October 26, 2021
Athens, Mycenae, Corinth, Livadeia
Greece, in a nutshell, did not stole my heart. I would describe the trip there as one of the least successful of my life, though of course that doesn't mean there weren't nice moments as well.
I'll confess that I planned this trip inspred by the Hades game.
The cities and streets of Greece are one big chaos. I have not encountered anywhere else such a complete lack of rules in traffic. Even outside of the road, you could sense the tension with the locals - propaganda posters hung at every turn, and the streets were full of police and gendarmerie.
The food was by far the least successful part of the trip. I don't even have a single photo of it because... it was just so sad. Coffee shops - one on top of the other - and since I don't drink coffee, I had nothing to look for there. Finding lunch was already more of a challenge. Water was almost always served to the table, which was sometimes charged extra and sometimes not. The food itself was quite greasy, and I even got poisoned once, so much that the entire next day was excluded from sightseeing. At the end of the tour, desperate, we even ordered sushi, whic.... was one of the worse sushi I've eaten. For a person who often travels for new flavors, it was really quite a disappointment.
The out-of-town views were definitely a better aspect. I particularly remember fondly a lodge in the mountains, with a single store and restaurant. The historic ruins were nice, although they didn't steal my heart - visiting another one quickly had a feeling of repetitiveness. Without a car, it would be impossible to even get to these sights - wanting to see more than the cities, you rather have to set your sights on renting one.
To end on a positive note, this is definitely a country for a cat lovers. Cats! Cats, cats, cats. Everywhere. Eating lunch, six of them gathered around the table, and upon opening a window in the rented house, a redhead immediately jumped on the window. Once, while exploring the ruins, we even had two guide cats that did not leave our side, every now and then jumping into the surrounding trees.