What do you do on that rare occasion when the clouds come out to hide the sunshine, a light breeze picks up and it suddenly becomes a whole lot easier to move about? Go and explore the local towns without practically throwing yourself into the ocean, of course!
If you haven't been on my blog before or have somehow missed out on my last few posts, I spend the last week luxuriously resting in Halkidiki, Greece, and whilst the weather was consistently beautiful, we had one day of heavy cloud and cooler winds. Now I'm someone who loves to explore whilst I'm travelling, particularly the local towns and villages and whilst I'm not that adventurous when it comes to eating at new places, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to head to Ouranoupolis, the closest town to where we stayed.
Naturally as a coastal town it was full of cafes and bars hugging the sea front, coupled with an abundance of travellers and locals. However unlike some places I've been - Sorrento, Italy for example - it didn't feel like a tourist trap. Instead we heard mainly Greek voices as we meandered around narrow streets, stopping occasionally to browse the many jewellery stores and coffee shops.
I think if you're in the Halkidiki region, particularly if you're staying in the same hotel I did *side note: there's a post coming soon all about our hotel and resort* then it's worth a trip, even if you just fancy getting out of the hotel for a few hours. When you stay in a place that's mainly inhabited by other Brits you don't tend to experience any of the culture aside from the food and drink of course, so I would really recommend booking a tour or just having a little wander around like we did. The one thing I would say is that there wasn't a huge amount to do so after a couple of hours we were ready to head back for some lunch and a glass of wine!
As our morning came to a close the sun did make a brief appearance and it seriously lit up the town. All the colours looked brighter, the sea once again glistened like liquid turquoise and the temperatures soared. All in all it was a nice morning and great fun to escape from our bubble for a little while.