Journey to Greece

Alright, so . . . boom. Justin and I are obsessed with traveling and just seeing new places whenever we can. We decided that our next destination would be to Greece. At one point, we would exclusively use a travel application (ex. Expedia) to pretty much plan our trips – we would choose the flight, the hotels, etc. all in one place, but for this particular trip, we found that it was a bit easier to book things separately.

We started planning the trip about five months in advance just because we like to solidify the flights and such so we don’t have much to worry about when the actual travel date comes around. Y’all . . . planning this trip was so much fun – Justin and I were actually having competitions on who picked the better cities to visit and who could find the best hotels. We ended up deciding that we would travel to Athens and spend a few days there exploring the rich, historic culture and from there would travel to Santorini and then Mykonos.

We didn’t really plan on any tours or any adventures like flying in a helicopter or kissing a lion – mostly because I just wanted to relax. After working two jobs and being in graduate school for two years AND being a Music Major who had a crazy rehearsal schedule, I was just trying to get away for the sake of some Rest and Relaxation. Justin and I truly needed to rest – we both work a ton! At the time that we initially starting planning the trip, I figured that we might take a wine tour or maybe a wine tour everyday day, but then Baby J popped up in the womb so I was then completely sold that my trip would be full of nothing but spending time with a pillow and some covers.

We found some of the most beautiful hotels ever – we stayed in the Penthouse Suite at the Anthenaeum Grand Hotel in Athens, Canaves Oia in Santorini and Myconian Naia in Mykonos. When I tell you these hotels were phenomenal, I am telling the whole entire truth so help me God! We literally had the most gorgeous views and the most amazing service at each of these places.

Justin and I chose to go to Greece in May – mostly because it was my birthday month and I was finishing up my graduate degree the same month. Instead of traveling from our home town, we flew internationally from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport – this was in part because we were already in the Midwest around the time for my sister’s college graduation, but also because when I checked ticket prices, we would save at minimum $300 per person round trip (and this was flying Delta which was a steal). The trip to Greece was so long but was mostly overnight so I wasn’t really bothered at all. We went from O’Hare to JFK in New York and then to Rome and then from there to Athens (a whole entire three flights + a whole entire dub) but we made it!

Athens

We had a car service deliver us to our hotel in Athens. I lie to you not, when I tell you that as soon as we got to the hotel, we showered, went next door to a cute little pizzeria (because I could only hold down pizza and burgers and Chickfila at this point in pregnancy) and then went back to our hotel and slept for eighteen hours.

To be quite honest, I was struggling with adjusting to the time change as well as my love/hate relationship with my dearest friend, Morning Sickness. However, we did our best to work WITH my nausea by planning to explore Athens when I was feeling fine! There were only a few places that we truly wanted to visit – The Acropolis and Parthenon and the Acropolis Museum – and shopping, because, let’s face it, shopping is my favorite thing to do. We broke these things into two days – we went to the museum and shopping on one day and then climbed to view the Acropolis and the Parthenon the next day.

Santorini

Justin and I decided that the easiest way to travel to our other destinations in Greece would be by way of ferry. We woke up at the crack of dawn to commute to the port to catch our ferry to Santorini – I am truly happy that we chose to purchase tickets to have our own room on our ferry rides because it saved us from having to listen to crying babies and also allowed us to sleep during the trips.

When we finally arrived in Santorini, we found our driver holding up our “Justin Jackson” sign and headed to our car. We stayed in Oia, Santorini which is pretty much at the very top of the island. On the ride to the hotel, we were able to sight see and also gain some first-hand knowledge of the history of the island from our driver.

Friends – our hotel was stunning. Justin actually saw the hotel on one of those random videos that you see on Facebook of the “most beautiful destinations”  to travel to. We had originally booked a hotel that we ended up canceling in order to stay at the Canaves Oia Hotel (P.S. you can find pictures and videos from the trip in the attached gallery). We really didn’t want to do anything in Santorini besides stay in our room and enjoy the views. We did plan to get a couples massage, experience the AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS sunset and find what we’d heard to be the best gyros known to man.

After we’d settled into our hotel and freshened up, we decided to explore the town a bit and also find the gyro restaurant that we’d been hearing all about (Pita Gyro). Justin became obsessed with the gyros so we had to go there every dayof our stay in Santorini. There were also a few other super cozy and delicious restaurants that we ate at (Breakfast-Brunch-Burger and Pizza Edwin – told you I could only eat American food, haha). While I’m talking about food, Justin and I tried a few of the fine dining restaurants in both Athens and Santorini, and while I would love to report that we admired the food… It just wasn’t for us. We are all about a nice restaurant with beautiful presentation, but………….. Let’s just say it wasn’t our style. Now, where was I? After grabbing a bite from Pita Gyro, we went back to our suite and relaxed the rest of the day.

The next day, we went to the hotel’s spa for our scheduled massages. Justin and I got the “Frangipani Lovers” spa treatment, which is said to be “the ultimate therapy to truly unwind and indulge in pure relaxation.” Let’s have a little chat – I was asleep from how relaxed I was getting this treatment. They even do a hair milk treatment while you’re getting your massage and I would be fibbing if I told you that I washed the treatment out of my hair after the massage was over (I actually kept it in my hair for about five days until we made it back to the states – Now, I have heard that pregnancy works wonders on hair, but I do think that the hair milk might have given my hair a gentle nudge of encouragement because my hair has been a dream since coming home from Greece…in May and it’s now December, HA).

The rest of our stay in Santorini included lots of relaxing, shopping, eating and just enjoying each other’s company. Of course we didn’t miss out on viewing the famous Oia, Santorini sunset – which we viewed from the rooftop of a quaint little restaurant at the edge of the island. God is so amazing and His glory is so apparent when you just take the time to soak in all of the splendor that is nature and that is Earth. His creation never fails to amaze me – the sunset truly looked as if the ocean was swallowing up the sun and it was the most beautiful experience.

Mykonos

We again traveled via ferry to Mykonos from Santorini. When we got to our hotel, we were surprised with an upgrade to a bigger suite and we were super excited about that. We washed up, ordered room service and decided to take a nap for a few hours so that we could go explore the island. They say that if Santorini is where you go to rest, Mykonos is where you go to party. While Justin and I weren’t doing much partying (because little baby J was in tote), we definitely did lots of wandering around the maze of a city. We knew that we wanted to try the seafood that the island had to offer, because we had heard that it is top tier! We found a little restaurant by the water called “Captains” and ordered all the food we could stand to eat as it was served family style. After eating, we did some exploring and witnessed so many people going in and out of night clubs and bars. Let’s just say that Mykonos to Greece is as Las Vegas or New Orleans is to the United States. We walked back to our hotel and got some rest because we knew that the next day we’d be doing lots and lots of exploration.

We had no true agenda for anything that we wanted to do in Mykonos. We literally just walked through the town, enjoyed the architecture and took note of all the restaurants we wanted to try while we were there. And we did indeed eat all the food that we could stand. Another great restaurant that we ate at was “Pasta Fresca Barkia.” Mostly our time in Mykonos was filled with eating and sleeping, so I don’t want to further bore you talking about it.

The Journey Home

We journeyed back to Athens via ferry and stayed overnight in the Sofitel that is directly across the street from the airport. We literally woke up early in the morning and walked right across the street to the airport and hopped on the plane to head home. We again had to take FOUR flights to make it back to Atlanta. We went from Athens to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Chicago and Chicago to Atlanta. We made it home and then I promise you we slept for the next seventy-two hours.

Hope you enjoyed our Greece story! Leave comments below if you have any questions that you’d like me to answer.