day 1: outskirts of athens
we were to only be in athens for a night before our 7am flight to Santorini so we stayed at a place that was maybe a 10 minute drive from the airport – a cute homely hotel-inn, owned by the friendliest man named Theodore who named the place after his son and whose hospitality extended beyond that of a standard host (see: driving us to and fro the airport, letting us have the room nearest the reception because it had the ‘strongest wifi’). he related to us his belief and connection to his hometown, Corfu, and talked about how he first entered the hotel business there to showcase the beauty of the place. he was so genuine and warm.

peri’s was nestled amongst houses and across plains; on our walk out to the beach, we both remarked how things reminded us of someplace familiar… a small Malaysian town you pass through while driving en route to somewhere else was the conclusion. i didn’t know what to make of athens / greece before so i expected nothing – businesses were shut, streets were desolate, activity was sparsely littered. but the waters were so blue as promised, and dinner was good (larger than expected whitebait fish and shrimp spaghetti to share for 15 euro each).

learnt that Greeks smoke a ton (‘smoking in Greece was at the highest rate of tobacco consumption at more than 40% in the EU in 2010’, says Wikipedia). i don’t think i’d ever want to live in a country where smoking, despite being technically outlawed, is unofficially allowed indoors.
the idea of smoking rakes up a lot.