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. 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Days 9 & 10 (our anniversary)

Hi guys,

So we’re combining two days into one as Tuesday was pretty chill for us. We had a bit of a lie in Tuesday morning since we’ve not had the most restful sleeps. With a house full of early workers and sleeping in the living room, we both tend to hear our roomies (for the week) getting ready and sneaking off to work.

Anyway; we woke up and decided to skip breakfast (it was 11am) and got ready for the day. One of the boys, Kieren, recommended an independent Italian sandwich shop called Peppino’s which is know for its delicious subs. Let me tell ya, he’s not lying. They hit the spot and a bit more! I had chicken pesto and Mitch had chicken parmigiana 🤤 we ate these on a bench in the sun by the river.

In the evening we headed to Lynn and Malcolm’s (Morgan’s mum and stepdad’s place) for dinner. It was a great meal and even better company (cheesy I know) but we really enjoyed spending time with everyone and catching up.

Wednesday; if the title of this post didn’t already give it away; was our anniversary. 4 whole years together and by the end of this trip will have added another 3 months.

We started off with lunch at a bar/restaurant called Hayden Block. It’s specialties are smoked meat and whisky so you know Mitch was in heaven. We each had a main and shared a watermelon salad (weird to imagine but very tasty).

I had a pulled pork sandwich while Mitch had 14 hour smoked brisket which he says is the best meat he’s ever eaten. Topped with their espresso barbecue sauce and we were both very happy with our choices ☺️.

We also picked up a sweet treat (or 4) from a bakery called Crave. Safe to say I’m an oat cookie convert 😍

After lunch we met up with Lynn and Malcolm again to go beer tasting at a brewery.

They’ve changed the laws in Canada recently which meant that microbreweries don’t have to be able to produce massive quantities in their initial batches anymore. Previously this had been a block for those breweries that didn’t have the money to fund such a big startup. So now it’s actually possible for them to get off the ground with their first few small batches which is why Calgary has so many popping up.

We headed to a place called Legend Seven Brewing which supplies some of Lynn’s taps at her pub. Mitch and myself decided to do a beer flight which is lots of little tasters. I would describe the glasses as “Katy sized” and was disappointed that I couldn’t buy any. I guess I’ll have to be on the lookout in Australia for them.

We enjoyed our beers while playing shuffle board (which is basically miniature sized curling but on a sand covered board).

Since Lynn and Malcom seem to know everyone with a brewery we got treated to a private tour of Legend’s brew house which was really cool. They make it start to finish including bottling and labelling. We didn’t even pay for our drink flight because the rep for the company wrote it off on his tab! I think he was trying to persuade Malcolm to add another tap to the bar.

We moved on to another pub that Malcolm recommended then headed back to K Pub for some food to go with all that beer. We had a brilliant afternoon and had to fight to pay for anything. If you’re reading this Lynn & Malcolm; thank you for your generosity.

Finally to end this amazing day (best anniversary yet) we watched the raptors beat golden state (woop woop) and went to The Gateway at Calgary Tech to see Ocean Alley. They’re an Aussie band who got #1 in triple J’s hot 100. The gig was so much fun, the band were fab and we were surrounded by the entire Australian population of Calgary (or so we assume). The new boy on this picture is Conner (Thomas and Trents Canadian friend). He does comedy part time and loves Aussie music! I’m introducing him here because he’ll be appearing in the next blog post 😉.

Heres Ocean Alley for those above the age of 28

Not a haircut between them! – Katy xxx