Mykonos

Finally, a blog about my trip!

Mykonos was our first stop. We got there very late Sunday night and honestly couldn't see too much on our drive from the airport to our hotel. We did know upon our arrival to the hotel that it was going to be fantastic. Thanks to Tonya, PWC, and Starwood Points, we were very well off with our accommodations at the Starwood Santa Marina hotel. We, however, were dying to go to bed!

DAY 1, Monday

After less than 5 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4:30AM. Uh, oh. Jet Lag! I was wide awake and there was nothing I could do about it (I'd even taken sleeping pills the night before). Once the clock hit 5:30, I decided I couldn't waste time in Greece just lying in bed so I pulled on running clothes and set out for my first views of Greece. It was gorgeous as the sun was just rising. I fell in love immediately. It was so quiet and there was hardly anyone out (the hotel staff thought I was crazy for going running so early, but ensured me it was quite safe). I took my camera and had a blast capturing my first images of Mykonos Island.

I got back to the hotel and took a shower then grabbed my Bible and headed to a pool-side lounge chair overlooking the ocean. I'm pretty sure that there's not a better place to have your DAWG (daily appointment w/ God....c'mon, it's youth-group slang). I was able to head back up to the room and sleep for an hour before Sean knocked and we all got up and went down for a pool-side breakfast. We then spent the bulk of our day right there on our hotel's private beach. It was fabulous. We read/slept/listened to our ipods, talked, and got great sun.

After cleaning up, we walked over to check out the little village that was near our hotel. There wasn't a whole lot there, but we did find some snacks to tide us over until dinner. We caught the hotel shuttle into Mykonos town-the largest village on the island. It is a pedestrian only village and was great fun to explore! Lots of restaurants, cafes, shops, and bars.

We first stopped to see the windmills that Mykonos is famous for. Then, we got drinks at Caprice-we'd heard the sunset from there was great, but unfortunately, the sunset was not so great that night. Too overcast.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in Mykonos' "Little Venice" area. Might sound weird to have Italian food on our first night in Greece, but Mykonos is actually know for their Italian food. A lot of Sicilians move there and have restaurants. It was a good meal and Tonya and I did get Dolmas, a Greek dish, for an appetizer. After dinner, Tonya and I sat Elizabeth & Sean in a bar and we took off shopping! Tonya and I loved exploring the little passageways in Mykonos town!

Day 2, Tuesday

One of my favorite days of the entire trip, but also a day full of mis-haps!! I woke up throwing up. Not a fun way to start the day! I have no idea what caused it and I only felt sick for about an hour. After throwing up quite a bit, I felt much better, went back to sleep for about 2 hours and then it was as if it had never happened!

Once we were all up, we decided it was too overcast to hit the beach, so we headed to the nearby village to rent 4-wheelers. We had a blast exploring the entire island. It is a very deserted island - only a handful of small villages and neighborhoods. Lots of beaches, though! Some secluded beaches, some inhabited beaches, and some with just a bar and lounge chairs. I was a little scared of the 4-wheeler at first, but once I got used to it, I loved it. And I really loved exploring all the different roads- we didn't know where we were half the time, but if we saw a road, we were sure to find out where it led! A very fun day! We stopped at a deli in one small village and picked up cheeses, crackers, prosciutto, and olives for a picnic lunch on a secluded beach. It was a great lunch and I got my first taste of the olives I came to adore in Greece - I was eating them by the plateful by the end of the trip!

MIS-HAP #2-- About 1 mile away from returning our 4-wheelers, mine broke down. I don't know what happened to it, but none of us could get it started back up. We had 3 different locals try to start it to - men, they each think they are the one who's going to fix it! No one could, but one of the locals had a cell phone and was able to call the rental company. They ended up picking Sean up and taking him to bring me another 4-wheeler to get us back.

MIS-HAP #3, happened back at the hotel. We were waiting for the hotel shuttle to take us back into town for dinner. Elizabeth and I were on the patio off the lobby and Sean & Tonya were inside the lobby making transportation arrangements to our ferry the next day. I decided to go inside and in my mind, I believed that the hotel lobby was an open-air lobby. It was not. Do you see where this is going? Yes, I walked smack into a long glass window. (It was a very clean window)! It took a minute for me to even realize what happened before I was able to go in the door. Everyone inside (Tonya, Sean, and several hotel staff) were staring at me like I was crazy. They didn't see what happened, but later told me that it was very loud and the whole lobby shook! Once I explained what I'd done, the concierge sent one of the staff off to bring me ice. It hurt and it took me several minutes to get over the shock and pain. Once I did, we all laughed really, really hard. I laughed about it for a few days, actually. The funniest part to me is the vivid image I have of the looks on everyone's faces when I walked inside the lobby. They thought it was an earthquake! Priceless!

We headed back to Mykonos town for dinner, shopping, and drinks again. We had our first official Greek meal at a place called Mangria. It had been recommended to me by a friend and our concierge also recommended it. It was a fantastic meal! Again, Tonya and I found Elizabeth & Sean a place to hang out and have a drink while we shopped away and explored the village.

Day 3, Wednesday

Only 1/2 of Wednesday was spent in Mykonos. We enjoyed some hotel beach time, then headed to our ferry that would take us to Santorini. The ferry ride was not great, but not awful. It was very disorganized and the views were not what I'd heard they were. We stopped at 2 other islands on the way and I did enjoy getting glimpses of places we didn't go.

Check out my MYKONOS PICS!

Next blog: SANTORINI!