Greece

Just wanted to write a summary of my thoughts on Greece. I had heard a lot of good things about Greece so I did have high expectations which were quickly deflated.

The touristy parts of Greece were terribly expensive... and everything else was run down and dirty. A lot of the nice places main aim seemed to be to exploit tourists. For example a lot of the restaurants which we went to that had good reviews in travel guides had really gone downhill after the review. They still charged crazy prices, and advertised the good reviews to get customers but the quality of the food was not good at all. We felt ripped off most times. I dont mind having to pay for expensive meals if they were worth it. But that was not the case.

It looked like the government had invested on infrastructure and building public spaces but once built nothing was maintained. The metro is Athens was great because its relatively new from the Olympics but other things were run down and dirty. Most transport and public systems were very disorganised.

The other thing we hated was the smoking absolutely everywhere, including all enclosed spaces. They would have smoking and non-smoking sections, but they were just different corners of the same room. Its not just that but many very young people smoked and it seemed socially acceptable to do so. On the ferry to Santorini there was a football team with their coach and I would say they were about 11-14 years old. The whole team chain smoked including the coach. Also there was a mother with a small girl about 4 years old who was sleeping on her lap and the mum was smoking away the whole time. There seemed to be a lack of awareness or care for the dangers of smoking.

Despite all that we had some good times in Greece. Crete was beautiful and I wish I had more time to explore it, especially by car. Greek salad was yummy everywhere and the olive oil in Crete was divine. Moonlit Santorini was breathtaking. Athens exceeded our expectations in most ways so I would say it is really worth a visit, especially if you appreciate history.