Athens, Galaxidi and the Road to Delphi

Greece! Where do I begin?! Focusing the Greece portion on one major attraction surrounded by supporting stops proved to be so perfect. We flew into Athens and spent two nights there. We stayed in a room near Kerameikos Metro Station: we boarded the train at the airport, got off at this station and walked about five minutes to our room. It was also only about three stops from the Acropolis. It’s considered an up-and-coming neighborhood, so there were very few tourists, and going in mid-September helped keep it quieter too.

We had the best falafel shop next door. The falafel, pizza, cookies and orange juice were all so delicious. The owners were so sweet, and I just loved everything about that place. Across from it was a small coffee shop that served the most delicious Freddo Cappuccino. I hadn’t drunk coffee in months, but the Freddo called to me, so I enjoyed. They also had a cooler of fruit popsicles, and Olivia enjoyed at least six of them over our two days there 😅 She’s still mentioning those strawberry popsicles weeks later.

Because I had decided that Delphi was our main Greece site, I didn’t put much pressure on the Acropolis or the typical must-see Athens sites, but we did make it to the Acropolis Museum. It was a 7/10 experience. I love ancient cities and ancient sites, but there were a lot of people, and I was still a little tired from our long travel to Greece, so I wasn’t fully feeling it. After the museum, I surprised Olivia with a cat café within walking distance of our apartment. I give that a solid 10/10. The cats were super lovely.

I built this whole trip to be slow, with each transit happening between checkout at one place and check-in at the next, and for the most part, it worked perfectly. So we checked out of our apartment in Athens, took a 12-minute taxi, and hopped on a KTEL bus to Galaxidi, our next supporting stop.

This was one transit I spent a lot of time considering. I didn’t want to take a taxi because 1) they were really expensive, like over $200 USD, and 2) we just don’t like traveling by car for more than 20 minutes 😅 We come from an island where we travel everywhere by motorbike, and we highly dislike car travel. So I found the KTEL bus, and it was perfect! Like, seriously loved it. Big windows, big comfy seats, and more than reasonably priced. The views from the bus were their own main attraction, and I give it a 10/10. We used it between all our stops in Greece, and I just can’t stop raving about it.

The only thing I’ll note is that it made me a little too confident in bus travel, and I had to learn the hard way that not all bus experiences are created equal. I won’t say who 😉 but my small travel companion got sick on one of our FlixBus legs and vomited on me, and yeah, that’s when I realized how special the KTEL bus actually was 😂

After three hours on a truly stunning bus ride, we made it to Galaxidi! This was one place I had almost removed from our itinerary when I shortened the Greece portion, and arriving in this freaking perfect beach town, I was so incredibly grateful we were there. We stayed at Ganimede Hotel, a bed and breakfast that served fresh breakfast every morning. They served Greek yogurt with honey, my first real Greek yogurt and honey experience, and I will literally never forget how good it was. They also made chutneys and dips for the bread, and they were so good.

Galaxidi is a super sleepy port town that once had its own golden age, and it has definitely held on to its charm. I also saw the best-dressed people here. I wondered more than once: are Europeans the best-dressed people in the world? 😅 I don’t remember wondering this anywhere else, so maybe it’s just Galaxidi 😅

After two perfect nights, we made our way back up the mountain. Taking a taxi the whole way would have broken our 20-minute taxi rule, and catching the earlier bus from Galaxidi would have meant a rushed morning and an early checkout, which broke the slow travel, and we couldn’t have that. So we took a taxi to Itea and spent three hours there waiting for the next KTEL bus. Itea is another sleepy beach town on the Gulf of Corinth. There I had the most delicious savory pastry of our whole trip, and we got to lie under a tree beside the water. In that moment, I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather have been doing. It was perfect.

A couple of hours later, we boarded our bus to Arachova. Delphi sits about 30 minutes from Itea and 15 minutes before Arachova, so we got a nice drive-by before being dropped at the bus stop, about an eight-minute walk from our room in Arachova.