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ATHENS | GREECE, PART 1

Upon returning home from Greece, I have had so MANY people tell me, “I had no Idea I wanted to go to Greece until I saw your pictures!” Trust me, you want to add it to your list. It’s unbelievable. The food, the history, the views, the culture, the beaches… ALL of it!! If you ever find yourself planning a trip to Greece, I am hoping I can point people to this post to give them names of a restaurant or how we navigated the country. This post will specifically be about Athens.

I met my friends Kate + Brett at the Charlotte airport & landed in Athens where, Kate’s sister Andi picked us up. I must admit, a lot of people have asked how we figured out how to navigate & Andi did all of our dirty work. She was a life saver. We didn’t need to do endless research like other trips because she currently lives in Athens and had some great tips of where to go, what to do, and where to eat. Her food recommendations were ON POINT! They were DELICIOUS!!! I recommend ALL of them!!

We arrived in Athens, went back to Andi’s place, changed and headed out to a beach. The beach we went to was called Kavouri Beach. The water was so clear & calm and the sand hand these beautiful ripples you could see so clearly. You will see pictures below. We stayed there until sunset, which was the most beautiful sunset we saw the entire time we were in Greece. I had high expectations for Santorini’s sunsets, but the most beautiful one was our first night. We ate dinner on the water. I tried to photograph all our meals because food is a part of the experience.

We volunteered and served an organization called Threads of Hope. GUYS, I encourage you to go support them. They are a non-profit organization helping women leave a lifestyle of prositituion. They educate these beautiful woman with life skills, their self-worth, and how to sew. Once they have learned to sew, they make GORGEOUS products that are available for purchase. You can click on their name to go straight to their website & shop. We had the opportunity to meet some of the women, watch them work, and serve them. I even had the opportunity to take some images for them of the products.

One of my favorite things we did a couple times at night was going to an outdoor movie theatre. It was awesome & we had beautiful weather. We would buy our popcorn and snacks and sit outside under the moonlight. My second favorite thing was GELATO!!!! If you are ever in Athens, find Le Greche. The first day I had a lemon + mint sorbet – to DIE for on a hot day. The next day, I had dark chocolate & coffee. Does it get any better than that? We tried so many flavors.

Restaurants to tuck in your back pocket are:

*Nice n Easy

*Kuzina

*Mavro Provato tou Press Cafe

Also, be sure to look up local markets or ask the locals about their markets. We picked up some food and herbs there, too.

Places we explored were the Acropolis & The Panathenaic Stadium. We covered MANY miles. That’s mainly how we got around Athens, our God-given feet. Between Andi driving, the trains, or our feet, that’s how we made our way around. I loved walking, personally, because you get to experience more of the culture.

Stay tuned for more of Greece… Santorini & Milos are coming!!! A major thank you to Andi for showing us all around Athens, hosting us, and making sure we ate well. THANK YOU!!

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