My best friends and I had always planned on going to Greece together as a graduation celebration of sorts. But our college graduation came and went and we all went on separate trips around the world. So a year and half later when we were all back home, we decided to finally go on our Greece trip.

As we had no more money after our huge solo trips, we needed to budget wisely for our trip to Greece. We decided to backpack it, first through the mainland, and then to island hop. The mainland was interesting. We jam packed a whole bunch of touristy sights into four days. We were mostly in Athens, and spent a full day at the Acropolis. It was super crowded but really amazing to see.

Before seeing it, I didn’t realize just how many parts there were to it. The Parthenon was incredible, and I enjoyed the museum that displayed all of the artefacts that have been unearthed by scientists over time. My favourite site in the Acropolis, though, was the Erechtheion shrine. I hadn’t known anything about it before seeing it and it was beautiful.

After our four long days of sightseeing and staying in a pretty mediocre hostel, we were ready for relaxing on the beaches. We took a ferry to Mykonos, the island known for its white-washed buildings and blue waters. I had always wanted to go to Mykonos because of how beautiful it looked in pictures, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The people, the food, the beaches, and the night life made our week on the island one to remember forever.

After leaving Mykonos we hopped over to three other islands: Santorini, Los, and Corfu, before heading back to Athens to catch our flight home. The Greek Islands are gorgeous and so much fun and a definite must for any world traveler.