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lifenmaggie · 11 months

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EUROPE TRIP PT3

This was our second part of the trip was Greece. We intended to stay on the two Islands: Santorini and Paros. First stop was Santorini, Imerovigli, we stayed a hotel called Honeymoon Villas which had spectacular views and pool. It was one of the reasons we booked the hotel. By the time, we arrived at the hotel it was really late. We were greeted by a local cat we resided outside our alfresco/balcony area. I adotped the cat as our own. We received complimentary wine where we enjoyed a late drink by our balcony with our new cat before bed time.

The next day , we had a early boat cruise that toured us around various island and swimming areas. It went for half the day. I really enjoyed it until I got motion sickness. I got to snorkel and swim in the ocean. The water was nice and warm. I really liked it. On the boat they provided us food and unlimited drinks. It got a nice tan napping on the boat. After the cruise, we headed back to the hotel to refreshen up.

For dinner, we headed to Oia to watch the sunset. We watched the sunset while enjoying our meal. People say the most beautiful sunset is in Oia but in my personal opinion the most people sunsent can be seen anywhere in Santorini. We watched and shopped around Oia and then headed back to the hotel's pool bar for a final drink. I was sitting by the pool while Matt when to order drinks at the bar while he was there he was spoke to a couple who were newly engaged after chatting a while to them it turns out I knew the girl. The girl started to walk up to me I couldn't see her very well in the dark and it was Vanesa who I worked with at Goldman Sachs in London nearly 4 years ago. What a small world! She now lives in Frankfurt with her Vietnamese born German fiance. Both of them work at Goldman Sachs Frankfurt. We caught up with them the next day by the pool.

The next day, we just spent most of the day lazing around the pool. In the evening we walked to Fia which is the main town in Santorini. On our way there I think I saw the best sunset. I did a bit of shopping, I bought these silky long and flowy maxi dresses to wear on the trip and back home. I think the restaurant at Fira was where I had the best food and drinks on the trip. The rest was on a roof top looking out the sea. It had really fun and nice vibe. That was our last night in Santorini. I would love to go back and just laze around the pool again and do long strolls as the sunsets.

The next day, we caught a ferry to our next island, Paros. Paros was much cheaper than Santorini where we stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. Our first night we just explored Naousa which was 20 minutes from our hotel. We stayed in Paros the local town. We booked ourselves to a lovely restaurant in Naousa where ironically, we bumped into an Asian American couple from our Cappodocia tour! When you keep bumping into people like this it just feels the world is so small. Or like minds end up the same places. That was a really nice suprise. This restaurant was bougie. Everyone was dressed to the 9s the venue was beautifully designed, it had the typical white walls, colourful flowers and scandi furniture. Everyone looked amazing , luckily we got the memo and dressed accordingly. After dinner, I discovered lukumades, they are like donuts so yummy! I had it twice first in Naouse and second time in Athens.

The next day, we lazed around the pool and had a nice seafood dinner in Paros. The following day, we took a ferry to Mykonos for a day trip were we had lunch there and spent the day walking around the town. We took photos by the famous windmill. Mykonos is famous for their beach parties we didn't see that part of the island. We were mainly around the town. For dinner, we headed back to Paros town where we met up a Canadian couple who we met on our Cappadocia tour. The husband was a surgeon and the wife was an IT consultant, Priyanka. They were such a lovely couple, they booked at this fine dining restaurant on the rooftop where the food looked beautifully plated. On our last day, we took a ferry to Anti Paros a small island only 30 minutes away. The small town is really charming much quieter than anywhere we have been too. It had very similar look to Mykonos, lots of white lane ways. We had lunch there, walked around the town and coast. We hired a buggy in Paros and took it with us to Anti Paros. We drive the buggy around the island. We stopped by at Anti Paros Caves and went inside. It was very similar to the Perth caves that Paolo took us. We headed back to Paros and hired banana lounges at the beach. We ordered cocktails , listened to music and chilled by the beach. We had our last meal in Naousa again at this very popular restaurant called Barbarossa. It was the mostly lively restaurant I've been too. People were in a such happy mood, people dancing and singing out loud.

The next day, we had to say goodbye to Paros. We caught a ferry to Athens. We arrived Athens very late. We had a quick stroll around our hotel where we got a drink and retired early. The next day, we explored the various famous Greek ruins and museums: Acropolis of Athens, Parthenon and the square. It's a memory I would like to forget but it did happen just a mental note to be careful in crowded place. I got picked pocket where my passport was stolen. For 3 hours I was in a state of complete stress as I was flying out of Athens to Singapore the next day. Disaster was avert, the great Australian embassy saved me and gave me an emergency passport to get home so everything was fine again. What I was mostly upset was I lost my travel wallet that Sophia and Nhirushni got for me when I went to live in London, and my old passport with all the stamps of all the cities I've been. I've been so many it was the physical record of all the places I've been too. Luckily, I've managed to recorded most of the places I've been in this blog. That passport was with me for the best part of my life. It's gone now. The thieves just wanted my money they didn't need my passport. Anyways, that got sorted. To cheer myself up I went to a dessert cafe called Little Cook. It was a bright, colorful fun place , it was supposed to look like a place from Alice in Wonderland. A little sweetness made the sour pain less painful.

Yesterday's pain belongs in the pass, today is a new day! I left the pain of my passport misery behind and looked forward to Singapore where I will meet my dear friends Sandy, Thang and their son Leo. We had a long stop over in Singapore so we decided leave the airport and visit our friends. We got to meet little Leo who was around 6 months old. He was a very big and fit baby. He was well behaved and liked all the sounds I made. I felt like we hitted off really well. I got to see their new apartment. They took us out to kbbq and one of Singpore's big department shopping centres. We had coffee at this cool coffee shop that had coffee beans from around the world, Bacha Coffee. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long and had to check in to our flight back home. This was the first time we fly in premium economy and surprisingly it was really good I would definitely try to fly premium if I can. It was like business class except the chair didn't fully recline flat. After a few hours, we made home in one piece.

Overall, looking back it had an amazing trip but saying that losing my passport did smeared the memory but I don't want one incident be the story of the whole trip. As you can see lots of happy memories were made. I have happy apple to remind me.

#greece #paros #santanorini #islands #europe holiday #europe 2023 #singapore #anti paros #mykonos

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