Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Couple days of transit Greece -> Italy

Our last few days have been a bit choppy. At the time of writing we are in Sorrento, Italy. There isn’t too much to report as we have been mainly travelling.

Our last day in Mykonos we woke up late and wandered around for a few hours after checkout before heading to get our ferry. We had pre organised all our ferry tickets and booked the expensive ferry (€60 each) as it was only 2 hours and the normal one took 5. We arrived to the port 15min early to find our boat hadn’t arrived. After waiting for what seemed like an age I asked the box office and they told me our ferry would be in 1 hr late. Not looking promising. Eventually our ferry left the port of Mykonos 1hr 20min later than originally scheduled. We still got into Mykonos faster than the snail ferry but it wasn’t ideal.

We checked into our lovely air BnB in the center of Athens for just 1 night. The air BnB was lovely but the area was very dodgy. The location was perfect, right in the center of Athens; and Our air BnB had a view of the Acropolis from its top floor which was kinda cool for the sunset.

To me Athens is a city of great culture and history; but as of recent it is very run down and dirty. It’s sad because all of the islands are so clean and vibrant but our suburb in Athens was full of graffiti and cigarette butts. On the plus side everything in Athens was super cheap, about a third of the price of Mykonos. I have previously talked about the “Mykonos Tax”, well here they had the “Athens Discount”. We only had one night here so we spent the night and next morning looking around the market stalls, enjoying the last of some Greek food and Katy got her phone re-repaired as the screen she had replaced was faulty (luckily it had a warranty so they fixed it for free).

That afternoon we made our way to the airport and boarded our flight for Naples. We had been told by multiple people that Naples wasn’t a very nice city so we only booked an overnight BnB here. We arrived about 8pm to what seemed like (on the surface) a slightly unsafe/unsavoury city. Maybe our views had been tainted by the opinions of others but this was once again a city that was unclean and has a general bad vibe. We checked into our air BnB and stayed in for the night, we didn’t feel like walking around. Checkout the next morning was 10am which I thought was a bit rubbish but alas we were up and out by 10. We had a few hours to roam around Naples in the day time before we got on the train to Sorrento.

Naples by day was much nicer and less scary. There were a few monuments we would like to see and we wanted to have a relaxing breakfast too. Unfortunately we had our full 15kg backpacks with us so that limited the distance we could walk in the 37 degree heat but we strolled down the main streets and saw a few things while we gathered a better opinion of Naples.

We boarded a train for Sorrento which takes about 1 hr and snakes down the seaside past the infamous Mt Vesuvius down to the point of Sorrento. It was hard to get a picture but the whole way we had this famous extinct Volcano on our side, it was hard to imagine the destruction it created in the 1st Century. All the things I had read in history at school came to a back to me, I didn’t really think that I’d be so casually commuting along side this beast.

The train was long and hot and sweaty but we eventually made it to Sorrento and walked to our newest air BnB.

Although on the top floor with no lift our room is lovely and has a fully functioning air conditioner which we were ever so grateful for! We checked in and went for a walk to get some lunch and see parts of the town and orientate ourselves.

Our first thoughts of Sorrento are very positive. It has such a great vibe, it feels very holiday-y and clean and beautiful. This is a very popular holiday destination for many celebrities and we can see why.

We then made the short walk home and showered and rested for an hour or so before heading out for dinner. Obviously we picked the most authentic place we could and ordered the most Italian food we could as we had been waiting for this day. I had the Gnocchi and Katy had a pizza. Katy even managed to engage her second stomach and have a Lava Cake for dessert. The meal was amazing and very well priced, we were very happy campers!

After dinner it was quite late so we went home to use the WiFi to google information for our next few days here. We found things like bus prices and timetables, as well as tips and tricks for the sights we will be visiting in the next few days.

Watch this space

M 🙌🏼🇮🇹

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Delos, drinks and dinner

Coming at you with a collaborative effort today. So both Mitch and I will be writing a bit just because it was a big day and there’s lots to talk about.

K – We were up early today to catch the 9am ferry to the island of Delos which is 25 minutes from Mykonos. So with our coffees in hand we headed to the old port which is a 2 minute walk from our hotel. The boat was really busy which would be surprising was it not for the fact they only head to the island 3 times in a day. 9am, 10am and 11am and come back at 12pm, 1:30pm and 3:30pm. The recommended time to walk around and see everything on the island is 5 hours so we did pretty good seeing it all in 4.

A little information on Delos for you. It’s a tiny island only 5km long and during the 2nd century BC (199 ~ 100BC) it was made a free port where merchants from all over Greece, Italy, Syria, Egypt, Turkey and the other settlements of the eastern Mediterranean congregated to trade goods. It is known that it was originally settled around 2500 BC which is hard to fathom, but didn’t come into too much importance until 2nd century BC.

Greek mythology theorises that Delos was a sacred island raised from the water by Poseidon at the request of Zeus. This was so his human lover Leto could give birth to her twins Apollo and Artemis; because Hera (Zeus’ wife) shunned Leto from all land due to her jealousy and anger at Zeus’ infidelity. The island raised was “supposedly” not attached to the ocean floor and therefore not considered land.

Apollo is one of the more important and complex olympian gods. He is the god of light, harmony and balance as well as healing, archery, music, dance, poetry, truth and prophecy. So just a few things to be in charge of.

If you read our post about Naxos and visiting Apollo’s temple; the temple sits by the water and faces out towards his birthplace, which is Delos. However there are more than 10 temples dedicated to him in Greece and not counting those in Italy as he was worshiped in Roman mythology also.

As it usually is with mythology, women are much less interesting. Artemis was the moon goddess in contrast to her brother. As well as this she is said to be goddess of the hunt, archery, forests and hills.

M – Kalispera, we arrived at Delos port and you could see over the main part of the island, complete ancient ruins and we were eager to explore. As with the flavour of this holiday, I got in for free with my student card and Katy was too scared to try and use her expired one so payed the full price (damn morals!) of €12.

We started wandering through the ruins and had saved a podcast on our phone, so we listened to that for the 3min it went for. The podcast gave us a good background of Delos, which we were pleased to know as our backpackers budget couldn’t afford another €18 each for a guided tour. We had a very extensive map and our phones for google so we set off. We actually did the island the opposite way to what the map said as to avoid the hoards of tours going the correct way, we later learned this was a great decision as we had lots of the island to ourself.

We started wandering through the merchant part of the town. All the roofs were missing which you might expect when they’re 2500 years old. We heard tour guides saying they were all shops and markets and trade merchants, many of the rooms looking the same. A famous Greek sculptor has placed random statues of rusty bronze humans around the island- we didn’t really appreciate the artistry behind them as I just found them a tad creepy. They were scattered through various rooms and on ocean sides and mountain tops.

We stumbled across this water well. Still working to this day. The many water wells on this island allowed them to be a fairly well functioning society – clever Greeks!

We stopped at a temple that had a very interesting mosaic on the floor depicting Apollo and a mythical creature.

The tiles are placed at random angles as to have minimal gaps between them- this creates the illusion that the mosaic looks like a painting. Later in the museum we learned that this mosaic was a copy and the real one is in the museum on the island. Here is a photo of the real one that has been excavated and placed in the museum. It was very impressive up close, the colour they used really helped it to look like a painting as they stated.

From this temple our next main stop was the theatre. Again it’s so old that most of it has blown over but you can see how it was built into the hill. The bottom part of the audience seats is where the important people sat and they know this because it’s the only row in the audience with back rests. I tried them out- not that comfy 😎.

Next stop was the highest point of the island. You can see it in the background of the previous theatre picture. On top of that peak was the Sanctuary of the gods and the Temple of Zeus. These were the least impressive of the island as all but a few rocks had blown away in the wind. Nonetheless, the climb up the unsteady rock steps was good to get the heart rate up and the view was awesome.

The Cyclades islands (the group of islands we have been at in the last month) are named because they are all in a circle around Delos. Placing utmost importance again on the island of Delos. From the peak we could see a lot of the islands- some too far away to see but on the map you can see how they all wrap around Delos

For the next hour or so we snaked our way down the island visiting the various archeological sites such as the Temple of Hermes, Sanctuary for the Syrian Gods and the Temple of Athina.

Eventually we came to the museum which is situated in the middle of this small island. The museum actually had all of the sculptures and precious parts of the sites we had just visited- hundreds of them. We didn’t realised that all of these buildings were riddled with sculptures and various opulent decorations from that era.

That last photo as you may guess is taken from the Temple of Priapus- Greek god of fertility, the son of Aphrodites- the Greek goddess of love.

In this museum was the Naxian lions (Naxian meaning Naxos). They are the poster of Delos, on all of the advertisement and the main attraction. Turns out the ones on the actual island are replicas and the real ones are in the museum as they had already been badly damaged by erosion from wind and sea spray.

The last few stops included the Hippodrome, Gymnasium and Stadium with is quarters. These sites were literally nothing. We walked through a dirt track in the grass without knowing it was the Hippodrome. The picture below is of the stadium, you can see a faint outline of stone walls but as I said, there was nothing to see.

We had about 90min until the boat back to Mykonos so we spent it strolling through the rest of the ruins. This side of the island was seemingly not as important as the other side, it housed things such as the Lake House and Temple of Granite and also a Jeweller. This was apparently the newest settled part of the island and also the most damaged during a fire in one of the wars. Much of this part I believe is reconstructed- we think. The marble and stone seemed too clean and white to be as old as all the others.

We boarded our boat and checked back in to Mykonos. I went for a quick swim at the beach nearby and Katy recharged the batteries. The sun was going down and Katy and I decided to go to Little Venice in Mykonos to watch the sunset. It’s the most famous part of the island to do this and it’s lined with bars selling cocktails for €15 minimum. We knew it was going to be pricey but decided it was worth it for the experience.

We chatted for a good hour while sipping on our expensive cocktails and watching the moon replace the sun. Afterwards we went for a cheap dinner to even out the price of the cocktails.

It was a very big day and we were happy campers by the time we were showered and in bed. We both agreed we were glad to have seen some of Ancient Greece while we were here, as that’s one of the main attractions of this country, it’s rich history and depth of stories and mythology.

Only a couple days left here in Greece 🙃

K + M 😀

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Mykonos Again

Today I was awake at a reasonable hour but Katy had a poor night sleep so I let her sleep a bit longer. We eventually woke and ticked off a few jobs we had to do such as send emails and organise some things for the move to Australia. I briefly rang my family and spoke to mum, grami and poppa. We gathered our things and headed for a beach within walking distance. I realise there’s a theme in these blog posts, beaches! But we are in Greece so you can’t not spend 90% of your time laying in the sun like a lizard, soaking up as much Vitamin D as you can. There were sunbeds but we are sick of paying for them so we bought ourselves an €8 parasol that did the job almost as well (should’ve done that earlier in the month).

The parasol did eventually unplug from the sand and floated down the beach with the wind but it was successfully retrieved and we wanted to go for a swim then head back anyway.

We headed back to the room for some lunch out of our fridge and a bit of a relax. I wanted to checkout the beach nearby to our place so at about 4:30 we headed down there for a quick dip. It’s only about 30sec walk from our place so I didn’t even take a phone or anything. The beach was packed with children so it was a bit busy for our liking but this beach had much better sand to walk on (sometimes here in Greece it can be a bit too rocky).

Come dinner time we went looking at a few restaurants to get some prices and ended up at a seafood restaurant. They sucked us in with the fresh fish on display. It wasn’t our cheapest option but we hadn’t paid for a meal today so thought it might be allowed in the budget. I had salmon with vegetable( cooked on an open fire bbq) and Katy had the same but with swordfish. Both we’re absolutely devine and could not have been cooked better. It wasn’t presented like a Michelin star restaurant but the taste made up for that. We both had a taste of each other’s plates and agreed that we made the right decision, even if it was a bit more expensive.

As usual we picked up an ice cream on the way home and went back to our place for a semi-early night and to watch an episode of Netflix. We’ve started “The Money Heist” on mums recommendation and it has sucked us in. 😂

Our blog posts have been a bit sparse recently, purely for the fact that we aren’t doing much to blog about. We’re soaking up the Myconian atmosphere and enjoying the sunshine and doing a whole lot of nothing. Next week we head to Italy and have a packed schedule there so expect a lot more interesting blog posts to come. Stay tuned 😀

Our next day we set our alarms and woke at a reasonable hour, but still didn’t manage to get ready and out of the room until about 11. We went down and enquired about Delos island tour which is very famous for its representation in Greek mythology. We missed the morning boat so decided to do Delos tomorrow and head to a few of the beaches further around the island for the afternoon.

We walked through Little Venice and said hello to this pink pelican on the way to the bus stop. We had the usual scuffle with Greek time management and was told our bus was full so it left 30min early (which is Greek for: it didn’t come!) We boarded another bus which took us to a cluster of beaches where we could walk to our destination anyway. The first beach we stopped at was Platis Gialos which was completely covered in sun beds. There wasn’t even a free area to swim so we dumped our stuff next to a sunbed and went for a swim (did the ole “act confident and no one will ask questions) – the water was too tempting, it was definitely the nicest in Mykonos we had come across. Clear blue water with nice fine sand.

We swam for a good while then walked around to Scorpio beach where we layed under the umbrella we brought yesterday.

Paragka beach was our final stop for this afternoon beach crawl. It was big like the first one and again very organised with lots of places to eat and drink. If you remember back to when we spoke about Pathos sunset lounge in Ios, it reminded me a little of that. It had a huge bar area set up from the beach with VIP tents and marquee areas you can pay with your house (joking but really!!?!). They had a DJ playing and an all round chill party atmosphere. I did my fair share of partying on the weekend so we were happy to stay under our umbrella and swim about in the ocean.

We stayed here until 5:30 and got the bus back to town after difficulty finding the public bus stop. It was at this point that we realised we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I only had yoghurt with honey so we showered quickly and headed into town for an early dinner. We had sussed out some nice places that were a reasonable price yesterday so we ended up at Nikos Tavern in the main town. It had pretty much the same menu as all the others without the sea view, and therefore without the price tag. It also felt very authentic too. I had Pasticcio which is the Greek shepherds pie with nutmeg spices I have spoken about before in this blog. Katy was feeling minimalist so simply had “Pasta with red sauce”. Both were delicious and suited our price tag too.

Picked up an ice cream on our way home and snapped some pics of the sunset before crashing in our beds, completely overtired.

Big day on Delos tomorrow

👀🙃 M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

You guessed it! Naxos Beach Hopping

If you’re getting sick of our beach blogs now is probably the time to look away. We spent yet another day of sunlight exploring the east coast where the majority of the organised beaches are. My thoughts on Naxos very much reflect the things I had read about it before we arrived. It is a very large mountainous island that is utilised for various types of farming and growing. Because we have driven basically everywhere on this island, we have seen (and smelt) each and every one of these. We had passed tobacco farms, vineyards, vegetable and fruit farms along with animal farms such as goat and cows (lovely scent driving by 🤮). We could even smell a certain popular illicit green plant as we drove through the most deserted parts of the island but that particular plantation was obviously out of the public eye. This might seem weird but some parts of these islands remind me of outback Australia when it comes to the look of things. See picture below.

The eucalyptus trees (whose presence surprised me) combined with very dry brown flora just seemed a little country Australia but that’s just my opinion.

First stop today was the furthest beach on the east coast Aliko Beach, which was approx 30min drive on our beastly quad bike. There were two beaches as we arrived, one on each side of a very large peninsula, we had been told by the locals that you pick which side depending on which way the winds blowing. As this island is known for being very windy you have to pick your beaches wisely. We picked the beach sheltered from the wind and parked up to set up camp. This was an unorganised beach meaning no bars, restaurants or shade umbrellas. We didn’t mind but couldn’t stay too long as we were exposed directly under the Aegean sun and Katy and I don’t particularly have the strongest melanin of all. The water here was an amazing colour and we wish we could’ve stayed all day, it was honestly like swimming in a backyard pool it was sooo clear.

Next we drove through a few more unorganised beaches that were a little windy so we only stopped for a few pictures. There was only about 5min drive between them all so it was nice to zip around the dirt tracks and check them all out.

Finally we decided on a beach the other side of Mikri Vilgla that we visited yesterday. It shares the same name so I suppose it’s the same beach on the other side of the breakwater/cliff face. Once again the side we attended was the sheltered side and had a small restaurant with sun beds so we had a small lunch and spent the next few hours laying in the sun chilling out with the occasional swim to cool us down.

We stayed here until about 6pm. We were very comfortable and would’ve stayed longer if the North-westerly wind hadn’t picked up and forced us off the beach. We rode our quad home, this time beating the sunset (learnt that lesson yesterday 😂). We showered and Katy did some of her washing and then headed into the old town for dinner. We are on a bit of a money saving period so went to a chain that does healthy salads on the cheap. We bought some salads and some baguette rolls- total price: €8.60. On the way home we stopped at a bakery as Katy wanted something sweet for desert. We took everything back to our room and enjoyed it on our balcony in the warm summer breeze whilst watching Netflix and sharing a cheap bottle of red we bought a few days earlier. Tonight was very relaxing and we were in bed nice and early which is unusual for Greece as everything here happens so late.

Tomorrow is our last full day on Naxos which we are both sad about as well have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Next on the agenda is Mykonos for a second visit, we’re hoping it doesn’t hurt the wallet too much.

Kalispera

M 🤘🏼

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Naxos!

According to Greek mythology, Naxos is the place where Zeus, the father of the 12 gods of Olympus, was raised. It is the largest and most imposing of the Cyclades, so when you visit, it is easy to understand this myth.

In Paros our boat was scheduled for 10am this morning so we arrived on time at 09:45 to be herded into gates like cattle on a farm.

The ferry arrived at 10:35 which is technically early running on Greek time (they’re not very reliable). Our speedboat was a little smaller this time but still had all the necessary comforts as the others did.

Katy and I both felt sea sick on the journey which was strange because neither of us were sick or hungover in any way. Maybe it was the smaller sized boat? It was only a 40min boat ride so we survived with our breakfast still in our stomach and minimal fuss. As we came into Naxos port it was obvious that this place is much bigger as a town. The Chora (main town) extended as far as the eye could see along the coast and everyone is greeted by the sight of the famous Apollo’s Temple as the boat pulled in.

We weaved our way through the old town which is deceptively hilly and full of stairs to arrive at our accommodation. We were fully expecting our room to not be ready as we were very early. By some stroke of luck our room was ready and it was only 11:30am. We checked in and unpacked before heading into the town for a walk around and to grab a bite to eat.

Our room is so Greek and quite modern and clean. My favourite of the rooms we have had in the Cyclades. We are staying at Hotel Anixis in the old town. The room is small, all white with a decent sized balcony of blue trimming and an ocean view which we will be utilising for breakfast tomorrow for sure.

We wove down to the waterfront and found a semi-cheap place for lunch. We had the usual salad and a club sandwich and very much enjoyed them.

I was interrupted mid meal by a very burly Greek man at the table beside us. He was smiling at me and saying words I didn’t understand. Eventually I figured out he was asking where I was from, “Innglund??” he muttered several times. To which I replied no I’m from Australia and she’s from Scotland. He gave a confused look but his 12 year old daughter explained to him my response. He then gestured that his daughter was learning English and wanted me to speak to her in English. The daughter wasn’t very forthcoming (probably due to her embarrassing father) but I asked a few questions and her English was excellent. They were from Athens and holidaying on Naxos for a week in the summer.

After lunch we set about to get Katy’s phone screen fixed which she had shattered previously. We found a place on google and went to hand it in to be repaired. €155 and 45min later her phone was as good as new, although Katy was sprouting a new sharp pain extending from the right side of her body- her wallet!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering and asked around for a few prices for car/quad bike rentals for tomorrow. We bought a few things at the grocery store and wandered back to our hotel for a rest and to line up a few things for our night time.

After our rest we walked across towards the Temple of Apollo. The sun was setting and we were a little early so we ever so slowly strolled down the 10min walk to wait for the sun to descend further. The Temple of Apollo is more of a door-like ruin rather than a Temple. Apparently it was an unfinished temple originally and now all that’s left is the gate.

The “Portara” or “great door” stands proudly as the jewel of Naxos. It is believed that this temple was built in the honor of Apollo, the Greek God who protected music and poets and other things. Proof of this lies in the fact that the temple faces in the direction of Delos, an island in the near distance, which is believed to be Apollo’s birthplace. It’s worth noting also that Apollo is the son of Zeus, a commonly known Greek God, one of the 12 Olympians. Enough Greek mythology, this place was super cool and we stayed for the most spectacular sunset. Possibly only Pathos sunset could trump this one from all our Greek sunsets.

After the sun had set which took about 20min more we headed back to a decent priced restaurant we saw earlier. We sampled more traditional Greek food surrounded by a lovely garden and accompanied by many stray cats. 😂

We weren’t ready for bed so went for a cocktail on a rooftop bar overlooking the port. I did try to take photos of the view but it was a dimly lit speak-easy bar so the pictures didn’t turn out very well. We headed home after midnight and crashed in our very comfortable bed.

I hope you all still read these occasionally because this blogging does take up a lot of time. At the very worst we will have some great stories to read to ourselves or the grandkids when we are 70 😊

🤜🏼 M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Beautiful Milos in the Cyclades

Milos is one of the less touristy islands I had heard was a gem from a few of my friends who have visited. I love the fact that I haven’t ran into any Australians and I love that fact that it feels so far from anywhere. It is also a lot more rich in history than I ever knew. There will be more on this to follow as we visit all the sites. As Katy stated in our previous post it is most famous for being the location of the Venus de Milo statue which is now housed in Le Louvre.

Anywhoo, today we finally managed a sleep in and walked the short trip down to the harbour to meet our boat. It was an old style wooden boat, rather large with seating all on the upper deck, and what seemed to be a fairly spacious lower deck (we weren’t allowed down there). This boat was nice but certainly wasn’t built for pace, nothing like our speed boat tour in Ios. But hey, slow and steady wins the race eh? Our tour would’ve been approximately 50 people and we set off into the sunshine at 11am. We visited a few sites along the way to our first stop, this was the first highlight we passed.

Aptly named “Bear Rock” because if you look closely it looks a lot like yogi bear.

Alot of the scenery almost looked like Mars. Weird Martian looking rock with jagged cliffs and vastly uninhabited land. All this west part of the island is inaccessible, there’s no roads and many mountains with rugged landscape. Lots of nothing apart from the occasional fishing villages sprawled sporadically along the coast.

We slowly pushed forward through the calm ocean breeze to our first swim stop. It had a very Greek name which I cannot remember but it was a quiet bay with a depth of about 3m and the clarity of your local swimming pool. We took some snorkels and busted out the GoPro to get some cool pics in the crystal clear water.

We had half an hour here to swim and snorkel and float about. The water temp was lovely too so we did some jumping off the boat.

Second stop was a naturally formed cave similar to Benagil Cave we visited in southern Portugal. We parked our large boat at the mouth of the entrance and jumped in armed with our flippers and GoPros. Need I tell you the colour of the water? It was kind of eerie swimming through the deep part because it was so clear but I couldn’t see the bottom so it must have been very very deep which was a terrifying thought.

As we swam through it was a large cave where the roof had fallen in. Perfect photo opportunities as usual. We spent an hour here waddling around with our flippers and laying in the sun like a beached mermaid (mer-man 🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♂️).

Our next stop was the main event. Kleftiko!! It’s further around the coast on the south of the island and is the most famous/photographed part of these boat tours.

We dropped anchor right in the middle and boarded a little dingy so we could fit into the tiny caves. They weren’t joking. We had to duck our heads multiple times in these caves, the skipper of our dingy was a little too overconfident that a wave wasn’t going to roll in and crush us against the roof of the cave. We survived anyway so I guess he knew what he was doing.

All of the caves in these photos we passed through, they look so low. Crazy I know!!

We ate some traditional Greek food provided by the tour and had some water before reeling our anchor back up. We then had a long slow boat ride back towards our port with one last swim stop along the way. The last swim stop wasn’t the greatest as we could see lots of plastic pollution in the water which was sad, honestly the first we had seen of this. Maybe it was something to do with the currents. We swam for a bit and had some watermelon before embarking for our main port of Adamas.

After our 8 hours on the boat we dropped our stuff home, had a shower and walked back to town for a small dinner. We both agreed we didn’t need anything fancy so we decided to save money and get some easy food and eat it along the water. We got a Gyro (Greek kebab) and a tuna salad and shared the both.

After eating our food we agreed that it was just as/if not more enjoyable than our sit down €28 meal from last night. Can’t beat €9 for dinner for the both of us. Bargain!!

After we headed home to lather ourselves in aloe Vera after a sun soaked day.

NB: none of these photos have filters on them. Truth!

Pleasure writing for all you followers

🕶 M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 4 Comments

Greece – Ios Day 3

Today has been a very relaxing day. We woke up late after my late night and went and enjoyed the breakfast again. This is where our tour ended. Midday the squad hopped on a bus to the port, bound for Athens. Midday we checked out and started the trek to our next hotel. We hadn’t had any exercise apart from swimming for a good while so I thought it was a grand idea to walk. Katy wanted to take the bus but it was only 2km and reluctantly agreed to walk through the 31 degree heat.

Safe to say we were both unhappy campers when we got halfway and had to stop for an iced tea and cool down. I was sweating on 100% of my body it was gross. Our packs both weigh in around 15kg so it makes it a decent workout in the heat.

Anyway, lucky this entire country is beautiful and our pit stop overlooked the beach.

After generously tipping our waiter man 30c we pushed on for the last leg of our “hike” 😂 it wasn’t too far and thankfully down hill so before we knew it we were greeted by the lovely owner. He had a smile from ear to ear and knew us by name. I later found out this was because we were his only check-in for the day.

Katy and I agreed that a pool day was calling so we checked in and went to the pool for the day. We spent a good few hours by the pool reading books and listening to music. I wrote some of this blog and spoke to mum for over an hour which was lovely to catch-up. We shared a chicken/bacon club sandwich by the pool and I made friends with an older couple from Bristol, England who are here for 2 weeks and come to Ios once a year, minimum.

The married couple from Bristol stay at this same hotel every time and travel to one other island each visit, always different. Since they were basically local I asked them for a dinner recommendation down at the nearby port.

After a shower we headed to watch the sunset somewhere and pickup our ferry tickets for tomorrow. Our hotel owner gave us two bikes and pointed us in the direction of a good sunset (as if that wasn’t already obvious 😂). We got to a good spot but it was too cloudy so we turned around to go and get our ferry tickets printed. Even the rubbish sunset looked cool over the beach at the port.

Printing our ferry tickets was easy so we returned the bikes and walked back to our recommended dinner spot. It’s called “The Octopus Tree” and is very popular with the locals, obviously specialising in seafood. I ordered a calamari dish and Katy a tuna salad. I was told the calamari didn’t come with any sides so proceeded to order a “beetroot salad”. That sounds delicious right? … wrong!! It wasn’t a salad at all it was literally just pickled beetroot and nothing else 😂 maybe they struggle with anything that isn’t a Greek salad here haha. All was well I took some of Katy’s greens so my meal turned out to be delicious.

We grabbed an ice cream for the walk home and packed our bags ready for an early departure tomorrow for Milos.

🦑🐟 M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Speed Boat Tour of Ios

Hotel managers in Ios know how to work to their audience. Breakfast starting at 10am consisting of toast, fried eggs, bacon, orange juice and water was a great choice. After catching up over breaky and recovering we headed down to the beach for our speed boat tour we had booked previously. Almost our whole group booked it and we were all put on the same boat which was awesome. After purchasing a few things to quench our thirst ( 🍺 ) for the trip we boarded our speedboat and set off into the aqua blue sea.

First stop was some caves that intertwine through a cliff face. We were able to swim through them all fairly easily. Really the main obstacle was to get back to the boat with all of your skin. The rocks were very sharp but the ocean was still so we all managed to successfully navigate the tunnels.

This lighting was obviously too much for my GoPro to deal with so sorry bout the crap photos but you can imagine what it looked like from our eyes.

I’d like to take time to note that pretty much all of the photos we post of Greece don’t do justice to what these places actually exude. It kinda goes without saying but just know if it looked great in the photos I can guarantee you it was 1000 times better in real life.

We boarded the boat and set off for destination 2, snorkelling over a small shipwreck. With the speed of our boat it didn’t take Aussie Matt long to navigate us there and before we know it we were back in the water looking down on the part shipwreck 6m below.

Lots if people swam down to touch the boat but it was a long way down so many also failed. Me, having ear problems, decided against it because I know the pressure on my eardrums would have been too much… oh well. Typically, these sorts of things present great opportunities for cool pictures with the GoPro. Best photo we got was of our friend Amy. She managed to sink down and stay calm for a nice photo. Our attempts weren’t so graceful 😂

Stop 3 was a secluded beach around the bottom part of this magnificent island. We anchored up and sat on the shore to eat a pre packed lunch. The sand was too hot for me so I took a snorkel and jumped in the ocean. Wasn’t long before others joined me for the same reason. Our group of people were the only people on this beach, actually as far as the eye could see, it was super cool and peaceful. The water was almost swimming pool clear so the snorkelling was great apart from the fact they don’t have colourful coral like Australia. (Aren’t we spoilt?)

Here’s a pic of me on the boat home soaking up the view trying not to get sunburnt 😂

Stefanos has been bragging all day about how great the night was going to be for us and now was the time. “Infinity pool with the best sunset in the world” was what we were promised. The short story is that there’s a bazillionaire NY stock broker who is from Ios and he has moved back here and built a mansion but also invested a lot of money in his home island. One such investment is this sunset lounge bar called “pathos”

“Pathos” in Greek means an element in experience or artistic representation evoking Pity or compassion. I have to be honest and say I have no idea why he would name his bar this. The bar was beautiful and modern, maybe there’s something I’m missing here. If you’re reading this and know more on this please let me know.

Stefanos… you’ve don’t it again. Recommendation of the year. This place was magnificent. Our whole group decided to pay for a few bottles of vodka and VIP table overlooking the pool. This was a great decision. The bar had world class DJs playing all afternoon and we had 2.5 hours till sunset.

We danced and drank and headed into the infinity pool as sunset approached. It was golden hour and we took advantage to get some breathtaking photos.

Before we knew it the sun was down and we were off to get a quick bite to eat and shower before heading out for the second pub crawl in two nights. Katy wasn’t feeling it so decided to stay home but the group headed into town about 11pm. We started out nice and chill, it was one of the girls 30th birthday so Stefanos organised some cake for her and we moved on. We went to various bars and as with the same as last night, there was always free shots waiting for us with some sort of special drinks menu. We went to a silent disco which was good fun. For those who don’t know what a silent disco is it’s where everyone in the club has headphones on and there’s no music playing- only through the headphones. It’s funny because everyone’s singing but unless you wear the headphones you hear no music 😂 The last bar we went to had 2 Aussies and their guitars playing lots of singable hits. They were really great and we wanted to stay but it was 3:30am and the group decided bed time was probably best. On our way home we passed a courtyard with all the locals sitting playing traditional music and singing along. It was so nice to see them all out, great cultural experience 🙂🇬🇷

All in all it was a very big day but possibly one of our best days.

Our group tour ends tomorrow so we added everybody on social media and promised we’d see them at breaky in the morning before everyone headed off.

🤘🏼🕺🏼 M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Ios-Time To Party

For the first time we were up early with our bags packed and in the lobby with plenty of time to spare. We got a transfer down to the port which was actually quite scary. As I looked out the window we were winding down a cliff on a 100 seater coach with even bigger coaches zooming past us in the other direction. Alas, we made it to the port and boarded our newest sea transportation. Armed with a few new episodes of “Stranger Things” on Netflix and Ed Sheerans’ newest album (released today) we made it across to the island of IOS.

This island has a reputation, especially with Aussies as being a party island. Not in the aspect of anything goes like Bali etc. But more that it’s just setup perfectly for sunset bars and infinity pools. We were to early to check-in so as a group we walked the 10min down the hill to the popular beach. It’s the bluest I’ve seen of any Greek beaches and probably the least crowded. There was various of umbrellas and tanning beds setup along with different companies offering water sports like stand up paddle board, kite surfing, kayaking and all the others. We met with the company selling the water sports so they could go through everything with us. They do lots of tubing (in a floatable being pulled by the boat) and tell us that you get your ride for free if you can hold on for the 15 minutes without being thrown off the side; I don’t like our chances 😂 We also booked into a speedboat tour of the whole island tomorrow with lots of swim stops at beaches and caves etc so that’ll be great tomorrow.

As tempting as the crystal clear water was, our stomach won the argument so we all went for some food across the road which ended up taking a few hours. Check-in time was closing so we skipped the beach as we have a big beach day tomorrow. We checked in and went to our pool for a relaxing afternoon.

I spent a good few hours in and by the pool with most of our group coming in and out. Katy joined us for a while but went back for a nap as we were told it would be a late night. I soon found out that our friend Amelia has an extra bed in her room and even a KITCHEN! The group laughed when I spat out my drink and told her we didn’t even have a toilet seat or a working shower head let alone a kitchen. 😂 Katy and I are both totally in a “that’s greece” mode so it doesn’t really bother us. There’s only 2,000 inhabitants on this island so we weren’t really expecting much.

After the pool and During Katy’s nap I showered and sat on our balcony listening to Ed’s new album, reading my book and watching the sun go behind the hills.

8:30pm we were to meet in the lobby for a walking tour of the small main town in Ios. Strangely I was ready early so jumped a fence to our neighbouring abandoned half built house which has breathtaking views over the sunset. Once everyone started showing up they joined me when they saw the view I was getting.

We met Stefanos (our tour guide) and headed just up the road to the town by foot. We walked through the town stopping at some churches for photo shoots and history of the island.

We had dinner at an apparently very traditional restaurant in the old town on Chora, the main and only town of Ios. I had a dish called Moussaka which can be best described as a Greek lasagne with a nutmeg? (Possibly) taste and eggplant and potato instead of lasagne sheets. It was delicious.

Next on the agenda was our pub crawl headed by our tour guide Stefanos. He had a whole list of places to visit and assured us that nothing starts until midnight and nothing finishes until at least 7am.

We had a blast pub crawling through Ios town as a group of about 15 of us. Stefanos had organised free entry and free shots at all the places we visited; really got the VIP treatment. My favourite photo of the night is here of Katy dancing on a table.

She’ll probably kill me for uploading this but alas…

We strolled home at 4:15am and slept until about 11. Here in Ios the businesses know what the nightlife is and adapt by make breakfast start at 10am (best idea ever).

Temperate has cooled down here, only 34 degrees now 🤘🏼

M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Beginning of the Cyclades-Mykonos

Today we had a pre arranged 5:50am. Yep, my favourite time of the morning… NOT! In classic fashion I packed all my bags last night and set my alarm for 5:40am. 🙃 Although we may have been last aboard the coach for Athens port, we did make it down for 5:52am so I think that’s gotta he record time, even for Katy and I. We were dropped at the port and boarded our ferry heading for Mykonos. The Ferry was massive, I didn’t expect them to be that size. The ferries are actual cruise ships that must hold thousands of people. It was 8 levels high and cut through the ocean with ease.

We had a short stop at an island called Siros which inhabits 20,000 people and looked quite busy… nothing compared for the business we were about to experience.

Upon arrival in Mykonos we hopped on a coach to take us on our massive journey of about 3 minutes. The massive coach seemed excessive but we were grateful we didn’t need to lug our backpacks the 1km it was to our hotel.

We checked in and all headed to the nearest supermarket for some food and drink purchases. Basically our entire tour group congregated at the pool and we spent our entire afternoon swimming and wading in the water sipping our Prosecco and snacking on pesto humus and crackers. At 6:30pm we had a meeting in the foyer as we were meeting another group that was joining our tour. We tried miserably to introduce ourselves and remember everyone’s names but it was nice to meet a few extra people for our tour. As expected most of them were Aussie. (Typical).

After our meeting we headed for Mykonos town and had an orientation walk with Stefanos our TravelTalk tour guide. He took us to some lovely photo opportunities and showed us the general layout of this famous place.

The backdrop is locally known as little Venice for obvious reasons!

We had dinner at a local (expensive) spot and headed out for some drinks afterwards. Some people split up as the we’re tired but most of us powered onto the next bar for a few drinks before heading home!!

Mykonos so far has impressed us in a way we didn’t know it would. Obviously we knew that t was magnificent and beautifully white washed with blue roofs and windows but nothing prepared us for the abundance of community. All the tourists get caught up in the tourist part of Mykonos and forget that when you’re walking through this town there is people doing everyday activities such as washing etc. This place has character and on our return visit in a de weeks we are determined to experience as much of it as we can. 🙂