Greece is a beautiful country and the people are very friendly. I remembered the Greek debit crisis of 2007-2008 so I was looking to see if the economy had recovered. We asked many people about it and some people said things were getting better and some people said the economy still hadn’t improved. My take way was that things are getting better but many people are still under employed and many are working multiple jobs to make ends meet. But I think Greece is doing the right things and their future is bright but it will take some time to realize the improvements.
One thing that surprised me was how arid much of Greece was. Certainly the southern part of the mainland and the islands. May was the perfect time to be traveling around the mainland. The weather was nice, not too hot, and there weren’t too many tourists! June was great for sailing, it was warm but not too hot and the Meltemi winds were not in full swing yet.
The sailing or really the mooring was challenging and we couldn’t have done it by ourselves.
My favorite place was Meteora which was really amazing. Other highlights were some of the bays on Corfu, Monemvasia, and of course the Acropolis. In terms of the islands I really like Tinos, specifically the town of Pirgos, the Kleftiko caves, and sailing through the Santorini caldera. One piece of advice I would give is see more than just Mykonos and Santorini because they give a very distorted view of the Greek islands. Three weeks with the boat felt about right although if we had another week we would have made it to Crete and Hydra.
Overview it was a wonderful adventure and very nice to share the sailing part with our friends, Terry and Joanne and Mike and Kay.