Travelling to Greece

                           

We travelled to Greece during the first week of April, which seemed to be the week before it really got busy. Lots of shops were painting and stocking shelves for the summer. It looked like most of these shops would be closed during the winter and then things get crazy mid-April through the summer. 

Since we just missed the busy time, it seemed like we got better prices on most everything. Our Air BnB in Athens, after tax and fees was about 70 euros a night. The one in Santorini was really nice and has its own pool and was up around 100 euros a night for us but would have been around 400 a night in August.

Here is some stuff I learned...

• Greek is not a Latin-based language. Knowing a little French has helped me in Spanish and Italian speaking countries, but is of no help in Greece. Gyro, Soulvaki and Baklava are probably still the only words I can speak in Greek. 

• From the airport, you can get to Athens several different ways and each is around 45-60 minutes of travel. There is a bus that is about $9 a person and a train that is the same price. Taxis are a pretty good deal in Greece, way cheaper than a taxi or Uber here in the states. The X buses will take you to Athens or the M trains. With three or four people, it is probably just as cheap to take a taxi. We had 5 people so it wasn't much of an option to take a taxi as there wasn't an option to take an XL taxi like there is in Uber.

• The food is freaking amazing. Gyros, Greek salads and everything else, including their desserts is awesome. So! Good!        

• Everyone we spoke with was extremely kind. Walking around the streets people weren't exactly smiling at us but everyone really light up when you talk to them. They were so nice! Most people speak English, especially at restaurants and stores. Most signs are in Greek and English. English is a solid language that people from pretty much anywhere in the world used to speak to locals. People from France, Spain, India and Japan all spoke with locals in English, which is pretty cool. 

• You can't flush toilet paper which takes some getting used to, but really isn't that bad. The little garbages that hold the used toilet paper don't really stink like I thought they would. No biggie. 

• Nearly everywhere takes credit cards. The public restrooms are 1 Euro and we had one driver that only took cash, but pretty much any food or gift place taxes credit cards in Athens and Santorini.

• Only a couple places had an option to tip and even then, it wasn't expected.

• On crosswalks, the green walking guy that shows you can walk, only means you can walk to the next section of the road, not all the way across the street so be careful. You'll usually end up in the island in the middle of the road with other people. 

• They don't have Uber, but it looks like you should be able to find a taxi on Uber. Or you can download the FREENOW app, which works very well in Greece and other European countries. It is easy to download and setup, just like Uber. If you download it beforehand and slap your credit card number in beforehand, it will save you some time when you are there.

• The Acropolis is insanely cool! There is a ton to see there. You do have to set an appointment to go here. You can get tickets on site or in advance online. When you get a pass, you can get a pass for just there or a combo pass that lets you in a few other sites. The others sites are also cool, but honestly, you can see the same stuff from the road, the pass just gets you in a little closer. And all the stuff closes at 3pm so plan accordingly. So many crazy cool things are within walking distance from here.

• The Olympic stadium was way cool! It wasn't built thousands of years ago like the other sites, but it was over hundred years ago and was way cool.

• Non-Rev - went pretty good for us. Flights to and from the US were wide open, but I'm guessing that will change quite a bit during the busier season. JFK flights to ATH go every day and from ATL is about every other day. The flight back from ATH to ATL was way open but was payload optimized and the 90 open seats all vanished in the couple hours before the flight. 

• Zed to Santorini worked out, but during busy season, this could be tough. Plane tickets were around 75 euros, so it isn't too bad. The Zed over there for the 5 of us ended up between $250-300 and if we had bought tickets it would have been $400. There are plenty of ferries over to the islands too which you should definitely look into!

                                  

• Greece felt very safe and when it was late, there were plenty of women walking around alone which was comforting. There was never a time that I was worried about our safety. Ok, I always worry about our safety and am constantly scanning the crowds and environment for threats to my family but I never felt like our family was threatened. It sounds like pick pocketers might be a thing so definitely be on your lookout.

Full send, this place is awesome! Definitely try and ferry or fly out to some of the other islands. If I'm missing something, let me know!