This was a trip to visit my sibling R. in Europe while they was studying abroad in Saarbruecken, Germany.
Day 1 and 2:
I flew first class with American Airlines from Seattle to Dallas, then from Dallas to Frankfurt for 62,500 AA miles. The Seattle to Dallas domestic first class was not great. The seats were large and comfortable but there was no personal entertainment available – no TVs, no nothing. They served us an oily egg and cheese omelette for breakfast. We could order any drinks we liked, but the service was a little lacking. The mimosa they gave me tasted a bit strange.
For the Dallas to Frankfurt flight, the first class experience was better. My main complaint was the food. The beds were lie flat seats. There was also a desk and the chair could swivel. There was even an additional smaller chair in case the big chair wasn’t good enough for you. The seats were a little worn, but not too much. We also got blankets and pillows of course, and slippers and pajamas! The pajamas were huge but they did the trick. The alcohol selection was good, but the food was really terrible for first class. They served the same oily omelette for breakfast. The lunch/dinner was so bad… It was steak with potatoes au gratin and a spinach mushroom side. The steak was well done and dry. The spinach mushroom side was disgusting and metallic. The potatoes au gratin and the gravy were actually pretty decent. I just covered everything with gravy and tried to concentrate on the gravy taste. Service was good; the flight attendants asked me a couple times if I wanted more wine or needed anything.
I arrived in Frankfurt at around 8am. I decided to go to Giessen, my old study abroad hometown. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet my friends there due to poor planning on my part, so I just wandered around. First I wandered down Seltersweg, the main shopping street. It was a nostalgic experience, because I used to go shopping and eat there all the time. I had fish and chips mit remoulade at Nordsee, which was as yummy as I remembered. Then I decided that I wanted to see the Schiffenberg, a hill in Giessen whose top hosts the remains of an ancient monastery. Now it houses a restaurant and festivals during the summer, as well as an adventure park obstacle course. I used to run to the top of the Schiffenberg at least once a week and take in the beautiful view while thinking about life, so it holds a lot of good memories for me.
To get to the Schiffenberg, I took the bus from downtown to Unterhof, my old dormitory. It was a strange experience because I realized that I didn’t remember which dorm building I had lived in, and I had forgotten a lot of things. I also realized that the shortcut I used to take to my classes in Naturwissenschaften (campus science buildings) had been blocked off! I then started walking from Unterhof to the Schiffenberg. I used to run there all the time – it’s a distance of 3 miles one way. I didn’t realize how much slower walking would be in the heat with all of my bags, so I didn’t quite make it to the top of the hill. I had a nice little jaunt in the forest though.
Finally I returned to the downtown via bus from Unterhof. From here I was unsure whether I wanted to visit the Dach Cafe (a rooftop cafe with panoramic views of Giessen as well as delicious cake) or the Mathematikum (Germany’s one and only math museum). I chose the Mathematikum. I was only able to spend 1 hour there, but it was so fun to reminisce! Finally I took the train back to Frankfurt, and then the regional RE train from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof direct to Saarbruecken. It only takes 15 minutes longer than the ICE train and you don’t have to change, so I was able to use a Schoenes Wochenende ticket for all my traveling that day. Pro-tip: A Schoenes Wochenende ticket is a German train ticket that allows up to 5 people to travel on any regional trains during a weekend of your choice for a low price (at the time of this writing, 44 EURO for one person, plus 6 EURO per additional passenger). Additional pro-tip: ICE trains are the fastest German trains and useful for long distances, but often the most expensive. R. met me at the station; I was exhausted. I ate some of R.’s leftovers and collapsed in a heap.
Day 3:
I slept in and went on a run in the forest near Waldhaus (my brother’s dormitory). I ran to the university campus and through to some other mountain… probably a 9 mile run in total. Due to a potential gunman incident (which turned out to be a gunless, mentally ill man), we did not spend time exploring downtown Saarbruecken because it was locked down. We went to Schwarzenbergturm for good views of the whole region, then visited the palace and saw the outside of Johanneskirche. The palace was fairly underwhelming. After our short city tour we ate at Die Kartoffel, which specializes in Saarland foods. I ordered the Lyonerpfanne, which consisted of sunny side up eggs, sausage, onions and potatoes. Boy was it oily. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was good. I also had a Bitburger Radler – yum! Pro-tip: A Radler is a delicious German invention consisting of half beer, half soda. It is very refreshing, especially in summer. Generally the soda is Sprite or some other lemon soda, but grapefruit Radlers are also delicious! At some point in the day we went to a café near Waldhaus. They served Spaghettieis (spaghetti-shaped ice cream) which was a novelty.
Day 4:
We woke up early for our flight from Luxembourg. We had to take 3 buses total – 1 local bus in Saarbruecken, 1 bus from Saarbruecken Hauptbahnhof to Luxembourg Hauptbahnhof, and 1 bus from Luxembourg Hauptbahnhof to the airport. All in all it only took about 2.5-3 hours, the same amount of time it would have taken to get to Frankfurt-Hahn and take Ryanair. I’m glad we flew out of Luxembourg instead – it was way more interesting. It seems like a very cosmopolitan, diverse city. I saw a lot of black and Asian people there, which is unusual for many European countries. Also, the houses in the towns we passed were so cute. I would have liked to explore a little more but we didn’t have time. At the airport, prices were out of control, so we just bought a couple of sandwiches. I wanted to go to Starbucks, but it was 6 EURO for a drip coffee, so I noped right out of there. Our British Airways flight was good, nothing to write home about, but definitely better organized than Ryanair!
We arrived in London and found this amazing supermarket in the airport. They had all the vegetarian to go dishes/meat and vegetable dishes that you could want. We were dying for veggies and fruit and it was reasonably priced too, so we got a ton of food. It was a very satisfying lunch. Then we figured out where our hostel was. Our hostel, No. 8 Willesden, is honestly the worst hostel I have ever stayed in. It was dirty, disgusting, and a fire hazard. Suffice it to say that I won’t ever be staying there again!
After checking in to the hostel, we headed to the city center to do my sister Christina’s suggested walk along the southwark of the Thames. We started at Westminster Abbey, which was unfortunately closed, so we could only see the outside. From there we walked along the south side past several famous bridges and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. After our walk we were pretty tired. We wanted Indian food, and Reddit recommended Salaam Namaste. We went there, but it was closed for renovations! Ugh! We were quite hungry at this point. Luckily, R.’s phone had data, so we looked up nearby places to eat. We found an Italian restaurant nearby, Ciao Bella, which was highly rated. We stopped by and it looked fancy, so we weren’t sure if we wanted to enter, but a couple eating there told us it was one of their favorite places and that we really should go. So we did, and it was such a pleasant surprise! It was the most authentic Italian restaurant I’ve eaten at outside of Italy. All of the servers were Italian, the food was phenomenal, and the service was Italian (leisurely, but worth the wait). I had the Spaghetti Bolognese and R. had the Penne Arrabiata, which had a delicious spicy flavor. Finally, we returned to our hostel and crashed.
Day 5:
The next day was Harry Potter day. We woke up early to take the train. I was so blown away by Harry Potter experience at the Warner Bros. Studio in Leavesden. It was a truly phenomenal experience to walk on the set. I really felt like I was a student at Hogwarts! The food for lunch was of course overpriced, but they had a variety of healthy options. There was also butterbeer and butterbeer ice cream. The butterbeer ice cream was fantastic. However, the butterbeer was way too sweet. We finally finished with our tour at around 3pm (I believe we started at 10:30am).
We went back to the city center and grabbed rush tickets at the TKTS booth for Guys and Dolls with Rebel Wilson for 25 pounds at the Phoenix Theater. Then we went to St. Martin’s Cafe in the Crypt for dinner, outlets, and free wifi. It was the perfect place to eat – it is basically a cafeteria with several well-priced and healthy options for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. They even serve high tea before 6pm. We hung out until the show, which was phenomenal. I was expecting it to be good, but it was INCREDIBLE and Rebel Wilson was hilarious. I really felt connected to the characters, and the songs and dancing were amazing. Also, our tickets came with free ice cream during the show, strangely enough. The theater was way too small for the number of people and the bathrooms did not have enough stalls – you should have seen the ladies’ line at intermission. Finally, we had to go back to our gross hostel.
Day 6:
The next day we decided to go to the National Gallery because it’s free, and everything else in London is expensive. We had a nice breakfast at Trafalgar Square with takeaway from Pret-a-Manger, including a delicious soy cappuccino. The National Gallery was great. We got lost while inside, so I’m not sure if we missed anything, but we saw some Monet, Van Gogh and Seurat.
For lunch we bussed all the way down to Battersea to try London House, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. At the time, they had a 3 course meal deal where for 27 pounds you could get 3 courses and a carafe of wine. For my first course, I had pig croquettes. These were unbelievable. There was so much flavor and complexity all in a little croquette. The sauce and the garnishes were phenomenal too. I think this was the best part of the meal. For the second course, I had duck with a pea sauce and bacon and leek garnish. The pea sauce with bacon was such an amazing flavor combination, bursting with flavor and yum! However, I felt that the duck could have been done better. It was too salty, but still good. We also had beef fat fries as a side dish – they were very good. For dessert, I had mini donuts with lemon white chocolate sauce. They were so fresh, so good, and the lemon in the white chocolate was a perfect accompaniment. R. had vegetarian gnocchi as a main dish and was quite impressed. We were so happy after our meal. Worth every pence!
We went back to Victoria Coach station, where we had stored our bags. Strangely enough, the coach station is not the same thing as the train or tube station, and it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the coach station from the train/tube station. The bag storage at the train station is way more expensive. Pro-tip: London doesn’t do luggage lockers; you have to go to a left luggage station. We hadn’t quite worked out how to get to London Stansted airport at this point. Finally we figured out it would be cheapest by bus, but due to our confusion about Victoria Coach station, we almost missed our bus! We finally took the National Express bus, which took forever and a half to get to the airport. Pro-tip: don’t fly out of Stansted if you can help it. We thought that since the airport was so far away from the city, it would be small and not busy. Turns out we thought wrong. We almost missed our flight to Athens, except for the fact that it was delayed by one hour (thanks Ryanair). By the time we made it to Athens, the public transport had shut down, so we took an Uber to our Airbnb in Thissio. Our Uber driver was super nice, spoke excellent English, and drove like a madman, but we made it there safely and much more cheaply than a taxi (31 vs 50 EURO).
Day 7:
We slept in, having gone to bed at 2am the night before. Then we got up and found a nice vegetarian restaurant on Tripadvisor. We went to the restaurant location, but it was closed. There was hardly anything else in the area. We wandered into a nearby bar that happened to be open, but no one was inside, which we found kind of sketchy. The owner was very nice and said that while they weren’t a restaurant, they did make food and could serve us. I ordered lamb koefteki (meatballs) with tomato sauce and yogurt, while R. ordered grape leaves and a greek salad. The food was surprisingly good! The owner also gave us complimentary raki after our meal. Raki is a spirit from Crete traditionally served after meals. It leaves a warm tingling in your mouth and throat. R. and I were not huge fans.
Fed and watered, we decided to check out the Acropolis. Turns out, R. forgot their student ID which would allow them to get in for free instead of paying 20 EURO, so we decided to leave that for later. (Only European students get in for free. Students from elsewhere get a discount.) It was so, so hot. Instead, we checked out the National Gardens and Syntagma Square. The National Gardens were beautiful but a little small. The square was underwhelming, just lots of shopping and tourist stuff. R. found another veggie restaurant on Tripadvisor and we decided to go there. It was closed! So we found another veggie restaurant and walked 15 minutes to get there. It was closed too! We soon realized that all of the restaurants were closed because August 15, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a huge national holiday in Greece and everyone was on vacation. Many people take the entire week off. After this, we were super hangry. We sat down at another restaurant, which we soon realized was expensive and had tiny portions. For example, there was a 12 EURO entree which was only 100 calories, and this information was listed on the menu like they were somehow proud of it. Are you kidding? We want real food. It was awkward, but we left after they had served us water. Finally, we stopped at a cafe and ate some cold spinach and cheese pies. Oh well! At least we had food. Our first day in Athens was underwhelming, to say the least.
Day 8:
The next day we saw the Acropolis, since R. actually remembered their student ID. First however, I went running in the early morning at the Hill of the Muses. The base of the hill was a five minute walk from our AirBnB (which was amazing by the way, highly recommend Aliki and Makis). The hill has some ancient structures such as an ampitheater that Pelonius used to lecture in and a bunch of other historically significant buildings. There was also an ancient dance theater that hosts performances and lessons of traditional Greek dancing that tourists can attend. Looked fun! I thought that the Acropolis looked heavenly in the early morning sunlight, beautiful and touched with a golden glow. I got an almost 360 view of Athens from the top of the hill. It was gorgeous. However it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit at 6am, so I was decidedly un-gorgeous after my run.
I found visiting the Acropolis to be disappointing. It’s so hot, there are too many tourists, and its so dusty. I just couldn’t be bothered to care about the history in the heat. We decided afterwards to take a little siesta and then hike up Mt. Lycabettus for the view. It’s easily accessible by transit. Get off at the Evangelismos station and follow Google maps directions… or just head uphill, it’s pretty hard to miss. There were beautiful views on top and on the way up, and lots of people. At the top, there were about 3 different restaurants to choose from with varying price levels. You could get a nice meal with wine seated by a window with a view of Athens. Obviously this was more expensive than the restaurants in town, but it was a decent price. There was also a very cheap cafe up there. If you chose the takeout option at the cafe, at the time of this writing you could get 2.50 EURO gyros and 4.50 EURO greek fries. The gyros were pretty weird, but they were filling and the fries were good. So that’s what we had for dinner.
Day 9:
We took our Ryanair flight to Chania (pronounced “HA-nia”) early in the morning. We dropped off our luggage at our AirBnB and we were good to go! R. found a highly rated vegetarian restaurant near the waterfront called To Stachi, so we headed over there. We walked along the waterfront and explored a lighthouse. It was a nice walk with a beautiful view. Chania is so cute and Venetian-looking. To Stachi was closed until 12:30pm, so we wandered a little further and stumbled upon a huge weekend open-air market. There were all sorts of things there, produce, traditional foods, clothing, jewelry… I bought some pearls and a flowy pantsuit for a great price: 15 EURO for a necklace and bracelet set of small real pearls and 5 EURO for the pantsuit.
We headed to To Stachi, which exceeded my expectations. We had stuffed grape leaves and zucchini flowers with a stuffed tomato in the center, the most amazing roasted eggplant I had ever eaten, and vegetarian moussaka. In my opinion the zucchini flowers and eggplant were the highlights. The eggplant was the star of the show; it was so savory and delicious, even avid meat eaters would love it. Finally we left and took another siesta. Upon awakening, we decided to explore the Old Town by going to a restaurant there, Taverna Strata. The Old Town was very touristy but still interesting. There were lots of windy nonsensical streets.
One of the things I love about Greece is that all of the restaurants have tables outside. In fact, at most restaurants all of the tables are outside. It was a very romantic setting, dining under the stars and seeing all the tables lit by candlelight in the beautiful Old Town. Taverna Strata was touristy as well, but I thought it was quite good. They gave me a lot of red wine for a cheaper price than expected, and they served us complimentary aperitif and desertif (raki). By the time we got out of the restaurant I was quite tipsy! The lamb kleftiko was to die for – full of white wine and feta and so much yum. R. had the mountain greens, which were disgusting, and boureki, which was, in the words of R., simply “eh.” So if you are vegetarian I would skip it – it seems that their expertise are meat dishes.
Day 10:
The next day was my absolute favorite! We hiked through the Samaria Gorge, which is about 15 kilometers long. You start at the town of Omalos at the top and hike to the town of Agia Roumeli at the bottom, so it’s all downhill. The hike is very rocky so it takes a lot of effort from your stabilization muscles, and it also hurts your feet. If you have room, I would pack hiking boots, but we did it just fine in tennis shoes. We took the earliest bus from the Chania bus station at 6:15am to Omalos (16 EURO roundtrip). At Omalos there is a cafe that sells sunscreen and sunglasses for exorbitant prices. If you need breakfast, the food is reasonably priced. You can’t miss the trailhead. There is a cost of 5 EURO to enter the park which you must pay in cash.
For the first few kilometers, there were too many hikers and quite a few people who were clearly not prepared. After the first hour though, it started to thin out and it felt much more peaceful. There are water spigots every two kilometers or so and lots of bathrooms, so if you run out of water it’s okay. However, we preferred not to test our stomachs and stuck to bottled water and gatorade. There are also park rangers on hand with mules to help carry people out in case of injury. I would say hiking this trail alone in good weather conditions is perfectly safe, due to the sheer number of people that traverse the trail and the presence of the rangers.
The trail itself is gorgeous, although my pictures couldn’t encompass its beauty. Halfway along the trail you will find the ancient town of Samaria, which is mostly intact. That was a perfect resting place and really interesting to see. Most of the trail is in shade or partial shade so if you start early in the morning, you won’t get too hot. Finally you reach the end of the trail – or so you think! Nope, you have to hike 2 more kilometers along a road to reach the town of Agia Roumeli, your destination. And there is no shade. So make sure you have enough water for this last part. If you are really tired, there is a shuttle you can take, but it costs 3 EURO and comes infrequently.
Agia Roumeli is absolutely gorgeous small town filled with restaurants along the waterfront. You can either eat overlooking the water (we ate at Calypso) or head down to the beach. Pro-tip: secure an umbrella/lawnchair setup at the beach with the cocktail bar ASAP, as they go fast. You have to buy a cocktail from the beach guy in order to get an umbrella. Don’t forget to buy your ferry ticket at the station, which is slightly confusing to find, but there are maps around town and locals to help you. The ferry from Agia Roumeli to Sfakia costs 12 EURO or so and makes one stop in Loutro. I have heard really good things about Loutro, but we didn’t have time to visit. Finally, after swimming and enjoying yourself, take the ferry back to Hora Sfakion (also known as Sfakia), where your roundtrip bus ticket will take you direct to Chania bus station. It’s an expensive day but it’s so worth it! Don’t do any of the Samaria Gorge tours, they never include the ferry or park entry price, and it is much cheaper and easier to take the bus. We returned to our hotel exhausted, ate some leftovers, and fell asleep.
Day 11:
The next day was our relaxing beach day. We woke up late and slept in. Our AirBnB was pretty okay. It was not quite as awesome as our AirBnB in Athens, but it was clean and had decent wifi. We had lunch at To Stachi again because we just could not stay away! Again, we had the delicious eggplant. We also had pastitsio, a traditional dish made with ancient grains. It tasted like ancient grain mac and cheese, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. Finally we walked about 20 minutes along the waterfront to the main beach of Chania. There were so many restaurants with umbrellas and sunbeds, so all we had to do was pick a spot. We chose a restaurant which had a big sign advertising cocktails – I wanted to see if I could get a pina colada! The pina colada was fresh and delicious. The entrance to the beach was a bit rocky, and the waves were big, but it was quite nice. It was such a relaxing day. Afterwards we went to Apostolis, a seafood restaurant on the waterfront recommended to me by a Greek colleague. It was absolutely delicious and we got the best table in the house, watching the sunset while eating delicious white snapper.
Day 12:
The following day, we did an Elafonissi Tour operated by El Greco tours, booked on excursion.gr. We picked the cheapest one, but I think all the other tours must have been on par. Protip: secure a sunbed as soon as you get there. They fill up instantly, the earlier you can arrive the better. I would also highly recommend renting a car over doing a tour. This was our original intention, but due to the Assumption Holiday no cars were available. Elafonissi was too hot and incredibly windy. It was almost painful to walk around due to the sand blown around by the wind. Honestly, the pink sand was underwhelming. It was vaguely dusty pink, and you couldn’t see it that well. I felt like my time would have been better spent on a different beach under different weather conditions, especially since Elafonissi is so hard to get to.
On the way back, we stopped at a monastery, which was cute but not that impressive. Finally we ate at Meltemi restaurant for dinner. This restaurant has the most amazing view I’ve ever seen of Elafonissi and the surrounding island. I highly recommend it for the view alone! The food was decent and reasonably priced; it is a pre-made buffet style restaurant so you can’t expect too much. Finally we took the bus to Heraklion and then a taxi to our next hostel, Manos Studios. I would not recommend doing this after a full day of being on a bus tour. Manos Studios was clean but it was a little confusing to find. The staff were really nice. I think Amoudara is a nice location since it is so close to the beach and they have a direct bus to Knossos, but we didn’t have time to explore since we were leaving the next day.
Day 13:
I had been so excited to visit Knossos, the seat of the ancient Minoan empire, since learning about it in high school. However, Knossos was not worth it. Arthur Evans destroyed everything in his desire to restore it. He basically tore down a bunch of ancient artifacts and rebuilt what he thought they might have looked like. It’s terrible how much history was lost due to his actions. There were several plaques that said things like, “Arthur Evans thought this room was used for religious ceremonies, but to be quite honest we’re not really sure.” In hindsight, we should have visited the Heraklion museum instead. The worst part was not being able to tell what were real ruins and what were figments of Arthur Evans’ imagination.
We flew back to Germany later that night. I stayed at Meininger Frankfurt/Main Airport Hostel. It was so fancy and clean, and there was a bathroom and shower in each room. It’s also a fifteen minute walk from the airport – the perfect location to stay if you have a flight the next day. They have a shuttle you can take for a small price if you have lots of luggage.
Day 14:
I flew Lufthansa economy direct from Frankfurt to Seattle (30,000 United miles plus $108.86 taxes and fees). The food was incredible, and the flight experience was so much better than an American airline. I was sad that I couldn’t book business or first class due to the the low availability, but Lufthansa was great.
WanderLiz 