Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 4 Comments

Milos- Sarakiniko and Papafragas

Today and tomorrow are the two days we had allocated to scooting about the mountain and visiting all the parts we had heard are great. We woke mid morning and had some food in our hotel we bought from the shop yesterday. My giant peach was delicious and Katy had a turkey and cheese sandwich as well.

We walked down to the car rental and hired a quad bike for the next two days. We hired the cheapest which is a 50cc engine, has about as much torque as your nearest lawn mower engine although I’m convinced mums hair dryer could power us up the mountain faster than these things. They wouldn’t accept an Australian drivers license so Katy was my chauffeur for the day.

Our first stop was the ancient Christian catacombs from the 1st-5th century AD. The drive there was uneventful albeit slow through the windy mountains. After complaining about our quad it did seem to be working better than the one we had in santorini so who are we to complain 🤨 We parked up and walked down the steep staircase to the museum, quite a view on the way down.

The Catacombs were €4 entry or free with your valid UK student card (thanks Edinburgh) so I just split the total with Katy, €2 each was a bargain we thought. You were only allowed in the area with a tour guide 12 people at a time. Here is us in the shaded area waiting for group of people to be put through the attraction.

The attraction was very informative and quite interesting although all the bones had previous been moved by archaeologists so all there was to look at were the graves. Approximately 2000 Christians were buried here between the 1st and 5th century AD. Most graves had about 5 or so people, wrapped in cloth sealed over by rock with plaster. Our 5min tour was sufficient and interesting, there were two rooms to see and you were able to take photos without flash.

From here we headed to the nearby tiny town of Plaka. It’s built into a hill and is very small but very quaint. We found a nice authentic restaurant to eat some lunch. I had an omelette and Katy had a toastie which both aren’t very Greek although the main event was our dessert. This place had loads of yummy baked goods. I opted for a milk/custard pastry and Katy opted for the shredded filo pastry style baclava. Both were delicious but I think Katy’s was the best pick of the two.

On our way back to the car Katy purchased a souvenir, a small shallow ceramic plate used for things like dips and oils or even to keep your car keys in.

Next up we had two stops planned along the north coast of the island. We boarded our 4 wheeled orange friend and drove to Sarakiniko. This place is an absolute postcard perfect area. Unfortunately we didn’t have the best weather as we have read that these places can be ruined by the north winds. We still got awesome phots and went for a swim but it was quite windy.

Milos is known for being a very windy island and is frequently used for wind surfing championships etc

Note our amazon purchase; rock shoes. They’re wetsuit material with a hard rubber sole on the bottom, perfect for places like this where in the water the floor is rocky and can hurt your feet. We decided after Croatia we needed these and it’s the best idea we’ve ever had. We don’t care if they’re ugly, they’re practical so that’s all that matters. 🕺🏼

This was actually quite high and I was legitimately frightened 😎

Many people refer to this place as lunar landscape for obvious reasons. The volcanic white rock has been eroded by the harsh winds down to a smooth surface. It’s crazy as it’s only about 100m stretch along the coast, everywhere else has normal rock. Photos don’t do it justice, it’s so picturesque and when the sun came out from behind the clouds the water turned an emerald blue. It was pretty busy with people getting that perfect Instagram shot. We even saw what looked like a professional model doing a topless photo shoot right in the crowds, they were very modest but it looked strange in a crowd of tourists.

We spent a good amount of time there at Sarakinikos before we headed across the north coast to Papafragas. I had read previously that to get down to the small secluded beach was a bit of a walk down a cliff, made difficult by strong northerly winds. So heading there I was thinking we may not get to see much. As we arrived there were people down there and lots on the top of the cliffs taking photos. After seeing the warning signs you know I ignored them and headed straight down (sorry mum). I weighed it up and it didn’t look too difficult and I was right. This was another place that would’ve benefited from better weather. The choppy waves were churning up the volcanic sand making the water look murky. The ocean water outside the cave was clear and blue but the water in these caves didn’t look as appealing.

So both of these postcard places were tainted a little by the windy weather but we enjoyed visiting them nonetheless. I had read multiple blogs and posts about the north coast of Milos island so there was nothing that could stop me.

From here we headed to a nearby town called Pollonia, it’s on the far north-east coast of Milos island. We didn’t stay too long, had an ice cream and walked around to check it out but there wasn’t much happening.

We had some food in our fridge at our hotel from our grocery shop. By this time we were getting peckish so agreed to make the 11km ride home for a feed. It’s not a big island so all of these places were no longer than 15min drive apart. The ride home was spectacular and I managed to get some photos while Katy was driving.

We were pretty sun soaked so after eating our food and showering the salt off us, so we crashed soon after. We planned on going out after dinner for a walk and a look around but we were too tired.

Until next time 😎🇬🇷🤘🏼

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

Ios to Milos

Hallooooo everybody!

We have reached the island where Venus de Milo was unearthed. Unfortunately if you want to see her in the flesh, you’ll have to make a trip to the Louvre in Paris.

Our trip started at 6:45 this morning and we arrived on the island at 11am. It passed fairly quickly for us because we both conked out on the reclining seats for a couple of hours.

Top tip if you’re getting on a Greek ferry in the future is to wear something warm because the air con is no joke! I’ve been freezing on every single one.

Thankfully in contrast to our never ending walk yesterday; our hotel today is only 75m from the port. We were a bit early for check in so we dropped our backpacks and headed out for a bite to eat and to ask around about boat trips and cars.

We stopped in this little cafe near the port for a drink and some waffles. Breakfast of champions I know 🙄.

The boat trips here range from a couple of hours to a full day of sailing. We opted to for a full day in order to see the entire west side of the island (which is in accessible by land as it’s formed almost completely by rocky peaks); however we wanted either a car or quad bike to see the many beaches that cover the east side of the island. Most places gave us a similar price per day but on the condition that only I could drive as Mitch doesn’t have an “EU international licence”. Guess this is karma for the 9 hour drive he did to and from glastonbury.

We headed back to the hotel to check into our room and to catch up on our online accounts. We haven’t had decent WiFi at all during this trip; and desperately needed to clear our emails and check our bank accounts. Our hotel is cute, not as fancy as Ios but perfect for our needs.

We headed back out in the afternoon for a walk and to pick up some basics for our fridge. After looking at my accounts, I’ll be eating in for few more meals.

We finished the day with dinner at a restaurant on the water. The food was pretty good, doesn’t come close to Quebec City though, and enjoyed some baclava in the room that we bought earlier on.

Tomorrow should be more exciting on our boat trip. I’ll try and get some pictures that show just how blue the water is here ☺️

-Katy xxx

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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

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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

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Mykonos to Santorini

Well, our 9am set off time rolled around very quickly today considering Mitch got home at 4am! If anyone knows me well, you’ll know that I function very poorly on too little sleep and today was not the day to mess with me. Mitch got a fair lashing when he wouldn’t get out of bed at 8:40 and I ended up leaving the room to meet everyone down in the lobby as I didn’t want to be the one holding everyone up.

We had a rough start to the morning as we waited to board the ferry, piled on, found a place to store our luggage and located our seats. I managed to get a bit of a nap in on the ferry. Mitch spent his time regretting the night before.

Once we got to Santorini we had very little time to check in, dump our stuff and get changed to head to the beach. I wish I could say that I got some amazing photos of the black sand beach but we were both so tired we plopped ourselves on two loungers under a parasol and relaxed. The service was really quick on the beach so in no time we had a bottle of water and two cokes beside us. I don’t know if this is to do with the scalding temperature of the sand or not but the waiters move very quickly. We ventured into the sea a little later on. The water is crystal clear and pleasantly cool, you can see your feet sticking into the black pebble-bank.

We only had a couple hours at the beach before we hopped back on the bus to see the highest monastery in Greece atop a hill that overlooks the island. Also, yes I know my tummy doesn’t match the rest of me. I’m working on it!

We had a couple hours at the hotel to get ready and relax before heading out again. This time into central Santorini; which is a quick 10 min walk for us; to watch the sunset. The area overlooking the water where the sun sets was heaving with people trying to get their perfect shot during golden hour. Thankfully Mitch is a true Instagram boyfriend and got some amazing pics (of me).

After our half hour photoshoot we headed to dinner with our tour group. That’s one of the nicest parts of these trips is that you get to meet so many friendly like-minded people. We had some really good conversations over dinner about travelling, work, good TV shows and even about saving for a house! Hopefully we’ll get to meet up with some of our new friends (just like we had done in Canada); all the more likely considering most of them are Australian.

This was more photos than stories this time but still an update none the less – Katy xxx

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Mykonos Town/Paradise Beach

Kalimera readers. Today was our first full day in Mykonos. As Katy and I are coming back to here for a week we felt no need to try and cram in some exploring and figured a day at the beach was a great idea. Our TravelTalk tour had arranged transfers to “Paradise Beach” which is great because although it’s 15 min it’s €25 flat rate which is borderline extortion. We arrived at paradise beach with our group of about 15 friends and claimed some beds and umbrellas front and center. Apologies in advance for the lack of photos, mainly because I just left my phone in my bag for most of the time! The way it should be!

Honestly there’s not much to write about our day spent here as it’s exactly as you imagined. I put my phone and wallet in our bags and spent the next 9 hours laying in the shade, drinking beer and swimming in the ocean every-time I started sweating (which was almost constant). The temperature was a toasty 36 degrees so we had to deploy all the sun safety guidelines. Our guide Stefanos tells us that it’s actually a heatwave and isn’t normally this hot but we’ve been here a week and have seen no evidence that it’s ever cooler here, not a problem for me, thats what I came for- Sunshine!

At 4pm the beach party started. They had Djs, dancers and even an Idris Elba lookalike hype man on a microphone. They sold big buckets of cocktails that were basically slushies which was excellent because we were all definitely beyond “medium well” cooked from the sun.

The plan was to stay for the party which was 3 hours then head back for dinner and a rest, then to come back because it has world famous DJs starting around midnight and even Lindsey Lohan owns a bar here.

Our plan got slightly changed when Angelo, a bloke in our group started profusely sweating and vomiting. It started out funny until we realised he couldn’t walk or speak and his eyes were rolling into his head. We did the usual tactics of trying to get water into him and cooling him down but nothing was working so the group decided Katy and I were the best to look after him. 😂 Everybody was very helpful and concerned and eventually I decided it’s probably better to get Stefanos to call an ambulance. One phone call later – the ambulance wasn’t coming as there’s only 1 on the island. Luckily, he convinced a taxi driver to take us all to the hospital. So our group went and showered and had some dinner and a rest while Stefanos, Katy and myself escorted Angelo to hospital. The entire hospital was 2 rooms and they were so relaxed, I kid you not the ED doctor took a selfie with a passed out Angelo. No matter how much Katy and I insisted he hadn’t just drank to much and suggested the possibility of somebody spiking his drink or heatstroke they wouldn’t have a word of it. Not Stefanos and not the hospital. I’m not sure if it’s to keep the tourists coming but they brushed off all those ideas very swiftly. Regardless, the treatment was the same and 2L of IV saline later he was feeling much better. Angelo is actually the only Greek speaking person on our trip and when he became slightly conscious he started singing Greek patriotic songs which gave us all a laugh. All is well and he was getting better so we left him with Stefano at the hospital and rushed back to get changed and have a quick dinner as everyone was already ready to go and party.

After a rushed shower and a feed Katy decided to stay in for the night and get a good nights sleep. A group of about 15 of us headed back to Paradise Beach to party into the night and boy was it rowdy. We partied into the night, went for a quick swim and caught a taxi home. While we were swimming somebody swiped Jordan’s clothes that had his phone and wallet in them so they’re gone, such a bummer end to the night it really was. Luckily I was smart enough to hand my belongings to one of my friends rather than just leaving it on the beach so I came home with everything.

So it was a late night and up early at 9am to get the ferry to Santorini. As you can imagine we were all feeling fresh the next morning. 🙃 Having an absolute ball and the people on our tour are all so lovely and fun (mainly Aussies, Canadians and Kiwis).

🤘🏼🇬🇷 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. 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Athens Days 2 + 3

Yassou lovely readers! That’s hello in Greek (something I learned from our guide Stefanos).

July 6th – Day 2

So the day after my birthday. I’d like to say that we had a really exciting day planned after chilling by the pool the day before but we didn’t. We had to check out of the room by 12 so we got up and had breakfast in the hotel. The food was just “meh” and overpriced; if I had a do over I would have gone out somewhere nearby for breakfast. After this though we headed to the pool to snag a lounger with a parasol since we didn’t have one the day before and it was roasting! 12 o’clock rolled around quick and we headed to our room to check out our to find our key had been demagnetised 🙄. It took us 2 trips to the lobby to get it working properly all so we could check out.

Here’s where the stupid part of the story kicks in. We had to check out of our room to essentially check straight back in.

As it turned out, we booked the same hotel that our tour was meeting and staying in. We both think this is a coincidence because neither of us have any memory of booking the hotel purely because it was where the tour was meeting.

We tried explaining to the front desk that we were staying under our booking for one night and under the tour booking (in our name) for another 2; therefore could we keep the room we were already in. Alas this got lost in translation and they told us to check out, leave our bags in the luggage room and check back in at 2. Slightly annoying but not a massive inconvenience. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool again until the weather clouded over a bit.

We returned to the room, had a quick nap and got ready to meet up with the tour that evening. We suspected earlier that a few people by the pool were on our tour but after meeting everyone we realised that our tour group made up most of the patrons around the pool.

We had a quick presentation about the tour and met our guide Stefanos. The presentation consisted of him telling us that Mykonos is expensive, has 225 beaches and olive oil will be in everything we eat while in Greece.

After the presentation, those who wanted to could head out for some dinner and the chance to meet the other people on the tour. We chose to go and enjoyed some cheap gyros (3€, can’t beat it) and good conversation. As always there’s a lot of Aussies on our trip, some kiwis and a few Canadians. I’m the only Brit.

We were due and early start the next day (8:30 is early for us) so we headed back to the hotel and had a cocktail on the roof, next to the pool, with some of our new friends before calling it a night.

July 7th – Day 3

Surprisingly when my alarm went off at 7 (having not experienced this in 6 weeks) I managed to pull myself from bed and into the shower without snoozing. Mitch didn’t rise until I was drying my hair at half past. We had breakfast in the hotel again (it was included this time since we’re on the tour now) and enjoyed it with Jordan & Alyssa; 2 of the Canadians we met.

We met everyone in the hotel lobby at 8:30 and Stefanos handed out our metro tickets. We were “doing it like locals” as he put it and heading into the city to meet our guide Maria who was taking our tour of the Acropolis. It was already 32 at 9am so I’m sure you can imagine how this day went weather wise.

We had been told that students get cheaper entry into the acropolis so being from Paisley, you know that I tried my luck with my expired student ID. Unfortunately the lady at the desk noticed it was no longer 2017 🤭. Mitch on the other hand (with his uni ID from working at the research institute which was twinned with Edinburgh uni) got in for FREE! All the other students paid 10€ but this lucky buggar paid zilcho 👌🏼.

Anyway we met up with Maria (who was amazing and explains Greek words like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and she talked us through the ruins that lead up to the Parthenon.

Greek Lesson #1 – Acro – Greek word for the edge.

Polis – city

Acropolis means the edge of the city. Which is where those who lived in the city states in Athens (before it was called Athens) because this walls were a form of fortification and offered them protection.

There’s too much history to explain in all of these photos but the ruins are all very very old. Think 400+BC for some of the pillars and temples. The Greeks spent much of their early existence fighting being colonised by the Venetians (Italians); the Ottomans (Turkish) and the Romans. Surprisingly despite being in near constant warfare, they are credited with founding philosophy, theatre, music and literature.

If you couldn’t tell, the acropolis was very busy and has absolutely no shade which in 36 degrees is very sweaty and uncomfortable. I think I sweated back out most of the water I was drinking. A couple days before we went they had to close it off from the public due to the heat breaching 40 degrees celsius!

Greek lesson #2 – the pantheon is actually a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. This is where Athens got its name. The story goes that Athena and Poseidon competed to see who would rule the city. Poseidon struck his trident on the ground and produced water for the people. The issue being that the water was salty and no one could use it for drinking or agriculture. Athena then blew on the ground and produced an olive tree. These olives could be pressed to produce olive oil which could be used for cooking and fuel for fire. Therefore the people decided that Athena should rule the city.

Overall we’ve learned that the ancient Greeks loved a wee myth and mostly it was to appear more strong and “victorious”. This was to try and dissuade other settlements from trying to overthrow the king and take the land which was very desirable. This is because the land was fertile, the hill upon which the acropolis sits gives them a natural vantage point and there was an abundance of fresh water from the rivers below. Therefore it’s not uncommon to see many statues of gods and goddesses carved into the temples and buildings as a sign of protection from the gods.

Greek fact #3 – In the acropolis you will see goddess Nike who typically was winged; without those wings. This is because the people did not want her to fly away as she was the goddess of victory and would again offer protection to Athens.

After this we had a few more stops to see. This included, the monument of the unknown soldier which is guarded at all times by the presidents guards in formal dress. They have to stand completely still for 1 hour and they do 3 shifts over 48 hours. They have a little handler who wipes their face and gives them water.

We also ventured to the Athens Library.

And lastly the Olympic stadium. This was a big day for us which is why it’s such a big update.

See you in the next one! – Katy xxx