Nuria: my trip across the Med

Last month I travelled around Greece and Turkey; now I can say that it was the best trip I’ve ever made!

This is the last year of my degree, so my friends and I decided to save some money and spend a week together. During these five years we’ve visited many places: London, Paris, most of Italy… so we chose a country that nobody had been to before: Greece. But the cheapest option was a cruise through the Mediterranean, which included Turkey, so we booked one.

The first island we visited was Santorini. I swear it looks exactly as you can see in postcards or in Google images! Santorini is white and blue, lost in the middle of the nowhere … you can breathe peace! 

Santorini

But I have to admit that my first contact with the idyllic island wasn’t really good. When we arrived at the port, we realized that we had to take a cable car to the village … either that or or we had to “rent” a donkey (one per person, of course)! We didn’t think it would be so dangerous and terrifying! The donkey walked all the way to the village alone, and it ran as fast as it could! Furthermore, I have to say that the conditions for the animals (food, water …) weren’t that good.

Then we travelled to Izmir and Marmaris. In my opinion these crowded cities aren’t culturally oriented but simply focusing on commerce. We could see one or two lovely, tiny old mosques, but nothing more.

Izmir

We were slightly disappointed but then … we arrived in Istanbul! It’s so beautiful and magical! You can get lost so easily in its noisy suburbs and streets … but if I have to point out something negative it is the outrageous prejudice against women that we found there. For example, they have to pray in a different part of the mosque. In fact, they must be behind men and in a separate room.

Then we went to Mykonos, for me the nicest island on our trip. I loved its delicious food, above all the bread, the feta cheese … yummy!

And finally our last port, Athens! Visiting this ancient city was one of my childhood dreams. There is so much history around its famous monuments … everybody could feel it. 

We were exhausted after our crazy yet memorable seven-day trip but I know that we enjoyed it a lot, especially Athens!