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Travelling 2020

July - November 2020
Our travelling plans collide with the global pandemic Covid 19 and take some unexpected turns. Quite literally making it up as we go and travelling to any countries that will take us! Read more
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  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 1

    Santorini Day 1

    July 26, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Seamless journey from London to Santorini. Heathrow pretty empty, 3 seats to ourselves on the plane, and we were the first off on the other side. Even the facemasks didn't piss us off.

    3 hours later and we arrived in Santorini - of course the buildings at the airport were white and had domes for ceilings.

    Within 20 minutes we reached Finikia Memories, our home for the next 4 days. The hotel was traditional Santorini down to the tee. Gorgeous view overlooking the sea with tastefully decorated cave like minimal suites.

    We had a chilled evening and made the most of the picturesque dinner spot in the hotel's restaurant whilst watching the sunset. The traditional Santorini tomato cakes were delicious and we were particularly fond of the Greek Eza Pilsner. The perfect first night of our trip ✈️🌅🍺🍅    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 2

    Santorini Day 2

    July 27, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Woke up and had a breakfast at Finikia Memories - had delicious Greek pastries and omelettes on the terrace overlooking the ocean.

    We wondered into Oia, taking in the gorgous caldera views. We stopped by the office for island boat tours and were completely suckered in by the charismatic Peter . Classic American customer service combined with Del Boy esque sales patter, had us hooked within 5 minutes but talked for 40 more - genuinely nice guy though who gave us a lot of good advice on what to do and where to go.

    We spent the afternoon by the pool and snacked on the freshest pitta and creamiest hummus from the local supermarket!

    Spent the evening at Santorini Mou - an authentic Greek tavern with live music. They place a flag on your table so everyone knows where you're from (not ideal for us hah). We were sat next to a Hungarian family celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in the exact venue they married in 10 years ago.

    At Santorini Mou, they take pictures of every customer and file in huge albums! Our 12 year old waiter (Named Aris we think..) gave us a tour, pointed out their famous past guests (Jennifer Aniston and Greenday) and Craig made sure he showed off his flag knowledge.

    Ended the night with a margarita at Finikia Memories - made by the experienced and kind barman Dimitrious who took no offence in my amatuer explanation on 'how to make a margarita'.. 💙🇬🇧📷🍸    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 3

    Santorini Day 3

    July 28, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Woke up early (feeling a little worse for wear from last night) and went straight out to start our 10km hike from Oia to Fira, the island's capital!

    The route took us along the winding (and steep) coastal path with breathtaking views over the whole island. This walk isn't for the faint hearted and good trainers / running shoes are required.

    When we finally reached Fira Craig went to the shop and came back with a beer and a bottle of Moët to celebrate our achievement! We sat on a lovely shaded bench, looking out onto the sea enjoying our reward (at 11am).

    We did a little exploring of Fira and stopped for a fish pedicure - the weirdest feeling but left us with much smoother feet (although they don't work miracles, Craig!!).

    We stopped for lunch at Argo which had spectacular views over the caldera. The Fava with octopus was amazing and the tomato cakes went down a treat (again). Then onto PK Cocktail bar for a few post dinner aperitifs. I went for the espresso martini (for a boost after the hike and food coma) and a 'London Girl': gin, elderflower, grapefruit - how could I resist!?

    We hopped on the bus back to Finika memories and spent the evening relaxing and had another spectacular meal at the resort. 🗻🍾🐟🍸    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 4

    Santorini Day 4

    July 29, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a long hike the day before today was always going to be a rest day.

    After breakfast in the resort we lounged around the pool and our terrace, mostly reading and playing the odd game of cards...

    Around 6pm we took the same costal path from the previous day but in the opposite direction towards Oia (pronounced Ee-ah) and found a great bench for pictures and a great view!

    We had a great early evening dinner at Karma And again stuck to the starters only, in a tapas style attempt to try as many different things as we could.

    By the time we had overeaten our way through yet another menu, the sun had already disappeared and the crowds were walking in the opposite direction towards the restaurants as we headed to the romantic hotspot! Even at a time the island is said to be at 20% capacity this was still a busy place, regular season must be swamped!

    We caught some great views of the night sky post sunset which we both seem to prefer!

    Finally we took some side streets away from the relative hustle n bustle and came across a lovely terraced bar called Sphynx with santorini sparkling wines, an organic locally brewed beer (amazing) and fab music! After a few drinks we walked the main road back to the resort and had a margarita before an early night in preparation for the boat trip the next day!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 5

    Santorini Day 5

    July 30, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Another early start for the boat trip. We said our goodbyes to the staff at Finikia Memories, scoffed down our breakfast and jumped in the taxi to the harbour.

    The boat took us around the south side of the island. The first stop was the hot springs next to the volcano. Craig and I jumped into the water but didn't fancy swimming the whole way to the springs. (they said competant swimmers only....)

    The next stop was next to some impressive caves. We jumped in for a quick snorkel and then lunch was ready. The fried fish was amazing!

    The final stops were to see the white and red beach. We were warned not to visit the red beach by the crew due to frequent landslides. Madly the beach was packed with families who had ignored/didnt seem to care about the warnings.

    It was also at this point Gem dropped the idea to look into changing our flights around and staying in Greece another week instead of going home, a superb idea in my mind and 'the most spontaneous thing I have ever done in my life' in Gemmas!!

    After the boat trip we were dropped to our next hotel, Marvarit Suites. The rooms were beautiful and had private plunge pools. Although we were a little put off at the proximity to the airport (you can see the runway from the room), the flights were infrequent and the service and attention to detail from the staff more than compensated!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 6

    Santorini Day 6

    July 31, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    After waking up 6ft from the private jacuzzi and having a banquet of a breakfast delivered to our suite, most of the morning and early afternoon were taken up doing nothing but relaxing, and after a pretty active few days this was a perfect leveller.

    We were treated to a bottle of wine and beers on the house from Vaya, who was like our Greek mum, looking after us throughout the stay - perfect before our trip to Santo Wines in the evening.

    We were the first guests to arrive at Santo and were rewarded with a prime table at the front of the sunset view terrace. After an initial taster of 5 'crisp' wines (that went down far too quickly) we changed tactics and started ordering two glasses a time of sparkling wines that Gem was confident she'd like. To be fair some were very nice and by sunset they were obviously starting to take effect!! After previously talking about (and subsequntlywriting off) a trip to Mykonos, the flights were booked for a day trip before you could say Yamas!

    We finished with some great pictures taken by the patient waiters who, at sunset time are basically walking selfie sticks, and jumped in our taxi back home! A great evening, probably my favourite of the trip so far! 🥐🍷🍾🌅    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 7

    Santorini Day 7

    August 1, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    On what was intially supposed to be our last day in Santorini we started by checking out of our lovely room, which was unfortunately not available for us to extend our stay in. Luckily we were able to move into a larger suite which was even nicer and we spent the rest of the morning relaxing on the terrace.

    We had a taxi booked at 1.30pm to head to perivelos beach (the black sand beach) which was nowhere near capacity but still lively considering the empty nature of the island at this time!

    We headed for Jojo's Beach Bar after a recommendation from some Brits on our boat trip - though they recommend getting a bed for €50, we were guided to a table with a beach view and 2 comfy sofas that was more than enough for us. Gee'd up by our touch with the tables we promptly set about drinking 50euros worth of 'basically free' drinks and ended up with a bill over double that, think they saw us coming.. but worth it for the delicious Santorini Mules!

    After a fun afternoon of boozing and people watching we headed onto the beach for a splash about (what sand...) before jumping into our taxi home.

    Gem spent the evening reading on the terrace whilst I sat down for an evening of FA Cup final straight into the return of boxing Post covid, perfect!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 8

    Santorini Day 8

    August 2, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    This day was saved purely for appreciating the amazing resort and suite we found ourselves in, after another big breakfast (sat inside with the double windows opening for a clear sight of the lovely view) we spent all day and night relaxing, reading, playing cards and not a lot else.

    We sat out until well after sunset to appreciate the colours of our last Santorini post sunset sky and got prepared to leave the next morning for our trip to Athens.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 9

    Athens Day 1

    August 3, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    After an easy 40 minute flight from Santorini we arrived into Athens immediately jumping on to a metro to our city centre Airbnb, excited to be back in a bustling city after a week!

    The apartment is perfectly located within a short walk of Kerameikos metro station and a further 20/30 minutes from the city centre.

    Once we dropped the bags the first stop was for food and luckily on the next street to ours was a small shack type restaurant called Soublaki with no tables, chairs or even menu!! The guy cooked and served from the same small room, big enough only for him a cooker and fridge for drinks. He casually told me... 'menu no' before leading me to his BBQ cooker to say.. 'pork, chicken, lamb' raising each skewer up to my face as he listed them. Great menu in my eyes and 1euro50 for the pork sandwich was a bargain!

    We then walked up from our area through the main city centre street (which had so many cool little side street to explore) and settled on a vegetarian restaurant called Avocado for some dinner.

    Then headed for the national Garden to explore, walked through lots of different parks but each was almost overgrown and more of a walk through park than somewhere you would sit to relax!

    We also came across the stadium, which was unfortunately just closing but was an impressive sight even from outside and will be revisited for sure!

    After lots of walking we settled on a street in a hipster area called Pangrati and a particular street lined with cocktail bars, cafes and an irish bar (of course). In the Irish bar we had a game of darts and chatted to Alex and his friends who were nice and gave us some great tips for places to go, after we jumped in a taxi to a shisha bar near our apartment which was nice but I still don't understand the point of shisha and we left soon after!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 10

    Athens Day 2

    August 4, 2020 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Unfortunately the worst morning of the trip - we couldn't get the air con to work which resulted in an airless, sleepless night in a 30 degree apartment. It also happened to be the day where we had to stay in and wait for our package of belongings to be sent over from England!! We tried cold showers, sleeping on the balcony and I even brushed my teeth in the fridge!

    By 12ish the air BnB host arrived to fix the air con and by around 4 the package had arrived safely and we were ready to head out for another evening in Athens.

    I had found a vegan gyros place on trip advisor that looked great so we set off on our 40 minute walk to 'CookooMela' (part of the name translates into the grilled mushrooms used for the filling).

    We stopped at a traditional tavern on the walk with live Greek music and cheap beers! The good prices continued at CuckooMela - €3 for the gyros and €1.5 for a beer! We both devoured the amazing wraps, even Craig was shocked at how delicious they were.

    Our next stop was a wine bar called 'by the glass'. I was introduced to an amazing Greek wine 'L'Esprit Du Lac' that tasted just like a Provence rosé (even better than whispering angel - shamelessly my first drink in the Greek wine bar). Craig also found a great bear called Septem. We headed home after a few drinks and enjoyed a proper, cool night's sleep!    Read more

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