Greece 2026

I went to Greece in September 2026 with my brother and cousin for two weeks. It was a memorable trip! Worthy of my first time in Europe (and my first time flying internationally in ten years) -- I would not have retrospectively picked anywhere else. I also worked remotely for five days during the trip (otherwise I would only have stayed for a week).

We stayed in a suburb outside of Athens for most of the trip. We made excursions into Athens and nearby places for daytrips, like Mycenae, Nafplio, and Sounion. Afterwards, my brother and I continued with a multi-day road trip, visiting Meteora and Delphi, before returning to Athens for a bit more sightseeing before my flight home.

Highlights of the trip

• History and ruins -- I enjoyed the experience of seeing them. I liked thinking about what life was like for the people who were there thousands of years ago -- standing in the exact locations where I was standing, and living amidst the traces I was looking at.
• Spending quality time with my brother and cousin -- exploring sites, swimming at beaches, and wandering cities together.
• The book experience -- I read two books during the trip that directly connected to many of the places we visited, and it enhanced both my experience of the books and my experiences of the places. (More on this below.)
• The beaches and water (pictures below) -- we swam on some really nice beaches with quite clear water which was moderately warm to a little bit cool, depending on the day. At Vouliagmeni beach, I had probably one of the most pleasant beach swims I've ever had. Besides for traditional sandy beaches, we also swam at a couple rocky coves, including the one below the Church of the Seven Martyrs^[1] in Kastro on the island of Sifnos -- that was a really fun place to jump into the water from the rocks and swim.
• Meteora -- the monasteries of Meteora are visually incredible, seamlessly built into the top of huge vertical uplifts of stone. They felt like something out of Avatar The Last Airbender, and I could imagine air benders flying to the monasteries on their gliders.
• Food -- it was surprisingly easy to find delicious vegan options at just about every restaurant we went to^[2]. Traditional Greek taverna food has a bunch of vegan options (mostly bean dishes and vegetables). My favorite was gemista (stuffed peppers and tomatoes); I also loved the various vegetable pies like spanakopita, leek pie, onion pie; dolmas; enjoyed falafel wraps; tries a couple veganized versions of normally non-vegan greek dishes (moussaka and pasticio); tried a couple vegan versions of desserts (loukomades, baklava).

Feelings prior to the trip

I'm going to be honest - leading up to the trip, I was not in an ideal headspace for the travel. I sometimes get antsy when leaving home -- partly because I feel like I have so much I want to do here -- and I had already just spent a week in Bellingham, WA (great trip as well!) with only about a week of free time at home before I'd be on my way to Greece.

But thankfully, by the time it actually arrived, I was ready and hyped. I had a great time in Greece with no regrets, and even feel that the space away from NYC was good for me.

One thing that helped my mindset was that I started to consume some Greece-related media:

• While in Bellingham, I started reading The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller, which is an impressionist travelogue based on the author's experience in Greek.
• Before the trip, I watched two movies set in Greece: Never On Sunday (1960) and Boy on a Dolphin (1957).

The hope was that seeing and reading about places in Greece would get me excited to see them myself in person. And it pretty much had that effect! There is a resonance between amplifying the experience of the media by seeing sites in person; and in amplifying the experience of being at these places in person by having previously consumed content related to it.

The other major thing that helped my mindset was actually planning out the itinerary of what we were going to do and see in Greece. My brother and I were a bit last-minute in planning it out (we didn't really start until a couple of days before the trip). But once I saw the tentative schedule (which was packed, somewhat aggressively, with sites and activities) I started to feel excited, not only for the activities themselves, but also partly as a sort of challenge to see how well we would complete the proposed timeline.

The book experience

I read two books during the trip. One was finishing The Colossus of Maroussi. After that, I started the Robert Fagles translation of Aeschylus's The Oresteia. Aeschylus was a writer who lived in ancient Greece (around 500 BC). The Oresteia is the only surviving complete trilogy of ancient Greek plays. It tells the story of Agamemmnon, his murder by his wife Claetemnestra after he returned from the Trojan War, their son Orestes' revenge against Claetmenestra, and the resultant founding of a jury system in Athens.

For both books, I sort of traced the footsteps of the characters. For The Colossus of Maroussi, Henry Miller describes his excursions throughout Greece, including his trip to Mycenae and the Tomb of Agammemnon, and the impact they had on him. That definitely amplified my experience of those places when I actually visited them. He also spent a lot of time socializing in the suburbs outside of Athens, which was a similar environment to where I way staying for most of the trip. Also, simply the nature of reading a travelogue while I myself was traveling also gave me a feeling in the back of my mind that I could also be describing my own trip in a similar narrative fashion as he was.

Similarly, the first part of The Oresteia takes place in what was probably Mycenae itself. Then later on, Orestes (the main character) escapes to Delphi and shelters at the Sanctuary of Apollo -- The timing was such that I was at Delphi (and saw the ruins of the sancturary/temple) just about when getting to that part of the story^[3]. Then, Orestes goes to Athens and sees the judicial system founded on the Areopagus Hill. (After exploring the Acropolis, I made sure to check out Areopagus Hill as well, because I knew this was upcoming in the plays. Also, we traveled from Delphi back to Athens, again tracing Orestes' path.)

It was very cool to reflect those book experiences onto my own visits. I felt that it enhanced both the books and the places, resonating in both directions -- adding meaning to the literary experience by seeing those places in person; and adding meaning to the in-person visits by being able to connect it to the stories. It's something I would love to do for future trips as well.

(Side note about how I came to read the Oresteia -- I asked ChatGPT what would be a good book to read, given my itinerary. So it really was no coincidence at how well it.. coincided with my path.)

Post-trip takeaways

• It ended up being good to get distance from home and having a break from routines. The space let my brain pause and reflect. Now that I'm back home, I feel revitalized in certain ways.
• I'm excited for more travel in the future. This trip gave me a better idea of what style of travel I may like, e.g. the movie+books warming me up and giving me meaning. Also, knowing that I would have limited time at a place, I may want to come in with more historical context (or other related context, like the books/movies) because it makes sites more meaningful to already come in with some understanding, and less like I am just going through the motions of seeing the places I should see.
• As usual in trips where I'm not the one driving the rental car, it makes me more eager to drive more and become more experienced so i am more confident/comfortable driving (though to my credit, I've improved a lot there in the last couple years, but I have space for more comfort+confidence).
• I don't at all feel like i've "completed" Greece, and in fact I feel motivated to continue learning more about the history. Any learning I do moving forward will only add onto the foundation and memories of the actual sites I visited. e.g. I'd love to watch some videos showing guided tours with more info about some of the sites we visited. I'd love to watch a production of The Oresteia plays. I'm also feeling more motivated in general to see productions of any ancient Greek plays or related material. And now because of the connections I can make to this trip, I feel I'm more interested than ever in Greek myths and related culture/history/stories.
• I want to cook the traditional (naturally vegan) Greek dishes I had, and also find recipes for veganized versions of greek dishes that are not normally vegan, and also try Greek food in NYC.

Specific sites/ruins

Mycenae

Lion's Gate - loved the moment of walking through this, feeling like a threshold, imagining that people in ancient times walked through this exact spot, fantasizing that there is a bustling ancient city just beyond the gate.

Agamemnon's Tomb (aka Treasury of Atreus, a short drive from the main archaeological site of Mycenae) -- cool structure in itself, and obviously I had the Henry Miller connection to think about (because he made a big deal about this spot in particular). I had a cool moment of walking into it by myself (like it was empty). I immediately noticed a really interesting echo effect, which I excitedly showed by brother and cousin when they got there. When you stand in the center and tap your feet even so gently, you hear a series of clicks reverberate through the conical room.

Temple of Poseidon

Possibly my favorite temple we visited, mostly because of the environment it's in. It's on a high cliff surrounded by sweeping sea views. So nice to look at the water while up there. Maybe also I feel some kind of connection to Poseidon (of all gods) because of Percy Jackson.

Acropolis

Parthenon - It was incredibly crowded. It was great to see (and a must-do), and it was really cool, but I feel like I felt kind of lost and didn't know how to orient my thoughts around it. That feeling could also be related to the rush of the crowds, and also the preconceived hype of the place.

Theater of Dionysus - Given my interest in theater, I was excited to see ruins of what were probably the oldest ones we know of (and directly connected to what modern theater became). So I liked seeing this.

Acropolis Museum - I loved every moment of the basement of this museum. Apparently when constructing the museum, they realized that there were ruins of an ancient village underneath the foundations, and you can see the excavation of it. There are hundreds of little details to see here. It was so so so cool to me.

Areopagus (hill) -- already mentioned in the context of The Oresteia, but it was just a mound of rocks we walked on for a few minutes. Nice view of the Parthenon from it.

Ancient argos

The Temple of Hephaestus - the most well-preserved temple we saw. Really cool to see.

The rest of argos - Went here on one of the last days of the trip. I was a bit oversaturated with ruins by then, so I'm not sure I got much out of it, though it was cool to imagine some of the buildings (it's an ancient city).

Delphi

temple of apollo -- mostly cool because of Orestes connection

ancient theater -- again cool because of interest in theater, and this one was bigger and more intact than the Theater of Dionysus. I took about ten minutes to read a bit of The Oresteia here, imagining that people in ancient times could have been watching a production of it in this very spot.

ancient stadium. -- cool and memorable. Fun to read the description of the races that happened there, and match up features to what I was seeing.

Museum friezes (sculptures depicting scenes, on the top of the temple) -- I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the scenes and trying to match the description with what I was seeing in them.

Theopetra Cave -- a small drive away from Delphi, this is an archaelogical site where they found evidence of humans from 130,000 years ago! Including footsteps from what they think were Neanderthal children. It was cool to see, though the excavation site was kind of hard to understand. We also went through the small museum after.

Beach pictures

Food pictures

• Gemista (stuffed pepper/tomato)
  

• Gigantes
  

• Fava
  

• chickpea soup (revithada)
  

• dolma
  

• falafel wraps
  

• fritters (chickpea, tomato)
  
  

• Veg pies - spanakopita, leek pie, onion pie
  
  
  
  
  vegan pasticio from Rhino Vegan Beat
  
  Mushroom gyro from Mama Tierra
  

• greek salad (without feta)
  

Greek salad with vegan feta (from mama tierra)

• vegan loukoumades
  

ChatGPT as travel planner/assistant

ChatGPT was incredibly helpful. First it was helpful to come up with a reasonable itinerary given all the constraints I gave it (especially with timing around when I was working remotely), and given the list of places my brother was interested in going to. Then it was also helpful for daily planning, helping with timing we had to stick to and e.g. helping find a parking lot or suggested restaurants. Finally, it was helpful with on-the-go questions, like if we were suddenly switching plans and I wanted to know how to adapt our original plan to it, or asking quick questions about what we were seeing or how to deal with some situation.

Language

• I spent some time learning some basics of the language prior to the trip: Greek
• Felt good to know the alphabet (mostly - still was learning some quirks), helped with pronouncing and identifying words (especially when there is a close English cognate).
• Felt good to know some basic phrases in advance, like greetings, thank you / you're welcome, excuse me. The most common phrase I actually said in Greek was probably "thank you".
• But most people we interacted with spoke English pretty well, so there was no need for more advanced Greek -- though, it of course would always be cool to have more capability in the language and I do think that would enhance the experience further.

Story of the parking oopsie

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