Unfortunately, in order to catch our ferry we had to 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 they 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 then 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.
George took this pic for us while we were waiting. I wish I had looked closer to see it was out of focus but it's still a fun shot.
Then we started taking our own pics while waiting for the bus. If we have a camera we can always keep ourselves entertained.
We decided to eat where George recommended. I think it was either Nick's or Nikos, something like that. After walking the maze that was Myonos town (did you know it was built that way to confuse invaders?) and asking a couple of people we finally found it! It was packed but they were able to get us seated right away. For it to be so busy off season, you know it has to be good!
One of the things I had read was sea urchin was really big in Greece but I hadn't seen it on any menus. So I asked our resident expert George and he was surprised I was asking about it, I guess it's more of a Greek thing then a tourist thing. It took a little while for him to figure out what we were talking about, wish you could have seen Su's charades interpretation of a sea urchin. There are a lot of rules in regards to sea urchin, he says he has to go do different islands if he wants to swim and get his own sea urchin, you can fish for them in Mykonos but we might be able to find it on the menu at Nick's and it was! While this platter is not very appealing looking, when has sea urchin ever looked pretty? Unfortunately, we put a lot of lemon on it (lemon is served with everything!) and sea urchin is so delicate that we tasted more lemon then sea urchin but we were still tickled to get this dish.
The shrimp risotto was also divine! Ever since Lina came into my life, I have become a risotto aficionado and this was amazing. So creamy and delish! I wanted to lick this plate clean. We also ordered some mussels that were great, I wasn't as thrilled by the green bean.
After stuffing ourselves we went looking for the bar George said we should check out. Unfortunately, that place was way too busy so we went to the bar next door. The bar sits right on the water so we had the wave lapping at our feet while we gabbed and enjoyed our drinks. Nancy was feeling no pain, she had been enjoying her mixed drinks all night long, LOL. Other then my drink to start the night, I stuck with coke, it makes me just as happy as alcohol with none of the ugly after effects. Once we left that bar we tried to go to the busy bar again but just couldn't do it. We ended up wandering into another bar that had fun music and danced up a storm. Lina bought us a round of shots to keep our feet dancing but after awhile we decided to leave. We were the young ones in that crowd and while I don't want to be the oldest in a bar, I don't want to be the youngest either. Now if they had played Poison, we would have stayed! We couldn't find another bar we liked so we decided to call it a night. I think I got to sleep around 4am. Is it any wonder my body is still out of whack sleeping wise?
0 Mannions Speak :
Post a Comment