Greece - Part 1 - Mykonos

So, I happen to have been up for the last few hours... starting around 3am this morning, I could NOT sleep. I tried, but no luck. I'm not a fan of jet-lag! I played Scrabble on my iPhone. Then, I finally decided I should just get up and post some pictures on this here blog!

I'm apologizing in advance for my wordiness and the length of the next few Greece entries... I thought if I broke this up into pieces that would be helpful! : )

We left for Greece on Tuesday 7/27 and arrived on Wednesday. Our flights went really well (we got an exit row!), we had a short layover in LHR. Getting into Athens was a little bumpy. I kept thinking we were going to have one of those unexpected big drops in altitude where people fly around. Luckily, nothing like that happened.

Athens bound!

Matt loves it when I take random pics like this!

We were staying in Athens one night before heading out to the islands. I had booked this night with Marriott points, so the hotel wasn't really in the tourist center, more the business center. Well, it was NOT easy to find, which is true of a lot of things in Greece. We walked around with our luggage forever. By the time we finally found the hotel, we were tired and covered in sweat! Nice.

After a short snooze, we went to the city center to get our ferry tickets to Mykonos for the next morning. While we waited for the hotel shuttle, we stopped off at the Hard Rock Athens. : ) Then, we had a drink on the rooftop of our hotel and watched the sunset.

The first of many Mythos beers of the trip!

Since we were tired and had to be up early the next am, we just had dinner at the hotel. There wasn't really a lot around us anyway... unless we wanted to visit the "Kinky Opera" across the street. Hmmm... I think not.

Umm... is this Amsterdam???

On Thursday am, we cabbed it to Piraeus (the big port in Athens). Holy moly! This place is a zoo! There were so many HUGE ferries! I was totally expecting a small little ferry boat, but I was so wrong. Cars and trucks go on these things. These ferries have everything down to a science... getting off and on the boat at the ports is nuts.

Checking out the other boats from ours

One of the ferry stops - I think this island is Syros

We got into Mykonos and hello craziness! Like I said, getting on and off these ferries is a real trip! Then once you are off, you are accosted by people trying to sell you hotel rooms.

We stayed at the Argo Hotel, which was 50 m from Platis Yialos (a beach). The staff was so friendly and helpful. And the bus to the main Mykonos Town stopped about 20 m away. We had a transfer from the port to the hotel, so no problems locating this one!

Platis Yialos Beach

We grabbed lunch at a beachside restaurant and then veg'd out by the pool for a few hours. The weather was gorgeous - hot and not a cloud in the sky!

I had read in my guide book that a great place to watch the sunset in Mykonos was this bar Caprice. So, we took the bus into town and despite the crazy winding "roads" throughout the town, we managed to find the bar. Actually, I think we just kind of stumbled upon it and were surprised to see it. But, whatever.

The back porch is right on the sea, with the waves crashing up and splashing our feet. The bar had some fun drinks (all about 11 EUR a pop!). It was the perfect place to watch the sunset! This was one of our favorite places the whole trip (we went there all three nights we were in Mykonos!)

Enjoying a drink at Caprice

The porch with the famous windmills in the background

Mostly the waves splashed straight up!

Mykonos at sunset

We had dinner at Nikos Tavern. I loved my food (lamb kleftiko - which is like lamb pot roast with potatoes, carrots, onions topped with feta cheese -SO GOOD!). Matt was not as thrilled with his choice. This might have been the only seafood he got on the trip. It all came as the full fish, eyes and all.

Eat me!

We walked around through the town a bit afterwards. It's all a pedestrian only zone, and there were a lot of pedestrians!

Busy streets of Mykonos Town

We had a nice balcony at our hotel, so we sat outside and had some of our duty-free Baileys. : ) Our neighbors at the hotel were a group of early 20-ish guys from Australia on a 2-month vacation. They were having a great time! Apparently in Mykonos the cool people go out around 1am. So, when we would be getting home from our night out, these folks were pre-partying on the balcony and planning their escapades for the night. They would get home around 9am and then crash.

On Thursday, we set off for Paradise Beach, which is a larger beach that has some bars on it and is supposed to be more party than family-friendly (like Platis Yialos). We decided to forgo the water taxi and just walk there. We made a few wrong turns, but finally made it. The hike along the way was nice, though!

The water was so blue!

Matt leading the way... we're almost there!

Made it! Love the view!

Enjoying a yummy drink with fresh fruit!

We hung out there for the day. Around 5pm, the place turned into a total party. The main bar (Tropicana) opened, music was being pumped loudly, people were dancing on tables and the bar, the Budweiser girls were there handing out "presents", shots were being passed out... and there was a go-go dancer up on a ledge getting everything going! So, naturally, this is when Matt and I decided to take off. We are old. : )

I caught her as she was taking a water break

That night, we went into Mykonos Town again and watched the sunset at Caprice. Love that place! Matt found a new drink - the Donald Duck. I'm not really sure what's in it, but he loved them.

Matt likes this pic because you can see the sunset in our sunglasses!

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Philippi Garden. Very nice, very romantic setting in a garden area with lots of trees, flowers, etc. The food was really good. I had pasta with salmon. Matt had the best lamb he's ever had in his life. He was in heaven!

Definitely beats the sorry looking fish from the night before!

Service in Greece is hit or miss... mostly, miss. Everything was usually really good until we'd ask for the check. Then the waiters would DISAPPEAR. And it happened at more than one restaurant. We got little shots of liqueur with our bills a few times as a "sorry for taking so long", so that was nice. Oh, and Greeks eat dinner really late, like 10pm is when the restaurants are crowded. We started getting on that schedule as well. Breakfast at 9am, lunch at 4pm, dinner at 10pm.

On Saturday, we hung out at Platis Yialos for the day. We got free lounge chairs there through our hotel, so that was nice. We had a few beers, listened to music, read books... it was so relaxing! There were so many peddlers on this beach. Someone was always trying to sell us CDs, DVDs, jewelry, clothes, fake purses and watches... and most of all, massages! I kept thinking I might get one, but I never did. : (

Heineken on the beach... perfect!

Afterwards, we headed into our favorite spot again, Caprice. Matt had a few Donald Ducks, I had a few champagne cocktails. It was lot more crowded this night. People gathered up by the windmills and all along the shore to watch the sunset.

Mykonos windmills

We had heard about the famous bird of the islands, the pelican. We kept seeing little pelican souvenirs but we never saw any pelicans. Until tonight... we thought it was a statue at first! It was actually not a wild bird, the trainer was standing by it.

Matt had to go check it out... seriously, he's like a big kid!

We took the recommendation of the waitress from Caprice (after a few Donald Ducks, Matt makes friends easily!) and went to Allegro for dinner. Good food, lots of good people watching!

Goofing while waiting for our bill

Saturday morning, we packed up and got ready to head off on another ferry to Paros. We LOVED Mykonos and had a great time there! We were sad to leave!

I took a few pics while we were waiting at the port.

The water was crystal blue... you could see the fish swimming!

Cruise ship in the port

TO BE CONTINUED...