Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

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

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

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. 🙂