One of the most beautiful countries that I have ever been to (and yes I know I have said this before) has been Greece.  Not only did I get a view of the city, Athens, but also was able to see one of the Greek Islands, Aegina.  On day one, I did a four and a half hour walking tour that brought me to all of the main points and ruins in Athens.  Not only did I see these beautiful places, but also heard a lot of history about each place.

There were so many interesting aspects to Greece that were very unique and that I never noticed anywhere else.  One being, how there are so many stray animals all around the city.  Not stray animals as in only cats wandering around like we have at home, but dogs as well.  This bewildered me.  Everywhere I looked were random, full grown dogs wandering around the streets or sleeping on the sidewalks.  It was very sad at first, since at home, the only dogs you see are either pets or in a shelter.   What was even more interesting was how nice and friendly all of the dogs were.  They would casually walk up to you and wag their tail if you pet them.  As the weekend wore on, I noticed that locals in town would put out food and water for the dogs to have.  None of them looked to be starving in the least, but very well fed.  I was almost floored when I saw dogs and cats hanging out in the Parthenon at the top of the Acropolis.

Something else, that is very random but definitely worth mentioning, is how amazingly sweet the strawberries were.  They were sold at a lot of the little stands in the squares and markets.  Now that may not seem too unusual, but they sold them by the kilo, which is 2.2lbs.  Between myself and a friend of mine I traveled around Greece with, and within the three full days we were there, we ate more than 3lbs of strawberries.

It surprised me after visiting places like Paris, how much the Greeks loved Americans and loved that we were there visiting their country.  Everywhere we went and spoke, someone would ask us where we were from.  Once they heard “Chicago”, they would tell us how much they loved America and Chicago.  More times than not, they would also tell me how beautiful my “ocean eyes” were, since no pure Greeks had blue eyes.  Many restaurant workers on the streets would warn us to keep a close hold on our bags for those non-Greeks living in Athens, because, of course, no Greeks would steal from you.  The restaurant workers would always give you a good deal to come and eat in their restaurant.  On our first full day in Athens, we ate at a restaurant that offered us free wine as well as a free shot after dinner.  The waiters were very nice and welcoming, helping us decide what to order and what was good, which, of course, was everything.

Something that I did expect, though, were the cheap prices that we found.  Since Greece’s economy is not the best, prices for food or souvenirs, compared to other places, were very inexpensive.  We found souvlaki  for only €2, and t-shirts were as low as €5.  It was great! Though, we might have went a little overboard since everything was so cheap.  However, I would rather spend my money and help out the caring people of Greece than some of the other places that I visited where they hated Americans.

On Saturday, we decided to go to Aegina, one of the Greek Islands for the day.  It was so excited as we got on a huge cruise ship to take the hour journey through the Mediterranean.  The ship had a nice seating area and food.  Once we were on the island we rented 4-wheelers.  We each decided to get our own and for the entire day, both of the 4-wheelers were only €55, something unheard of back home.  He allowed us to have them for the day, and we could take them anywhere.  Gaining up to 40mph, we flew down the streets and rode all along the coast.  It was the most beautiful sights with bright, clear blue water all the way.

Though, things couldn’t go smooth sailing all the way.  After our fifth stop, we found that we could no longer kick start the ATV, the clutch kept getting stuck.  As though this may seem like a huge inconvenience, which, in a way it was, it was a blessing in disguise too.  We were able to meet so many new people since, anytime we wanted to stop and explore, we had to ask someone to kick start my bike for me.  We met a university professor who invited us to stay with him for the summer so he could teach us Greek and who was obsessed with our blue eyes.  We also met construction workers who told us not to stop the bikes again, seeing as by the end of the day it took them quite a while to even get them working again.  Each person was always more than happy to help us in any way they could and give us any helpful hints about the island that would make our stay more enjoyable.  Riding up through the mountains and overlooking the coast and beaches was breathtaking.  If I could go somewhere next week and I didn’t have to worry about cost (since flights to Greece are a bit pricey) I would definitely hop on a plane to Greece, probably Santorini, another island that is known to be the most beautiful.

Though the people were nice, they might have been a bit too nice at times.  It was clear to me the difference in the culture in Greek and the culture in America.  In America, you usually don’t go up to someone randomly while they are walking down the street and start talking to them and ask them out.  Well, at least not in my experience.  However, I do have experience with that happening to me in Greece.  Walking down a main street one night, a guy, probably around my age, came up to me and starting walking and talking to me.  I assumed that he was a restaurant worker and was trying to get us to go into his restaurant to eat, but I soon realized this wasn’t the case as he asked me to go out for drinks with him.  I was very thrown off by this and really didn’t know how to respond.  He told me how he loved America and stared hard into my eyes.  I’m really not used to that kind of attention and, since I did not know his intentions, I told him I couldn’t, but thanked him for the offer.  He looked at me with a blank expression, not seeming to have understood that I was saying no, so we turned and continued walking.

This was not my only experience with very forward Greek men.  On our last night, we were sitting in the square talking, when a middle aged man who was sitting next to us asked us where we were from.  We told him Chicago and then had a nice conversation with him about where our ancestors were from and how the economy in Greece got so bad.  It was very interested and we appreciated finally having a normal conversation with someone who didn’t end up creeping us out.  We thought too soon.  After about a half n hour, the man asked us to go get drinks with him and his friend.  We respectfully declined saying we had an early flight the next morning.  He told us we should just go out with him and he could drive us to the airport in the morning, but we said no.  He then proceeded to look at me and tell me that I had “the body for sin and the mind for challenge”.  Though I think that’s supposed to be a compliment, I took that as my cue to head back to the hostel and go to bed.  He insisted on giving me his business card because “now that I have met you I don’t want to lose you”.  The whole encounter was very weird in my American perspective.  The man was probably my parents age.  Walking home, we counted how many guys looked us up and down and I realized that wearing a dress in Athens was not a good life decision.

Though the men might be more forward than we’re used to, it might just be a part of their culture and what they think is appropriate, so I’m not holding it against them.  They were always respectful and nice, which is still better than some of the creepy people back home.  Even though some of the guys did creep us out a bit, we never felt like we weren’t safe or too uncomfortable.  I absolutely loved my stay in Greece and wish it didn’t go by as fast as it did.  If anyone is thinking of a beautiful get-a-way vacation, I highly recommend going to Greece, you can’t go wrong.