Mykonos, Greece

I was beyond excited to arrive in Mykonos, 1 because I had never been to Greece, and 2 because I got to spend the next 3 days with one of my closest friends from university, Chris Warmuth! He and 2 of his friends came to Europe for a little 2 week vacation, with Mykonos being their last stop, so we coordinated to be there together! We stated at a campsite hostel in a little bungalow for the 5 of us for just 8€ per person per night! It was a good deal, but if we knew before what we would have to endure each night, we would have paid a little more for a nice, bug free home for those 3 nights. Needless to say, we arrived at the hostel, found Chris and his friends, and immediately went to the beach! Soooo many naked men, we were the odd ones out for being in bathing suits! After a couple hours we walked back to the hostel to have a shower. We spent a couple hours enjoying the happy hour at the hostel pool bar before hopping on the bus into town for dinner. Settled at a restaurant for delicious gyros for just 2€ each! Hung there for a while, then caught the last bus home and went straight to bed!

Welcome drinks! Daiquiris and strawberry mojitos!

Amazing pool at our hostel

me and Chris

Our first experience of the nighttime arrangements was just a taste of what was to come. Up all night because of our noisy neighbors (who were only separated from us by a bamboo wall)! Woke up constantly to bugs attacking us. Some bites were so big it felt like dogs gnawing on our legs and we would randomly wake up by slapping ourselves in our sleep. Worst bug experience ever, woke up with swollen legs, and it only got worse as the nights progressed! We went straight to the pool to lay out, swim in the ice water, and drink delicious Greek beer all day! That afternoon we decided to rent scooters to take a little tour of the island. Ended up renting 1 scooter for Chris and I and 2 atv's for Jaimie, Robert, and Alex. We drove all over the island, exploring new towns and view points and ended at the port to walk around downtown a bit. Went to the Little Venice area, looked in all the jewelry and clothing shops, and stopped for a quick sandwich and homemade baklava at a little family-run cafe. Drove back home to sit by the pool, met 3 New Zealand girls and chatted with them a bit. We ended up staying at the hostel for the rest of the night because we didn't feel like catching the bus back to town!

Poolside lounging

cabana

scooter!

group shot!

Covered in Benadryl to stop the itching from all the bug bites

Thursday was our last day in Mykonos, and we decided to make the most of it by taking the scooters back into town to try the famous "beeftek a la creme" for lunch. It's a hamburger patty stuffed with feta and covered in a mushroom cream sauce. Unfortunately my distaste for feta caused me to stray from majority and order a veggie stuffed eggplant-excellent choice!! While we were eating, a friendly giant pelican made a visit to our outdoor eating area, which caused a stir of people and cameras to gather. We walked over to the port and booked our ferry tickets for the rest of the Greek islands and then headed back to the hostel for more poolside relaxing. Hung out with the Kiwi girls again and made a plan to hit the town with them that night. So we showered and caught the bus into town to go back to our favorite gyro place for dinner! From there we went to a couple bars with outrageously priced drinks (12€!!) and finally to a dance club to dance the night away. Jaimie, Robert and I weren't feeling too hot, so around 2 we opted to leave the group and take a cab home to go to bed. Lucky for us, our neighbors were at it again, and they kept is up until 6am with their stupid noisy drunken antics!

beeftek a la creme and stuffed eggplant

GYROS!

The next morning Jaimie and I had to be up at 8am to catch our ferry to Ios, and believe me we made our fair share if noise to get back at our neighbors! We boarded a 1.5 hr fast ferry to Ios and let me tell you, this thing hauled A!

Mykonos was a beautiful island, but ridiculously over-priced! It was so great seeing Chris and having a nice relaxing weekend! We also seriously lucked out with the weather, as it was supposed to storm the entire duration of our stay, but we lucked out with a few hours of gloominess and a fee minutes of sprinkles, and the rest was sun and warmth!!