June 17, 2025 • 38 mins
Episode 3: Greek Island Hopping with Petros from Blue White Dream Tours
In this special episode, Rachel Beausang and I sit down with Petros from Blue and White Dream Tours to talk all things Greek island hopping! We dive into the magic of exploring Greece's stunning islands, from insider tips on the best routes to hidden gems that most tourists never discover.
Petros shares his local expertise on what makes each island special and how to make the most of your Greek adventure.
Want to join us in May 2026? I'm taking a small group of women to experience Athens, Naxos, and Santorini like locals. If you're interested in coming along, contact me for all the details!
Want to know more? Check out this article for everything you need to know about Greek island hopping and follow Blue and White Dream Tours for some Greek Island Hopping Inspiration.
This episode is perfect whether you're planning your first Greek getaway or you're already dreaming of your next island adventure!
📌 Next week: I'll be chatting with Kiara Barnes about the Maldives , hidden gems, and cultural curiosities you don't want to miss!
Are you an expat with a favourite holiday destination you're passionate about? Drop me a line at podcast@trulyexpat.com - I'd love to hear your story!
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If you'd like to support the podcast, just click the link in the show notes and any contribution you can make helps me keep creating episodes for you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, where I
chat with expats about theirfavourite holiday destinations.
Let's be honest, expats are someof the best travellers around,
always planning the nextadventure, exploring hidden gems
and finding the best spotswherever they go.
So who better to ask for travelinspiration?
This episode is a little bitspecial because I'm joined today
(00:21):
by special guest Rachel Bosang,who you may remember as my
co-host from Truly ExpatPodcast.
And together we chat with Petrosfrom Blue and White Dream Tours.
This guy who moved fromAustralia to Greece and never
looked back.
We're uncovering what
SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
inspired his move to Athens, how his island obsession
led to creating a boutiquetravel company.
and the secret spots that makeGreek island hopping truly
magical.
Forget the tourist traps, Petrosreveals the hidden gems and
authentic experiences mosttravellers never discover.
Warning, your travel bucket listis about to
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
become full.
So grab your drink, get comfy,and prepare to fall in love with
the real Greece.
Thank you, Petros, for joiningus today.
We love having you on with us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great intro.
Wow.
Thank you.
We
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
can't wait to hear about all of your tips and
tricks.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
Hidden gems.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Yes, exactly.
And maybe you could start off,
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
how did you get into it?
Greece.
Yeah.
Where are you originally from?
So I'm originally, actually,funny enough, I was born in
Melbourne, moved back and forthto Greece when I was a kid.
My mother had a fascination withcoming back to Greece.
So they built a house, obviouslyabove the parents' place, which
(01:44):
most Greeks do.
You've got the parentsdownstairs, and you've got the
son, and then you've got thedaughter, and then you've got
that kind of works here.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
The generational living.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
Yeah, it is.
It's literally, you can see howbig the family is.
And you've got four stories andfive
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
stories going
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
by.
You actually see it.
People come out of the house,you go, oh, okay, wow, that's a
big family.
You can fly in it.
Sometimes they even throw in anauntie.
It's true.
You just throw in an auntie oran auntie in there as well.
I think in and about obviouslywith the family, the
grandparents are always there aswell.
They're somewhere.
In the basement, somewhere.
They're somewhere.
I don't know where they are, butthe grandparents are always with
you.
(02:22):
Anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (02:24):
They're
SPEAKER_01 (02:25):
somewhere there.
I started getting a fascinationwhen I was quite young.
I used to watch TV shows.
What you saw was TV shows.
We used to see Americanbuildings, like high-rise.
So when you're seeing theoutside world, that's all you
used to think of was, you know,oh yeah, that's what it looks
like out there.
Big roads, big cars, bigAmerican cars.
(02:46):
That's all.
So when my parents first took meto Greece, I thought, where am
I?
Everything is small.
Everything is like cement, likethe way it is what you see now.
And so I just, I was bewilderedthat The world isn't what we see
on TV because on TV shows, likeI said, growing up, we had three
TV channels back then.
It was just American shows.
(03:07):
There was no other.
SBS wasn't even out for a showof my age.
SBS was Channel O, if youremember.
I don't even know why SBS.
It's like an international TVshow which had international,
sorry, national products, whichonly had either TV, Australian
or American.
So I just became fascinated bythe architecture and the people
and the It kind of drew me and Ikept wanting to go back, wanting
(03:28):
to go back, wanting to go back,wanting to go back, kept going
back with it, especially mymother.
She wanted to move back toGreece.
They built a house, like I said,but it was just due to
circumstances, financialcircumstances.
It just didn't evolve to that.
But at the same time, myparents, like I said, they had
their house here.
And then what happened was Ithink I was going back and
(03:49):
forth.
I started my business back inMelbourne and then I just
thought I needed some time off.
I thought I'm going to go toGreece.
This is in the 90s, out ofGreece.
And I said, how about a coupleof my friends said, come with
me.
I said to a couple of friends,come with me to Greece.
Let me show you a little bit ofthe Greece I know.
As back then, there was noGoogle, no AI.
(04:11):
There wasn't like, you justhashtag, where do I go?
So it was obviously harder tonavigate and to go the right
spot because you don't,everything, as you know, if you
roll up to a restaurant, youcan't look at the reviews.
So you can't see what's inplace.
And so if anything, instinct hadto kick in more and you just
say, that doesn't feel right.
I got a knack as to where to go,which I still use now.
(04:34):
In the 90s, I took some friendsover to the Greek islands.
Obviously, it was fitness-basedbecause my background is I used
to run a personal trainingstudio in Melbourne.
And so I would finish orientatedexercise in the morning, take
them sightseeing during the day.
And then at night, just relaxand could be bar hopping or just
watching the sunset and justchilling out by the beach or
(04:55):
something like that.
And I'll call it the balancetour.
That's when the balance tourcame about.
Because my friends, theyobviously didn't speak Greek at
all.
And I'd say to them, like, whereare you going?
And they'd go, look, I've gotthis rule of thumb.
Not to say that it's 100% sure.
I've got a rule of thumb.
If it's got cushy chairs, it'sgot laid-back music, and it's
got the big tables, I'll gothere for a coffee.
(05:16):
If the chairs areuncomfortable...
And I hear the mother screamingin the background with the son,
sweating, eating, cooking.
That's where I go and eat.
I've got that all the time.
I still do that now.
I still rely on the instinct ofthat Connor.
And it seemed to work back then.
(05:36):
It still seems to work that yougo to the places that no bells
and whistles to eat.
And I'll go to the places whereit's got the bells and whistles,
they're relaxing, Cafe Del Marmusic, and that's okay.
I personally, I just don't likethe heaven.
So people say the Greekexperience or Mediterranean
experience, I don't go therebecause that doesn't really
(05:58):
identify to me as to.
Or Vintik, if you go to them.
The Screaming Mama.
The Screaming Mama.
It's a family business.
It's a great name.
It's a restaurant.
It's
SPEAKER_00 (06:11):
a
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
restaurant.
The Screaming
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Mama.
Okay, we've got a concept.
Let's start a business.
The Screaming
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Mama.
Mediterranean way.
So that's what.
And then island hopping.
A lot of people, when they doisland hopping, they go, oh, I
want to go to four or fivedifferent islands.
But you've got 10 days.
A lot of people forget about thetransfers.
To
SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
get into these
SPEAKER_01 (06:34):
islands is far.
For example, if you take thesuper jet ferry, it's minimum,
it could be four hours.
It could be, all right,sometimes it's shorter on the
plane as well, but then you'vegot to do the transfer to the
plane.
You've got to wait.
It could be you have acancellation.
So therefore, if you've only gotfour or five days, I always
thought, okay, you've got to becareful as to what the transfers
(06:55):
involved as well.
That's all right.
When I started putting– Ithought, which islands I could
navigate to be closer togetherwhere you don't have to sit
there thinking, oh, all I'mfeeling, I'm freaking, I'm just
carrying my suitcase all
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
day.
SPEAKER_01 (07:07):
And another thing I always say to people is that one
minute you're relaxing, youknow, you're nice and just
relaxing, you take it all in.
Next thing you know, you'rehuddled with everyone else.
You've got the guy at the portscreaming,
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
get on board.
Matt, carrying your suitcaseisn't part of your workout?
No.
Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
Exactly.
That's right.
Bicep curls.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (07:29):
that's
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
right.
Going up those ramps as well.
SPEAKER_00 (07:32):
Some of the ramps.
Resistance training.
Especially if
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
the ramps are moving side to side slightly as well.
And if you've decided to goshopping, stuff your suitcase
even more.
Like you've got a full safe.
I thought you bring fullsuitcases to the island.
Wine was shopping.
They've got bulging suitcasescoming out.
The wheel's broken off andyou're trying to get off the
(08:00):
ramp.
And then, well, that gets rid ofyour fancy cheese and those.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
That's right.
How are you going to figure outcustoms?
You need to take it back.
You got on?
At
SPEAKER_01 (08:15):
the time.
They sold it to me.
It was amazing.
You've got all these jars.
You go, oh, where am I going?
Are you sure I'm going to getthrough customs?
It's never going back toAustralia or New Zealand and you
have to worry about customs.
SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, I've
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
got a quick story.
I've got a friend of mine thatcame.
I met a friend of mine yearsago.
He's still a friend of mine,obviously.
And I said, come to Australia.
I said, come to Australia, cometo Australia.
He's never traveled before.
This is a true story.
He's never traveled before,ever, never.
Because unfortunately, I couldtalk to you, this could be
another podcast, is a lot ofGreeks actually don't have,
can't afford to travel even toSanteria.
(08:50):
It's very expensive, but that'sanother.
But he's never traveled.
I said, come to Australia.
Obviously, in the moment, we hada few drinks together, hugs and
kisses.
You love it, you love it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come play with me.
So he comes.
Did he bring his donkey?
No, this isn't.
This is a true story.
I can't make this up.
So he comes.
So back then, we're talking backmid-2000s, I couldn't text him.
(09:12):
He come in.
I think Nokia just came in witha big brick
SPEAKER_00 (09:14):
front.
Oh, yeah.
So
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
he doesn't know whether I'm going to show up.
That was the beauty of backthen.
He doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00 (09:20):
He
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
came all the way.
So I'm waiting at the airport.
The plane was, say, 2 o'clock,came 5 o'clock.
I go, where is he?
Who do I ask?
Who do I ask?
I go, I've got to wait a littlebit more.
Where is he?
He comes out.
He's ghostly white.
I go, what happened?
He goes, I'll get held up atcustoms.
I goes, why?
I goes, my mother, true story,decided to pack a sandwich.
That was like a bus.
(09:42):
You get off and you have abreak.
She packed ham and cheese tomatosandwich rolls in his suitcase
without telling him.
So when he got accustomed, I go,what's this sandwich here?
And the fish said to him, whatis this?
And he didn't declare it becausehe didn't know.
SPEAKER_00 (10:03):
That it
SPEAKER_01 (10:03):
was in
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
there.
Oh, my God, that is
SPEAKER_01 (10:06):
hilarious.
What did they do to him?
Did they find him?
No, they actually.
Probably felt sorry.
Yeah, they did, becauseobviously it's a true story.
I didn't know it was my mother,and I saw it was all wrapped up.
SPEAKER_00 (10:17):
Did you pack your own bag?
Yeah, did you pack your own
SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
bag?
Exactly.
Is that how you decided on thetype of islands that you go to?
Yes, I did.
I decided I felt was a littlebit more convenient as to, like
I say, if people are coming forseven days or eight days, try
and make it stress-free inregards to the transfers,
because it's I've tried a fewoptions.
(10:42):
For example, sometimes I wenthopping for two days.
Two days here, two days there,two days there.
And that's great.
But if you're doing it peaktime, you've got crowds packing
onto the port to go to theislands, getting on the same
ferry.
And so there's a lot of stressinvolved with that.
(11:05):
So which is easiest to navigate?
For example, one of the islandsI always love to choose is Naxos
and Santorini.
Why?
Between Naxos and Santorini,it's only an hour and a half
away.
So it doesn't seem so strong forso long in regards in between
those particular islands.
Mostly I focus on the Cycladesat the moment is because
obviously everyone wants to seeSantorini and everyone always
(11:28):
wants to go to Santorini andthat's obviously the most...
picturesque for sunsets as well.
Yeah.
Base it in regards to what'smore convenient for the
traveler.
So I'm always trying to thinkabout what would, if I was
traveling, what would I belooking for rather than as a
local, what I think works best.
There's a little bit, there's alittle bit of difference in
(11:49):
that.
Would you suggest seven days isa good amount?
Seven days is a good amount.
It depends like what people havein regards to the time off.
I suggest seven days and in thatprobably maybe two islands if
you did Athens and then twoother islands with that rather
(12:09):
than trying to focus on doingAthens and then doing three
islands with that because youreally, by the time you get off,
you're already thinking aboutI've got to pack my bags and go
to the next island.
Yeah.
If you're doing that in twodays, probably you package like
we stay on one island for threedays and really get to enjoy and
just relax and then obviously doanother island for two days and
obviously if you want to seeAthens, You can, you know,
(12:31):
Athens, you can, if you justwant to do the kind of normal,
he say, kind of places, two daysas well, Kropoulos and Plaka and
things like that.
But just really, it depends.
Again, we can touch on that asto what the individual is
looking for, as to what peoplelook for.
But yes, seven days, two islandswith Athens.
That's what I'd probablyrecommend or that's what I would
(12:52):
recommend.
That's what I used to do.
Seems to work.
And then we changed it to GreekBalance Tools, which is focused
on Greek.
Balance Tools alwaysincorporates yoga in the morning
as well.
I used to have people doing yogain the morning.
And then it just changed theplatform now to Blue White Dream
Tools, which primarily focuseson different type of groups that
we offer for the islands aswell.
(13:12):
Which is very exciting.
I'm excited because I'm going onone of them, so yeah.
Which one are you going on,Paula?
I'm hoping to take a group ofwomen.
off later in this year, whichwe've been discussing.
Yeah, fantastic.
So is there some spots left onthat?
There is, yeah.
All right.
So what's the pace of the tour?
(13:33):
Look, look, with these types oftours, you've got different
types of people that come along.
You can't, you know, a lot ofpeople come for different
reasons.
So what we offer, for example,if someone wants to just look at
the history of There's optionsinto seeing the history of
Greece.
If someone wants to seearchitecture, they can see that.
If someone just wants to sit andrelax by the beach and watch the
(13:54):
sunset, sunrise, and have anamazing cocktail and say, wow,
where am I?
That's off as well.
I've had groups.
I've had people.
When I first started, I hadpeople that came with me.
All I had was one guy because hehad a high-stress job, and all
he thought was, all I need, allI want to do is just sit at the
beach, hear the waves, and reada book, which he never done.
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (14:15):
Whereas I had another lady that wanted to get
up at 7.30 in the morning.
I'm up.
I'm off.
I'm going hiking.
She went hiking, came back.
All right, what can I do for theday?
Seven points.
Okay, all right, you can comeand see that.
All right, I want to tick thisoff.
I want to see this.
She had a list before she cameas to what to see, what to
search.
So therefore, what I'm trying tosay, it's all up to the
(14:37):
individual.
We can offer that.
So particular islands that we goto, what I suggest is– offers
that on that bucket list.
Most islands do, but I think Ifeel like sometimes the island
has to be big enough to caterfor things like that as well.
Some people just want to just gotry different eateries.
So they go to differenteateries.
Other people are fussy.
(14:58):
If you turn around and say,look, I want to go, we organize
that.
So anything can be organized.
We've got a group.
I've got a couple next week orin the month.
I want to do a helicopter ridearound Santorini.
So we've done that.
We've organized that as well.
What's the perfect size of agroup when they go on tour, do
you think?
About 10.
(15:18):
Okay.
You could about 10 or 40.
But look, again, there's a lotof factors.
I've had a group of 20 and seena group of five.
I've had a group of five andthey've seen a group of 20.
So that's really how thedynamics works together as a
group.
That's so true.
For sure.
And what are the hidden gems oroff-the-beaten-path islands that
(15:39):
your guests absolutely love?
Look, that's a tricky one.
Everyone asks me, what's ahidden gem?
I think what I could probablysay, because all the islands
that I've been to, I've enjoyedfor what I feel.
For example, like when I go topick up, there's a memory with
it.
I go, wow, that's for me, myhidden little gem.
That's for me, my little...
(16:00):
Again, I think it goes toindividual people.
Now for beaches, I couldprobably say Milos probably
offers the best beaches.
SPEAKER_00 (16:09):
I've been told that.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
But on the flip side of that, but that's how I feel
with mixing with the locals,Naxos is for me, is dealing with
it.
And I've got a lot of stories.
So that for me is like my ownlittle hidden gem.
The villages in Naxos is anotherhidden gem that I just love to
go.
and explore and go, well, thisis what experience I've had in
(16:35):
Syros is another little hiddengem.
Syros for me is another hiddengem that I find that like just
exploring the streets in Syros,being lost and getting actually
lost.
Google's not working.
Come on, it's not working.
What's happening here?
Exploring and then finding thatlittle nook and go, you know
what?
That's my little hidden gem.
Hidden in Athens.
My hidden gem, if you reallywant to know for it, if you take
(16:57):
people around Athens is I followthe pensioner I followed the
widower to the local tavern
SPEAKER_00 (17:04):
because
SPEAKER_01 (17:04):
that's hidden.
I actually stalked someone once.
SPEAKER_00 (17:07):
I think
SPEAKER_01 (17:09):
I stalked them.
I literally did.
The black leather jackets.
Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_00 (17:13):
I
SPEAKER_01 (17:14):
watched them walk.
And I followed them.
SPEAKER_00 (17:17):
And there was this corner place.
SPEAKER_01 (17:20):
You wouldn't even know it's there.
It's just sitting down.
It's getting value for money.
And it's all clean.
There's no bells and whistles.
Have this vision of Paula hidingbehind a lamppost.
I thought you were going to sayget arrested, but follow
someone.
I can just imagine you going.
Yeah, where's she going?
(17:42):
Mostly the picture is becausewe've lost it.
And so they need to, they wantto eat, don't they?
So that's where you find realauthentic food.
And that's where I always say topeople.
That's a great tip.
That's a cool tip.
And another, if you want anotherhidden gem, if you want, At the
port, it's all nice.
If you want to go where thelocals go, they say go always
(18:03):
one street back, two streetsback.
That's where you see the locals.
That's where you see them.
In Crete, when I was there, whenI spoke to a local, they said,
don't come here.
You need to go down a couple ofstreets down there in the
alleyway.
Always at the back.
That's where we eat.
Or another one, I think, iswhere the transfer people go.
When I say transfer, the peoplethat do the transfers, the bus
(18:24):
drivers.
Where do they go and eat?
They go where it's affordableand the food's clean and they go
to where it's no nonsense.
And that's where you go.
That's where, I don't know ifI've mentioned that to you, I
did that in Mykonos once.
I had a group and I was going totake them shopping and then
SPEAKER_00 (18:39):
one of
SPEAKER_01 (18:39):
them said to me, where are you going?
I go, I'm going to eat.
And I go, where are you going?
Down that way.
And I was going to where thetransport, the buses and all
that, they go and eat.
And They decided to come with meand the food was amazing.
It wasn't by the Mykonos port.
Yeah.
You know what I like about that?
Most tours you go on, andeveryone has to make a living,
(18:59):
but most tours will take you tosomewhere where they get a
commission, so you're goingsomewhere touristy.
So it's nice, actually, a nicebreath of fresh
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
air that you take them somewhere not most people
go.
SPEAKER_01 (19:11):
That's another thing that's different.
We don't work on commission.
There's no paybacks.
We don't walk in and they allknow our name from first-name
basis.
A lot of places keep changing.
Unfortunately, they keepchanging.
Could be changing the chef.
Could be somebody this yearcould be a good chef.
Sometimes the quality fooddrops, which I've seen.
Sometimes they just get too busyin some places.
(19:32):
But no, we do not work oncommission because it just
doesn't work for us.
And it's not fair.
In the local community,unfortunately, for example, when
they say all-inclusive boattours and you get off the boat,
they've got to regulate it.
A lot of local taverns miss outor eateries miss out on what
they can sell or what they cangive to people.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
That's nice to know, isn't it?
It's peace of mind, really.
And
SPEAKER_01 (19:56):
also, unfortunately, it's also got to do with social
media plays a big influence onthat.
For example, if you go toMykonos or somewhere and you've
got to influence the hashtags ina certain place, everyone just
goes to that.
And what about the place thatdoesn't kind of afford to pay
this influencer?
Yeah.
What about the place that can'tafford to use social media as a
savvy?
(20:16):
What happens to them?
Yet they're more authentic.
I can get into a lot.
If anything, a lot of timeswe'll be walking down the street
and say, oh, this sounds great,or this smells right.
All right, who wants to go inthere?
It's as structured, again, as tohow the tool runs, or it's
people who are running it.
It's not as structured as what alot of mainstream tools are.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Can I ask you a question?
I'm feeling like Mamma Miathrowing plates on the ground.
Does that ever happen?
UNKNOWN (20:44):
No.
SPEAKER_01 (20:44):
It doesn't anymore.
It
SPEAKER_00 (20:46):
doesn't.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (20:47):
wow.
No.
Stop that.
There's no dancing?
There is.
They do that.
For example, a lot of people dothat.
There is a place in Naxos thatwe take a restaurant.
They do offer the dancing.
They do offer the playstation.
But no, they don't do that inessence.
Not because of injuries.
Yeah, they just don't do thatanymore.
(21:10):
They offer the dancing, but notthe playstation.
That's gone.
Oh, that's sad.
Yeah, yeah.
But obviously, like I said,there's a restaurant that we do
offer in Naxos that we do takepeople, and they do the plate
smashing still, and they geteverybody up to dance, and they
teach them how to dance that.
Oh.
Yeah.
I like the sound of this Naxosplace, actually.
It sounds better than Santorini.
(21:32):
I've never been to Santorini,and I can safely say that I'll
be happy for the rest of my lifenot going to Santorini.
But I wouldn't be happy if Ididn't go to Naxos.
Because the way you've explainedit, that it's like locals and
all that sort of thing.
And that's what, that's whatfloats my boat as well.
I want to get like down to thelocal level and understand how
(21:54):
the society functions.
You can't do that in a touristyplace, but I'm not putting off
people.
We want to go to Santorini.
It looks amazing, but yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's Santorini.
Okay.
Santorini is the wonder of theworld that you do once in your
life.
But, If you want to know atravel tip, is if you're going
to see Santorini, either do itfirst thing in the morning and
(22:16):
just have some time off andreally capture it.
Why?
7.30, 8 o'clock in the evenings.
It's like at Flinders StreetStation, which is a railway
station.
People are everywhere.
Busy,
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:29):
Busy.
You are stuck.
And if you're okay with that,fine.
But it is crowded.
Piccadilly Circus.
Yeah.
And yet on Instagram, people seea photo and there's no one else
around.
Yeah.
They do these photo shoots.
During the day when it's superhot and no one's around, when
you want to go and see thesunset, especially if you go to
here, it is packed.
(22:49):
And I say now to your viewers,just be wary of that.
It is busy during those times.
Just be wary of it.
That's it.
Don't think they're going tohave that isolated.
Of course you can if you shuteverything else out, but it is
very busy.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Or you use Photoshop.
SPEAKER_01 (23:05):
You
SPEAKER_00 (23:06):
don't have to go anywhere.
Don't even leave your livingroom.
SPEAKER_01 (23:20):
Okay, so what kind of travellers usually join your
tours?
Look, it's a...
Mixed bag?
Mixed bag, really.
It's a mixed bag as to whatpeople are looking for.
I think a lot of people thatcome with us.
They want to feel safe.
That's, I think, paramount,especially with women.
They want to feel safe.
They want to feel like they'regetting, obviously, value for
(23:43):
money.
I think they come with us justbecause we're a little bit...
Because you're talking to menow.
I'm the person that meets you atthe airport.
Whereas with a lot of,unfortunately, a lot of tours,
whoever you talk to, but youdon't know who you're going to
meet.
You could meet Spiro.
Yeah, because they're big tourcompanies.
Yeah, you might meet Katarina.
You're just not sure.
Whereas...
Because now, for example, nowI'm talking to you, I'm already
(24:05):
starting to get a vibe as towhat you might be looking for,
what you might say, go, allright, you know what, I could
work on this.
On the way home, on the way backto the hotel, I might drop them
off here because that's whatthey might like.
I want to try some localmothers.
I want to try a Spanish ricottabecause I heard him say that
earlier today.
SPEAKER_00 (24:23):
I heard
SPEAKER_01 (24:23):
him say that a month ago.
You know what I
SPEAKER_00 (24:25):
mean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah.
I'm already building data intothe conversation.
So when you...
comes to time for us to say,okay, we'll come with you.
I've already got a database asto what you might be looking
for.
It could be like, for example,now, you know, you're interested
in music.
I'm already thinking about, youknow what, there's a place that
I know about.
I want to spring in there andtell you music because I've
(24:46):
already built the data
SPEAKER_00 (24:47):
in
SPEAKER_01 (24:47):
regards to what you're talking to me about.
That's why I've got no idea whoyou are.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:52):
This is where they're going.
This is what they're doing.
Boom, boom.
And they just follow.
Yeah.
So that's what, obviously, I'dlike to think that we
SPEAKER_00 (25:01):
can.
And that's truly curated.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
Yeah.
More personal.
And so that's all.
So that's what we feel.
Well, obviously, from 20 to 25,you know, they'll want to do the
EOS, which is obviously with thebottle.
A lot of them are saying, EOSisn't beautiful, but they go,
the part, which is obviously,you do the Micromas, you do EOS.
So it depends on thedemographic, but usually a
little bit older, when you, Ishouldn't say past all that, you
(25:26):
want to do more with the EOS.
Take him for what it is thatyou'll send tickets.
SPEAKER_00 (25:30):
You want to wake up in the morning
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
and see the sunrise.
You don't want to be seeing thesunrise after a massive night
out.
Let's just get that on thetable.
Or see the sunrise and go, wheream I?
Yeah.
There I am.
Where am I?
I'm at the beach still.
Is there a month or is there aparticular time that you think
is the best season to travelthere?
(25:52):
August is heavy.
It's crazy.
Super hot.
UNKNOWN (25:57):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
And it's super busy.
And again, it's all about thetransfers.
Getting, for example, from theport of Santorini up to the top.
And if you're doing this inAugust, you've got about 20, 30
buses all lined up to go up thisnarrow road and just sitting
there.
That's why we're probably flyingthere.
But then going flying there, itbecomes super expensive.
So what I'm trying to say to youis probably early on the
(26:18):
shoulder seasons, which isprobably, I want to say end of
May or June.
Why?
Because everything's fresh,everything's clean, everything's
painted.
Yeah.
Everyone's ready to go.
Wow.
Here we go.
Great season coming along.
Oh, yeah.
We're up for it.
The water could be a little bitcold still because it's just
coming off because if you'reokay with it.
Everyone's all buzzing.
(26:38):
And then, obviously, I alwayssay about September coming very
properly again is because theweather is getting a little bit,
obviously, slows down a littlebit.
It's right in the high 30s.
And people start to relax andgo, all right, we've had the
craziness of August and evenJuly.
Let's just start slowing downthere.
So September, October or end ofMay, end of May, early June.
(27:00):
Shoulder season.
Shoulder season.
Why?
Because people forget how hot itgets here.
Yeah.
We've got major issues with alot of people that just don't
come out of their rooms all daybecause it gets super hot.
Oh, we want to go July becausewe heard it's great.
It's busy.
That's fine.
But if you're at 35 degrees andyou're not used to this type of
heat, you're not going to walkanywhere.
(27:20):
You don't want to walk anywhere.
You're only going to be able toget up in the mornings, which a
lot of people struggle with.
It's 7 in the morning toactually enjoy.
It's still been 20, 22 degreesin the heat to enjoy that,
whereas during the day, it getsa little bit too hot to actually
go sightseeing.
You don't really enjoy it asmuch as a Great Torrent,
unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00 (27:40):
That's good to know because you're right.
Most people go around thatperiod of time.
And it gets super busy overtourists.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
like when you go to Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
You know that.
You go in August.
It's like 50 degrees.
You're not going outside.
You're staying.
And then you're trying to justget from there to the transfer.
When do Greeks have theirholiday?
Is that August?
Yes.
Like the Italians?
Yes.
Like the Italians, yeah.
Greeks don't go to the islands.
Greeks do not travel to theislands.
(28:14):
A lot of them go to villages,especially in Athens.
A lot of them go away tovillages or just try and stay
away.
We found a lot.
Thessaloniki?
The little peninsulas offThessaloniki.
I went there once and it wasawesome.
And it was just a whole lot ofGreek people.
And it was the best.
(28:35):
It was so good.
It was good fun.
And it was so laid back as wellbecause there was just like
nobody there.
The Greeks, Greek people werethere, but there was just like,
it wasn't like hustle andbustle.
It was quite nice.
Yeah, that's most of the Auguststuff.
It's obviously quite big.
I personally love staying inAthens in August because I can
(28:56):
drive the car freely.
I can park wherever I want.
Taking little things like thatbecause I think when we had this
conversation last time,navigating, trying to park the
car, it's like strategizing fora whole week ago.
If we go over there, where am Igoing to be able to park the
car?
How am I
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
going to park it?
Wow.
Whereas
SPEAKER_01 (29:11):
in August, I love being in Athens.
Everything's quiet.
I love being in August inAthens.
But yeah, most people disperseand go to the islands.
And that's when it's likeChristmas time for most people.
In Australia, I grew up,Christmas was that month.
Here in Greece, they do that.
In August.
And you've got plans in Athenstoo, though, right?
(29:32):
As in you've got something onthe horizon, am I allowed to say
that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The bus tour.
I could send you a pic.
So what it's called, a theateron the...
A friend of mine came up with aconcept, and I jumped onto that
as well.
So it's having theaterproduction on a bus.
So usually you get on a bus,wherever you go, and they've got
the microphone going.
They could have a curator, couldhave someone speaking, or you
(29:53):
could have the headset.
And it's usually, unfortunately,everyone's tired of going, here
we go.
Now we're passing.
Or even worse, you've got thoseheadsets in, you've passed the
acropolis.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're talking about food.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
You can't.
You're
SPEAKER_01 (30:16):
pressing the headset.
It's not working.
So anyway, so how can we make itmore exciting?
So having a theater on the busis like playing the ruins, but
from a theatrical point of view.
SPEAKER_00 (30:27):
Oh, how cool.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
Having an actor on board dressed in.
Toga.
And also serving some alcohol.
Red
SPEAKER_00 (30:35):
Cena.
SPEAKER_01 (30:36):
And traditional snacks.
And that's called Theatre on theMove.
But actually, we just did that.
And hopefully, we're doing somepractice runs now, and they'll
be running shortly.
Yeah, so we can come up withthat one.
It's called Theatre on the Move.
Do you have anything to tellanyone or give any
recommendations for anyonelistening that are thinking of
(30:58):
coming on one of your tours?
Look, I think it's not reallyabout coming on one of my tours.
I think just in general inGreece.
Look, like I said, the point isthe difference.
We don't work on commission, asI told you.
We work also on the individual.
We don't have it like a setcookie cutter.
This is what you're doing, blah,blah, blah.
(31:18):
I'm not going to mention the bigcompanies.
So everything's more personal.
Who you are is who you meet.
For example, I'll give youanother one is for safety.
For example, I had it, which isgoing to happen again.
I had a group.
I had 20 women, which I'm takingagain next month.
I had to individually walk them.
back to the room, each one fromthe bar up and down.
I went to 20 times.
I'm okay with that.
(31:39):
Just a little bit more personallike that, just to make them
feel comfortable.
Not to say that safety is very,you feel very safe here, but
just for their own comfort whenwe walk back.
So that's what we offer, alittle bit more personal.
Like I said, we build a datajust by having conversations.
Like I said, we're the personyou meet at the airport.
We're the person that you meetat the hotel.
(31:59):
We're the person that What Ioffer is always suggest to
people, it's not about coming ontours, is to be open-minded when
you come.
A lot of people, unfortunately,have expectations.
Like, for example, if a lot ofpeople, I'm not saying go to
Thailand or things like that,they go to a big hotel with a
big lift and then they come toGreece and go, wow, the lift is
(32:20):
the size of a coffin.
Where am I?
I can't get into that.
I thought you meant like, Peoplewould be singing ABBA all the
time.
Yeah.
I don't think I had someone askme, do you live in those blue
domes?
We don't live in those bluedomes.
No.
I thought you were going to say,does someone ask you if you use
Windex everywhere?
No, Jif.
(32:44):
Oh, Jif.
Windex does work though.
SPEAKER_00 (32:47):
Yeah, no, it's not Windex.
Then I know it's a stadium joke.
SPEAKER_01 (32:50):
No, it's that big fat Greek wedding.
Jif,
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
yeah.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (32:54):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Jif, yeah.
Yeah, Vicks cures everything aswell.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Vicks cures everything, especially during
the winter.
So what I was really talkingabout is just to be more
open-minded, not to come withexpectations of when they're
traveling.
To understand that Greece isreally, it's a very small place,
especially Athens.
And the hotels, if you look forgrandeur and really big hotels,
it's very hard to find becauseof, it's a small place.
(33:23):
And a lot of the businesses, arefamilies still run?
Like, for example, if you go toVilla Sulla in Santorini, you'll
meet Sulla.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (33:34):
how it is.
Yeah, it's because it's small.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (33:36):
small.
So just be aware that it's runlike as a family store.
A lot of it is.
Sure, they're getting more, howcan I say, more corporate, more,
you know, where you get people.
Big brands.
Big brands and sure.
But again, just be open to itthat's still run as more or less
like a big family.
like a family and don't haveexpectations when you come as
(33:57):
to, oh, but I thought I wasgetting this.
Do I really have to walk thisfar?
You have to walk a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (34:02):
Okay, that's
SPEAKER_01 (34:03):
good.
SPEAKER_00 (34:04):
You just
SPEAKER_01 (34:04):
have to walk.
SPEAKER_00 (34:05):
Yeah.
You have to walk.
What did you say?
Do you have to walk?
You
SPEAKER_01 (34:08):
have to walk.
There's no transport.
Especially if you go to SanSerenity, there's big steps.
Greeks just walk.
Yeah.
We walk everywhere.
We're not going to take the car.
It's not like you go into ashopping mall and you wait for
10 minutes driving until someonegets out and you can just walk
on it.
travel later.
People walk.
Be ready to walk.
Be ready for the heat.
Not to have any expectations.
(34:29):
I said, oh yeah, but could be inAmerica.
Oh yeah, but in Australia.
We've got big lifts.
Oh yeah, had the concierge comeand take my stuff.
Sometimes that doesn't work likethat.
Don't have any expectations.
Just be open-minded to what,just take it all in.
Just really, for what it is.
That's really good advice.
And try and build up a memorybecause this is, life's all
about memories, isn't it?
So when you go away, he's tryingto have a good memory.
It's not reality.
(34:50):
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
SPEAKER_00 (34:51):
Yeah, that's great.
It's so exciting.
I love Greece, so I'm reallyexcited about it.
I'm pumped.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for sharingsuch a valuable information
about Greece.
So if it's
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
anything, if anything you're trying to
portray is the passion of theplace.
That's the thing that's abackbone about all the minutes
right away is really once welose that passion, then we
become more passionate.
How can I say it?
Just more robotic in the waythings are done.
So if we can still instillpassion and you feel it when
you're talking to people as towhat you're showing as well,
(35:27):
that's, I think, the mostimportant.
I think once that's gone, that'swhen it starts getting a little
bit tough.
SPEAKER_00 (35:34):
Yeah, and you've lost that.
You've lost that
SPEAKER_01 (35:36):
spark.
You've lost your culture.
You've lost your feel.
You've lost your way.
Then you become a bit morerobotic.
SPEAKER_00 (35:41):
Yeah.
Really appreciate all of theinformation.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
I'll write a short novel
SPEAKER_00 (35:45):
about someone traveling to
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Greece.
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
Oh, sorry.
Mary.
Oh, there you go.
So what's it called?
SPEAKER_01 (35:50):
Echo from the Street.
So I write this during COVID.
It's a short novel about a youngboy moving to Greece in the 90s.
Echo from the Street.
So I write that, but I...
It's only in novella, but I'vewritten more onto it now.
But yeah, so that can give youan example as to transitions
from a boy moving from in the90s, growing up in Australia and
(36:12):
then coming to Greece and thentaking from what he learned in
Australia, try and implementthat in Greece and then try to
synchronize and make it workbest for him.
And it's an adventure.
So it's called Echo from theStreet.
I
SPEAKER_00 (36:23):
love Echo.
Have you got a link?
We can go to that.
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Yeah, it's on Amazon.
Okay, perfect.
If you can link with us andwe'll put it in the show notes.
Yeah.
So I wrote that a few years ago.
It's just only a short number.
But I did that.
That was another box I wanted totake as well.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
Oh, I love that.
Thank you.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (36:44):
been awesome.
Yeah.
Thanks so much, Petros.
Thanks for sharing all of yourwonderful knowledge.
And I love that you curate eachtour to be quite original for
the people that come on yourtours.
So it's really exciting.
And so...
Thank you again for coming on.
I appreciate it.
Before I sign off, I'd like tomention that I am taking or
(37:07):
hosting a group of women to goon a tour of the Greek islands
from the 3rd of the 10th ofSeptember with Petros.
And if you'd like to come, weare going to Athens, Naxos and
Santorini.
There is more information onwww.trulyexpat.travel.com.
Sorry, I don't even know my ownaddress.
(37:27):
www.
TrulyExpatTravel.com.
And if you want to contact me,yeah, just contact me through
the website.
I'll speak to you then.
Thanks.
Bye.
Take
SPEAKER_00 (37:39):
care.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:41):
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Join us again next week on TrulyExpat Travel Podcast, where we
have another excitingdestination in a world that's
too big to be left unexplored.
SPEAKER_00 (37:52):
Ciao for now.
Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, where I
chat with expats about theirfavourite holiday destinations.
Let's be honest, expats are someof the best travellers around,
always planning the nextadventure, exploring hidden gems
and finding the best spotswherever they go.
So who better to ask for travelinspiration?
This episode is a little bitspecial because I'm joined today
(00:21):
by special guest Rachel Bosang,who you may remember as my
co-host from Truly ExpatPodcast.
And together we chat with Petrosfrom Blue and White Dream Tours.
This guy who moved fromAustralia to Greece and never
looked back.
We're uncovering what
SPEAKER_00 (00:36):
inspired his move to Athens, how his island obsession
led to creating a boutiquetravel company.
and the secret spots that makeGreek island hopping truly
magical.
Forget the tourist traps, Petrosreveals the hidden gems and
authentic experiences mosttravellers never discover.
Warning, your travel bucket listis about to
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
become full.
So grab your drink, get comfy,and prepare to fall in love with
the real Greece.
Thank you, Petros, for joiningus today.
We love having you on with us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great intro.
Wow.
Thank you.
We
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
can't wait to hear about all of your tips and
tricks.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
Hidden gems.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Yes, exactly.
And maybe you could start off,
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
how did you get into it?
Greece.
Yeah.
Where are you originally from?
So I'm originally, actually,funny enough, I was born in
Melbourne, moved back and forthto Greece when I was a kid.
My mother had a fascination withcoming back to Greece.
So they built a house, obviouslyabove the parents' place, which
(01:44):
most Greeks do.
You've got the parentsdownstairs, and you've got the
son, and then you've got thedaughter, and then you've got
that kind of works here.
SPEAKER_00 (01:53):
The generational living.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
Yeah, it is.
It's literally, you can see howbig the family is.
And you've got four stories andfive
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
stories going
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
by.
You actually see it.
People come out of the house,you go, oh, okay, wow, that's a
big family.
You can fly in it.
Sometimes they even throw in anauntie.
It's true.
You just throw in an auntie oran auntie in there as well.
I think in and about obviouslywith the family, the
grandparents are always there aswell.
They're somewhere.
In the basement, somewhere.
They're somewhere.
I don't know where they are, butthe grandparents are always with
you.
(02:22):
Anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (02:24):
They're
SPEAKER_01 (02:25):
somewhere there.
I started getting a fascinationwhen I was quite young.
I used to watch TV shows.
What you saw was TV shows.
We used to see Americanbuildings, like high-rise.
So when you're seeing theoutside world, that's all you
used to think of was, you know,oh yeah, that's what it looks
like out there.
Big roads, big cars, bigAmerican cars.
(02:46):
That's all.
So when my parents first took meto Greece, I thought, where am
I?
Everything is small.
Everything is like cement, likethe way it is what you see now.
And so I just, I was bewilderedthat The world isn't what we see
on TV because on TV shows, likeI said, growing up, we had three
TV channels back then.
It was just American shows.
(03:07):
There was no other.
SBS wasn't even out for a showof my age.
SBS was Channel O, if youremember.
I don't even know why SBS.
It's like an international TVshow which had international,
sorry, national products, whichonly had either TV, Australian
or American.
So I just became fascinated bythe architecture and the people
and the It kind of drew me and Ikept wanting to go back, wanting
(03:28):
to go back, wanting to go back,wanting to go back, kept going
back with it, especially mymother.
She wanted to move back toGreece.
They built a house, like I said,but it was just due to
circumstances, financialcircumstances.
It just didn't evolve to that.
But at the same time, myparents, like I said, they had
their house here.
And then what happened was Ithink I was going back and
(03:49):
forth.
I started my business back inMelbourne and then I just
thought I needed some time off.
I thought I'm going to go toGreece.
This is in the 90s, out ofGreece.
And I said, how about a coupleof my friends said, come with
me.
I said to a couple of friends,come with me to Greece.
Let me show you a little bit ofthe Greece I know.
As back then, there was noGoogle, no AI.
(04:11):
There wasn't like, you justhashtag, where do I go?
So it was obviously harder tonavigate and to go the right
spot because you don't,everything, as you know, if you
roll up to a restaurant, youcan't look at the reviews.
So you can't see what's inplace.
And so if anything, instinct hadto kick in more and you just
say, that doesn't feel right.
I got a knack as to where to go,which I still use now.
(04:34):
In the 90s, I took some friendsover to the Greek islands.
Obviously, it was fitness-basedbecause my background is I used
to run a personal trainingstudio in Melbourne.
And so I would finish orientatedexercise in the morning, take
them sightseeing during the day.
And then at night, just relaxand could be bar hopping or just
watching the sunset and justchilling out by the beach or
(04:55):
something like that.
And I'll call it the balancetour.
That's when the balance tourcame about.
Because my friends, theyobviously didn't speak Greek at
all.
And I'd say to them, like, whereare you going?
And they'd go, look, I've gotthis rule of thumb.
Not to say that it's 100% sure.
I've got a rule of thumb.
If it's got cushy chairs, it'sgot laid-back music, and it's
got the big tables, I'll gothere for a coffee.
(05:16):
If the chairs areuncomfortable...
And I hear the mother screamingin the background with the son,
sweating, eating, cooking.
That's where I go and eat.
I've got that all the time.
I still do that now.
I still rely on the instinct ofthat Connor.
And it seemed to work back then.
(05:36):
It still seems to work that yougo to the places that no bells
and whistles to eat.
And I'll go to the places whereit's got the bells and whistles,
they're relaxing, Cafe Del Marmusic, and that's okay.
I personally, I just don't likethe heaven.
So people say the Greekexperience or Mediterranean
experience, I don't go therebecause that doesn't really
(05:58):
identify to me as to.
Or Vintik, if you go to them.
The Screaming Mama.
The Screaming Mama.
It's a family business.
It's a great name.
It's a restaurant.
It's
SPEAKER_00 (06:11):
a
SPEAKER_01 (06:11):
restaurant.
The Screaming
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Mama.
Okay, we've got a concept.
Let's start a business.
The Screaming
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Mama.
Mediterranean way.
So that's what.
And then island hopping.
A lot of people, when they doisland hopping, they go, oh, I
want to go to four or fivedifferent islands.
But you've got 10 days.
A lot of people forget about thetransfers.
To
SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
get into these
SPEAKER_01 (06:34):
islands is far.
For example, if you take thesuper jet ferry, it's minimum,
it could be four hours.
It could be, all right,sometimes it's shorter on the
plane as well, but then you'vegot to do the transfer to the
plane.
You've got to wait.
It could be you have acancellation.
So therefore, if you've only gotfour or five days, I always
thought, okay, you've got to becareful as to what the transfers
(06:55):
involved as well.
That's all right.
When I started putting– Ithought, which islands I could
navigate to be closer togetherwhere you don't have to sit
there thinking, oh, all I'mfeeling, I'm freaking, I'm just
carrying my suitcase all
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
day.
SPEAKER_01 (07:07):
And another thing I always say to people is that one
minute you're relaxing, youknow, you're nice and just
relaxing, you take it all in.
Next thing you know, you'rehuddled with everyone else.
You've got the guy at the portscreaming,
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
get on board.
Matt, carrying your suitcaseisn't part of your workout?
No.
Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
Exactly.
That's right.
Bicep curls.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (07:29):
that's
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
right.
Going up those ramps as well.
SPEAKER_00 (07:32):
Some of the ramps.
Resistance training.
Especially if
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
the ramps are moving side to side slightly as well.
And if you've decided to goshopping, stuff your suitcase
even more.
Like you've got a full safe.
I thought you bring fullsuitcases to the island.
Wine was shopping.
They've got bulging suitcasescoming out.
The wheel's broken off andyou're trying to get off the
(08:00):
ramp.
And then, well, that gets rid ofyour fancy cheese and those.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
That's right.
How are you going to figure outcustoms?
You need to take it back.
You got on?
At
SPEAKER_01 (08:15):
the time.
They sold it to me.
It was amazing.
You've got all these jars.
You go, oh, where am I going?
Are you sure I'm going to getthrough customs?
It's never going back toAustralia or New Zealand and you
have to worry about customs.
SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, I've
SPEAKER_01 (08:30):
got a quick story.
I've got a friend of mine thatcame.
I met a friend of mine yearsago.
He's still a friend of mine,obviously.
And I said, come to Australia.
I said, come to Australia, cometo Australia.
He's never traveled before.
This is a true story.
He's never traveled before,ever, never.
Because unfortunately, I couldtalk to you, this could be
another podcast, is a lot ofGreeks actually don't have,
can't afford to travel even toSanteria.
(08:50):
It's very expensive, but that'sanother.
But he's never traveled.
I said, come to Australia.
Obviously, in the moment, we hada few drinks together, hugs and
kisses.
You love it, you love it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come play with me.
So he comes.
Did he bring his donkey?
No, this isn't.
This is a true story.
I can't make this up.
So he comes.
So back then, we're talking backmid-2000s, I couldn't text him.
(09:12):
He come in.
I think Nokia just came in witha big brick
SPEAKER_00 (09:14):
front.
Oh, yeah.
So
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
he doesn't know whether I'm going to show up.
That was the beauty of backthen.
He doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00 (09:20):
He
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
came all the way.
So I'm waiting at the airport.
The plane was, say, 2 o'clock,came 5 o'clock.
I go, where is he?
Who do I ask?
Who do I ask?
I go, I've got to wait a littlebit more.
Where is he?
He comes out.
He's ghostly white.
I go, what happened?
He goes, I'll get held up atcustoms.
I goes, why?
I goes, my mother, true story,decided to pack a sandwich.
That was like a bus.
(09:42):
You get off and you have abreak.
She packed ham and cheese tomatosandwich rolls in his suitcase
without telling him.
So when he got accustomed, I go,what's this sandwich here?
And the fish said to him, whatis this?
And he didn't declare it becausehe didn't know.
SPEAKER_00 (10:03):
That it
SPEAKER_01 (10:03):
was in
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
there.
Oh, my God, that is
SPEAKER_01 (10:06):
hilarious.
What did they do to him?
Did they find him?
No, they actually.
Probably felt sorry.
Yeah, they did, becauseobviously it's a true story.
I didn't know it was my mother,and I saw it was all wrapped up.
SPEAKER_00 (10:17):
Did you pack your own bag?
Yeah, did you pack your own
SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
bag?
Exactly.
Is that how you decided on thetype of islands that you go to?
Yes, I did.
I decided I felt was a littlebit more convenient as to, like
I say, if people are coming forseven days or eight days, try
and make it stress-free inregards to the transfers,
because it's I've tried a fewoptions.
(10:42):
For example, sometimes I wenthopping for two days.
Two days here, two days there,two days there.
And that's great.
But if you're doing it peaktime, you've got crowds packing
onto the port to go to theislands, getting on the same
ferry.
And so there's a lot of stressinvolved with that.
(11:05):
So which is easiest to navigate?
For example, one of the islandsI always love to choose is Naxos
and Santorini.
Why?
Between Naxos and Santorini,it's only an hour and a half
away.
So it doesn't seem so strong forso long in regards in between
those particular islands.
Mostly I focus on the Cycladesat the moment is because
obviously everyone wants to seeSantorini and everyone always
(11:28):
wants to go to Santorini andthat's obviously the most...
picturesque for sunsets as well.
Yeah.
Base it in regards to what'smore convenient for the
traveler.
So I'm always trying to thinkabout what would, if I was
traveling, what would I belooking for rather than as a
local, what I think works best.
There's a little bit, there's alittle bit of difference in
(11:49):
that.
Would you suggest seven days isa good amount?
Seven days is a good amount.
It depends like what people havein regards to the time off.
I suggest seven days and in thatprobably maybe two islands if
you did Athens and then twoother islands with that rather
(12:09):
than trying to focus on doingAthens and then doing three
islands with that because youreally, by the time you get off,
you're already thinking aboutI've got to pack my bags and go
to the next island.
Yeah.
If you're doing that in twodays, probably you package like
we stay on one island for threedays and really get to enjoy and
just relax and then obviously doanother island for two days and
obviously if you want to seeAthens, You can, you know,
(12:31):
Athens, you can, if you justwant to do the kind of normal,
he say, kind of places, two daysas well, Kropoulos and Plaka and
things like that.
But just really, it depends.
Again, we can touch on that asto what the individual is
looking for, as to what peoplelook for.
But yes, seven days, two islandswith Athens.
That's what I'd probablyrecommend or that's what I would
(12:52):
recommend.
That's what I used to do.
Seems to work.
And then we changed it to GreekBalance Tools, which is focused
on Greek.
Balance Tools alwaysincorporates yoga in the morning
as well.
I used to have people doing yogain the morning.
And then it just changed theplatform now to Blue White Dream
Tools, which primarily focuseson different type of groups that
we offer for the islands aswell.
(13:12):
Which is very exciting.
I'm excited because I'm going onone of them, so yeah.
Which one are you going on,Paula?
I'm hoping to take a group ofwomen.
off later in this year, whichwe've been discussing.
Yeah, fantastic.
So is there some spots left onthat?
There is, yeah.
All right.
So what's the pace of the tour?
(13:33):
Look, look, with these types oftours, you've got different
types of people that come along.
You can't, you know, a lot ofpeople come for different
reasons.
So what we offer, for example,if someone wants to just look at
the history of There's optionsinto seeing the history of
Greece.
If someone wants to seearchitecture, they can see that.
If someone just wants to sit andrelax by the beach and watch the
(13:54):
sunset, sunrise, and have anamazing cocktail and say, wow,
where am I?
That's off as well.
I've had groups.
I've had people.
When I first started, I hadpeople that came with me.
All I had was one guy because hehad a high-stress job, and all
he thought was, all I need, allI want to do is just sit at the
beach, hear the waves, and reada book, which he never done.
SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (14:15):
Whereas I had another lady that wanted to get
up at 7.30 in the morning.
I'm up.
I'm off.
I'm going hiking.
She went hiking, came back.
All right, what can I do for theday?
Seven points.
Okay, all right, you can comeand see that.
All right, I want to tick thisoff.
I want to see this.
She had a list before she cameas to what to see, what to
search.
So therefore, what I'm trying tosay, it's all up to the
(14:37):
individual.
We can offer that.
So particular islands that we goto, what I suggest is– offers
that on that bucket list.
Most islands do, but I think Ifeel like sometimes the island
has to be big enough to caterfor things like that as well.
Some people just want to just gotry different eateries.
So they go to differenteateries.
Other people are fussy.
(14:58):
If you turn around and say,look, I want to go, we organize
that.
So anything can be organized.
We've got a group.
I've got a couple next week orin the month.
I want to do a helicopter ridearound Santorini.
So we've done that.
We've organized that as well.
What's the perfect size of agroup when they go on tour, do
you think?
About 10.
(15:18):
Okay.
You could about 10 or 40.
But look, again, there's a lotof factors.
I've had a group of 20 and seena group of five.
I've had a group of five andthey've seen a group of 20.
So that's really how thedynamics works together as a
group.
That's so true.
For sure.
And what are the hidden gems oroff-the-beaten-path islands that
(15:39):
your guests absolutely love?
Look, that's a tricky one.
Everyone asks me, what's ahidden gem?
I think what I could probablysay, because all the islands
that I've been to, I've enjoyedfor what I feel.
For example, like when I go topick up, there's a memory with
it.
I go, wow, that's for me, myhidden little gem.
That's for me, my little...
(16:00):
Again, I think it goes toindividual people.
Now for beaches, I couldprobably say Milos probably
offers the best beaches.
SPEAKER_00 (16:09):
I've been told that.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
But on the flip side of that, but that's how I feel
with mixing with the locals,Naxos is for me, is dealing with
it.
And I've got a lot of stories.
So that for me is like my ownlittle hidden gem.
The villages in Naxos is anotherhidden gem that I just love to
go.
and explore and go, well, thisis what experience I've had in
(16:35):
Syros is another little hiddengem.
Syros for me is another hiddengem that I find that like just
exploring the streets in Syros,being lost and getting actually
lost.
Google's not working.
Come on, it's not working.
What's happening here?
Exploring and then finding thatlittle nook and go, you know
what?
That's my little hidden gem.
Hidden in Athens.
My hidden gem, if you reallywant to know for it, if you take
(16:57):
people around Athens is I followthe pensioner I followed the
widower to the local tavern
SPEAKER_00 (17:04):
because
SPEAKER_01 (17:04):
that's hidden.
I actually stalked someone once.
SPEAKER_00 (17:07):
I think
SPEAKER_01 (17:09):
I stalked them.
I literally did.
The black leather jackets.
Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_00 (17:13):
I
SPEAKER_01 (17:14):
watched them walk.
And I followed them.
SPEAKER_00 (17:17):
And there was this corner place.
SPEAKER_01 (17:20):
You wouldn't even know it's there.
It's just sitting down.
It's getting value for money.
And it's all clean.
There's no bells and whistles.
Have this vision of Paula hidingbehind a lamppost.
I thought you were going to sayget arrested, but follow
someone.
I can just imagine you going.
Yeah, where's she going?
(17:42):
Mostly the picture is becausewe've lost it.
And so they need to, they wantto eat, don't they?
So that's where you find realauthentic food.
And that's where I always say topeople.
That's a great tip.
That's a cool tip.
And another, if you want anotherhidden gem, if you want, At the
port, it's all nice.
If you want to go where thelocals go, they say go always
(18:03):
one street back, two streetsback.
That's where you see the locals.
That's where you see them.
In Crete, when I was there, whenI spoke to a local, they said,
don't come here.
You need to go down a couple ofstreets down there in the
alleyway.
Always at the back.
That's where we eat.
Or another one, I think, iswhere the transfer people go.
When I say transfer, the peoplethat do the transfers, the bus
(18:24):
drivers.
Where do they go and eat?
They go where it's affordableand the food's clean and they go
to where it's no nonsense.
And that's where you go.
That's where, I don't know ifI've mentioned that to you, I
did that in Mykonos once.
I had a group and I was going totake them shopping and then
SPEAKER_00 (18:39):
one of
SPEAKER_01 (18:39):
them said to me, where are you going?
I go, I'm going to eat.
And I go, where are you going?
Down that way.
And I was going to where thetransport, the buses and all
that, they go and eat.
And They decided to come with meand the food was amazing.
It wasn't by the Mykonos port.
Yeah.
You know what I like about that?
Most tours you go on, andeveryone has to make a living,
(18:59):
but most tours will take you tosomewhere where they get a
commission, so you're goingsomewhere touristy.
So it's nice, actually, a nicebreath of fresh
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
air that you take them somewhere not most people
go.
SPEAKER_01 (19:11):
That's another thing that's different.
We don't work on commission.
There's no paybacks.
We don't walk in and they allknow our name from first-name
basis.
A lot of places keep changing.
Unfortunately, they keepchanging.
Could be changing the chef.
Could be somebody this yearcould be a good chef.
Sometimes the quality fooddrops, which I've seen.
Sometimes they just get too busyin some places.
(19:32):
But no, we do not work oncommission because it just
doesn't work for us.
And it's not fair.
In the local community,unfortunately, for example, when
they say all-inclusive boattours and you get off the boat,
they've got to regulate it.
A lot of local taverns miss outor eateries miss out on what
they can sell or what they cangive to people.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
That's nice to know, isn't it?
It's peace of mind, really.
And
SPEAKER_01 (19:56):
also, unfortunately, it's also got to do with social
media plays a big influence onthat.
For example, if you go toMykonos or somewhere and you've
got to influence the hashtags ina certain place, everyone just
goes to that.
And what about the place thatdoesn't kind of afford to pay
this influencer?
Yeah.
What about the place that can'tafford to use social media as a
savvy?
(20:16):
What happens to them?
Yet they're more authentic.
I can get into a lot.
If anything, a lot of timeswe'll be walking down the street
and say, oh, this sounds great,or this smells right.
All right, who wants to go inthere?
It's as structured, again, as tohow the tool runs, or it's
people who are running it.
It's not as structured as what alot of mainstream tools are.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Can I ask you a question?
I'm feeling like Mamma Miathrowing plates on the ground.
Does that ever happen?
UNKNOWN (20:44):
No.
SPEAKER_01 (20:44):
It doesn't anymore.
It
SPEAKER_00 (20:46):
doesn't.
Oh,
SPEAKER_01 (20:47):
wow.
No.
Stop that.
There's no dancing?
There is.
They do that.
For example, a lot of people dothat.
There is a place in Naxos thatwe take a restaurant.
They do offer the dancing.
They do offer the playstation.
But no, they don't do that inessence.
Not because of injuries.
Yeah, they just don't do thatanymore.
(21:10):
They offer the dancing, but notthe playstation.
That's gone.
Oh, that's sad.
Yeah, yeah.
But obviously, like I said,there's a restaurant that we do
offer in Naxos that we do takepeople, and they do the plate
smashing still, and they geteverybody up to dance, and they
teach them how to dance that.
Oh.
Yeah.
I like the sound of this Naxosplace, actually.
It sounds better than Santorini.
(21:32):
I've never been to Santorini,and I can safely say that I'll
be happy for the rest of my lifenot going to Santorini.
But I wouldn't be happy if Ididn't go to Naxos.
Because the way you've explainedit, that it's like locals and
all that sort of thing.
And that's what, that's whatfloats my boat as well.
I want to get like down to thelocal level and understand how
(21:54):
the society functions.
You can't do that in a touristyplace, but I'm not putting off
people.
We want to go to Santorini.
It looks amazing, but yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's Santorini.
Okay.
Santorini is the wonder of theworld that you do once in your
life.
But, If you want to know atravel tip, is if you're going
to see Santorini, either do itfirst thing in the morning and
(22:16):
just have some time off andreally capture it.
Why?
7.30, 8 o'clock in the evenings.
It's like at Flinders StreetStation, which is a railway
station.
People are everywhere.
Busy,
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:29):
Busy.
You are stuck.
And if you're okay with that,fine.
But it is crowded.
Piccadilly Circus.
Yeah.
And yet on Instagram, people seea photo and there's no one else
around.
Yeah.
They do these photo shoots.
During the day when it's superhot and no one's around, when
you want to go and see thesunset, especially if you go to
here, it is packed.
(22:49):
And I say now to your viewers,just be wary of that.
It is busy during those times.
Just be wary of it.
That's it.
Don't think they're going tohave that isolated.
Of course you can if you shuteverything else out, but it is
very busy.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Or you use Photoshop.
SPEAKER_01 (23:05):
You
SPEAKER_00 (23:06):
don't have to go anywhere.
Don't even leave your livingroom.
SPEAKER_01 (23:20):
Okay, so what kind of travellers usually join your
tours?
Look, it's a...
Mixed bag?
Mixed bag, really.
It's a mixed bag as to whatpeople are looking for.
I think a lot of people thatcome with us.
They want to feel safe.
That's, I think, paramount,especially with women.
They want to feel safe.
They want to feel like they'regetting, obviously, value for
(23:43):
money.
I think they come with us justbecause we're a little bit...
Because you're talking to menow.
I'm the person that meets you atthe airport.
Whereas with a lot of,unfortunately, a lot of tours,
whoever you talk to, but youdon't know who you're going to
meet.
You could meet Spiro.
Yeah, because they're big tourcompanies.
Yeah, you might meet Katarina.
You're just not sure.
Whereas...
Because now, for example, nowI'm talking to you, I'm already
(24:05):
starting to get a vibe as towhat you might be looking for,
what you might say, go, allright, you know what, I could
work on this.
On the way home, on the way backto the hotel, I might drop them
off here because that's whatthey might like.
I want to try some localmothers.
I want to try a Spanish ricottabecause I heard him say that
earlier today.
SPEAKER_00 (24:23):
I heard
SPEAKER_01 (24:23):
him say that a month ago.
You know what I
SPEAKER_00 (24:25):
mean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah.
I'm already building data intothe conversation.
So when you...
comes to time for us to say,okay, we'll come with you.
I've already got a database asto what you might be looking
for.
It could be like, for example,now, you know, you're interested
in music.
I'm already thinking about, youknow what, there's a place that
I know about.
I want to spring in there andtell you music because I've
(24:46):
already built the data
SPEAKER_00 (24:47):
in
SPEAKER_01 (24:47):
regards to what you're talking to me about.
That's why I've got no idea whoyou are.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:52):
This is where they're going.
This is what they're doing.
Boom, boom.
And they just follow.
Yeah.
So that's what, obviously, I'dlike to think that we
SPEAKER_00 (25:01):
can.
And that's truly curated.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
Yeah.
More personal.
And so that's all.
So that's what we feel.
Well, obviously, from 20 to 25,you know, they'll want to do the
EOS, which is obviously with thebottle.
A lot of them are saying, EOSisn't beautiful, but they go,
the part, which is obviously,you do the Micromas, you do EOS.
So it depends on thedemographic, but usually a
little bit older, when you, Ishouldn't say past all that, you
(25:26):
want to do more with the EOS.
Take him for what it is thatyou'll send tickets.
SPEAKER_00 (25:30):
You want to wake up in the morning
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
and see the sunrise.
You don't want to be seeing thesunrise after a massive night
out.
Let's just get that on thetable.
Or see the sunrise and go, wheream I?
Yeah.
There I am.
Where am I?
I'm at the beach still.
Is there a month or is there aparticular time that you think
is the best season to travelthere?
(25:52):
August is heavy.
It's crazy.
Super hot.
UNKNOWN (25:57):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (25:57):
And it's super busy.
And again, it's all about thetransfers.
Getting, for example, from theport of Santorini up to the top.
And if you're doing this inAugust, you've got about 20, 30
buses all lined up to go up thisnarrow road and just sitting
there.
That's why we're probably flyingthere.
But then going flying there, itbecomes super expensive.
So what I'm trying to say to youis probably early on the
(26:18):
shoulder seasons, which isprobably, I want to say end of
May or June.
Why?
Because everything's fresh,everything's clean, everything's
painted.
Yeah.
Everyone's ready to go.
Wow.
Here we go.
Great season coming along.
Oh, yeah.
We're up for it.
The water could be a little bitcold still because it's just
coming off because if you'reokay with it.
Everyone's all buzzing.
(26:38):
And then, obviously, I alwayssay about September coming very
properly again is because theweather is getting a little bit,
obviously, slows down a littlebit.
It's right in the high 30s.
And people start to relax andgo, all right, we've had the
craziness of August and evenJuly.
Let's just start slowing downthere.
So September, October or end ofMay, end of May, early June.
(27:00):
Shoulder season.
Shoulder season.
Why?
Because people forget how hot itgets here.
Yeah.
We've got major issues with alot of people that just don't
come out of their rooms all daybecause it gets super hot.
Oh, we want to go July becausewe heard it's great.
It's busy.
That's fine.
But if you're at 35 degrees andyou're not used to this type of
heat, you're not going to walkanywhere.
(27:20):
You don't want to walk anywhere.
You're only going to be able toget up in the mornings, which a
lot of people struggle with.
It's 7 in the morning toactually enjoy.
It's still been 20, 22 degreesin the heat to enjoy that,
whereas during the day, it getsa little bit too hot to actually
go sightseeing.
You don't really enjoy it asmuch as a Great Torrent,
unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00 (27:40):
That's good to know because you're right.
Most people go around thatperiod of time.
And it gets super busy overtourists.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
like when you go to Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
You know that.
You go in August.
It's like 50 degrees.
You're not going outside.
You're staying.
And then you're trying to justget from there to the transfer.
When do Greeks have theirholiday?
Is that August?
Yes.
Like the Italians?
Yes.
Like the Italians, yeah.
Greeks don't go to the islands.
Greeks do not travel to theislands.
(28:14):
A lot of them go to villages,especially in Athens.
A lot of them go away tovillages or just try and stay
away.
We found a lot.
Thessaloniki?
The little peninsulas offThessaloniki.
I went there once and it wasawesome.
And it was just a whole lot ofGreek people.
And it was the best.
(28:35):
It was so good.
It was good fun.
And it was so laid back as wellbecause there was just like
nobody there.
The Greeks, Greek people werethere, but there was just like,
it wasn't like hustle andbustle.
It was quite nice.
Yeah, that's most of the Auguststuff.
It's obviously quite big.
I personally love staying inAthens in August because I can
(28:56):
drive the car freely.
I can park wherever I want.
Taking little things like thatbecause I think when we had this
conversation last time,navigating, trying to park the
car, it's like strategizing fora whole week ago.
If we go over there, where am Igoing to be able to park the
car?
How am I
SPEAKER_00 (29:10):
going to park it?
Wow.
Whereas
SPEAKER_01 (29:11):
in August, I love being in Athens.
Everything's quiet.
I love being in August inAthens.
But yeah, most people disperseand go to the islands.
And that's when it's likeChristmas time for most people.
In Australia, I grew up,Christmas was that month.
Here in Greece, they do that.
In August.
And you've got plans in Athenstoo, though, right?
(29:32):
As in you've got something onthe horizon, am I allowed to say
that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The bus tour.
I could send you a pic.
So what it's called, a theateron the...
A friend of mine came up with aconcept, and I jumped onto that
as well.
So it's having theaterproduction on a bus.
So usually you get on a bus,wherever you go, and they've got
the microphone going.
They could have a curator, couldhave someone speaking, or you
(29:53):
could have the headset.
And it's usually, unfortunately,everyone's tired of going, here
we go.
Now we're passing.
Or even worse, you've got thoseheadsets in, you've passed the
acropolis.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're talking about food.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
You can't.
You're
SPEAKER_01 (30:16):
pressing the headset.
It's not working.
So anyway, so how can we make itmore exciting?
So having a theater on the busis like playing the ruins, but
from a theatrical point of view.
SPEAKER_00 (30:27):
Oh, how cool.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
Having an actor on board dressed in.
Toga.
And also serving some alcohol.
Red
SPEAKER_00 (30:35):
Cena.
SPEAKER_01 (30:36):
And traditional snacks.
And that's called Theatre on theMove.
But actually, we just did that.
And hopefully, we're doing somepractice runs now, and they'll
be running shortly.
Yeah, so we can come up withthat one.
It's called Theatre on the Move.
Do you have anything to tellanyone or give any
recommendations for anyonelistening that are thinking of
(30:58):
coming on one of your tours?
Look, I think it's not reallyabout coming on one of my tours.
I think just in general inGreece.
Look, like I said, the point isthe difference.
We don't work on commission, asI told you.
We work also on the individual.
We don't have it like a setcookie cutter.
This is what you're doing, blah,blah, blah.
(31:18):
I'm not going to mention the bigcompanies.
So everything's more personal.
Who you are is who you meet.
For example, I'll give youanother one is for safety.
For example, I had it, which isgoing to happen again.
I had a group.
I had 20 women, which I'm takingagain next month.
I had to individually walk them.
back to the room, each one fromthe bar up and down.
I went to 20 times.
I'm okay with that.
(31:39):
Just a little bit more personallike that, just to make them
feel comfortable.
Not to say that safety is very,you feel very safe here, but
just for their own comfort whenwe walk back.
So that's what we offer, alittle bit more personal.
Like I said, we build a datajust by having conversations.
Like I said, we're the personyou meet at the airport.
We're the person that you meetat the hotel.
(31:59):
We're the person that What Ioffer is always suggest to
people, it's not about coming ontours, is to be open-minded when
you come.
A lot of people, unfortunately,have expectations.
Like, for example, if a lot ofpeople, I'm not saying go to
Thailand or things like that,they go to a big hotel with a
big lift and then they come toGreece and go, wow, the lift is
(32:20):
the size of a coffin.
Where am I?
I can't get into that.
I thought you meant like, Peoplewould be singing ABBA all the
time.
Yeah.
I don't think I had someone askme, do you live in those blue
domes?
We don't live in those bluedomes.
No.
I thought you were going to say,does someone ask you if you use
Windex everywhere?
No, Jif.
(32:44):
Oh, Jif.
Windex does work though.
SPEAKER_00 (32:47):
Yeah, no, it's not Windex.
Then I know it's a stadium joke.
SPEAKER_01 (32:50):
No, it's that big fat Greek wedding.
Jif,
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
yeah.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (32:54):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Jif, yeah.
Yeah, Vicks cures everything aswell.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Vicks cures everything, especially during
the winter.
So what I was really talkingabout is just to be more
open-minded, not to come withexpectations of when they're
traveling.
To understand that Greece isreally, it's a very small place,
especially Athens.
And the hotels, if you look forgrandeur and really big hotels,
it's very hard to find becauseof, it's a small place.
(33:23):
And a lot of the businesses, arefamilies still run?
Like, for example, if you go toVilla Sulla in Santorini, you'll
meet Sulla.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (33:34):
how it is.
Yeah, it's because it's small.
It's
SPEAKER_01 (33:36):
small.
So just be aware that it's runlike as a family store.
A lot of it is.
Sure, they're getting more, howcan I say, more corporate, more,
you know, where you get people.
Big brands.
Big brands and sure.
But again, just be open to itthat's still run as more or less
like a big family.
like a family and don't haveexpectations when you come as
(33:57):
to, oh, but I thought I wasgetting this.
Do I really have to walk thisfar?
You have to walk a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (34:02):
Okay, that's
SPEAKER_01 (34:03):
good.
SPEAKER_00 (34:04):
You just
SPEAKER_01 (34:04):
have to walk.
SPEAKER_00 (34:05):
Yeah.
You have to walk.
What did you say?
Do you have to walk?
You
SPEAKER_01 (34:08):
have to walk.
There's no transport.
Especially if you go to SanSerenity, there's big steps.
Greeks just walk.
Yeah.
We walk everywhere.
We're not going to take the car.
It's not like you go into ashopping mall and you wait for
10 minutes driving until someonegets out and you can just walk
on it.
travel later.
People walk.
Be ready to walk.
Be ready for the heat.
Not to have any expectations.
(34:29):
I said, oh yeah, but could be inAmerica.
Oh yeah, but in Australia.
We've got big lifts.
Oh yeah, had the concierge comeand take my stuff.
Sometimes that doesn't work likethat.
Don't have any expectations.
Just be open-minded to what,just take it all in.
Just really, for what it is.
That's really good advice.
And try and build up a memorybecause this is, life's all
about memories, isn't it?
So when you go away, he's tryingto have a good memory.
It's not reality.
(34:50):
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
SPEAKER_00 (34:51):
Yeah, that's great.
It's so exciting.
I love Greece, so I'm reallyexcited about it.
I'm pumped.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for sharingsuch a valuable information
about Greece.
So if it's
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
anything, if anything you're trying to
portray is the passion of theplace.
That's the thing that's abackbone about all the minutes
right away is really once welose that passion, then we
become more passionate.
How can I say it?
Just more robotic in the waythings are done.
So if we can still instillpassion and you feel it when
you're talking to people as towhat you're showing as well,
(35:27):
that's, I think, the mostimportant.
I think once that's gone, that'swhen it starts getting a little
bit tough.
SPEAKER_00 (35:34):
Yeah, and you've lost that.
You've lost that
SPEAKER_01 (35:36):
spark.
You've lost your culture.
You've lost your feel.
You've lost your way.
Then you become a bit morerobotic.
SPEAKER_00 (35:41):
Yeah.
Really appreciate all of theinformation.
SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
I'll write a short novel
SPEAKER_00 (35:45):
about someone traveling to
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Greece.
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
Oh, sorry.
Mary.
Oh, there you go.
So what's it called?
SPEAKER_01 (35:50):
Echo from the Street.
So I write this during COVID.
It's a short novel about a youngboy moving to Greece in the 90s.
Echo from the Street.
So I write that, but I...
It's only in novella, but I'vewritten more onto it now.
But yeah, so that can give youan example as to transitions
from a boy moving from in the90s, growing up in Australia and
(36:12):
then coming to Greece and thentaking from what he learned in
Australia, try and implementthat in Greece and then try to
synchronize and make it workbest for him.
And it's an adventure.
So it's called Echo from theStreet.
I
SPEAKER_00 (36:23):
love Echo.
Have you got a link?
We can go to that.
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Yeah, it's on Amazon.
Okay, perfect.
If you can link with us andwe'll put it in the show notes.
Yeah.
So I wrote that a few years ago.
It's just only a short number.
But I did that.
That was another box I wanted totake as well.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
Oh, I love that.
Thank you.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (36:44):
been awesome.
Yeah.
Thanks so much, Petros.
Thanks for sharing all of yourwonderful knowledge.
And I love that you curate eachtour to be quite original for
the people that come on yourtours.
So it's really exciting.
And so...
Thank you again for coming on.
I appreciate it.
Before I sign off, I'd like tomention that I am taking or
(37:07):
hosting a group of women to goon a tour of the Greek islands
from the 3rd of the 10th ofSeptember with Petros.
And if you'd like to come, weare going to Athens, Naxos and
Santorini.
There is more information onwww.trulyexpat.travel.com.
Sorry, I don't even know my ownaddress.
(37:27):
www.
TrulyExpatTravel.com.
And if you want to contact me,yeah, just contact me through
the website.
I'll speak to you then.
Thanks.
Bye.
Take
SPEAKER_00 (37:39):
care.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:41):
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Join us again next week on TrulyExpat Travel Podcast, where we
have another excitingdestination in a world that's
too big to be left unexplored.
SPEAKER_00 (37:52):
Ciao for now.
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