Greece, what a place. I remained only in the Cyclades islands but I was never bored. After coming from Istanbul relaxing on some "remote" island or 10 didn't seem like a bad idea. However I'd relax for only a few moments then I'd be up and walking around again. The islands I went to included Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Delos, Mykonos, Antiparos, Ios, Sikinos, and two others adjacent to Santorini.
For a long time my favourite books had been about male adventures, and I'm realizing now that I really need to get into books with female protagonists. You really wouldn't believe how many solo female travellers I ran into. I really didn't expect to meet so many but I'm happy I did. I would highly recommend travelling solo, it was the most amazing experience I ever had. Everyone has different interests when they travel, and that can make travelling in pairs or groups more challenging. But when you're on your own it is complete freedom, stay where you want, eat what you want, do what you want. It was really nice, I rarely had a solid plan of anything. I'd wake up check ferry schedules, hope on a boat, haggle with a kimaki at the port. I love never knowing where I might be. Every morning I'd just make sure would pack sunscreen and water. The only two things I needed all the time. Everything else is superficial.
Greece is also one of the easiest places to visit, everyone is laid back, everyone speaks English, everyone is friendly. You can land on an Island, totally disoriented with only a vague idea of which direction you should be going, you have people begging you to stay at their hotels others begging you to eat at their restaurant. But a quick walk from the port and you'll be out of the chaos. During the afternoon the buses typically have a few hours off. If you find yourself stranded hitch hiking is easy, you'll be picked up by the first Greek person, but forget about being picked up by other tourists. I think if you live along the Mediterranean on a small island life is going to be fairly easy going. I'd spend my days wandering each of the islands, searching for the nicest most secluded beach, climbing a nearby mountain, visiting an archaeology site, renting a bike and touring around. Whatever I came across in the morning I'd make a day of it. My evenings I spent searching for the most delicious and cheapest gyro to eat. I feels so shameful being in Greece for a month and eating mostly street food. But I feel like I'm the queen of street food. One day I took a day trip to Sikinos, a very small island off of Ios. I decided to hike to the village from the port, ahh it's only 3km no problem. Wrong, 3km uphill in 35 degrees with a slight hangover is not a good idea, I will never claim intelligence after that. In the village there was nothing to do except snooze on a stone wall until the next bus came around. But even I couldn't wait that long so I ended up walking part way down before a mother with a few kids in the back picked me up, along with a few more walkers along the way.
Of course I rarely was alone, everywhere you go you meet people and you spend an entire day with them..or a few days with them. It was really cool meeting so many people who have the most amazing, inspiring or crazy stories. I learned so much about so many different places. Of course the places I went to in Greece were amazing, but whT it rely lived most about Greece was all of the really amazing people I met. In the future I will definitely travel solo.
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