Greece Bucketlist

These are some of the things I really enjoyed doing in Greece. I hope this can inspire some people~

1. Enjoy the cafe scene

I personally love coffee and I love checking out different café scenes. What’s cool about the cafes in Athens are that they are café by morning and bar by night (Although it seems that they sell alcohol all throughout the day). I definitely recommend checking out different cafes and even getting some studying done. When studying abroad, it was hard to allocate time to study, but I think checking out a café with your friends and getting some studying done is a good plan. If you’re looking for something like Yelp in Greece, I recommend using Google maps and Trip Advisor. These are the two sites that show ratings and pictures of restaurants and cafes. I would also learn how to order coffee in Greece because it’s so different from how it is in the states. My go to coffee drinks were freddo cappuccino or freddo latte. Freddo means iced. It was way too hot, so I always went for the iced drinks. I would recommend giving Greek coffee a try at least once but advise that it is extremely strong. I do notice that they don’t play around with coffee here. They drink they’re coffee really strong. Even before going to class or starting a long day of excursions, I do recommend stopping by the local café/bakery. The owners are usually so nice and the coffees are well priced. A lot of them also sell Greek yogurt, pastries, and fresh juices. I also noticed that freshly squeezed juices are popular in Europe overall.

2. Syntagma, Monastaraki, Plaka

If you love to shop, this is where you should be. Syntagma, Monastaraki, and Plaka are districts within Athens and they are great places to visit to go shopping and to enjoy more of the city life of Athens. Syntagma would be considered the center of Athens. There are a lot of city buildings, surrounded by shops and eateries. Walking distance to Syntagma are Monastaraki and Plaka. Plaka is known to be one of the oldest parts in Athens. This area really reminded me of downtown LA or SD. Monastaraki is known for its flea market where you can by really cheap souvenir. If you’re looking to souvenir shop, I found that Monastaraki and Plaka sell the cheapest souvenirs. All three of these places are walking distance from each other, so I think that it is possible to explore these places in one day. I would definitely spend a day in these parts of Athens to get some shopping done and to eat really good food. At night time, these places really lit up. I noticed a lot of the restaurants had live music also. This made eating dinner so much more enjoyable.

3. Challenge yourself with Greek

It was so nice that most people in Greece spoke conversational English. This made my experience so much more comfortable. Despite this, I still recommend that everyone still learn survival Greek. In my other post, I recommended the Google Translate app. Learning phrases like hi/bye, thank you, delicious, cheers, makes the experience so much better. Greek people are very friendly, and my friends and I found ourselves making even more friends by incorporating some survival Greek in our conversations with the locals. I felt that a lot of people appreciated our efforts, even though we weren’t the best. It’s always nice to try to learn the language of the place you are living in for 5 weeks.

4. Farmer’s market

Every Friday’s, there would be the farmer’s market. This is where all the farmers come straight from picking their fresh produce and come to the neighborhood to sell fruits and vegetables. It’s cash only, and I would recommend bring a market bag of some sort. I loved buying peaches, watermelon, and grapes. All the produce looks so fresh and it just feels so fun to walk around. They usually sell it by weighing it in kilos. Some even give samples!

5. Outdoor Cinema

I’ve never been to an outdoor cinema, but I heard it was popular in Greece. Especially, this summer was when Mamma Mia 2 came out. We had to go! We went to Cine Dexameni which was only about 1 mile away from our apartment. The walk is all uphill, but it is around a very expensive neighborhood. It almost reminded me of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, so it was a really nice walk. The theatre itself was really nice and so cheap. If you buy the tickets in two, there is a discount. I believe we paid around 7 euros for two tickets! When the movie started, there were no trailers in the beginning, but instead they have an intermission. That’s where they showed some advertisement. I found this really cool. The food they sold were also popcorn, soda, chips, ice cream, and slushies. I believe you can also bring outside food. There are tables next to your seat where I saw a lot of people eating. A note is that people were constantly smoking and drinking beer throughout the movie. Overall, it was such a great experience and I’m so happy to say that I was able to see the airing of Mamma Mia 2 in Greece!

6. Visit the islands

When planning to visit some of the islands, it was really important for me to get the locals’ opinions on where to visit. Mykonos and Santorini were the only two islands on my list. Despite this, I was told over and over again that Mykonos was somewhere you only go to party. I was also told that if we want a nice island with a cheap, good night life, Ios would be the place. Naxos was also a recurring answer from the locals. Without hesitation, all the locals I spoke to told me that I had to go to Santorini at least once in my life. They said it is so expensive, and that it is a tourist trap, but it will be nothing like I’ve ever seen. Even the Greeks describe Santorini as a magical island. Going to the different islands are not very cheap. The ferry is what costs a lot. Despite this, I would still recommend going with a more credible, but costly ferry such as Blue Star Ferries. This is because they will probably have more time schedules and they will be less prone to delays. For one round trip to an island, I would have to spend around 80 euros. I mostly took Blue Star Ferries. Going to Santorini was so expensive, so my friends and I tried to book a cheaper ferry around 2:40AM. That ferry was delayed for over 2 hours and the seating and bathrooms were not very good. Therefore, I learned my lesson and I personally prefer Blue Star Ferries.

Sunset view on the ferry!

Sunset in Ios

Shopping in Naxos

The first island my friends and I planned was to Naxos and Ios. We decided to go to these two islands for one weekend. I personally prefer Naxos. This is the island that was recommended to me by so many Greek people. The island is not too touristy, but it is so beautiful. The beaches were gorgeous and the food I had there was so delicious. Shopping here was also really great. This is where I noticed that Greek people are really into leather and they sell customized leather sandals and bags for a much cheaper price than I would see back in the states. Afterwards, we went to Ios. Ios was also beautiful and the night life is real. Ios has many slopes as the main village is on top of a hill. Once the sun went down, I saw many people ready to party.

We also visited Kos and Patmos during the programs excursions. Kos was really awesome as we visited the places where medicine started. The island itself was so fun to shop and walk around. Patmos was more of a quiet island. This island is well-known because this was where the book of Revelation was written by the prophet, John.

Enjoying the island of Kos

Breathtaking view in Patmos

The last island we visited was of course, Santorini. We were reluctant to visit Santorini because it was the most expensive island. Despite this, we knew we were in Greece and we had to make it happen. When we went, it was more than I ever imagined. Everything was so magical, and my friends and I had such a blast. We made so many friends with the locals and it was EVERYTHING. 

Can you believe I took this photo?!

My time in the different islands were so magical, amazing, and beautiful in their own ways. It felt so amazing being surrounded by calm, turquoise waters and being with some of the most amazing friends. γεια μας (yia-mas: cheers) to that!

7. Have some time home to recharge

It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. I’ve definitely felt overwhelmed and exhausted so many times. Of course, it’s great to make the most of your time in a foreign country and trying to fill up your schedule with so many things. Despite this, sometimes you just need to relax. Some of my other great memories, is being in the air-conditioned apartment and just relaxing. There was one night where my apartment mates and I invited our friends over. We talked, bonded, ordered pizza, and watched a movie. Times like these were also so wholesome and fun even when we were just in our jammies.

This is when we decided to have a wholesome night in and watch Ratatouille!

Γεια σου! - Moonhey Kim