Category: Greece

Athens, Greece

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In 1987 Dan’s parents left Poland claiming they were going on vacation to Greece but actually planning on leaving Poland permanently. They drove to Greece and lived just outside of Athens for just over two years before little Henryk Daniel Palyska was born in Athens, Greece. In 1991, once their immigration papers passed, the family of three picked up and moved countries again – this time to Canada – and Dan has since never been back to his birthplace. Therefore, when planning our around the world trip, Athens was a must-see place. Continue reading →

The Rough Luck Continues Another Day

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(*This post is just on our first day in Athens; for our full account of Athens please see post: “Athens“)

We planned on spending three nights in Athens and ended up adding a fourth after our failed week on the Greek Islands (see post: Travelling with High Expectations = Disappointment.) Our previous post ended with a positive note on our excitement for Athens. Unfortunately, our bad luck continued. We arrived just after midnight to our Airbnb which was more like an apartment building turned into a makeshift hostel. We’ve encountered similar situations before: someone rents our multiple rooms in their house and basically makes it into a hostel, and sometimes it works our fine when it’s run properly. This was something different, our Airbnb host rented every floor in the five-story apartment building (the bottom floor was a make-shift receptionist area). Continue reading →

Travelling with High Expectations = Disappointment (Greek Islands)

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Every time we set expectations for a place we seem to regret it. With the route we were following over land through Europe, we wouldn’t have made it to the Greek Islands until sometime in late October or November. So, we flew out of our way to make it for the tail-end of high season before it got too cold to enjoy the beaches and because most of the restaurants and hotels shut down for winter. We wanted to experience the famous party scene on Mykonos and watch the sunsets in Santorini. Greece was the only spot we booked our plane tickets and accommodation in advance. We booked a room right on Paradise Beach on Mykonos to be at the party area and a more remote (cheaper) room on Santorini planning to rent a scooter for four days and explore the island. We were going to eat cheap and delicious Greek food daily, buy fresh olives, watch countless sunsets, lay out on the beach, get tanned, etc. etc. Continue reading →

Travel Day Blues

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We were literally flying from one paradise to another: from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia to the Greek Islands. However, travelling is not always as fun, easy or as perfect as it sounds. And today was one of those days. On paper it was clear that it wasn’t going to be a great day: we had an early morning flight out of Split, Croatia with an eight hour layover in Rome, arriving well after dark in Mykonos, Greece; but we were hoping for the best. Continue reading →