u/Blackappletrees

This July, I will be traveling alone around Greece for 3 weeks and I want to get your opinion on which isles or cities to visit. I know it's peak season but it's the only time I can go. I don't like crowds or tourist attractions. I don't party or go clubbing. I like waking up early, walking, biking, hiking, history, wine, food, architecture, bridges, nature, and roadway design specifically for pedestrians and cyclists. I'm a transportation planner so I enjoy visiting old city ruins and learning about how people live in cities and process their waste. I really like the local experience, not a touristy one. I like traveling on a budget and opt for hostels, sleeping in a rental car, or with an airbnb host over a fancy hotel.

I plan to go to Crete to Knossos Palace, hiking the Samaria Gorge, doing wine tasting, and going snorkeling at a beach.

Is it worth going to Santorini and Mykonos? I would be interested in going to the ruins and wine tasting. I heard that each island has its own water desalination facility so I'm wondering if I can visit a desalination plant or their waste processing facility or contact their transportation office to hear what walkway/bikeway projects they're doing.

I should add I'm from Hawaii which is a small chain of islands where we have a volcano, beaches, and beautiful sunsets (and lots of tourists!)

Are there any other lesser known isles/cities that you'd recommend for me?

I met a man while he was visiting my hometown for work and we had an incredible 6 weeks together. He fell in love with me my town. Once his work was done, he left to go back to his hometown which is on the other side of the world. We both have young children from previous marriages and so we both knew neither one of us will move to live with the other. When he left, he framed our time together as a "vacation romance" and his work was planning to send him back to my hometown in 6 months and he asked if I wanted to stay in contact. I was fine with this framing of it and since he might be back I was fine with staying in contact.

When someone asks if I want to stay in contact, my understanding is that it will be minimal. His framing of our time together as a "vacation romance" gave me the understanding that our time has come to an end and it was one chapter in a book. Perhaps we would have another chapter at a future time but what we had ended for the time being.

From the day he left, he was very engaging over text, video chats, phone calls. He would text me good morning, good night, ask to video call, if I asked to have a phone call he would be available within the hour. It was a lot of energy and engagement he was putting in. I thought maybe he was doing this for my sake cause maybe he thought I would be sad that he left. I was fine so I told him I didn't need so much engagement. So he stopped with the good mornings and good nights and the video chats lessened in frequency from a call every few days to once every two weeks.

Around 3 months, whenever I would have a video call with him, I could feel myself wanting more closeness and wanting more engagement so I told him I was going to pull back and not have so many video calls and clarified that it's not because I don't like him or anything like that but because it pulls me away from being present in where I live. He then pulled back his engagement to just texting.

He came back to my hometown for work for 2 weeks and we had an amazing time together. He wanted to "confirm what he felt the first time". I guess he was able to do that. He left a 2nd time and he was sad about it. He tried to see if his work would relocate him and his kids but it wasn't possible.

Fast forward another 3 months, we continue to text but whenever I ask for a video call or phone call he's too busy.

Fast forward another 3 months, he's now too busy to respond to text msgs. When I tell him I would like to date him if he lived in my town, he says he feels the same. This summer I have the opportunity to travel for a month. I asked if he wanted me to visit him and he was very excited about the idea.

He hardly ever texts me anymore except for giving me brief answers and he's always saying he's very busy.

What should I do?