After spending three days in Istanbul, I headed to Athens, Greece. This is what I saw when I got there...
It might surprise you to know that Greece was never on my "must see" list.
I mean, of course I wanted to see Greece. Who wouldn't want to see blue-roofed houses against the Mediterranean, or the ruins of the Acropolis overlooking Athens?
But there were many other equally interesting places that were higher on my list. Like Australia and New Zealand, for example. Or Portugal and Spain. Or Ireland and Scotland.
The only reason I ended up in Greece, in fact, was because, in looking for flights home from Istanbul, Athens continually came up as a layover. If I was going to be there, anyway...
Now, however, having been to Greece, I'm not sure why it wasn't higher on my list all along. Greece is a beautiful, diverse country filled lovely people, great food, and enough history to make modern civilization seem insignificant. After all, what buildings have we created that will still be around in 3,300 years?
Unfortunately, though, when I arrived in Athens, I realized: I was sick! I had pushed myself hard in Istanbul. So many sights in so few days and with little sleep had worn me down. I was so sick, in fact, that I spent most of the first few days in bed and only managed to get out in the evenings.
Thankfully, my Airbnb was in a great area. When I did get out, I was less than a five-minute walk from sights and sounds like these:
...
And thus began my time in Greece. I saw as much as I could while there, which, thanks to my illness, ended up being nine days. I will share these experiences with you in the coming weeks. This weekend I am actually headed to Nosara, Costa Rica, where I will be attending a retreat entitled "Tame Your Inner Critic" with the author Anne Lamott and her husband, Neal Allen. I will be in Nosara for one week, and then I'm headed to Panama City, Panama, for five days. (Because while in Central America, you have to see the Panama Canal!) It should be an interesting, hopefully rejuvenating time.
(And yes, I'll be sharing those adventures with you, too. Maybe I should change the name of my site to "Jessica Cyphers, Travel Blogger"? Haha.)