Do you ever wish you knew then what you know now? I know it’s cliche, but I’m looking at these images from Voula, Greece, and I wish I knew what I know now! All of my Europe adventures were done with a point and shoot camera, as I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts. While of course any picture is better than no picture, there are so many times I will look back on these images and wish I could capture them the way I am able to do with the magical manual camera setting powers I have obtained through the years since those days. But onto important things… Greece.

Greece was an interesting trip. Not only was this trip very spur of the moment, but it ended up becoming an unintentional solo vacation as well. Here I am, waiting at the airport for my flight to head from Zurich, Switzerland, to Athens, when I discover that not only is my flight delayed, but my friend from YWAM is stuck at the border of another country unable to make it to Greece! You would think this would cause a breakdown for most, but thankfully I hadn’t planned this trip far enough in advance that I had yet to book my home with Airbnb yet. There was no need for me to worry here, so long as I was able to get back to Germany before I needed to report back to my unit the following Tuesday.

One phenomenal thing I discovered while having an overnight flight delay in Switzerland was their hospitality. While I did end up being stuck in this airport for hours, at the end of the day they stuffed me into this beautiful 4 star hotel with a complimentary meal! Well Switzerland, you sir/ma’am, win country of the day. I honestly couldn’t believe they did this for me. All I thought was how the U.S. would have made me find some scroungy hotel to rest my head for the night before calling for a taxi before the next redeye flight in the morning. Needless to say, I slept like a baby in the fanciest hotel I had ever stayed in, and was able to actually find myself a place to stay once in Voula, Greece.

Landing in Athens was… how do I say this? Hot. As. Balls. There, I said it. I kid you not, the Arizonian in me was probably extremely embarrassed by this but there was no other way to describe this place. Flying into Athens, I felt like I was looking at California, only with an Arizona heat wave. I had acclimated to the Bavarian lifestyle by this point in time, so I would say I had a pretty fabulous excuse for possibly being a baby.

Now for the good part, this part is going to sound a bit far fetched. Once I arrive in Greece, alone, I catch the bus to a suburban area where I meet the father of the guy that I’m renting a room from with Air Bnb. Now, I realize this may not be the safest of the safest things to do while traveling alone but, I’m here to tell the story aren’t I? I wasn’t too concerned about it to be honest, although maybe I should have been. I guess I figured if the dude had pretty good reviews on the website, it has to be legit. Right?? Well, I made it to the bedroom in one piece, and I was finally able to drop my bags. The view… seriously amazing. I was able to see all of the tall white houses of Voula, Greece, along with a beautiful ocean view. The heat was totally worth it, let me tell you now!

However, because it was so dang hot outside, I gave up on being a tourist at all. If you were to follow me around that weekend, you would have found me at the local frozen yogurt shop, the movie theater, or the beach. One thing I enjoy the most while traveling is getting a feel of how the locals roll in their every day lives. It’s one thing to see how another country is in a tourist town, but it’s totally different getting to see people just living their daily lives. I enjoy getting to blend in with the crowd, even if it’s sometimes obvious  that I’m still not from their town.

I wish I had more to share about this trip, but aside from the old dude offering to buy me an iced coffee while on the beach, or the fact that you paid to visit a beach, and the beach had wifi… that’s about all I have to share with you! Oh, and the fact that I saw the Amazing Spiderman in 3D while in Voula. 😉

I had more pictures, but these were my favorites from my little 3 day trip!