travels.of.tara

Wednesday, July 29, 2026 | JFK Airport, Korean Air Lounge, 10:53pm

And we’re off!

The last few days were boring and slow and tedious, spent mostly inside cleaning and packing up the apartment. Today I got everything together and left for my parents’ at 1pm, leaving me about 8 hours to kill by sitting around, moving things around, chit chatting, watching tv, etc. I’m bored and ready. I’m so prepared. Work feels really far away; it’s been less than a week. I don’t miss it at all. I’m calm, rested, and again: ready. I feel gratitude for what I’m about to experience and pride in myself for building this unique adventure for myself and jumping into a big risky unknown future.

First up is a 7-hour flight to Paris that departs at 1am, a tight layover that includes the new EES Europe entry line, then a 3 hour flight to Athens. If all goes according to plan I’ll arrive at 8pm, then take the metro to my hostel. I have no idea how many hours this is going to be and it doesn’t matter; there’s a 7-hour time difference. I’ll find some delicious food for dinner, conk out, and wake up late to meet up with my family friend Nicole for the day.

I’ve thought and written so much in the last few months. I have hopes and dreams about the next 6 months, joy, and steeliness for the challenges I may face. I hope to let go of productivity. I hope to write as much as feels right; to share as much as I feel like in the moment; to not put pressure on myself to record things a certain way. I will allow over-booking and expending too much energy if that’s what I want, and I will allow days off and the need to be a couch potato once in a while. I aspire to not stress about what comes next. The only rule is to be open to the experiences and follow my gut.

The travel begins. Onward.

Tuesday August 4, 2026 | Athens to Naxos Ferry, 10am

I didn’t really know what I was getting when I purchased the ferry ticket; I chose a medium price and a medium speed that would take me 5 hours to get from Athens to Naxos. I am on Blue Star Delos, a giant cruise ship overstuffed with entitled Europeans napping with their feet on chairs, smoking in every possible outdoor nook, and forming long queues for overpriced coffee. A far cry from my regular ferry commute to the office.

I was on a ship like this before, when I traveled from Athens to Crete overnight in 2022. I found the rocking ship wouldn’t allow me to sleep and I spent the middle of the night roaming the deck like a ghost. This morning I roamed once again, this time looking for a seat. After giving up my waterside deck chair and table due to the unbearable cloud of cigarette smoke and huge dogs barking nearby (and one man with a parakeet on his shoulder), I took several laps until I settled on a carpeted nook on the floor behind some of the nicer paid seats. I managed to sleep sitting cross-legged for a while. People are walking by and looking at me, but it’s quieter and more private than the other seating areas, where I would certainly have had to share a table with someone unhappy to have me there.

My back and hips aren’t thrilled, but I’m content. The long journeys don’t bother me much. Noise canceling AirPods have been an incredible addition to my lifestyle, and I’ve already gotten through a book and a half on my kindle since starting the trip. The long stretches of gentle motion and scenery going by are when I’m able to slow down and begin to think.

Since arriving in Athens 5 days ago, I switched into a sort of automated vacation default mode, where I walk endlessly and eschew the idea of wasting daylight hours. Even sleeping late to fight off the jetlag involved fighting some self-imposed guilt.

And so, I did a lot of really cool things over the last few days. A return trip to Athens was a good first stop, and honestly the fast pace was a way of blunting the emotional processing of beginning a trip of this magnitude.

Athens is so old. Blocks from my hostel I passed a stalled street construction project from November because the crew discovered a Roman mosaic from the 3rd Century that requires a lot of permits to remove. At the same time, Athens has distinct neighborhood vibes. Where I stayed in Pysri, a graffiti-laden district with young people and dense food options. Just over in Monastiraki, shopping streets and tourist-targeted restaurants line every inch of spare outdoor space. Plaka, where I stayed the last time, seems shiny and postcard-perfect. And around almost every bend, thousands-of-years-old monuments just lying about the city streets. I also visited the suburb of Cholargos, a cute and very livable neighborhood easily accessible by the metro where my friend Nicole lives. Transit flows easily across the city; some streets are closed to cars to prioritize pedestrians; and it all has the flow of a modern, western European capital city.

The city coalesces around a giant hill boasting the Acropolis, a collection of ancient buildings that are steeped in famous Greek mythology and the founders of modern democratic society. I paid the 30 euros for a return pilgrimage walk up the hill to the site, to feel its ancient power and view the Parthenon without external scaffolding for the first time in many years. Last time I wished I had gone with a guide, and this time, while I had an audio guide, I found I was overwhelmed by the crowds and the bright evening sun, so chose not to listen. Even with the crowds, the Acropolis gives off a powerful, reverent energy that harkens back to the gods who were worshipped here centuries ago.

I also went to the Acropolis Museum, one of my favorites that is home to many of the original friezes and sculptures that were part of the Acropolis. I spent a great hour and a half sitting in the museum café, overlooking the hilltop, trying desperately to stave off jetlag while pretending to read.

On my first night, I spent my evening at the open-air Thiseo Cinema at a screening of The Odyssey, a view of the lit-up Acropolis in the background as Odysseus spoke of myths synonymous with ancient Greece. The nearly-full moon rose as the film progressed, and strong warm winds blew popcorn buckets around, suggesting the power of the Gods raising their voices.

I met up with Nicole a few times; our moms are close friends and she was my babysitter when I was a child. She fell in love with a Greek man and moved to Athens about 15 years ago. It was lovely having a familiar face to meet up with and a personal tour guide to start my trip. If you ever visit Greece, she and her husband have a great little AirBnb property in a seaside town close to the Athens airport.

I also booked a food tour where I chatted with fellow travelers and ate everything; spanakopita remains my favorite and tzatziki chips are my most whimsical food discovery so far. I found a yoga class where I was the only student and felt great afterwards. I took a break for stretching on the hostel roof and had many excellent casual meals over the days.

And on my last day I did a 15-hour day trip to Meteora, a UNESCO site in central Greece known for its historic and still-active monasteries that are built at the top of narrow cliffs in the mountains. It was a long day but broken up comfortably. The site is an architectural marvel and beautiful. Meteora begs the question: “why?” To which my guide Katerina explained, “the monks believed to be high up was to be close to God.” It was the same rationale given when I asked this question about the ancient Inca civilization in Peru: choosing a somewhat inhospitable place to live over hopes for the eternal afterlife.

We entered three of the monasteries and nunneries, each time the women adjusting to adorn our long skirts or wraps in the 90-degree heat. Women visitors must wear long skirts to enter, not for modesty purposes, but as a nod to the first women allowed in the monasteries in 1933. That year, village women entered to extinguish a huge fire that they saw from down in the village, and women in Greece legally were not allowed to wear pants until 1946.

In one small chapel, walls fully adorned with paintings of religious figures and animals chewing up humans for some reason, I observed one of the monks sitting in the corner with his black robe and full beard, chit chatting on his cell phone like a normal person, versus the out-of-history oddity I imagined him to be. While the sites were beautifully designed with impressive Greek Orthodox Catholic art adorning the chapels and incredible scenery, I did not feel any kind of spiritual connection. This is typical of me and organized religion, grounded in early-in-life learnings and questioning.

Through all of these exciting activities, I haven’t been thinking of home too much. A little texting with friends and family. I made time to post some Instagram stories, giving me a hit of dopamine knowing there are many people excited about my adventures. I’ve really been looking forward to getting to the beach and spending long hours lounging in the sand and taking breaks to rest indoors, and hopefully starting to process what I’m doing here and what I’ve left behind.  

I’m grateful for what feels so far like a smooth ferry ride, and clear skies. These seas have been plagued by strong winds the last few days that grounded boats, and summer wildfires are raging outside of Athens, on the nearby island of Paros, and close to where I’ll be heading in Crete. These natural disasters are a stark reminder of the changing climate and the limited time we may have left to enjoy the wonders of this planet. More than making me want to fight to preserve the planet, right now it makes me want to fight to explore it; to see and experience everything I can while I still can.