Mykonos!!!

September 19, 2013February 5, 2017 Leiha 2 Comments

All week long when we told people we were going to Mykonos, they would ohhh and ahhh. It has a well deserved reputation as a party island. But that is in season, out of season it’s not quite so intimidating to us old folks.

Unfortunately, in order to catch our ferry we had to leave at 5:25am! Gasp, we’ve been keeping late hours, and the early mornings are a killer but we had a long ferry ride upon which to catch up on our sleep, thank goodness. So we made the trek, a little lighter since Foris, our landlord, let us keep our suitcases at the apartment, we packed just enough for 2 nights and dragged our butts to the metro and down to the ferry. We had to change lines but it wasn’t bad getting there. We were a quiet bunch tho.

The ferrys are huge. Unfortunately, we had to walk the docks looking for the right pier because of the way they were marked but we finally found it and decided we didn’t like the uncomfortable general admission tickets and splurged the extra 5 euro to sit on more comfy seats and promptly went to sleep. For some reason I thought the ferry ride was 4 hours, it was closer to 6. The good news is we were well rested when we landed in Mykonos!

Our driver Vasili, was waiting for us when we arrived. We weren’t sure where to find him so we walked around calling his name. Too bad, we thought George was picking us up so we walked around yelling out George. It was funny when the crew man on the ferry started yelling George with us. Turns out there’s an area where all of the van drivers hold up signs of their hotel so George, err, I mean Vasili was easier to find then we expected. Turns out George is the owner of The Paradise View Hotel so while he didn’t pick us up at the ferry terminal he was there to greet us and check us in. He also provided us with maps and gave us a layout of the island with recommendations on different beaches for different things as well as restaurant recommendations (very important to me). George was raised on Mykonos so he had answers to any questions that we had.

After a quick change we headed down to Paradise Beach which is a less than 10 minute walk from our hotel, good news is it was downhill, bad news is the walk back was, you guessed it, not downhill. Paradise Beach is one of the main party beaches in Mykonos but since have a habit of getting everywhere late in the day there were plenty of spots for us to catch a seat. The beaches are all public but it costs 4 euro to rent chairs and another 4 if you want an umbrella. First off tho would be food! I didn’t really see anything I wanted on the ferry so we were all hungry! They had a cafe where you can just put your food on a tray, I loved it, we could see what we were getting! I tried the moussaka which is the Greek version of lasagna. I wasn’t a big fan but figured it was because I was eating at a beach cafe. The shrimp salad was tasty tho and I couldn’t pass up on the beans which I thoroughly enjoyed. Lina and Su had stuffed bell peppers and stuffed tomatoes. Those were delish also. Nancy and I split our food so we could try more.

We spent about an hour lounging at the beach. I really wanted a water noodle for the water but they didn’t sell them so I bought a spare tire instead. It was a tube floatie with the design of a tire, my spare tire! It was great since it let me just float in the water but inflating and deflating it was a pain, luckily I had Nancy there!

After an hour we were ready to head back to our hotel and spend some quality time lounging in the pool The problem was the water was cold but my floatie kept me mostly out of the water. Yay!

We like to take our time getting ready, I think we headed out to dinner a little after 9pm. Just in time to stop by the bar for a quick drink. Ava was working the bar and so sweet. She also pours a strong drink which is a great way to get the party started! There’s a bus that will take us into town right outside the hotel which is perfect.