I spent this year' holiday in Greece and stayed there for two weeks, so I saw a good amount of gorgeous places which I wanna capture here on my blog. In the first place I honestly wrote this blog post as a reminder for myself but equally I'm happy to share my impressions and experiences with you. I was all excited since I booked this trip and was so happy when my holiday finally began - it was so needed. Holiday is always the best time of year and what holiday would be better than a holiday at the beach!? I love a city break from time to time too but nothing beats being at the beach/by the sea. That's just another level of relaxation. During a city break I often feel like I need to visit as much as I can in a day - and afterwards I'm even more exhausted than before my holiday. So I need holiday from holiday ;) You've just got those, for example, two weeks in which you should totally relax and recover to be ready for work again afterwards. Ok, let's start now, shall we?
My favourite things to help me relax on holiday:
beach walks (those are definitely my Nr. 1 thing to do as I really like walking in general. I mostly walk along the beach every morning, which is the best time to do it. First: the sun isn't that intense yet (I don't get a sunburn), secondly: the beach isn't busy at that time of day and lastly: it wakes me up.)
There was actually a cute little boat harbour at the right end of the beach, like 20 min. from the hotel. As well as a little chapel.
reading (I read quite a lot at home too but being on holiday I still got more time to just read, read, read all day long. You'll always find at least two book in my suitcase, with at least 500 pages. Yeah, I'm a massive bookworm…)
swimming and chilling at the beach (obviously being by the sea, swimming is a big part of the holiday. I love swimming and I mean proper swimming not just going in and floating around in the sea. I'm actually a water rat (I used to stay in the water until my lips became blue haha). After a long swim I like to just chill on the sunbed and listen to the waves/sea breeze, simply relax - also, being on holiday means NO make-up, it's a make-up free zone!)
watching the sunrise/sunset (I can't decide which one I prefer. I just love both! It's so relaxing to see the sun rise and a new day dawns whereas the sunset calls a night, which is amazing to watch as well. Being at the beach and watch a sunrise/sunset is just another level of beauty and getting up early is definitely worth it!)
As I said, I like a city break too so visiting other cities/towns of Greece was a must for me. I got around by car and visited Lindos, Symi, Kallithea and Rhodes.
First stop Lindos:
Lindos is a pretty village with loads of white houses which makes it so beautiful to look at. Of course being in Lindos, I walked up the acropolis. It was bloody hot up there but the view was so stunning, so it was worth all the sweating. Literally every corner was so cute and there was quite a lot to look at. After wandering around for quite a long time I jumped into the sea to cool down.
Next stop Symi: Symi is a Greek island, so I needed to take a 1.5 hour ferry ride. That was actually a really exciting experience. I've never travelled with a ferry in my life before and that ferry was huge!! Arriving at the port of Symi was amazing, it looked so magical with its colourful painted houses. It was even hotter there than in Lindos the day before. It was windless and the sun was burning down so intensely that it was nearly unbearable to walk around. After a swim in the sea and lunch I had a little walk around and took a little train to get up the hill as well (couldn't have walked that distance in the heat). Symi was one of the prettiest places I've visited so far. I loved all of those different painted houses and the minimalistic style of life. I think they just have one church, one post office, one petrol station, one bank, a few shops/supermarkets and coffee shops/restaurants. And the common means of transport are bikes, motorbikes, boats and just a few cars. That's so cool! I would even say Symi was the cutest places I've been to this holiday (I even fell a little in love with that island).
Next stop Kallithea:The next trip was to the thermal spring of Kallithea. It was sadly closed ages ago, so I couldn't actually use it but it was so pretty to look at and walk around the buildings. After finishing the walkabout I made several stops at different beaches. The seawater looked just magical that I wanted to take a ton of images instead of going for a swim. Also, I saw so many cute beach bars.
Final stop Rhodes:I actually went to Rhodes three times: once at night-time and once just for a quick walkabout. But during the final trip I actually walked around the old town and admired the architecture which is more than beautiful.
To escape the heat during noon I went for a visit in the Butterfly Valley. The drive there was quite long from the old town but so beautiful - surrounded by the woods and the beauty of nature. The scenery of the Valley was literally amazing, it was actually quite nice with lots of greenery and shade which made the heat a little more bearable. At first I didn’t even notice the butterlies, because the trees were covered with them. They were literally everywhere I looked, there were loads resting everywhere, on the trees, on rocks, literally everywhere they could sit down. So beautiful!
During my stay in Greece I rented a speedboat twice as well, to get to especially the Anthony Qiunn Bay but other bays as well. The seawater was so turquoise and it’s said that the Anthony Quinn Bay is one of the most beautiful bays in Greece - so of course I had to go and see it by myself.
The remaining time I was neither on the speedboat nor exploring Greece by car, I was relaxing at the beach (see above). And probably one of the best things happend when I was halfway through my holiday: I saw the blood moon!! That is something pretty anyway, but seeing it at the beach was just gorgeous.
I really enjoyed that holiday and headed home with a ton of images. The flight home was delayed by an hour but all in all the holiday was definitely successful and relaxing…
