As Brett and I eagerly counted down the days until our trip to Greece, it seems everyone had the same question: “What are you going to do there?!” or, “What do you have planned?”
There’s nothing wrong with these types of questions and I suppose if I were an avid world traveler I might have had a better response prepared. Instead, I had lame responses like, “Oh…you know. See the sights. Eat the food. Go to the beach.”
See what I mean? Lame.
So, to all the people who asked this of me a month ago, I would like a conversation re-do. Here we go….
You: Hey Ashlee, what are you going to do in Greece?
Me: (Ponders. Mysteriously.) You know….I think I am going to just be.
You: (Smirks.)
Sometimes I forget how to just be. I know how to plan. I know how to research and google and read tales of other travelers’ tips and tricks. I know how to find top attractions and the city’s best restaurants. I know how to rely on the advice of others and re-trace the steps they’ve taken.
But Greece? Greece is too special for that. Greece is a place for taking your own steps. For ignoring the “must-dos” and the “must-eats” and making it up as you go along, every second of every day. Greece is a place to just be.
There are plenty of things we didn’t do. Plenty of restaurants we didn’t try and shops we didn’t patron. But, at the end of the day and at the end of this trip, I can safely say—we were there. We soaked up every last view from the top of the Acropolis. We felt every ray of sunshine hitting our backs as we read books at the black sand beaches. We slurped our cocktails until there was nothing but one tiny melting ice cube left in the glass.
We listened to the waves.
We watched the sun go down each night.
We just…..were.
Because Greece is too special for anything else.
