My trip to Greece is just a little over 2 months from now, and I’m a little nervous about this big solo thing I’ve decided to do. I’m skipping the beaches and islands on this trip, and instead will be exploring Eleusis, then on to Mycenae and the Peloponnese, looking for Pan in Arcadia, then heading up to the northwestern part of the mainland to trek the Pindus mountains and the Vikos Gorge. Then I’ll head east to various tiny villages and down south to Delphi and Mt. Olympus before making my way back to Athens.

I’ve never planned a trip this big and I’ve realized that I may be cramming too much into my short 16 day trip, but all the things are booked and paid for and I’m just going to see what happens. Have you ever done a big solo trip? My family thinks I’ve lost the plot, and they probably are not wrong, but when I was a kid, this is exactly what I hoped I’d be doing when I was 50.

If you’ve been to mainland Greece and you’ve got suggestions for weird out of the way things to do, shoot me your suggestions, especially less touristy mythological-related sites. And what should I look for to bring home to share with friends? Maybe the real question here is how much feta can I eat and how much retsina can I drink?

The artist of this painting is Frederic Edwin Church (1871)