First & Last, For Now

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• October 21, 2026

Sitting up on the calendar picturesque cliff at a restaurant in Santorini, the waiter brings over a glass of wine and asks, “first time in Santorini?”

“Yes!”

“How do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful.”

“People who visit always say they want to move here. Do you want to move here.”

“Not really,” and then I snicker to myself, knowing how often I come off as crass when I don’t intend to. “I want to move to Hawaii.”

“Then why don’t you?”

“I don’t know, I might.”

At some point last year, my cousin Brittany (whom I am extremely close to) had called to let me know Katie, who is her sister Mandy’s roommate and a friend who came to Iceland with us, was getting married in Greece. Katie is Greek and speaks the language fluently and is extremely bright and successful. “That’s awesome,” I replied. Brittany said that both her and her sister were planning on taking their kids. Brittany has two kids, nine and six, and Mandy has a toddler. “Bold, very bold,” I said, knowing the challenges of especially long traveling with youngsters, “do you want me to come as a sort of nanny?” Just like that, the plans were made.

As a lover of stories and history, Greece has long been a place I wanted to visit. It’s the birthplace of democracy and theatrical entertainment, two staples of what I love about life. From mythology to philosophy, I was well read, if not obsessed with Greek culture. Additionally, I’ve called Astoria, Queens home for over a decade and it is the most Greek place outside of Greece, where I have enjoyed Mediterranean food.

Katie’s wedding would be on the island of Crete in Heraklion. The plan was to go to Chania (western Crete) for a few days before wedding festivities, then head to Heraklion, and from there, I would go on solo to Santorini, Mykonos, and Athens. Greece is far. It’s actually a longer flight than Hawaii. We flew into Athens, spent a quick night at an airport hotel, and then got on a plane to Crete. Crete is a big island, and rich in somewhat mysterious history. Zeus was born and sheltered on the island of Crete, according to story. It is also home to some of the oldest civilized ruins of the Minoans (3000 BC), who had working toilets and by paintings suggests there was no “king” or “queen” but a functional democracy.

Crete was my favorite part of Greece. It was less touristy than the other places, the beaches are gorgeous, the people are kind, the food was fresh and cheap, and the cities made you feel like you stepped into a whimsical time. Additionally, I was with my cousins there, so we had a lot of laughs and memories for our lifetime. One of my favorite moments of the trip was lucky ocean encounter. Mandy’s husband, Kevin, who is a radiant optimist and always down for good time, took a long swim out in this beach cove with me. Out there, we were being spied on by two cuttlefish. Cuttlefish are cephalopods (like octopus), and are extremely weird and alien like creatures. They are mostly translucent, but also change their colors and glow. Cuttlefish can be highly aggressive and I wouldn’t want to be near a pack of them of a certain size. But these two were about foot long and gleamed at us with their unblinking eyes. This was a first for me. I’ve an ocean addict and have had many majestic ocean like encounters, as well as some unlikely ones. “Mandy is going to be so jealous,” I said to her husband. Mandy is, in fact, a marine biologist. But Mandy broke her foot not long before the trip and subjected to a boot (which brought bad many memories of my broken foot in Italy). She was a trooper the whole trip and didn’t let her handicap hindrance her too much on adventuring, even with a two year old son reaching for her endlessly.

We enjoyed sunset soaked dinners by the sea, adventures on the pink sands beach of Elafonisi, explored giant creepy religious caves with bats flying over our heads, a catamaran cruise, and hikes to the tips of old fortresses. You will find no greater joy in life than exploring places of wonder with people who make your heart and face smile. Blessed are we in these times, rich in momentous moments.

Through the years, I’ve done a lot of solo traveling. Traveling on your own can be a most rewarding experience. You are truly forced to immersed in the culture. In some countries, I found it very easy to make friends. Other places, I was mere wallflower, barely talking to anyone. Because I’m a nerd who loves history and art, I’m rather happy hitting museums ruins, allowing my imagination to turn my surroundings into a time machine. It is, however, the wining and dining at the end of the day where loneliness can kick in and I feel rather homesick.

Traveling with people also means I have an audience for random jokes that I crack. Sometimes, in the past, when traveling alone, I happened upon a fellow tourist with a bit of sick sense of humor that would find me quite amusing. Other times, because of the language barrier, jokes would be lost and I’d be bombing. One day, myself, Brittany and her husband Bobby and daughter Angelina climbed a steep and rocky hill to get to the top of a fortress (this was one of our island stops during our Catamaran cruise). Mandy could not hack it because of her broken foot so she stayed on the beach with her husband, toddler and Brittany’s youngest, James. It’s a good thing, also, because it wasn’t easy going up or down. Lots of tourists took many winded rests, but we were pretty swift on our feet. One lady let us pass her because she was not in great shape and we are. Jokingly, I said, “no wonder all the statues of ancient Greeks were shredded, because they were constantly doing a stair master!” My cousins giggled, but the other lady laughed so hard I thought she was going to fall off the cliff. It wasn’t THAT funny.

Beaches are always my favorite, but I also absolutely love ancient ruins, which makes Greece a special place to visit. The Minoan ruins at Knossos hold essentially history and mystery. The famous Minotaur tale comes from here, as the Minoans built their temple in such a way that is was easy to get in, but hard to get out. So anyone who was trying to murder important figures or rob them would almost inevitably get lost and ultimately captured. Their civilization thrived, according to them, at the help of Zeus, because they helped him. But no one knows for sure how they because so advanced or why they fell.

One of the things we did mostly for the kids was go to a “9D” movie. One of these little 3D rides where the seats move and they also spray you with water and air, and bubbles, etc. It was four short films. The first was a showing of all the sites of Crete, then a guy explained ancient history in a few minutes, followed by a mythology story, and finally a virtual rollercoaster. The guy who did a quick rundown of Crete’s history was wearing an American flag tie that also had Looney Tunes on it, which we found very funny. At the end of his quick lecture, he said, “and if you find that interesting and want to learn more, google it.” This might be one of those, “you had to be there moments” but man that made me laugh. Like the comment section of people trying to make a point, he was like, “google it for yourself.” I have google at home! I came here to get an inside track and experience it for myself!

When the evening of Katie’s wedding came, I stayed in the hotel with the kids, who were very well behaved for me, and cuddled with the little one to ease him to sleep. From here, I would not return with my cousins, but would take the ferry to Santorini, then ferry to Mykonos, and finally fly over to Athens for a day and a half before heading home.

The Greek ferries aren’t nearly as nice as the ones in Italy and a bit chaotic. I would probably recommend flying over their ferries. It was not the greatest experience. But both Santorini and Mykonos are unique and picturesque places. They are, however, full of endless stairs that I felt I was perpetually trapped in an MC Escher painting in both a good and bad way. Every day was leg day in Greece. In Santorini, I also went on a Catamaran cruise which was fun, even though it was starting to get cold and I didn’t spend much time in the water. On land, I bopped around to different museums and art galleries.

In a museum dedicated to ancient Greek technology, I learned that the first autonomous robot was created 3000 years ago and poured wine. It was both creepy and fascinating. It lifted this existential dread I have about ai and the future. Not that I don’t think the future is rather bleak for humanity, but rather that we were always on this course, fated to be just where we are now. That there was nothing left to do than enjoy times with loved ones, visit places that intrigue you and wring every little ounce of joy of our short lives.

Another invention that blew my mind was that Plato (yes, that Plato) invented the first alarm clock using hydroponics and pottery where, at set time, water would trickle down pipes into a three tiered pottery system and mimic the sound of birds. Despite my love for television, it really was the beginning of idiocracy.

Because of heavy winds, my ferry from Santorini to Mykonos was delayed four times and I spent a boring day at the ferry port. While I love traveling, it is often filled with hiccups and not every minute is bliss. Again, this would have been a much better time if I wasn’t alone. It was a long day, and I was anxious to get to my next location. When we finally got a ferry, it would take almost four hours to get to Mykonos as opposed to two because of rough seas. The ferry is like a small cruise ship, so I didn’t get sea sick or anything but it did burn a whole day that wasn’t part of the plan. Such is life.

But I made to Mykonos, and my hotel there was the nicest hotel I stayed in. I don’t stay in nice hotels. I stay in clean and safe hotels, but my hotels abroad are minimalistic (I spent less than a hundred dollars a night at various hotels). The boat cruise I booked in Mykonos would also get canceled because of high winds. These are summer destinations, the Greek islands. Fall comes with high winds and the season especially ends.

You’ve seen, I’m sure, the pictures of the white buildings with blue roofs, narrow winding streets, like a Dr. Seuss book. I spent the day exploring and getting lost, and trying not to spend money in the various shops because little souvenirs that will be Christmas gifts for friends and family. In this one religious themed gift shop, I got to speaking with the shop owner, an older man in his 60s. “How are you not perpetually lost in the streets?” He replied, “you are never lost, if you always are.”

I liked that.

Santorini and especially Mykonos are expensive places. New York expensive. And the food wasn’t even as good as the food in Crete. Mykonos if filled with designer shops which don’t impress me because I never cared about labels (sheep minded people love a label) and also I live in New York so it’s not new to me. A sales lady roped me into a skin care place with some lotion samples. I did make it clear to her I was not interested in buying but she said she just wanted to do a demonstration and since I had no where to be or talk to, I gave in. To be fair, the products did seem really good, but then she pulled a classic scam trick that I was lucky “the boss” was in today and could do a consultation about my melasma.

Now, I’ve written about my melasma in the past, but if you don’t recall, melasma is a darkening of certain spots on your face caused by hormones and worsened by the sun. It is THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. And has made me so insecure that I didn’t even want to go one stage and be in the public eye. Specifically my “malasma mustache” which is the darkening of the skin on your upper lip.

Anyway, these two go on to point out all of my “fine lines” and the line between my forehead and every little wrinkle that makes young women jump to botox (which I am against). But I’m not so fooled into buying their product. I’m all for a good skin care routine as my bathroom sink is filled with serums and lotions, however, fuck you for shaming an aging face. If someone doesn’t think I’m beautiful because I don’t have a plastic face, then I don’t want to be with them.

Mykonos is really a party city. A place where the young go out all night. I did none of this. First, because I’m alone and I’m not about to get really drunk into late hours as it’s highly dangerous. Second, it’s not really my scene. Additionally, my body clock never fully adjusted to the time there and I went to bed early every night and woke before the sun did. I was okay with this, however, because I wanted to see as much as possible.

Because my boat tour was canceled, I rented an ATV on my second day for a mere $60 and had it all day long. I drove all around the island. In fact, I drove so far, I actually ran out of gas and they had to come rescue me (haha) with back up gas so I could make it to a gas station, where I filled up and continued to drive to every corner of the island. They were really cool about me running out of gas, admittedly a rookie move. They didn’t even charge me extra for it.

ATV’s are a lot of fun, albeit, a little dangerous on curvy roads and traffic areas. I was careful, sometimes, and sped other times. I think, actually, an ATV is THE best way to see the whole island of Mykonos and would highly recommend it.

The next day, I had a quick morning flight to Athens, giving me a day and half there. As soon as I was checked in, I hit the streets. The following morning, I had a tour scheduled for the Acropolis, but in my short time I was determine to see everything. I walked about twelve miles that first half day, and eighteen miles my full and last day in Greece.

While, overall, I much prefer Italy to Greece (Italy is prettier, the food is better, it’s not as sketchy in the not tourist areas), I actually preferred Athens to Rome because Rome is so crowded. Both cities are special in the sense that you have a modern city, but in between these ancient moments that shaped humanity. Very cool.

The Acropolis is really something to behold. As is the temple of Apollo and Zeus. One can see in their minds eye the original philosophers, debating not only how to build a civilization but what it even means to be human at our core. I hit museum after museum, taking in all the tales of the old gods and centuries of wars, followed by rebuilding, followed by wars, followed by rebuilding. All empires collapse. As will one day, our own. Nothing on this beautiful Earth is forever, only for now.

Even though I was having a grand time, I was happy to be coming home. I usually get this way when I travel. Happy to leave, happy to return. The only place I never want to leave is Hawaii. I missed my cousins and friends and family at home. I missed my bed. A strange thing happened when I went to a bar for a cocktail and food, that behind the bar was a poster of New York City that reads, “NEW YORK… ALWAYS EXCITING. GO BY… PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.” This is the exact poster I have had in my apartment for twelve years, that I also had in my bedroom at my parents house for years before I moved.

On the plane ride home, I sat next to an older and quite stunningly beautiful Greek woman (the Greeks, like the Italians, have great skin). She was returning home to the states, but from Greece originally and goes back once or twice a year. I told her all I had done and she was impressed by how much I covered. But many places you visit in your life are like people you meet, it will be the first and last. She said it was simply goodbye for now, and while I wouldn’t be opposed to visiting Greece again (especially the other side which I didn’t see) but there were so many other places I wanted to visit, that likely it was a once in a lifetime trip and I would never visit those places again, save for my memories of them. And what grand memories they are.