Yesterday, at 9:30, our plane touched down. After 12 long hours of flying and driving, we had made it.
Athens, Greece.
I’ve mentioned I’m going to be spending the next 3 weeks travelling through Greece, right? Briefly? Long story short: this June is my 18th birthday, my father’s 50th, and my graduation. My parents decided we should celebrate with a final family trip before I move for uni and we can’t organize trips like this. My dad spent a summer working on a boat in Greece when he was younger, so decisions were made and voila- here I am. As someone who’s always been obsessed with Greek history and myth, I was a-ok with the decisions made.
We touched down in Athens in the morning, and we had a ferry ticket from Piraeus’ port to Spetses in the afternoon. Therefore, we had some time to kill. So what did we do? In true Walsh fashion, we ate.
After a couple trip advisor searches, we jumped into a cab and headed to a restaurant praised by locals for their seafood.
O Giannis Fish Tavern was a fun first stop; saturated in the Greek Blue, it was everything the stereotypes told me Greece would be. We ordered an array of smaller dishes. The tzatziki and grilled squid were universal favourites, but my brother adored the fresh, grilled, octopus and my mum loved the anchovies. Shocking to me, the anchovies tasted nothing like the slime fingers sold in cans at home-delicate in flavour and texture, covered in olive oil and parsley, they were honestly not too bad. And that’s from a staunch anti-anchovy advocate. I mean, sounds like a win if you ask me.
After lunch we jumped on our ferry for the final 2-hour leg of our journey.
Apparently, cats can fly now? Who knew….
On our ride, we were introduced to Greek drama. Let’s just say, things have changed from the most contemporary piece of Greek literature I’ve read. Mind you, that was Homer’s work. Oops?
Getting off the ferry in Spetses was like walking into an Instagram story. Blue water, clear skies, beautiful architecture, bright flowers – it was perfect.
There was a misunderstanding about pickup times and the such, so we wandered, stumbling upon Mosquito. A cute little cafe offering everything from breakfasts to beer, we set up camp until we could get in touch with the owner of the Villa we rented.
First impression of Spetses: The people here are so nice. And that’s coming from a Canadian! In all sincerity, the lady working at Mosquito helped us get in touch with the owners of the Villa, chatted with us about life in Spetses, and was just generally very welcoming.
Just saying, the caffe frappe was to die for. SOS. I’m gonna be so over-caffeinated by the end of this trip.
Needless to say, the Villa is picturesque.
As evening encroached, the parentals decided we should take a walk down to Hotel Spetses. From there, we took a buggy ride around the new and old ports.
I mentioned that there are almost no cars here, right? Yep; scooters and horse buggies are the main forms of transportation. It’s nice not to have all the noise pollution from cars.
Spetses at sundown? Let’s just say it’s worth seeing.
We ended up at Giorgos for dinner, for more fresh fish, seafood, and saganaki. I fell asleep at the table for a second (oops) after the 30+ hours of not sleeping, so after dinner we grabbed one of the few cabs back to our villa and turned in for the night.
