Travelogue 3: Polychrono, Greece

Some of you already know I’ve spent two weeks in September on the amazing peninsula Kassandra in Greece, which is a part of the wonderful Halkidiki. I’ve decided to put together a short piece on how I spent my vacation there, and what you can expect if you decide to visit it yourself. You won’t see anything fancy in my post, as this was a totally relaxing holiday for both me and my boyfriend, where we just enjoyed everything and rarely remembered to take photos. 🙂

Me and mah doughnut in front of our apartment.

We stayed at a nice villa 60 meters from the sea, as you can see in the picture above, which was pretty basic but cheap. The biggest advantage was its closeness to the beach and a supermarket in the same complex, which made all trips short, but as both of us dislike crowded beaches (And even at the end of the season, all beaches were very crowded), we walked a lot to visit the wilder parts with less people. This granted us more personal space, both on the beach and in the water, nicer views, and more forage like sea shells and urchin shells, which I love to collect.

The water in these wilder parts is much cleaner, but there’s less sand and more stones in the water which made me do a lot of ouches. Luckily, we didn’t step on any urchins, which are very common around the big rocks, but we managed to hurt ourselves on some rocks, though nothing serious. As you might judge by the photos, I failed to learn to swim, so I bought myself a nice floaty doughnut and paddled around instead, which was pretty nice. I also managed to get a sun tan, which is now peeling off.

dav

Other than tanning, floating and foraging, we ate a lot of nice food. I convinced my bf to go out and eat at a restaurant twice, which we never do at home, but in Greece it was a must, as I wanted to eat everything. The first time, I ate a moussaka in a clay pot, and my bf ordered a lamb specialty, and we had a shrimp salad entree with garlic on toast. This was all very delicious and we stuffed ourselves full, which was a shame because we were offered a free pancake at the end. We had to refuse, but the waiter was very polite and insisted we come back for it. Other than staff being super polite everywhere, I loved the fact that there are a bunch of cats there, and they let them inside of the stores and restaurants. We had a family of 7 cats watch us eat, and the little ones tried to get on the table, which was very interesting to the passing tourists who would stop to take photos. This place is called Αύρα taverna, it’s very cozy and traditional and it has my highest recommendations.

We had our second dinner at the FLEGRA Traditional Tavern, which I liked a bit less as it was more fancy than traditional. We ate on the beach, which was interesting but not so comfy, as my chair kept falling through the sand. I ate grilled shrimps with couscous and bf got lamb ribs (He loves lamb), and we got a tzatziki entree with toast and garlic. The food was delicious but not as good as in the first tavern, so here we did take the free pancake and it was magnificent. We also went out for a beer one night, to a cute little café called El Gato Negro (The black cat), which is cozy, has great Greek music, and is wonderfully decorated. The sign posts from the picture above are right outside. Other than that, we ate mostly at home, and we devoured so many olives that we had to google what amount is safe. We also went to a bunch of fast food restaurants for pita gyros and the best one is definitely Doctor of Hunger where I ate the best moussaka ever.

fbt

dav

Everything was amazing and I have zero complaints, except I’d have stayed longer if I could. I hope to go back some day, but there’s more of the world to explore. If you ever decide to visit this beautiful little town I’m sure you’ll have a great time, as everything is awesome, the ice cream, the locals, the cats, the sea, and especially food. Oh, and the tastiest fruit juice in the world.