Greek Adventure Part 1: Mykonos

June 26, 2014

Poets, Playwrights and Photographers have been trying and failing to capture the beauty of the Greek Islands for thousands of years. Mykonos and Santorini are islands that must be seen, smelled, tasted and experienced. I demand that everyone put them on your bucket lists and someday visit yourself but in the mean time I will try to pick up where the classics fell short and share the best, worst, the tame and the wild that we found in Greece, starting with Mykonos.

The flight was AWFUL, my absent minded husband wrote the wrong date of departure on his calendar and when he got the check in reminder a day earlier than he thought we were to depart, we had a total freak out. But after a flurry of packing, rushing to the airport and making our flight by just a few minutes, we ended up sitting on the tarmac for over an hour before taking off, resulting in a missed connection in Amsterdam. KLM then inexplicably re-routed us through Geneva and eventually on to Athens where we had to re-purchase our tickets to Mykonos because our flight had already left us.

And they lost my luggage. Grrrrrrrrrr.. KLM.

Anyway when we reached Mykonos we were tired but my considerable stress level faded away immediately, clothes or no clothes, I was in heaven.

We stayed at the lovely Manoulas Beach Hotel which was a 10 min cab ride from the airport, moderately priced and had an amazing pool and view. Here I am wearing the outfit that I was forced to wear for 2 days. I look stunning I know… Lucky for me, my bag arrived later that day and I don’t think I could have been happier to see my clothes. Tip: do not check your luggage, always carry on. Word to the wise, even though it looks gorgeous outside, DO NOT sleep with the doors open. We received many (like 23094023942) mosquito bites that first night and I was lucky enough to have some bites that lingered for about 4 days. So yeah, take my advice and close those doors and also ask for the mosquito repeller plug in from the front desk.

This picture was taken on our balcony over looking the sea, now do you see why I had initially left the doors open? I am wearing one of my favorite new cover-ups by Tavik Swimwear, it is lightweight and breezy and I hardly took it off during our trip. You can purchase your own stella maxi here.

Just a few of the essentials that I packed for the trip included Tavik swimsuits, ille steva sunglasses and MD Solar Sciences sun screen. The sun is pretty intense in Greece so I really recommend you layer on the sunscreen. I loved MD Solar Sciences 40 spf spray and their Mineral Tinted Creme with 30 spf, it went on super smooth and left my skin soft without having to put anything else on.

Our chosen mode of transportation while on the island, the 4-wheeler. Whenever Casey and I travel, we love to rent a moped or 4-wheeler to explore and we had so much fun on this one. Even though the motor was the size of a weed-eater (50cc) it still got us from beach to beach, just slower then we would have liked.

The windmills in Mykonos Town overlooking Little Venice are a landmark and a must see while you are there. Stop and take some pictures on your way into town for shopping, a Mythos beer and the best gyro you have ever eaten.

Gyro from Jimmy’s. We tested more gyros then we could count during our trip and this was hands down the best and the cheapest.

Mykonos is known for their wild beach parties, so of course we had to see what it was all about. We headed to Paradise Beach in the middle of the day to take in the sights and let me tell you for 2pm it was pretty insane, can’t even imagine what its like at 2am. I’m just a little too old for that..

Our last stop during our quick 2 night stay in Mykonos was to Ornos beach, this beach was definitely more my speed. The restaurants had cute lounge chairs, played laid back music and even served delicious cocktails to you on the beach. We headed back to this spot for dinner and enjoyed a lovely meal..that is until Casey ordered the Ouzo. Ouzo is a traditional Greek liquor that has an anise flavor, is super strong and causes massive hangovers. Thanks ouzo, you made the boat ride to Santorini extremely enjoyable.