in the show, Game of Thrones.

Diocletian had not been nice to the Christians so, after his death, they ransacked his tomb and turned it into a church. We explored the old palace areas turned Christian, and meandered through the narrow city streets.

Rocko also told us a lot about modern day Croatian history and how modern Croatians live. He explained that there is no property tax and that most Croatians do not over work at their jobs but instead enjoy a better work life balance. He questioned whether things would remain this way going forward but encouraged us to embrace the laid back lifestyle during our vacation.

After the tour we went back to the main palace areas and bought tickets to see the main sights. We went up the bell tower to get views of the city, the Adriatic Sea, and the Kozjak and Mosor mountain ranges. It was gorgeous. Then we saw the cathedral, the crypt, the baptistery, and the treasury. The baptistery was converted from an old temple to Jupiter and on the facade there are still clues to the worship of Roman gods like the faces carved into one of the ledges.

The treasury had lots of Christian artwork, as the pagan statues had been destroyed. The most interesting parts were the many statues reported to contain relics (body parts) of the saints that they depicted.

Then it was time for lunch. Rocko had suggested walking north to an area full of Konobas. A konoba is essentially a tavern but represents the best place to find authentic Croatian food and drink. We found one called Deep Shade that had outdoor seating (with shade). We got black risotto (squid ink again!) and the gnocchi with marinated meat and truffle. Both dishes were on lists of must-eat Croatian food. They were both good, but a little salty for us. We washed them down with some tall Croatian beers.

We wandered back to our Airbnb and relaxed in the AC for a few minutes before setting out again. We grabbed our swimsuits and walked toward the beach. The beaches in Croatia are mostly rocky, some areas are big rocky ledges and some have rocky flat beach. We walked along the cliffs looking for the best spot to put ourselves. It felt so hot that we thought we had to find a spot in the shade, which there were few. But, as soon as we jumped into the really, really cold ocean we understood how everyone was able to sit in the direct sun.

We found a spot on Obojena beach and stretched out our beach sheet and towels. As soon as I felt crispy again I tip toed back into the water and instantly felt better. Despite the rocks and lack of shade, it was really nice. We spent a few hours here and then headed back to the city.

On our walk back into the palace we walked by burger corner again and decided to try the other burger place. The burger wasn’t as good as the night before but it came on a black bun which was fun. We also got fried sardines, another Croatian favorite. We ordered the two hoppiest craft beers on the menu and were pleasantly surprised. It had been so long since we’d had our IPA fix!

We went home and showered and relaxed until the evening. Then we snuck out to get a peek of Split nightlife. We got cocktails at the corner bar and pretended to not be really tired.

Then it was time for the Game of Thrones museum. Most of the show was filmed in Dubrovnik, but for some reason Split has the museum. We had low expectations but even these weren’t quite met. It was cool to see the original props and costumes but all of the description placards described the characters and plot, which we already know (and we found a couple inaccuracies!)

The best part were the photos that showed the Croatian location where scenes were filmed and then how CGI was added. Like scenes of Daenerys trekking to the city of Meereen which were filmed nearby Split with a CGI pyramid added to the background.

Afterward we went across the street to the gift shop and got our mandatory photo in the iron throne. It was good, cheesy fun especially because I’m still reading and enjoying the last book of the series.

Thursday, August 4

We met up with our tour group at about 8am to head out to Krka National Park to see the famous waterfalls. People used to swim at the falls but with crazy amounts of tourists the park had to restrict swimming. Even still, we couldn’t believe how many tourists had come just to walk around and see the park- it was packed.

We started with an hour long bus ride during which our guide, Rudy (Rudolph) gave a really good history of Croatia. We learned a little bit more than we had the day before and he kept the stories relatively upbeat. We got out at the park and, after a somewhat confusing ticket buying experience, were led onto a boat into the park.

The boat started in the cute town of Skradin which itself seemed worthy of visiting. We went upstream, into the park’s main waterway. The water was a light blue color, the hills were vibrant green, and there were many large swans milling about. It was like a scene from a fairytale.

We disembarked and met up with Rudy again so he could explain the plan. We would follow him for about 45 minutes to the other side of the river so we could see where the bus would be. Then we would have 2 hours free time to do the nature trail ourselves. Despite there being so so many tourists, Rudy encouraged us to not worry over the crowds and just try to enjoy the nature. He later told us that we had visited during the peak week of tourism for the area.

The worst part was walking over a bridge that looks at the main falls. We were in a human traffic jam as people tried to cross in one direction while a few people tried to cross the other direction and a bunch of people stood in the middle trying to take pictures. We breathed and made it through, aware we would have to walk the same spot again in order to do the nature walk loop.

When Rudy let us to ourselves we took our time walking over the boardwalk paths through the wetlands and streams. It was really pretty, but still a bit too hot at about 96 degrees F. We did the loop and had to cross the bridge of heaven and hell again (heaven= waterfall photos, hell= 1,000 pushing tourists). We did our best to take photos as if we were the only ones there.

After we had some time to look at the old water mill and the old kitchen and smithery. We got some ice creams that were like life savers in the heat. We saw some people in swim suits standing under waterfalls and considered joining them, but it seemed like they were still breaking the rules somehow.

Finally we met the bus again and had a beautiful ride to the town of Primošten. Here we were given another two hours to eat and swim in the sea. We opted for the wine tasting experience and ended up really enjoying it.

Rudy led the smaller group of us to his favorite restaurant, Galija, and we walked through it to the back garden. On the left side was a barn looking building that he led us into and we discovered a cellar-like tavern room. An old man appeared and Rudy told us he is the restaurant owner and wine maker.

While we waited for people from another tour group to arrive the owner cut us off small pieces of prosciutto from his own supply. Rudy pointed out the many legs of ham hanging from the ceiling rafters, and told us the current piece being carved was three years old. The owner fed us pieces of prosciutto one at a time and we nearly fell over because the meat was so good.

Then the other people arrived and the wine tasting started. Rudy and the other guide took turns explaining wine and Croatian wine history and culture. We learned so much. One of the things they told us was that the wine variety, Zinfandel, was actually from a Croatian grape that was brought to California. The original name for it, Crljenak Kaštelanski, was too difficult for the Americans to say or remember, so it was changed to Zinfandel and the association with Croatia was lost.

Both Rudy and the other guide told stories of how their parents and grandparents made wine at home and how this culture has changed and continues to change as Croatian wine becomes more popular.

The most popular wine of the tasting, Babić, was a red that grows on limestone soil. Rudy explained that the grapes get sun exposure from three sources: the sun, the sunlight reflecting from the white limestone, and the sunlight reflecting from the sea. With all this sunlight and little rain, the grapes end up very sugary and very alcoholic. They explained this wine often has to be watered down in order to still be considered wine.

They also served cheese and bread with olive oil. They taught us how to sample olive oil- sucking the oil of the bread through your teeth- and we went back for more and more samples. When the tasting was over we were full of bread and a little tipsy. We had about an hour left before we had to get back onto the bus so we went to the beach.

Another rocky beach, but the rocks were smooth and white so not too sharp or hot. We laid out our towels and took turns jumping in. Around us tons of families played in the water and there were people on SUPs all about. Back on the rocks, it didn’t feel so hot anymore. We could’ve stayed there for another day, but we had to get back on the bus. We must’ve looked salty and drunk because Rudy giggled when he welcomed us on board and said “ready for a nap?”

The journey back should’ve been short but we ran into some traffic because of the soccer game scheduled for that night. Rudy and the other tour guides had been visibly excited about the game all day.

Rudy explained that the Croatian soccer team, Hadjuk, has been around since 1911 and that they have an intense fan base. That night’s game would be the first European game since May. Rudy told us not to pay attention to the score and to just enjoy the excitement of the fans’ love. Croatia did end up wining 3-1 so I’m sure everyone, especially Rudy, was stoked.

While Croatians were enjoying fútbol, we went to a fancy restaurant. We found a place called Uje Oil Bar and got some oysters and a charcuterie platter. We got a bottle of Rosé too and felt pretty fancy.

Afterward we went to the main palace square to see live music. There’s a restaurant called Luxor that somehow owns the steps all around the square. We sat on cushions and ordered some (more!) wine. Prosecco for me and Babić for Carl. We drank and enjoyed the cover band’s music while watching families dance in the courtyard below the grand bell tower. It felt like a scene from a movie.

Friday, August 5

We had to check out at 10am but our Ferry to Hvar wasn’t until 3pm. So we went to a cafe that we saw that advertised breakfast. It ended up being ‘American’ style, and not the best. We got spicy eggs (poached eggs with veggies, potatoes, and spicy sauce) and avocado toast. We broke our rule of getting non-Croatian food in Croatia and we could taste the mistake. But, it was alright and we spent a few hours pretending we were having brunch back on the east coast again.

Then we went to the cafe below our Airbnb called Teak. The place is very cute- nestled right next to the old wall with old Roman stone walls and teak wooden floors. We got a couple of coffees and they let us sit there forever.

Finally it was ferry time. We made our way to the docks and, finding ourselves way early, got some overpriced cocktails at a restaurant on the pier. Then we got on the ferry and it pushed off at 3pm on the dot. Off to Hvar!