Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey, English learners, this is Connor, and you're listening to episode 272 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope you're ready to practice your listening.
And in today's episode, I'm finally gonna talk about my trip to Greece.
This was a fantastic trip.
I have talked about our plans for this trip in multiple episodes, so I know that most of you know by now that I went there.
And now I want to share my experience in Greece with you all.
I'm gonna do a few episodes about my time there because it was a great trip.
It really was like a dream come true for us because
We have wanted to go to Greece for many years now.
And in fact, we have tried to plan a trip to Greece on multiple occasions and we never succeeded in actually going.
But finally we made it happen this year.
So that's why I say it really was like a dream come true for us and we had a wonderful time and so that's why I want to dedicate a few episodes to this topic.
Today I'll talk about
About the first part of the trip.
I'll try to give details, but obviously I'm not gonna be able to tell you everything, but hopefully it will give you a good idea
What we did what we saw how we felt etc
And then in the next couple of episodes I'll talk about some other things other places
Maybe I'll give some more detail about certain aspects of the trip
We'll see but today
I'll start talking about it and i hope you find this subject interesting
I'm sure you will because most of you like traveling discovering new things new places so i'm sure you'll like it and of course it will be good practice for your listening comprehension and if you want my help
To understand native speakers better when they speak fast
Make sure to sign up for my listening training so i can help you do that
That link is down below
Also you can check out my us conversations podcast if you want to start practicing with my conversations that i have with
Other English speakers from around the country.
It's great practice for when you are in group settings and you hear more than one person speaking at once.
This is a hard thing and it's something that you should practice with.
That's why I made the US Conversations podcast.
You can click on the link below to check that out.
Okay, let me talk about my trip to Greece.
We actually took a road trip.
Most of the trip was a road trip, meaning we rented a car and drove to different places.
This was a great idea, I think.
I'm always hesitant when it comes to renting a car.
It's complicated in some ways and it gives you more to think about and more responsibility and you got to think about the insurance and all those things.
But it ended up being a very good decision.
And I'm very happy we rented a car.
It allowed us to see many places, incredible places, really, and just go around and see more of the country.
Our itinerary.
What we did in Greece, where we went, was very different from the common itineraries that are normally recommended.
We
Definitely did not do what most people do in Greece.
What do most people do when they go to Greece?
Well, they fly into Athens and maybe spend some days there, and then they typically fly or take a boat to several of the Greek islands.
They might go to Santorini, they might go to Mykonos, they might go to any of the many, many amazing Greek islands that are there.
That sounds awesome too.
Don't get me wrong.
Um, but we had a fantastic time and didn't go to a single Island.
We actually just took a road trip throughout the Peloponnese, which is like the bottom part of mainland Greece.
So not the islands, the mainland.
And I was even talking to a local about this in a store where I was buying something.
This person was asking me where we went, where we were going on our trip.
And I told him we were driving through the Peloponnese and he was really happy to hear that.
He was talking to me about how all the tourists just go to the same islands and they miss out on the amazing experience you can have
Like in the Peloponnese, in mainland Greece.
Not to say that the islands aren't amazing, obviously they are, but
More people should consider mainland Greece and particularly the Peloponnese because we saw some amazing places there.
So I think even locals know that there are many parts of their country that tourists should be going to, but they don't.
So I'm happy we did this and we went to cities that pretty much no foreigner has heard of or very few foreigners have heard of, yet they were amazing places.
It's incredible how we can go to these cities that basically none of you, if you're not from Greece, have ever heard of.
And yet they were like some of the most beautiful places we've ever been to.
That just shows how many incredible places Greece has to offer.
So Greece is an amazing place to take a trip to.
You can't go wrong.
In other words, no matter where you choose to go in Greece, like which region, the different islands, the different parts of the mainland,
You're going to see incredible places.
So Greece has a lot to offer.
And we went off the beaten track, as I already mentioned, like we didn't go to
The normal places people go, and not just talking about which cities we went to, we also went off of the main highway.
So instead of just taking the main highway,
I decided that we would drive more on the smaller roads where it's only two lanes and we were able to drive on the coast
And have incredible views of the sea and we also drove through the mountains which was fantastic
I never imagined driving through greek mountains before oh it was so cool so even just going off of the normal highway
When driving was an amazing experience.
This was probably one of my top three road trips I've ever taken.
Just talking about like the beauty of where we were driving, the experience of doing it.
It was maybe in the top three.
So we loved doing this type of trip.
I think you can tell by now we didn't take any tours.
I'm not the guy who books tours or who gets a lot of help in that way.
I tend to just do self-guided tours, just go where I wanna go, and the focus of the trip
Was to do what we really wanted to do and felt like doing rather than do what we were supposed to do, right?
You know how you feel like you're supposed to go to this place if you go to that country, or if you visit this city, you have to do this thing.
I decided that we weren't going to pay attention to things that we were supposed to do, quote unquote, if we didn't really want to do them.
And quite honestly, that was a great decision.
We didn't waste time doing things we didn't want to do or going places we didn't want to go to.
And it saved us money, to be honest, because we didn't just visit
All the places that cost a lot of money just because we were supposed to and so we could take a picture there.
No, we just did what we wanted to do.
Speaking of saving money this whole trip really was a budget trip One of the reasons why we didn't go to the islands like most people do is because we were trying to save money
We don't have a big budget for trips like this.
And so we have to get creative and find other places to go to that are cheaper and find ways of traveling that are cheaper.
That was one of the goals and thankfully doing this type of trip saved us money and helped us actually afford this trip.
So that was another goal with this trip.
So what did we do and where did we go?
Well, like I said, we rented a car.
We rented it at the Athens airport.
So of course we had to fly to Athens.
We had...
A layover first in Philadelphia and then flew from there to Athens and we went to rent a car.
We rented a Yaris, a Toyota Yaris, which is a small car, but we fit.
We rented car seats for the kids
And we had enough space, just enough to be comfortable, I think, but it was pretty small.
But it was good because
You know, in Europe, it's not very comfortable to have a big car because the spaces are small.
Parking is harder when you have a big car.
So it was a good choice.
And even though we arrived in Athens, we did not stay in Athens until the end of our time in Greece.
So we immediately rented the car from the airport
And drove around Athens.
We did not go into the city.
We went around Athens and drove to the Peloponnese, the southern part of mainland Greece,
Went to our first destination down there a couple hours from the airport in Athens so my first experience in Greece was driving on a highway
I didn't even go to a city
We didn't get comfortable in a hotel we
Put our stuff in this car and started driving after a lot of hours, many hours of travel.
We were exhausted.
Our kids could not even keep their eyes open.
They slept the whole time in the car.
My wife was super tired, but she had to stay awake to be with me to make sure I wasn't getting drowsy, meaning starting to fall asleep or whatever.
By the way, never ever drive if you're feeling drowsy.
Super important.
I know that's not what this episode is about, but I just want to remind you that it's super dangerous to drive when you feel like sleeping.
Thankfully I had the adrenaline of being in Greece for the first time so I was okay driving.
I wasn't falling asleep or anything.
Obviously I wouldn't drive if that were the case.
So we drove to our first destination.
It was really surreal just driving through mainland Greece and seeing the differences and what it looks like compared to California, for example, or compared to Mexico.
Where my wife is from and where I lived for many years.
And driving on the highway, driving on these roads outside the city for me was very easy.
Thankfully, there was nothing really hard about this in Greece.
People might tell you not to rent a car in Greece, but what they're probably referring to is don't rent a car in Athens and drive in Athens.
And I agree, that's a terrible idea in my opinion.
But when you're driving on highways, going to different cities, different towns, I think it's fairly easy.
In my experience, the roads were maintained well, unless you were on like the really backside roads where you probably won't normally drive, right?
But on the normal roads and the highway,
It was fine, no issues.
It's easy to drive when you're not in the middle of traffic with all the people crossing the street and the different rules.
It's pretty easy to drive on the highways in Greece, in my opinion, and it's a very enjoyable way to see the country.
And of course, the country of Greece is amazing.
It's beautiful.
So taking a road trip is a great idea.
You get to see all the natural beauty there.
So the first place that we drove to was the archaeological site of Mycenae.
And most of you probably don't know much about
This archaeological site, the history behind it, but it's an extremely old site.
We're talking like, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 2500 years old or something.
This was the oldest man-made structure I've ever seen in my whole life.
It was
Pretty impressive to be at a place that old.
To be honest, I'm not a history buff, meaning I'm not someone who's super fascinated and obsessed with history.
I like history.
It's interesting for me.
But I'm definitely not like the biggest history guy.
So I go to these sites sometimes and...
I enjoy them.
I admire the architecture.
But it's not like the most amazing experience for me just because, again, I'm not a big history buff.
But I still think it's really cool to go to these types of places.
So you can look this place up afterwards if you're interested.
But that was the first place we went to before we had even gone to our first city where we stayed.
Our first city where we actually stayed at is Nafplio, which is a really cool little city, which for a brief time period, if I'm not mistaken, was actually the capital of
Of the kingdom of greece i don't remember what years that was but for a very short time it was a capital in greece so that's pretty interesting naflio is a great place
To travel to in greece very underrated most of you probably haven't heard of it but it's a super charming city like the streets are super picturesque i'm sure a lot of you like wandering
Through old cities that have really charming streets that have beautiful architecture.
They feel really walkable.
There are a lot of.
And small staircases and alleys and beautiful buildings and cute little cafes and stuff like that.
That's what Nafplio is like.
If you go to the city center, every single street is picturesque.
It's really cool.
And one of the really picturesque things about this city besides just the streets is
Is the fact that there are fortresses right there, like two fortresses on hills above the city that overlook the city.
So if you look up a picture of Nafplio online, you'll see these hills with the fortresses on top of them.
And then there's a third fortress that's like a little mini island in the water right off the coast.
Nafplio is on the coast.
So it kind of has that island feel to it without being an island.
And it has these fortresses and the main fortress that people go to, the one that's really high above the city,
And you pay to go into it, this is totally worth it to go to.
You can take some of the most amazing pictures and see the most amazing views out of any place in Greece, in my opinion, at this fortress in Nafplio.
It's incredible.
I really liked it.
My son really liked it too.
So I was happy about that.
And I could have spent hours and hours there.
It was totally worth it.
I would go back in an instant if I had the opportunity.
It's a lot of stairs and uphill and downhill walking, just to warn you in case you go.
But it's an amazing place, one of our favorite places that we have been to.
One thing I like about these fortresses in Greece is that there aren't a ton of like workers there that are monitoring you the whole time.
I know there's a reason why.
They have a lot of workers at different places like this in touristic spots.
I know.
But selfishly, I kind of like when there are almost no employees there.
You can just kind of go and feel free and walk where you want.
And it's very peaceful there.
There weren't a ton of people either.
The weather was great.
I forgot to mention this, but the whole time that we were in Greece, the weather was fantastic.
There was just one day when it drizzled a little bit, meaning it rained really lightly, and that was it.
Every other day was like perfect weather.
So it was great.
It was a great season to travel there.
So Nafplio was a great first city to go to.
I think spending two nights, maybe three nights there is perfect.
It's not a big city, but
It has enough
Where you don't want to just stay one night right at least stay two nights there and go to the main fortress
At least i would say if you can go to all the fortresses and wander all the streets
And walk along the coast it's a really nice atmosphere there so i loved that first place that we went to naflio after the three nights we spent there we continued on our road trip
And we started driving down the coast below Nafplio, the east coast of the Peloponnese.
And this was a really amazing drive.
Driving along the coast, it was really impressive.
Everything that you see, the views,
It was a great, great road trip.
A big highlight of our trip was not just the places that we stopped at or that we stayed at.
It was simply just the driving.
To be honest, I don't know if you like driving or not, but if you're driving in a really incredible place like the Peloponnese.
I think that it makes it just a fun experience.
You're like just admiring everything out the window the whole time you're driving.
So this was really cool.
And we stopped at the ruins of this fortress.
On the top of a hill in this small city.
I didn't even know this place existed, but I randomly saw it on a map in Nafplio and I said, Hmm,
There's an old fortress here.
I didn't know about this one.
It's on our way.
Let's go check it out.
So I decided at the last minute to stop at this fortress.
This was the farthest I ever felt from home when I was in Greece.
We went to this small town, which is not a touristic town.
We already felt out of place there.
We had to drive up this big hill on these narrow streets.
That were just like locals only type streets.
There wasn't even room for two cars on these streets.
I felt like we were in the wrong place.
And eventually when we got to the top of this hill,
I felt like we were just super far from home, to be honest.
It was one of those feelings that I've had when I've traveled before where you just feel like you are in a very foreign place.
That's what I felt.
So we made it to this old fortress.
There was not a single person there.
It's free to go there.
It's not well maintained by any means, but the ruins are there.
And it was one of the highlights of the trip.
We were the only ones there.
We were at this old fortress, the ruins of this old fortress overlooking the sea
The weather was gorgeous and we took some of the coolest pictures there with these ruins.
They had like these windows that you could look out of and see the sea and see the town underneath.
It was surreal being there alone nobody else there feeling really far from home
It was one of the highlights of the trip for me
I really really enjoyed it
Um it was just a last minute thing like i said
I can't even remember
The name of it, I would have to look it up again.
That's why I'm not saying the name here because I forget what it's called.
But I like doing those things on these types of trips.
Even though I like planning really well, I like to leave some space for improvising.
Like if we suddenly decide to stop here or go there, I like being able to do that.
I like having a structured, organized trip and itinerary, but with room for freedom.
And spontaneity like you just suddenly decide to do something that's what this was and it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip being in that incredible location with no one else there the
Old ruins overlooking the sea.
So that's kind of advice for myself for the next trip.
Connor, remember to allow for some spontaneity because it would have been very disappointing to miss that place just because it wasn't part of my original plan.
So that was definitely a highlight of our trip.
Wow, I've been talking for a long time and I've barely covered just a couple of the places we went to.
I'm definitely gonna need a few episodes to talk about this.
You can tell it's exciting for me to talk about this topic.
So I'll stop here and then I'll continue on in the next episode talking about the next destination.
I hope that this is interesting for you.
I know it's good practice for your listening.
Remember again, if you want my help,
Understanding native speakers when they speak fast.
You can sign up to get my training so I can help you do that.
The link is down below.
And check out my US Conversations podcast so you can practice listening to my conversations with other English teachers from all around the country.
That link is also down below.
Thank you all for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of listening time.
