From Vietnam Dongs to Greece Thongs
Giasás! Mitchell here...
The pace has picked up as we’ve “Bryn” to Greece and gone already. Some people opt to spend a week island hopping, staying in one place for just a night or two; Bryn and I opted to choose just one island, so after 3 nights spent in Athens, we hopped on an early morning boat, bound for Mykonos.
Athens is a really cool city. It’s also known as the ancient capital of europe, and for good reason. There are several unfathomably ancient sites peppered within the metropolis, the most famous of which is the Acropolis. This is where our sightseeing began, and it was perhaps not too well thought out. It was the heat of the sunny day and we had just scarfed down a gyro platter and Greek salad, not thinking our guts would protest the rice-less meal. Bloated and feverish, we began the walk up to the magnificent Acropolis, taking in other ruins and views on our ascent.
Our first taste of Greece
We opted for a package ticket, which included several sites we may have not considered had it not been on the package list. Okay, some of them weren’t much more exciting than a lot of old rocks, but the places with restored buildings and structures were awesome. Regardless, the ticket was valid for 5 days, so after the Acropolis, we took the metro back to our flat and cooked our own dinner! I was at the helm and definitely out of practice... it was a really plain (and overcooked) chicken and broccoli but still so satisfying to cook it for ourselves.
Our flat was well equipped with everything we needed for some basic meals, laundry and even a dose of big screen Netflix. It was in a quiet, very Greek part of town and we even managed to stumble upon the Monday, neighbourhood bazaar. It had some parallels to the markets in Southeast Asia but the biggest differences were: less shoving, taller canopies and much less garbage scattered about.
Athens’ sites and sights
In addition to taking in the views, we enjoyed mousaka, souvlaki, gyro, plenty of Greek salad and local beer (Alpha was my favourite).
It was Tuesday morning that we made our way to Mykonos by boat. Full amenities and beautiful weather made the 5 1/2 hour trip breeze by and we were lucky to find some vacant “air seats” (these are like business class airplane seats) without having to pay the 20€ upgrade fee.
Our cute place for 4 nights
We chose Mykonos for a couple of reasons: first of all, my colleague from the Cariboo Cougars was going to be there and we had roughly planned to cross paths back in November; and secondly, we wanted to hit the beaches! There are lots of opportunities to do sailing or catamaran tours, but we decided we’d carry on with our self-directed touring. We rented a scooter for three days and ripped around to as many beaches as possible.
Drivers are only slightly less wild on Mykonos as they are in Southeast Asia, so I did all of the driving, negotiating roundabouts, chaotic intersections and 20% grade hills.
Jas and I, poolside
Besides hanging out with the Jas clan (Kiran, Amir and Mandy) at their beautiful pool, we managed to visit 7 of the 28 beaches the island had to offer. At first we kind of thought they were more or less the same, with coarse sand and incredibly clear, cool water, but when we ventured to the north side of the island we found some fine sand beaches without the bars. The water is around 20’C, so it was much more “refreshing” than the tropical waters to which we were so accustomed. Still, the water is the clearest we’ve ever seen. At 15 feet deep, you feel that you could just point your toes and touch the bottom, but nope!
Blurry smiles (Bryn was on the wine)
Little Venice
Bryn, making pretty look easy
The evenings were spent wandering old Mykonos town, where no vehicles are allowed and an abundance of restaurants, bars and shops exist. Every corner of the little Venice maze is picturesque.
Maybe the biggest church on the island
The Cycladic islands are renown for the white buildings and small churches covering the baron and rocky hills. The white is not only to reflect the sunlight and keep the interiors cooler, but it is actually law that all buildings in the Cyclades adhere to the white and (shades of) blue, presumably for tourism. I think without that law and the crystal clear, turquoise water, the island wouldn’t really be overly pretty. It’s quite dry with very few trees or greenery and mounds of rocks, some with goats hopping around.
We wrapped up our last night meeting up with a legendary Wellington bro, Morgan, and his lovely wife Alyssa. They had just arrived that day and just happened to be staying at the same place as Jas. Bryn and I scootered to their digs and walked along the beach to a very traditional Greek restaurant, Niko’s. Our bellies full of greek salad, fava and grilled meats, we ended up skipping the party at paradise beach (aka Tropicana) to take in the sunset. Alyssa was so kind to offer her talents for Bryn and I to have a photo shoot, on the beach with the sun setting in the background. Thanks, Alyssa Dawson Photography!
As I write this, we are on a plane only a few minutes away from landing in Budapest, Hungary. We’ve heard great things about it from lots of people so are keen to check it out!
Bye bye for now!
PS. As usual, we are getting by on English but tried to pick up a few Greek phrases. As difficult as it is, I think it’s probably easier than Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese. I find the alphabet very cool with letters like theta, pi, delta, sigma etc. If you can recognize the letter, the pronounciation is easy (unless I’m missing something, which is possible). For example, Athens can also be spelled A[theta]en[sigma]. Forgive me, I don’t have the keyboard for the actual letters, but hope that gives you an idea. Anyway, just wanted to add that cool note.
What an incredible week! Beautiful photos of beautiful people - you guys could be advertising for this travel tour! Love hearing of your adventures - thanks for sharing! So many more places in the world I want to visit now - Greece has always been one I've longed to see and its bumped its way up closer to the top now! Cheers!
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