I was turning 40 in 2020, and I wanted to cross an item off the bucket list. I wasn’t getting any younger! I decided Greece was the destination that was most feasible. Why Greece? Was I obsessed with Greek mythology? Nope. I was not interested in it at all.  The drive came from a combination of my obsession with Greek food and a cheesy suspense book I read that talked about the islands of Mykonos and Santorini. They sounded fascinating. I spent hours arranging hotels, flights, ferries, and tours of the hot spots of Athens. I weighed cost factors that were always changing as well as the best days for cheaper travel.

In January of 2020, my parents and I booked the trip and my friend Sara also decided that she would join us. Then in March a small hiccup occurred in our plans. It was this little worldwide pandemic known as the Coronavirus. All plans were put on hold.

The day the Delta flight from Minneapolis to Athens was cancelled, I fell into a funk. My bucket list 40^th birthday was officially not going to happen. The company I had scheduled all the reservations through gave us credit towards a future trip. The time frame in which we had to rebook kept changing as the pandemic dragged on. My 40^th birthday came and went with fanfare from my family and a trip to a waterpark hotel with my nephews. I mean seriously, if you can’t go to Greece the consolation prize is obviously a local indoor waterpark in August.

As a teacher, the school year of 2020-2021 was brutal. We were hybrid. Then we were online. Then we were hybrid again. Then, fully in person. One minute, teachers were heroes for working through the pandemic. Then we were villains for worrying about our health and our families’ health rather than relieving parents at home time with children. The only thing that kept me from a legitimate mental breakdown was the glimmer of hope of my dream vacation. From the moment my parents and I rebooked in January of 2021, I monitored the Greek and American embassies and travel restrictions. By the Grace of God, one month before we were due to arrive in Athens, Greece opened its doors to foreign visitors. We would be able to go, as we were all vaccinated for COVID 19.  

Within weeks of May 15, we were 100% confirmed for our tours, flights, and hotels. We would have to wear masks in public around Greece and on the airplane from Minneapolis to Athens, but by this time they were mere afterthoughts. I would wear a Jason mask to get out of the country and feel some sense of freedom stolen during the pandemic.

My friend Sara was able to change her reservations and along with my parents, we took off for the first post-pandemic international adventure for us all. Sara and I could hardly believe it was happening as we finally settled in for the seventeen-hour travel day June 13, 2021, as we flew from Minneapolis to New York to Athens!

Arriving in Athens after a long flight with masks on, we arrived in the center of the Plaka neighborhood from the airport. I couldn’t sweep the smile from my face, despite how tired I was! The poor Greek cabby who took Sara and I to the hotel barely spoke any English. He kept pulling over to the side of the freeway to point things out to us.  Assuming he was taking advantage of us, as we had been forced to ride two and two in cabs due to social distancing requirements in Greece, we kept nodding sleepily and urging him to hurry.

As we neared the hotel, the ever more sinuous and quaint streets (although they were tagged to excess) and incredible views of the Acropolis from the hotel pool revived us enough to enjoy Greek coffee and a delightful early dinner at Psitopolio Kosmikon on the streets of Plaka. Although located in the center of the tourist area, the food and wine and service were welcome after the long day. Our dinner was capped off with a complimentary shot of Mastika and what became my evening must have: Gelato!

After an early night, we were up and ready to attack the Acropolis with plenty of time to spare. The eleven o’clock tour the next morning was bearable in the temperature that day, although the sun was strong! The steep incline of the walk made us all work up a sweat despite the moderate temperature for the day. Mom and Dad were the senior visitors in our tour group, and they were practically Sherpas as they climbed up the hill towards the peak. Our tour guide, Eleni, was extremely intelligent, kind, and interesting as we followed her from site to site. We saw the first theater and we all climbed the steep incline to the top of the Parthenon under construction at the top. The historical value and view were worth every misstep of the trek. After our descent, we visited the Acropolis Museum before escaping a brief rain shower with lunch at a street café on the way back to the hotel.

Despite our best intentions, we ended up at a mediocre restaurant for dinner that night after walking around the city in search of a little Greek diner. Dining in the glow of ruins almost made up for the food, and of course, Gelato helped soothe the lacking dinner as we made our way back towards bed.

The next day was the first of our travel days within the country of Greece. After a short forty-five-minute flight to Santorini, we arrived at the Kastelli Beach Hotel. After sorting out the problem child, whose room had not been booked according to the directions given by the hotel originally, Sara found a home in a three-story suite. Thank God the busy season had been deterred by the travel restrictions. In celebration, we lounged by the pool and enjoyed amazing food along the black sand shores…including a Full Sea Bream that had been caught that day and complimentary Greek dessert that tasted better than Dulce de Leche cake.  Our meal was capped with the fine wines of Santorini served by the waiter, who my father seemed to have a small guy crush on.  I am pretty sure he was growing tired of traveling with only his harem of women.

The next day we took a transport into Fira with our new best friend, Christos, who would become our driver for the day.  We rode the Cable Car down the steep cliff to Old Port, where we boarded The Princess. She was a tall ship bound for the Nea Kameni volcano. Once again, my parents were troopers as some of the oldest participants on the tour.  After a REALLY TOUGH and much longer than expected climb in the heat of the summer Greek sun, all four of us celebrated the trek with the view…and a volcano with no lava. My father’s climb was ruined. There was no lava. We would be reminded of this every time he spoke of the adventure after this point.

A dip in the Aegean Sea cooled Sara and I on our swim to the “hot” springs and our volcano springs mud bath! Launching myself off the sides of The Princess into the sea below was far from what I had envisioned that experience including. When I had booked the tour, I had expected that we would moor at another island and do a small hike to the spring. Nope. In the Santorini Volcanic Duathlon, you proceeded after a several mile climb on a five-to-ten-minute swim through the Aegean Sea to the warmer water near the shore. They were far from “hot” springs, but the mud bath was said to cure diseases and indeed, after rubbing my feet in the red sand the open wounds that had bothered my feet for months healed within in a few days. We then swam our way back to The Princess where I successfully climbed the ladder back into the boat without fully mooning the entire membership of our tour group.

That night we again called our friendly cabbie, Christos, and he took us to Oia to watch the sunset with the rest of the island. The majority of visitors make their way to Oia for the sunset. We were surprised by the sheer numbers of people gathered along the rocky shore. After more trekking up and down, although this time on stairs we were able to capture beautiful view and fabulous dinner! The correct answer at restaurants in Oia at sundown if you have no reservation for dinner is, “We plan to eat and drink.”

The following day Sara went back to Fira to take pictures while mom and dad and I bummed around the hotel and Kamari Beach. I secured some souvenirs before we embarked on our wine tour and tasting around Santorini! The first stop was just down the road from the hotel at Estate Argyros with a tasting of Assyrtiko and Vinsanto wines. The wines of Santorini are very sweet, because they are almost dried from their lack of water. This leaves the fruits with concentrated sugar, similar to an ice wine. We were able to take in the elaborate grape vine coils that the wine growers use on the island in order to grow the grapes in such an arid climate.  The second stop was the wine museum with the creepy dolls enacting all of the ways in which Santorini wines had been made. Our rapid ascent to the wine tasting was rewarded with a long wait for the rest of the tour group to sample some of other wines from around the island. Our final stop was at a winery atop the Caldera where we enjoyed visiting with our nursing friends from the first winery and taking in yet another gorgeous Santorini sunset.

 We returned to Kamari Beach slightly tipsy and enjoyed even more amazing Greek food with out Greek Grandmother on the beach. Dad also discovered Red Donkey beer — his favorite Greek beer! He was impressed that he was able to find one and we immediately had to send a picture to my Godfather, the Godfather, Uncle Bob who had sworn all Greek beer was trash. The next morning, we were up early and I was able to takek in the sunrise on my morning run!

Although we were ready to go to Mykonos, the ferry was not. After rearranging Sara’s ticket, we waited at the Port for several hours before boarding the ferry bound for Mykonos and the Mykonos Beach Hotel where mom and dad were upgraded to a fancy beach side room! It came equipped with two bedrooms, a hot tub with a view of the bay where the sun would set and the swing that mom couldn’t say no to. Or stop swinging

Exploring Old Town that night, we saw the famous Mykonos windmills and celebrated my birthday with another beautiful sunset and fabulous dinner at Katerina’s before the craziness of Old Town Mykonos on a Saturday night! My craziness, of course, required the sampling of the local Gelato as well as ice cream made from Myconian cream.

The following morning, I met Mom and Dad for a Father’s Day morning prior to attending Sunday Mass. Dad celebrated Father’s Day with Chocolate Cake at the a la cart breakfast. We are pretty sure it was meant to be a serving for the whole table, but Dad was a trooper and polished that cake off! After the Father’s Day breakfast of champs, we made our way into Old Town once again via the handy hotel shuttle.  We walked into the tiny stone Roman Catholic church and the priest was off to the side in the vestry preparing. He came out to ask what language we spoke, as a friendly young gentlemen waved at us from another pew.  Then father asked if we could do a reading at mass.  My parents both pointed at me. I was excited to contribute, especially when I discovered I didn’t have to do the reading in Greek.

 There were nine of us at Mass and I did one reading in English and the gentlemen who had smiled at us did one reading in Italian. He also translated the Polish, Italian speaking priest’s sermon into English for us. In Greece. It just happened to be Orthodox Pentecost – also fitting.  After our exciting trip into Mass in which my parents were prepared to earn a great story we spent a lazy day at the beach.

That evening, we walked down to Joanna’s Niko’s Place Taverna for dinner and were given the super special spot at a table out back by the grill in the sand because we had no reservations. Instead, we had our very own table in the back on the beach to watch the sunset! So yet again, we watched an amazing sunset. This time the traditional Greek food was over the top. It was exactly the taverna experience I had imagined.  We capped off the night with our new friends from Hungary who were also given the VIP treatment.

The following day was a slow start and Sara and I went up to town to take pictures and shop around before hitting our last afternoon on the beach. For an adventure that afternoon, we traveled across the island to an Olive Oil tasting. The trip to the other side took no longer than fifteen minutes total. We learned so much from Anita, our Oil Expert, and enjoyed tasty food pairings and dinner on the quiet bay at Hippie Fish before heading back to Old Town and gelato…and a tattoo! Sara decided that she needed one last souvenir of the island life.

We returned to Athens, to be COVID tested for our flight home. Nasal swabs and 60 Euros a piece later, we were declared clean and able to enter our own country. That afternoon we finalized our shopping, eating and had fish eat our feet! Although a Thai cultural activity, we tried it! Warren and Pip and their bodies made my feet tickle…but I am not sure that they did much beyond that.  Upon our return to Athens, I triumphantly ran the Pantheonic Olympic Stadium and took first place! We followed up the victory with a walk around the National Botanical Gardens before the Athenian summer heat we had managed to avoid on our first visit to the city was back in full force and we retreated to the rooftop pool.

I met my special friend who had shaved his head for the trip but didn’t think about covering it. He was too busy thinking about how he was changing the laws of Marijuana use in Greece. Thankfully, he moved onto every other single woman on the rooftop and left me alone.

For our final night in Athens, we headed to Monastraki for dinner and wine. We headed for a wine bar and realized that it wasn’t open. Thankfully, after a long walk around the quirky stores, we did find that the restaurant Sara had chosen was indeed open and we ate our last delicious Greek meal. It had been an early dinner since we had set out for wine, initially.  So we found another little wine bar, and settled in to try flights of Greek wine. Mom and I were ready to ship a case home, but alas, we learned that Minnesota’s stringent alcohol laws prevented us from shipping to our homes. We settled for the flights of wine and a strawberry moon lit walk back to the Electra Palace before one last serving of gelato.

The day to head home was a mix of comfort, stress, and sadness. Ready to return to our homes and the familiar the long day of travel ahead was far from the way we wanted to end a fabulous trip. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time and made our way to the duty-free store to purchase our food and liquid items to bring back to the states.

I had warned everyone all along that coming back from Sara’s wedding in the Dominican Republic I had had liquids taken from me in the airport that I had purchased in duty-free. I had gone through customs from the Dominican Republic in South Carolina and when we had to return through security to our domestic flight, they threw out the rum and honey that I was bringing home. It was a traumatic experience as we had been running late to make our connection anyway, and my extremely irate and inebriated husband at the time believed it was all my fault because of this event.

Despite my warnings, Sara chose to buy Olive Oil for her shopping list of gifts back home. As we emerged from customs in New York City after an exhausting day of flying already, the olive oil was going to be confiscated by TSA going through security. My bottle of wine that I caved and bought because I would rather lose it than regret not being sure it wouldn’t work, made it through. The olive oil didn’t pass some scan that they do. So once again, goods sold to us in a Duty-Free story that had been through security in Greece were going to be thrown out. However, the second suitcase that Sara had lugged around Greece suddenly saved the day as we could check all the oils that wouldn’t have made it and she could go and check her bag and then go through security.

So our liquid goods would make it home. It was a double suitcase miracle!

More than twenty-four hours after leaving the dreamscape of Greece, we arrived to watch the sunset in Minnesota. The strawberry moon was larger than it had been in Athens the night before…and made me long to return to the European life.