ATHENS AND THE HEART OF GREECE

Γεια σας! (Yah sas) - Hello!

I'm Anna. I love travel, sunshine, and good food, so Greece seemed like the perfect trip for me in 2022! This trip was a celebration for finishing my doctorate, and after spending two years writing about study abroad, I was ready to get out and see the world again! Follow along with me on my 14-day tour of Greece on the Rick Steves' Athens and the Heart of Greece.

This was my second Rick Steves Europe tour. I continue to choose Rick Steves tours for a variety of reasons, especially:

The people. For me, travel is best experienced with great travel companions. Even though I've traveled on RS tours solo, I always meet wonderful tour buddies, who share the same passion for travel and experiences. We come from many different places, but we all share a zest for new and fun experiences! The tour guides and local guides are personable and extremely knowledgeable experts who bring the sites and countries alive for us with stories and tips about the culture, language, and history.
The philosophy. Travel should be an eye-opening experience - a chance not just to see new things, but to live them! I like that Rick Steves embraces through-the-back-door travel and tours always include unforgettable, hands-on experiences and interactions with locals. From cooking demos to live music, from dancing to an olive oil factory, I really feel like I've been to a place, met real people, and experienced a place after a RS tour. Tour guides are of course the real glue that holds an RS tour together and they are key to opening some of those back-doors to wonderful local restaurants, cultural tidbits, and local experiences.
The places. I love staying in a hotel that allows me to walk out the door and explore (no bus, train, taxi, or long walk necessary - although in Greece it may include an uphill hike at some point!). I also love that RS take travels off the beaten path into smaller cities and towns that are every bit (if not more) interesting than the "big" sites. As a bonus, while those big sites are often congested nightmares with long lines, pushing & shoving, and huge crowds, the less-discovered places let you breathe and explore without advanced reservations or strict time frames. And, when you visit those big sites, RS makes sure everything is arranged ahead of time to allow you more time to explore & learn rather than wait in line.
And of course... the fun!

Scrapbook Navigation

We covered a lot of miles on this trip! Because we often visited several places in one day, I chose to create one page for each day of the tour to keep everything organized. You can read through my trip pages chronologically using the links at the end of every page. Or, if you'd like to jump between days, you can navigate using the top menu buttons. I've also included links to my 3 favorite days of the trip below if you just want to read the highlights (although I recommend reading more!).

Each page of this scrapbook includes the day number, a description of my day, and photographs of the sites, sounds, and tastes of the day (and maybe even a video!)

Going The Extra Mile

Before you get started, I want to bring your attention to a few special items as you navigate my scrapbook. First of all, I hope you bring your appetite along with you on this tour because pictures of the many of the delicious meals I enjoyed in Greece are featured often.

To give a more in-depth and unique look at this tour, I've also these extra features:

Snapshot - A by-the-numbers review of the day. RSE tours can be quite active, so I'll share how many steps & miles I walked each day to give you an idea of what you could expect on tour. Of course, you often have the choice to opt-out of certain activities or take it easier during free time on tour.
Where in time am I? (Cue the "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?" theme) Greece is... ancient. A lot of the sites we saw are really, really old - so old that it became hard for me to conceptualize and appreciate. We had to "use our imagination" often at sites to visualize what it looked like hundreds or thousands of years ago. To put that in perspective, I've included timelines for where we are in history throughout this scrapbook to give you an idea of when sites were constructed and other major events.
It's all Greek to me! - Knowing a few phrases in the local language often helps when traveling and can open back doors to unique experiences. A trip to Greece in high school motivated me to learn Greek in college (for fun!) because I wanted to be able to understand all the conversations & signs I saw. Well, it's been a while since college, but I'm happy to report that this trip, I could read all the signs - just don't ask me what they meant! I'll try to teach you a few key phrases in Greek along the way.
Insider Info - I'll offer some of my tips & tricks for travel in Greece or in general.
Anna's Animal Encounters - This became a bit of a running joke on the tour, but I met a lot of animals and not always in the most expected ways! There are a lot of cats in Greece who happily posed for pictures, but I met more than cats on this trip.
Extras! - After Greece in May & June, I was also lucky to travel on the new Rick Steves' Best of Tuscany in 12 Days tour in Fall 2022. I included some of my favorite moments from that tour at the end of this scrapbook.