Athens | Corinth | Travel Tips

Travel Tips

So months later, after my trip to Europe with my mom, I have noticed something about myself. Going to Europe drastically changed how I travel and my attitude towards it.

From a young age I had what my family referred to as “travel anxiety.” Overcoming that is a completely different blog post and I am not saying I am completely “over it,” but I have found out a few practical ways to simplify travel so I excited for my trip rather than just sitting around stressing.

Always have a travel toiletries bag ready. It used to be the stuff I took out of town and what I used at home were the same. Before Europe I bought the little refillable travel containers for lotion, shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, etc. and now I keep them packed in their little travel bag all the time. Such a small change but it’s been a huge weight lifted when I have to pack to know I have them ready to go and finding the nearest drug store won’t be my number one goal in a new city.
Keep a functional and versatile wardrobe rather than specific “outfits”. I am bad about only shopping for two categories of clothing, “Sunday Best/Wedding Attire,” and workout clothes. Prepping for Europe I started buying shirts and pants that were very comfortable so I would be able to enjoy wherever I was no matter the weather or activity but not so slumpy that I would look back at hate the pictures just because of how I looked. I also stick to very neutral colors that will match multiple other pieces of clothing. The result is packing for 13 days in Greece/Italy looks nearly identical to a week in Texas. Now if I had to pack for somewhere cold, I would be up a creek.
Be completely packed two days before. This is another thing that probably seems either ridiculous to you or very duh. Whichever it is, being packed ahead of time has freed me up to do things like clean out kitchen and fridge so we don’t come home to black bananas… which has happened before and was gross.

Now for Greece.

Corinth was very memorable for me, not because it was beautiful or picturesque like the way you think of Greece. But you could tell it wasn’t just a tourist town, in fact there were very few. The mountainous landscape had beautiful houses and architecture surrounded by garden filled lush greenery and citrus trees and more space than people.

As we drove up our guide said that in Greece, “We have slight tremors, sometimes they are big slight tremors but we never call them earth quakes.”

The site at ancient Corinth is one place we are almost guaranteed the Apostle Paul went and it is where his letters, now called Corinthians 1 and 2 would have been first read.

In many ways, this particular day was just looking at very old rocks lying on the ground but I love imaging what it was and wondering if the early Christians looked at these mountains and contemplated the God who put it and them there.

Mars Hill and the Parthenon was a sight I was very much looking forward to because it is where Paul gave his sermon about the Unknown God. Honestly, I had never considered that all of Athens wasn’t still wasn’t buildings like these.

Modern Athens is huge and looks similar to a rundown mixture of Texas and New York City.

These steps up to Mar Hill are slippery from years of use and they have a modern ones you can take but I took the ancient ones because I didn’t come all that way to walk new steps.

Apparently they still have concerts here occasionally, like Elton John.

Another thing I did not know (or just had never thought about) was that the marble that building like the Parthenon are made was originally very brilliant and beautifully white. So when they do upkeep to the structures they used marble from the quarries and will eventually match but for now, it helps you imagine what these look like in there heyday.