Greece Part 1

Though I've always considered this blog's content to be a mix of travel and music, it's obviously mostly a Hanson fan blog. And while you'll find several posts related to a song or an album that have zero to do with travel, I haven't had much of an opportunity to explore the travel side separately because 99% of the time, if I get on a plane, Hanson is at the destination. Welcome to the outlying 1%.

If you're here for the Hanson content, here's the extent of the Hanson connection to this post: three Hanson fan friends invited me to join them on a girls' trip to Greece during a non-tour year, and I said yes without hesitation. I've always wanted to go, and some part of me always thought Hanson would wind up there and give me an excuse to plan a trip. But with Hanson showing signs of slowing down and me showing signs of not getting any younger, I gladly chose a Mediterranean island-hopping adventure over a casino-hopping one this fall.


As someone who has always planned vacations around Hanson tour dates and lived a very "pick the destination and I'll pick the road" existence, having free reign over travel details felt absolutely unhinged. You mean normal people just pick a city in any country on whatever date they feel like going? If flights are too expensive on a Friday, you can just decide to go Tuesday instead? If the hotel you want is sold out, you can go another week when it isn't? And I don't have to factor in a minimum of six hours of my day for line/show/bus time? The open-ended options were almost overwhelming.

So we channeled our usual expertise in finding hotels walkable to music venues and securing front row tickets into researching which islands we wanted to visit and how to get there. We landed on a two week fall trip starting in Athens, with three nights each in Paros, Santorini, and Crete, then back to Athens before heading home. We chose October because while hitting the beaches during prime summer weather seems appealing, a quick TikTok search will scare you away from even looking at Santorini in peak tourist season, and climbing hilly cobblestone streets in 100 degree weather held zero appeal. The weather felt perfect with an average range between 60-75F, and I can’t imagine doing everything we did but 30 degrees warmer surrounded by triple the tourists. Yeah, the water was cold, but I stand by our timing 100%. 

Packing

You are almost definitely not here for my packing list, but I put a lot of work into this one and am going to proudly display it anyway. I'm that person that's happy to spend a few hours down a rabbit hole reading about the best waterproof travel shoes and the most packable jackets, so I choose to believe there is at least one person out there who will appreciate this journey into my suitcase.

I've already survived two weeks each in Australia and Brazil with just a carry-on suitcase and a personal item, so this was not my first rodeo. It was, however, my first time attempting to create a capsule wardrobe and truly weed out all extras. I realize the concept of a capsule wardrobe is choosing versatile neutrals where everything can mix and match, but then I accidentally found a mint green Eddie Bauer windbreaker that turns into a fanny pack and decided to build my capsule wardrobe around pink and mint green instead. I have no regrets.

pattern dress | blue dress | jumpsuit | windbreaker | rain jacket | pink cardigan | eyelet crop top | white gauze top | black skort | black joggers | ecco sandals | teva sandals | white vessi sneakers | black backpack purse | white backpack purse | phone lanyard | turkish towel

I used the Freeform app on my Macbook to upload photos of each piece I was considering packing to create a virtual closet, then made a chart listing out each day of the trip and its main activity. I created mock outfits for each day- a top, a bottom, a layering piece, shoes, and a purse. Then I looked at the finished product and weeded out anything that only made it into one outfit. The cute new mint green and pink sneakers that I realistically wouldn't wear more than once? Gone. The black shorts that looked a little too much like my black skort and served the exact same purpose for outfit matches? Bye. Basically any item that I could drag over to another day and mix into 3 or 4 other outfits made the cut. Anything that could be replaced by something else on the list didn't. It all felt so extra, but seeing everything laid out visually made it easy to identify what pieces were the most useful, what pieces were a waste of space, and I did most of it without ever opening my closet or suitcase. 

What I could have left behind:

• I never wore the tan cardigan, the dressy sandals, or the green tank top (which clashed with my rain and wind jackets and therefore had no business coming in the first place). 
• I only wore the black sneakers once outside of travel days, so I probably could have cut them, too.

What was worth the packing space:

• The windbreaker that turns into a functional fanny pack with storage was insanely useful and easy to carry all day.
  
• I wore the Turkish towel on the plane as a scarf so I wouldn't have to pack it, used it as a blanket on the plane and in hotel rooms, and used it as a towel at the beach. I bought a second one in mint green and pink in Paros (how could I not?) and never left the room without one. I would wear it as a scarf or pack it in my purse, then whip it out and use it as a blanket when it got chilly at our outdoor dinners. It ended up being an invaluable accessory.
  
• The white gauze button down top was a whole $12.99 on Amazon and arrived the day before I left. I wore it as a swim coverup with shorts and as a layering piece over every dress. It was the perfect essential that worked with everything.
  
• I originally ordered a phone lanyard just for my outfits without pockets so I wouldn't have to keep digging it out of my purse to take photos. It did so much more than that. It kept me from dropping my phone over the side of various cliffs and boats and also served as an anti-theft device. I wore it as a crossbody rather than a traditional neck lanyard, and if it was fashionably acceptable, I would start wearing this thing to work daily. It was so convenient and is absolutely coming with me on every trip from this point forward. Welcome to travelingphonelanyardfan.com, folks. I'm in love; 2/2 Hollys agree.

Bonus shoutout to every single pair of shoes that I actually wore. They were all waterproof, gave me zero blisters after miles of walking, and had sufficient traction on rainy cobblestones. Also not pictured and definitely not getting its own paragraph: a $10 travel bidet. I know it's an overshare and that I'm saying the quiet part out loud, but I'm also not going to gatekeep such a useful item. This was my second trip where you can't flush toilet paper, but my first to a destination where bidets aren't standard in hotels. Let's just say my $10 gamble was worth it. I will not be taking questions at this time.

Getting There

With everything finally nailed down and booked, the final step was just plain getting there without any complications. My three travel companions all booked flights connecting through NYC on Delta, and while flying together would have been the most convenient plan, there were two things working against me. 1. I have an American Airlines credit card and can generally earn a lot more useable miles for myself by flying AA, and 2. AA had a flight that would get me home the same day I left without sticking me with an overnight layover on the way home. I adamantly did not want to take an extra day off of work just to not sleep before a jetlagged 6am flight out of NYC, so I opted to fly AA alone and meet up with my friends in Athens. The plan was to land at 9:15am on October 1st, take an Uber to the hotel, and meet them after they landed at 1:20pm.

Except a few days before we left, the area where I live on the east coast was threatened by a hurricane. I spent the final days before leaving obsessively watching weather forecasts in fear of a canceled flight. Then two days before we left, Greece announced a nation wide travel strike for October 1st that would shut down all public transportation and also threatened to include air traffic controllers, which could mean grounded flights for all of us.

The morning I left home, Greek courts finally ruled it illegal for air traffic controllers to participate. Our flights were saved, but all public transit would be halted at 9:00am. By some miracle I landed early, cleared customs quickly, and ran outside with my bags to the ride share pickup area and frantically tried to book an Uber at 8:57 to no avail. I accepted my fate, gracious to have made it to Greece at all, and camped out in the airport with my first freddo espresso and a giant sugar donut for a couple of hours until my friends arrived. They had booked us an expensive private transfer as a fall back plan the moment we learned of the strike, and I'm not sure what we would have done if they didn't. I remember commenting that there shouldn't be another strike in the next few weeks and at least we wouldn't have to deal with it again on the way home.

Two Weeks Later: 

TL;DR we somehow managed to book all of our flights to and from Athens on days they had transportation strikes. The moral of the story is always book a private transfer in Athens (though I also sincerely hope they come to an agreement about reasonable workday hours). Natural disasters, national strikes, and aftermarket toilet accessories aside, the trip was a truly amazing experience worth all of the minor hassles along the way. Stick around for Part 2 and I'll tell you all about it!