Taxi strikes, missed flights, and digestive shots.... Mykonos

So, we had a ball in Mykonos! It was beautiful and full of nice people! But getting there…. Hahah. That was quite the experience. Since there was the metro/taxi strike, we thought we’d be safe and leave 3 hours before our flight, thinking we could just take the bus. That should’ve been plenty of time, right? Ha. What we didn’t know is that a taxi strike isn’t just when the drivers don’t show up for work. It is when they all park their cars in the middle of the road, block ALL traffic, and then stand outside and yell at people who are walking by or trying to drive through. So that kind of shot our plan down hahah. So we walked around Piraeus trying to figure out what the heck to do. We got offered a ride to the airport for 30 euros each… ha no thanks! So we ended up walking around Piraeus for an hour asking various people how we could get to the airport. Turns out that one metro line was working, so we immediately hopped on and headed over to the airport. It took forever! The metro was so incredibly sloooow. Some stations were closed due to the strikes, so that slowed us down significantly.

There were two creepy French (I think that is what they were talking in) men standing next to me, so I grabbed my bags and camera and held them closer to me. And good thing I did cause we saw them pickpocket this poor tourist!! The French guys jostled the man (and me!) when they were getting off. Once they left and the doors closed, we noticed the poor guy’s short pocket was unzipped!! Poor guy :(

Then, with 45 minutes till our flight, our train stopped. So we had to rush and barely just missed a train pulling out. We had to wait 15 more minutes for the next one and were getting more and more nervous about missing our flight. We met some people from OK that had a mutual friend with Casey while on the train! Small world!!

We ended up getting to the airport with 15 minutes to spare and literally ran to the first open kiosk we could find. We thought for sure she would say it would be too late, but she called our gate and told them to wait and told us to “RUN.” So run we did! We all had our new sandals on and were clonking all over the place haha. We got shoved to the front of security and were sprinting to our gate! It was literally THE LAST gate in THE FURTHEST section away. Everyone was staring and we were all cracking up at how ridiculous we looked and our situation. For real though, this doesn’t happen to normal people hahaha!

So we get to the gate at 11:55 (flight was at noon) and the door was open, so we thought we made it! But no, the dude shot down our dreams and said it had already left. We were really confused cause we had 5 minutes till take off, but he told us to go to the front and get a new ticket. So we had to do the walk of shame right past everyone we had just ran past… how embarrassing hahah. We get to the front and start playing the dumb kid role to get a free flight change. It worked and we got one 4 hours later at no extra charge! Perfection. Casey, Laura, and Kyleen were all awesome. No one was grumpy or pissed that we missed our flight; we were all laughing about it and having a good time! It’s so rare to find girls so laidback, it was great! So I think we all knew we were in for a good trip. We hung out at the shopping area and read/talked on skype/played on facebook until it was time. Our flight was in one of those tiny airplanes with the spinning propellers, so it was really cool. The flight lasted 25 minutes and we were in Mykonos!

Our first impression was it was gorgeous. All the homes are the white with blue shutters and doors- absolutely beautiful. The beach was that cliché perfect blue that looks photoshopped… it is real! We got a shuttle to our hotel and it was so pretty. It was within walking distance of the beach and the bus station to get to the town. It had an infinity pool that was filled to the brim with guys; we were all drooling (we actually never went in haha). But the best part wasn’t that though, we were right next door (literally! They were number 25 and we were 26!!) to some of our guy friends on the ship! We didn’t know they were staying there, so it was a complete surprise! The rooms were great. We had AC (gasp!), a little kitchenette, a patio, and a bathroom with a hole that looked out into the room! It was awesome and so cute; the owner loved us (then). We pushed the beds together and went out to get snackies from the grocery store up the hill that was owned by the nicest little Greek lady! We came back and headed out to the beach with the boys.

There was apparently a better beach (called Paradise Beach) up the way from the beach near us, so we asked directions and started the trek. And boy was it a trek! We had to walk on a tiny little dirt path, like a deer trail or something, on the cliffs and hop over fences and climb through an old wall… it was not for pansy girls (thank goodness none of us were like that!). We finally made it after an hour of trampling and ate at the first place we saw. It was the best dang gyro I’ve ever had!

We just hung out and ended up going to this seaside bar that was next door and dancing for 4 hours on tables with about 200 other people. We had a blast, but some of the guys (mostly Italians and Russians) were super grabby, so we left. We didn’t want to walk that treacherous path in the dead of night, so we hitchhiked, sorta. We ended up paying the dude like 10 euros, but it was still good cause it was like a 7 mile walk on the roads. So we passed right out.

The next morning we woke up pretty early because the sun rose right in our eyeballs. We ate cereal out of a communal bowl (since we had either a salad bowl or those fancy bowls that rich people eat 2 spoonfuls of $25 soup out of!) and got ready. We went to the shopping area in town and walked around a lot. We actually got lost in the maze of streets. The houses are super adorable and it is just so dang white! It’s precious. We saw the windmills and took a ton of pics. We headed to the beach and rented a chair (so lame that you have to pay money to sit!) and sat for like 4 hours.

We had the best dinner at the restaurant by our hotel. They basically gave us free food the whole night! We got another free “digestive” shot, which I was wary about since that horrid grappa in Italy. It wasn’t THAT bad, but it definitely wasn’t tasty either. It tasted like a bush sweetened with splenda… weird. We also got free fruit and it was sooo good. Greek food is amazing, it may just be my favorite thus far!

They ended up adding our bill wrong so we left a huge tip cause we felt bad. We went back and hung out with the boys for a while and then decided to go to the famous club on the island. It was like 11 at this time so it was totally dark, but since we were cheap we didn’t want to spend extra money on a taxi. We left Kyleen and Laura at the hotel cause they were tired and headed over with the guys. We walked that path back to Paradise beach and none of us died! It was quite surprising. We ran into my roommate on the ship and some more SASers who told us the club is expensive and not worth it, but we kept on.

The club was perched on this cliff over the ocean so it looked awesome at night all lit up! Casey and I tried to get in for free playing the girl card, but no bueno. Since we were not going to pay a 30 euro cover charge to just get in, we almost started back. We ended up sneaking in (don’t look down upon me!) by just walking in the back door… so really they deserved it! It was full of guys and foreigners. Our whole group really stuck together and we all danced/ had a wondrous time!

Casey and I got tired and decided to get a taxi back. We couldn’t find one so we started walking, hoping to find one on the way. We ended up running into more SASers that we knew who convinced us to go back into the club. Knowing we couldn’t sneak in twice and we weren’t gonna spend the money on it, we hung out in line and waited with them. An Australian dude came up to us and asked why we weren’t inside. When we told him we were too cheap to pay, he ushered us in the VIP line and told the bouncer to “put it on his tab.” Sweet! He got like 11 girls and a guy in, for free!!! So we got in VIP, what is up!? Hahaha it was super cool, we got free drinks and everything! He was really cool, but super old so we had to sneak away after a while.  The guys who tried dancing with us got grabby so Casey and I left.

Outside were the boys we came with in the beginning, so we tried to get another taxi home. There was only one so we gave it to this poor group of SAS girls whose friend had gotten drugged or something. It was terrible, the girl was totally nonresponsive and the dumb bouncer just told them to “let her sit outside and calm down for a bit.” Uh, yeah, I think she is calmed down so much she can’t sit up, thanks. Idiots. So we got them home and started walking. We decided to not take the treacherous path since the guys were pretty wasted and it was 4am, so we took the road. It was so hilly and the roosters were clucking already! So then, after like an 8 mile walk (not really, probably 2 or 3), we can see our little village area. The only problem was we were on a road that was definitely NOT going there. So we do what any kid would do, we hopped the fence and ran through people’s yards! Damn Americans. We got so cut up and I had thorns in my legs! But, good times.

By then it was starting to get light and we were just going past the beach area, so we decided to watch the sunrise! It was beautiful. Casey and I were watching it in awe. We turned to gush to the guys about it and…. They were all passed out dead asleep in the middle of the road. Hahahah so they really appreciated it!

We headed back and slept for 3 hours and then got ready for the beach. We rented another chair and we all slept on the beach, which was exactly what we needed. I am getting so wiped out from going going going all the time (for real. I won’t sleep in during the countries and then I can’t sleep in for classes! Too much homework and papers and tests… ugh) so having a lazy day while we DON’T have to walk 14 miles was absolutely fabulous. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare (we could NOT miss our flight!) so we played with the kittens that lay around inside the building. We named the cutest baby tabby the only Greek name we knew, Apollo hahah. He gave us all fleas cause he was so dang cuddly! We almost smuggled him back haha. So we got to Athens and found the bus home, on our first try!! We had absolutely NO public transportation woes that time! It was a great feeling haha. We got back at like 8, ate dinner (Greek salad, YUM) and showered to go out.

Everyone was going to a karaoke bar that was a block away; since none of us had ever done it we decided to go! We walk in and some old man is belting out Mariah Carey… so we know we have to stay. A lot of SAS people came and we all had a blast screaming out Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, and Journey… It was so much fun. We woke up the next morning and left at 9am to get to Athens for our last day. We headed for the flea market and just wandered around in there all day. I had been hoping to get to the Archeological Museum, which is apparently awesome, but we ran out of time. I swear that I saw the same guy who got us in VIP at a small store in the market… no joke. He had the same tattoo and everything! Awkward hahah. We ended our day by going to the super market and buying tons of sodas and juice! I thought it was gonna be like 20 bucks worth of stuff, but it was only 8! Awesome, cheap food!

So now we are sitting on the ship and I can only wish we had more time here. There is so much more to see in the country that I need to come back! No more Athens, but everywhere else- Meteora, Olympia, Hydra, Rhodes, the list goes on!

Now it is off to the place no one knows about- Bulgaria. When we would talk to Greeks here for advice on what to do, it is always the same, “don’t get off the ship.” So we’ll see what ends up happening! All I have planned (sorta) is bungee jumping off a bridge! WOOOHOOOO!!! But alrighty then, dovízhdane!!!!


Also, Greek letters are confusing, but the Bulgarian alphabet…. Hahahhaha let’s keep the fingers crossed we make it out alive haha. It seems like as time goes on, the language gets more and more difficult! Yikes hahah.