A Greek Odyssey: Athens

September 30 – October 15, 2025

Over the past many years, Hanson has had an annual event in Jamaica called Back To The Island – if you’re reading this, this is likely not news to you. While it’s one of my favorite events they’ve put on, I’ve been itching to go somewhere new internationally over the past few years, rather than Jamaica* again and again. However, the FOMO of the band and friends has kept me going back each year. So when they officially announced they will not be returning to Jamaica in January 2026, I knew this was the chance to get a group of Hanson friends together and explore some different islands.

One friend and I brought up the idea of having everyone throw a destination of their choice into a hat, and have us pick at random. But, when I mentioned that I was going to throw Greece in, she decided that worked for her and we dropped the roulette idea. We opened up the conversation to the rest of our friend group, two more hopped on board, and we off we went planning out the details.

The initial trip planning was honestly a bit overwhelming; This was our first major trip together without Hanson giving us bookend dates to work around, and with over 1,000 distinct islands and limited PTO and funds, it was hard to narrow down our specific destinations. After doing some extensive research and talking to friends (and band mothers) who had been before, we finally narrowed it down to Athens for the history, Santorini for the “quintessential” Greece experience, Paros for the quieter, small island vibes, and Crete for the famous pink sand beach and to see something other than the Cycladic islands.

Based on flight prices, work schedules, and yes, Hanson’s schedule, we narrowed our dates down to the first two weeks of October. Geographically, it made the most sense to fly into Athens, spend a full day there after our travel day, then hop on a ferry to Paros, then ferry to Santorini, then ferry to Crete, (with two full days on each island between travel days) and finally fly back to Athens with one more full buffer day before flying back home. This was officially the longest trip I’ve been on, and so naturally, this will be my longest, multi-part travel blog.

Athens, part 1

Day 1

Something we learned only days before our trip is that Greece is prone to frequent strikes (something America should consider), and we learned this by reading that there was a planned public transportation strike on October 1st, the day we were supposed to land in Athens. We were constantly refreshing Greece news articles the day before, hoping to see that the courts would rule it illegal for air traffic controllers to participate in the strike, which they eventually did. We had originally planned on taking a taxi from the airport to our hotel, but last minute had to book private transportation, which quickly sold out.

We booked with Olive & Sea. They typically do guided tours, so our driver made sure to point out historical sights along the route, including a brief history lesson of The Acropolis. It was early afternoon by the time we got settled into our hotel, and we quickly freshened up and hit the streets, heading to Monastiraki Square for an early dinner. (Don’t worry, there will be a whole separate blog post on all things food later.)

After dinner, we came across a group of maybe frat boys who were chanting and cheering for who knows what reason; it felt like the perfect “welcome to Greece” moment. From there, we wandered past Hadrian’s Library and The Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens on our way to get some treats from Little Kook on the edge of the Psiri neighborhood. Little Kook is known for its maximalist year-round seasonal decorations, and it was fun seeing it all decked out for Halloween. At this point our jet lag hit us just as rain started moving in, so from there we made a quick stop at a mini market for more snacks and had an early night back at our hotel.

Day 2

We spent our first full day in Athens walking a total of 6 miles all around the city. We started the morning off early with 8am tickets to The Acropolis, as many travel sites recommended doing this to beat the crowds (particularly those coming in off cruise ships later in the day). Even though we were missing the peak of summer travel, this still worked in our favor as it was noticeably busier on our way back down. I made my obligatory jokes about Nashville having our own, fully in-tact Parthenon, but seeing the real thing, as the sun was rising behind it, was an incredible experience. Even the oldest cities in America are babies compared to the ancient history in most other parts of the world.

The Acropolis is not the first piece of ancient history I’ve seen with my own eyes, and each time I experience it, it evokes a feeling that I don’t have a word for (is there one? I bet there is in German lol) – similar to the way I feel so insignificantly small while gazing upon the vast natural beauty of the ocean from the shore, or the valleys from the peak of a mountain, or the billions of stars in the most remote parts of the world without light pollution – but in this case, it’s not the immeasurable vastness of God’s creation, but man’s, and the immeasurable amount of time, rather than space, that has existed before me. And dear reader, do not mistake my use of “insignificant” as a bad thing – all human beings are significant – but I use the word in the Ecclesiastical sense that “what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”.

After making our way back down from The Acropolis, we headed over to The Acropolis Museum, mostly to dodge the rain that was coming in. None of us in this friend group are huge museum people, but we still all enjoyed browsing the sculptures and learning a little more about their history. After a way too large, leisurely lunch, we got caught in a down pour which made for the perfect excuse to have a jet-lag fueled rainy nap (at least it did for my friends, while I wrapped up one last work task that I couldn’t get done before the trip).

By the time the rain cleared, we were all refreshed and wound our way up to the Anafiotika neighborhood. It’s nestled at the foot of The Acropolis and is known for its narrow, cobblestone streets and old cave houses, similar to those in the Cycladic islands. We then shopped around Plaka and all found some souvenirs to bring home. Knowing it was early in our trip and we were limited on luggage space, we made note of some stores we wanted to come back to at the end of our trip, and that was probably one of the smartest choices we made the whole trip.

to be continued…

*I initially wrote this paragraph a week before hearing news of Hurricane Melissa, and now I’m about to hit publish just hours before it’s set to devastate the country. Please keep these beautiful people in your prayers as we wait for updates.