Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Isle of Capri

Buongiorno! Today was an absolutely fantastic day. We awoke reasonably early again and tucked into our free breakfast. We had been in two minds whether to spend the money to go to Capri or to save the money due to our backpackers budget. Our rationale for choosing to go was that we had multiple friends who have been in the past and read multiple reviews online, each and every account of this place state how amazing it is and we figured we can earn more money but may never have the opportunity to go to the Isle of Capri again in our lifetime. We found the cheapest way was to catch the public ferry, it was ₮38pp which is still quite pricey for a 20min boat ride.

Katy and I gathered our belongings and set off for the port of Sorrento. It was a bit of an effort to walk there using google maps as Sorrento is a maze but eventually we managed to make our way to the main port. We bought tickets to the next ferry and waited in the shade for it to arrive. We sat top deck of course (to take in the views) even though it was about 32 degrees outside. Before the boat left we were both melting in the open sunshine but as soon as the boat started to move we got a nice cool ocean breeze. ðŸ’Ļ

The views from the boat were spectacular. On the right we had Mount Vesuvius in the distance with Naples and Pompeii visible, on the left was the Amalfi coastline in all its glory and straight in front you, you could see the rugged landscape of Capri in the distance.

The boat didn’t take too long and before we knew it we were at the main port of Capri.

There is a funicular that runs up the hillside to the main town up the top. The line for the funicular looked to be at least an hours long and google said it was an 18min walk- but we knew it was almost directly upwards.

Nonetheless we decided to make the trek up the hill to save us both time and money. By the time we got to the top we were just as sweaty as you can imagine. In fact, we were so dehydrated and thirsty we paid ₮3 for a litre bottle of cold water- probably more than the cost of the funicular.

Once at the top we were greeted with the streets and streets of boutique style shops mixed with designer labels and fancy jewellers, along with a lovely view of the north-west of the island.

I immediately thought of all the shopaholics in my family and how they would absolutely love this place. I tried very hard to get gifts for people but as I’m on the boat home writing this I didn’t manage to justify not 1 gift. I found a lovely watch my grandma would love, but the face was very small and it said “Milano” on it and I figured I would’ve liked Capri jewellery as I can get Milano jewellery in Milan later on. Lots of jewellery and handbags etc caught my eye for gifts but they were either too expensive, too large to transport or just weren’t quite suited.

Katy and I had a ball shopping even though neither of us bought anything. The shops were heavily air-conditioned and most of them had a token dog to pat. I even found a nice cardigan for myself that was unique to Capri and would’ve been a great memory but I couldn’t justify ₮90 for it. Capri seems to take pride in their watch brand “Capri watches” and I thought I would find one of them I liked but the only one I found I liked apart from a Rolex was a Maserati watch and it’s ₮400 price tag steered me away very quickly. As we had read online, Capri is a heaven for the rich- it housed every designer shop and expensive store you can think of, most of them having special edition lines of clothing made exclusively for Capri. This island and town are incredibly beautiful, all the superlatives in the world don’t do them justice, but I would advise anyone on a budget or without money to spend to think carefully about your visit.

There’s always a way to see a place on your budget and we proved just that today. We couldn’t afford to eat at any of the restaurants but we still had a delicious healthy lunch from the bakery for under ₮10. We paid the ₮1 entry to the botanical gardens where we sat for a good 90min reading our books and chillaxing in the shade, this was one of our greatest decisions.

The coastline around the whole island is peppered with boats everywhere, that’s understandable as it’s so popular and looks amazing from the perspective of the water. We essentially walked the entire town of Capri up and down and saw all of the shops and even sampled their lemon slushie (this area of the world is famous for everything lemon).

There is another town called Anacapri a short bus ride away but we didn’t have time to visit that one. From what we have read it is similar but less busy and geographically smaller.

Our boat home was booked for 5:30pm so we had an hour to kill, Katy and I decided we were super hot and sweaty and a quick dip in the ocean would be just what we needed. Luckily we had anticipated this this morning and threw our swimmers into our bag for the day. We made our way down the mountain which was a lot easier than going up and arrived at the only beach on this side of Capri.

Capri is not really known for its beaches. It is famous for things such as “The Blue Grotto” and it’s rugged rough coastline where you can hire boats to steer around the island to see. The beaches are added in parts for convenience of the tourists and there’s no sand- it’s all pebbly rocks but the water is still crystal clear and lovely and warm.

After awkwardly changing in front of some Italian men who weren’t even trying to hide the fact they were looking, we dumped our stuff on the coastline and jumped into the busy blue waters to cool down.

This is yet another place where our European rock shoes came in handy (best. purchase. ever!) We anticipated 30min swim quite well and dried off before walking the 5 min to the pier and find our boat.

After incorrectly walking the entire length of the peer we realised our boat was actually docked at the exact opposite side. Although it seemed very close/just in front of us, it was in fact a long walk all the way around the crescent shaped pier. Luckily we were 20min early, the walk around took us 15min and we safely boarded our much bigger vessel, bound for Sorrento.

The rest of the night is a bit “ditto” to be honest. We had a shower and we’re hungry so headed straight out to dinner. We went to the closest shop as it’s the cheapest we knew and we had lunch here our first day and it was friendly and delicious. After tanning a pizza and a pasta (typical) we strolled home through the warm summers night and packed our bags. Early morning tomorrow so we’re all packed and into bed early.

I certainly enjoy writing these blogs as it enables me to look back and reflect on just how great my day was. I’m trying not to take it all for granted and really soak in the fact that we are on the opposite side of the world, in some of the most amazing picturesque corners of the earth. No need to worry about us fam- we’re having an absolute ball. 🕚🏞

Arrivederci ðŸšķ🏞‍♂ïļ M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Amalfi & Positano- The Main Event ðŸŒŠ

We were up early for our “Italian breakfast” and I managed to steer away from the Nutella croissants today. Instead, opting for the prosciutto and cheese roll with an orange juice and a coffee. We met our friendly hotel neighbours on the way out, said hello and headed for the bus station.

We opted for an all day ticket as we had planned to catch a few buses and it turned out the best option for us. ₮10 for an all day ticket that took us to Amalfi, then Positano and afterwards, Positano to home. Our first stop was the town of Amalfi as it was furthest away. It took just under 2 hours and was one of the scariest bus rides of my life. The actual drive itself would not have been as bad if the local drivers had not treated it like an F1 track. At least the drivers in Greece (mainly Santorini) treated their dangerous roads with care, these drivers in Italy have obviously driven them so many times that they are wayyy to confident. For the sharp, blind corners they simply honk their horn to let oncoming traffic know and scream around the corner taking up both lanes of traffic in the hope that if anything was coming in the other direction, they assume the other drivers heard the horn and stopped to let them pass. It didn’t always happen like that though. 🙃 Either way the views were breathtaking so I just tried to focus on that and not think about the 3cm separating me from my death of plummeting into the ocean below. ðŸ˜ą

We arrived in the town of Amalfi after approx 1hr 50min. Our first thoughts were that it was lovely and quaint but there isn’t much substance to it. We were right. After a quick 30min stroll through the old town we had seen it all and we were heading for the beaches. I think possibly the attraction here is “The Amalfi Coast” and not so much the town of Amalfi itself. If I came back the best way would be to stay in Amalfi and hire a scooter so you can drive along the coast and visit all the tucked away beaches and famous swimming stops. I won’t say we were disappointed in Amalfi, we bought a few gifts and enjoyed our time wandering around, we just weren’t aware of its “piccolo” size.

After a short wait we boarded our bus and headed for Positano, back along the same road we we had arrived from, only this time we were on the (right side) side closest to the land which was much more relaxing. Was still a formula 1 race but at least if we crashed it would only be into the cliff face. ðŸ˜ķ

We arrived to the top of Positano and we instantly knew how high up we were only meant 1 thing; lots of steps leading down. We were correct!

We painstakingly wound our way down these steep stairs knowing only too well that we would eventually need to go back up. There were a few nice platforms halfway down where we could rest and take in the view.

At least the steps were nice and sturdy. By the time we got to the bottom our legs were aeroplane jelly and we needed a swim. The entire beach was filled with expensive umbrellas. We checked them out and they were ₮25 each which is crazy. There was a 30m stretch in the middle of the beach for the free section but it was packed. Because I’m a rule breaker and the free section was rammed, we parked our stuff in front of the expensive sunbeds and dove in for a swim where there was much less people. We had learnt in Greece off Stefanos that the Greeks “ask for forgiveness- not for permission” so we went with that ideology. By this point we were very hot and very sweaty, the water was our saviour!

We frolicked around and swam in the ocean until our fingers shrivelled into prunes. The water temp here is very warm so you could easily stay in all day. It was very pleasant for us as our Portugal holiday told us that not all European beaches have warm water, no matter what the air temperature.

We dried off and took a seat in a nearby bar to share a fruit platter and a healthy fruit smoothie. We sat here for awhile and chatted about nothing as we watched the people go by. We utilised their bathroom to get changed into our dry set of clothes and set off to have a look around the shops.

Positano itself is not a big place. Everything you see on the hillside is residence and hotels. Down at sea level there are literally two streets with shops and restaurants. It’s very quaint and had various boutique stores to look through with things from knick knacks to expensive clothes and jewellery. I am looking to buy a new cap as mine is very old and used, I found a nice cap but the ₮15 price tag warned me off- after all, it’s just a cap. Eventually we had seen everything and made the steep climb back up the mountain to the bus stop. Wasn’t too long before sweaty Mitch was back. I am generally a very sweaty person but if you make me climb about 1000 steps in 32 degrees you can guarantee when I get to the top it looked like I’d just come out of the ocean. Here is a picture I took just for this blog to show how frazzled we were by the time we reached the bus stop at the top of the cliff.

NEVER. AGAIN!

It wasn’t too long to wait till the air conditioned bus arrived. Katy and I jumped on and we were home in 40min. Today was lovely. We had visited two very famous points along an equally famous coastline. We feel we saw everything we wanted to and the experience was a great one to remember for the ages.

Nothing to report after this. The usual Italian food for dinner accompanied with an ice cream before heading to bed fairly early.

Thanks for reading ðŸĪ˜ðŸž M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Punta Del Capo, Sorrento, Italy ðŸ‡ŪðŸ‡đ

Picture this: you wake up in a perfectly air conditioned room, it’s 8:30 and your alarms just gone off, you would normally roll over to hit snooze but today’s different. You’re in Sorrento, Italy. You have nowhere to be, no boss to answer to, and no timeline to adhere to. Additionally, you have nothing to do today and you’re in one of the most beautiful coastlines on the entire planet! Jealous? You should be! This was me this morning- and trust me when I say I’m am living it up and taking nothing for granted.

After our very long day of walking and sightseeing yesterday we decided to postpone Amalfi and Positano until tomorrow and spend today recuperating. Our breakfast at this place consists of coffee, prosciutto and cheese bread, donuts, Nutella filled croissants and cake. 😂 As great as this sounds sometimes you want something more nutritious, especially if you’re here for 5 nights. I think the Italians aren’t big on breakfast and usually do coffee and a cigarette to get them going. I gave in to temptation and had the Nutella croissant today but will be stronger for the next few mornings if I don’t want to start growing sideways, especially with all the dinner options at night. After breaky we found a secluded beach on trip advisor 30min walk from here that isn’t even on google maps. All of the reviews said how hard it was to find and that there was no signs but it’s worth the walk in the sun. We could’ve gone for the closer beach but thought it might be cool to find the secret beach and I was up for the challenge. Possibly our inner sense of adventure came out as it was exciting to be strolling dangerously along a main road without a footpath looking for a pixelated sign that wouldn’t load on google.

Without much fuss we managed to find this spot. It took us about 50min walk from our hotel so by the time we got there we were very sweaty and ready for a swim. This place was like an open cave where you had the choice to swim at the inland part or out beyond the rocks in the Tyrrhenian Sea. We decided to start at the inland part as it was nice and calm and the water looked very appealing.

There wasn’t any actual room to put your belongings or spread out to sunbathe. Basically everyone had their stuff gathered into the holes of the cliff or the rocks sticking out of the ocean. We walked through the water and placed our bag high on a rock and headed in for a swim. The atmosphere here was so chill, 90% of the people were Italians on holiday, 100% of us were just here to enjoy the sun and cool down and a good 70% had come to get insta worthy pics.

The water was warm, almost too warm but who are we to complain. Katy and I swam here for a good while and watched people jump off the rocks into a seemingly shallow body of water below. While Katy perched herself in the sun on the rocks I made the swim through the cave and out to the ocean where I was greeted with the most spectacular sight. I can honestly say it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. As I swam through the deep narrow cave I emerged into the open and I could see all down the coastline. I could see Sorrento in the near distance, Pompei nestled under Mount Vesuvius and Naples in the background. Murphy’s law states “ones battery on their GoPro will run out at the exact moment they would have the opportunity for the best photo”. As I turned around to face where I swam from there was a fair amount of people that had setup camp on the rock face of the cliffs. There were people of all ages, Italian families on holidays, couples on romantic getaways, and tourists from afar (many of whom were cliff jumping from some serious heights ).

I went back through the cave and told Katy of the wonder I had seen. I eventually convinced her to swim through the cave with me to see for herself and she was certainly glad she did. We both stayed out there for a while before I decided to go and get our belongings and bring them round as we planned on staying at this part for a while.

Full disclosure: this is the part of the story where I stole some denim shorts that most definitely will not look great on me and even more definitely an accident. Katy stayed on the cliffs and when I went to grab our stuff her towel was layed out drying in the sun, it also had a pair of denim shorts on top. I immediately thought that they must have been Katy’s and folded them up and put them in our bag along with the towel and our shoes etc. It wasn’t until about 2 hours later when Katy informed me she was wearing a dress today and they weren’t her shorts that I was mortified. Some poor girl thinks that her shorts have been stolen when in reality it was an honest mistake. I tried my best to return them to the same spot but I highly doubt she was still there.

If you happen to be reading this and we’re at Punta Del Capo on 6th August 2019, and had your denim short shorts stolen, please accept my sincere apologies.

We swam for what seemed like hours jumping off the cliffs and treading water in the ocean trying not to get washed up on the sharp rocks of the coastline. We were actually surprised that it had only been a few hours when we were ready to go home. I guess time slows in Italy when you’re having fun. 😊🌊

We made the long sweaty walk home and grabbed some quick food on the way. Katy got conned into buying some traditional pastries from a grumpy Italian man- I wasn’t complaining, they were delicious.

We were both tired from the swimming/staying afloat so went for a shower and sat on our balcony and listened to music through our speaker and chilled out. Eventually Katy fell into a short nap and I made friends with our old Aussie hotel neighbour. His air con wasn’t working so he recruited me to try and fix it. Our balconies are attached so there was no way I could escape anything less than a half hours chinwag with this lovely Melbournian. I’ll save you his life story, but he was a lovely man. 😃

After our few hours rest we both wanted to go back to the exact same restaurant as last night for dinner. It was delicious, authentic and well priced so we thought we couldn’t beat it. We shared a pizza and a salad and had the same server as last night which was kinda the reason we came back, they looked after us so well and were very genuine lovely people.

If you’re visiting Sorrento we would definitely recommend Punta Del Capo as it had everything from scenery to atmosphere. It’s not the most accessible place so would not suit elderly or mobility disabled people and probably wouldn’t suit you if you’re no good with maps either as it’s a legitimate hole in the cliffs. We had a fabulous day and also allowed us to recharge for another day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Ciao M 🏊ðŸŧ‍♂ïļ

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 🙌🏞ðŸ‡ŪðŸ‡đ

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 ðŸĪŪ). 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 ðŸĪ˜ðŸž

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 4 Comments

Central and East Naxos

Right everyone, let’s get straight into since this was a very long day.

We got up, ate and got ready. We walked into town to a rental shop we’d been in yesterday. Quads are are between ₮5-15 cheaper than a car so it’s personal preference what you choose to drive. We like the quad because it’s easy enough to zip about on and the main attraction is you can park it almost anywhere. After being on a 50cc quad on the other islands we knew we wanted something with more power. Our options were 150 or 300 and the price difference was negligible so we opted for the 300 considering Naxos is the biggest island and has a lot of hills. Unfortunately they were out of the 300cc so they offered us 400 for the same price! This seemed like a great idea until the woman behind the desk put the fear of god into me about not going too fast in case we tip it or get caught by the police and fined ₮2000.

So thoroughly quaking in my Birkenstock’s we set off to some of the villages in the center of the island.

Moni

We drove half an hour to get to this village specifically to see Panagia Drosiani Church. It’s the oldest church on Naxos and is a recommended must see while on the island. The church is very old (about 6th century) and still has some of the original artwork. You’re not allowed to take photos inside the church. Outside there was a lady who was selling her textile work that she hand crafts on a loom. She didn’t speak any English so her granddaughter translated for her; we bought some as gifts.

After this we drove onwards towards a village called Chalkio. On the way we passed an open cut mine. We think they’re mining stone or marble judging by the shape.

Chalkio

Chalkio is tiny. Pretty much just restaurants and cafes interspersed with pottery and textile shops. It’s pretty much just for tourists.

We stayed long enough to wander and see Church of Agios Georgios Diasoritis. It takes about 10 minutes to walk on a little stone path that passes hundreds of olive trees and surprisingly eucalyptus trees. The church dates back to the 11th century and still has many of its original frescos intact. Bonus: we were allowed to take pictures.

Filoti

A quick 5 minute drive to Filoti is where we stopped for lunch. It’s another tiny village nestled in the mountains. The views from the drive are spectacular and make up for the lack of things to do in the villages. We had a club sandwich for lunch and Greek bruschetta which is brown bread, olive paste, olive oil, garlic, feta and tomatoes. So tasty, will be on the search for olive paste when I get home.

Although we had been told by the rental agency that there not much point in going to the East of the island. We ignored this and powered on 45 minutes down some very winding roads to reach Psili Ammos beach. Psili ammos translates as “fine sand” so this beach didn’t disappoint. We swam in the warm water to cool off from the bike and it was bliss! The water is crystal clear it doesn’t even look like sea water.

We were sufficiently topped up with our dose of “vitamin sea” so we started the drive back up the mountains towards home. It’s an hour to go from the very east to the very west for those curious. We ended up stopping at Mikri Vigla purely because we spotted lots of kite sails and I was curious.

Mikri Vigla

This is the beach for windsurfing and kite surfing on the island. We were both a bit transfixed watching all the surfers passing each other at amazing speeds and still manage not to collide or get tangled up. I would love to be able to do it but also think I’d be terrified; although there did seem to be a few beginners wearing helmets so who knows. There does seem to be benefits being harnessed into a parachute as you don’t really fall in the water since the parachute (kite) just pulls you straight back up again.

We finished our day with Mexican food at a place called Picasso. It’s down the coast from us where all of the beaches are. The food was really good and came; no word of a lie; 5 minutes after we ordered. The fun part of this evening came when we went to drive back only to realise that our headlights gave us about a foot of light in front of us and the entire drive back to the city has absolutely no streetlight. So Mitch being the passenger had to pull out his iPhone torch and we used that as headlights. We had a few passing cars which helped a lot but once they passed we were back to 10km/h and only iPhone light.

Lesson learned to be back in the city before sundown – Katy xxx

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 😊

ðŸĪœðŸž M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Couple of Quiet days

Our last day in Milos did not really consist of much interesting. We slept in and retuned our quad bike before our alotted time. Since we didn’t have our quad bike anymore we were restricted to wandering our our port of Adamas. It’s a lovely port but is not very big. There are a few beaches that are unorganised which means there’s no sun-beds to hire or places to eat and drink, they’re literally just sandy beaches.

Katy and I set up camp next to a tree for some shade. We spent a few hours here laying in the sun and listening to music and I managed to finish my book I’ve been slowly ready. Can recommend it to everybody it’s called “This is going to Hurt” and it’s basically a series of journal entries by a junior doctor during his training complied into a hilarious yet heartbreaking book.

After a few hours here we walked back through the town and decided to head back to our hotel and relax for the afternoon. We just sat in our little balcony in the sun and ate some food and listened to music on my Bluetooth speaker. Really nothing to report. We had to have an early night because we had to get up early the next morning so we watched another episode of black mirror and went to sleep nice and early.

We woke at 6:20 and packed our stuff to get down to our ferry for a 7am departure. It’s a 7.5 hour ferry ride so we wanted to find somewhere comfy for our day on the ferry. We sat in this lounged area where people seemed to all be laying to nap, so we joined them 😎

The ferry was long but we didn’t mind. We both spent it napping sporadically and I watched some Netflix on my iPad and we played with our phones to kill time. With the napping it made the time go a lot faster so the 7 + hours on the ferry weren’t too bad. Before we knew it we had arrived in Paros!!! Our next destination on our month long tour of the Cyclades islands.

We checked in and went for a walk around the town. First thoughts are that it’s got more to the town than Milos but it would seem the beaches around the island aren’t as famous. There’s an old town which is just as magnificent as Mykonos and all the other postcard famous villages.

We sussed out some places we want to go and visit the next two days and had dinner at a cheapish grill restaurant. We had seen online there was a cocktail bar nearby with good reviews so decided to go for a cocktail after dinner. The place was called “Pirate Bar” and we would highly recommend anyone in Paros to visit here, especially if you love a cocktail made the right way.

We had an amaretto sour (as we have throughout the world as it’s our personal fav) and a local cocktail and both were amazing. I’ve had a lot of amaretto sours in my time and this is definitely top 3 which is a big call because I have had lots!

After dinner we grabbed an obligatory ice cream on our stroll home through the old town. We got home and ferociously googled the various beaches and locations we plan on visiting tomorrow, hoping for some guidance on the do’s and don’t’s. Weather is meant to be crackin’ so we’re hoping for another belter.

Until then

ðŸĪ˜ðŸžM🏊ðŸŧ‍♂ïļ