Mykonos, Greece

We had such an incredible trip! We want to share our entire journey with everyone about our 12 days in Greece and Amsterdam. Like all travels, there are ups, downs and in-between’s – but all in all traveling is our favorite thing to do. Our first stop on the adventure was the island of Mykonos. Here is how our first 2 days went on our trip in Mykonos:

We started our journey at 5am from the Aloft Brier Creek taking the free shuttle to RDU for our 7am Delta flight to JFK. Security is always a breeze that early in the morning and everything was as usual eventless. However when we boarded our flight things got interesting.

The flight was full and the overhead space was becoming scarce. A Jamaican lady and her husband sitting across the aisle from us tried to fit their luggage above and were able to do so for the most part, but a flight attendant told her they were going to have to tag her bag and put it under the plane until we landed. The lady said this was not possible as she had vital medication in her bag. The flight attendant asked if she could remove her medication from her luggage so they could put the bag underneath the plane. She again said that this wasn’t an option (in different words). The flight attendant had a smile on his face like he didn’t know what to say next. The lady exclaimed “He is smirking at me! Do you see that? Now he has triggered me!!” At this point tensions got high and the lady began cursing at the flight attendant calling him a “bloodclot”.. The flight attendant remained silent until the aisle had cleared then moved to the front to inform the other workers on the plane of what had happened. First the other flight attendant came back. Then the captain of the plane even came back to speak with the lady. At this point Megan and I were thinking we would not be taking off any time soon. All in all we took off on time and she got to keep her luggage in the overhead bin but she did not access it at all during the flight. Delta even gave them complimentary champagne!!

After we landed at JFK and we were waiting at our gate for our Norwegian flight to Athens, Megan and I heard a commotion around the front of the kiosk we sat behind of. Megan told me to check it out so I did. Turns out the Jamaican lady was screaming at the worker at the kiosk, calling him a racist and so on (the worker was of Asian descent.. I think). A TSA worker had to come over and diffuse the situation then escort the lady and her husband to their gate… thankfully they were not on our flight!!

At around 12pm we boarded our Norwegian airlines flight to Athens and had our first 1st class experience ever!! Safe to say we LOVED it!! It will be hard to not want to do this again for every flight in the future… Auto tinting windows, free beer/wine (to a certain extent), an ultimately comfortable amount of leg room, and nicer meal options. Best flight ever!!

Once we arrived in Athens and after a 2 hour wait to check-in for our Volotea flight to Mykonos, we were told our flight had been overbooked and that we had been selected as overbooked passengers (we were the 10th person in line). Barrett tried to “negotiate/plead” with the lady working but she wasn’t having it. Long story short, after an hour of worrying, we got on the plane (in separate parts of the plane) and there were so many empty seats! Baffling….

The flight into Mykonos was pretty scary with lots of turbulence, a sketchy sounding plane, and a super hard landing, but we made it after all.

We had arranged a transfer to our hotel and we were picked up by a guy driving a Mercedes. 35 euro and 20 minutes later we were at our hotel, the Mykonos Pantheon. Our room wasn’t quite ready since when we arrived it was only 10am, so we hung out by the pool and had some drinks while we waited. By 12pm our sea view room was ready. We walked into our room and how nice!!! We had the best views from our terrace and bedroom windows, and the shower was like a cave – we loved this place!

Shortly after check-in, we put on our bathing suits and walked across the street to a small beach down the ridge, where we snorkeled and swam around for and hour or so. Swimming in the Mediterranean is great because of the salty waters, you don’t really have to try and stay afloat.

After we swam, we went to have our first meal in Greece! We ate at the restaurant at our hotel and weren’t sure what to order or what we wanted to eat because at this point we had been awake for 20 hours… so we ordered some Tzatziki dip served with pita and a Greek Pizza. Everything was so good!! George, the bartender/waiter/do-it-all guy, was very nice and accommodating. He even offered to take Barrett to the mini market up the road after he got off work at 5pm. We needed some drinks for the room and a few other things and Barrett was asking how to walk there then George was just like “Let me give you a ride.” So cool!!

After Barrett’s mini market trip and a beer, we were really tired and dozing off on the terrace so we took a quick one hour nap before sunset (even set an alarm so we wouldn’t miss it). And we were so happy we got to enjoy our first of many great Greek sunsets.

Day 2 – Mykonos: We woke up for sunrise around 6:15am and walked around our hotel/beach taking some photos and enjoying the view.

We ate our free hotel breakfast which offered breads, cheese, sandwich meat, fruit, yogurt, granola, coffee and juices then went to the other beach nearby. The beach is a new celebrity hotspot – Kalo Livadi. There was two paid parts of the beach with padded chairs, umbrellas, and bars. We went to the free part of the beach in between the two restaurant/clubs. The water here was crystal clear and didn’t have rocks when walking out like the cliffside beach we had snorkeled at on Day 1. Barrett snorkeled here as well for a while then we headed back to the pool at our hotel.

We swam here until about lunch time then decided to take a day trip to Mykonos Town (city center). The average taxi costs 35 euro no matter where you are going on the island… so we chose the cheaper alternative, the public bus. The bus stop was a 10 minute walk up the hill from the hotel and was only 1.8 euro per person. It took us all the way to the Old Port in Mykonos Town.

Once we arrived in Mykonos town, we were shocked at its’ beauty! The turquoise waters against the coast of white buildings was really something to see. However, it was very crowded since we were there around lunch time and there in August (both peak times), but we did manage to enjoy it at our own pace by walking up any alley ways we wanted to.

It was really hard to put down the camera because everywhere we looked, it was just so amazing!

We stopped for gyros at Sakis (our first ones in Greece) and wow were they delicious! We discovered this restaurant while watching Youtube vlogs before the trip and we are happy we stumbled upon it – highly recommend!

After lunch, we made our way to Little Venice which was a unique area right on the water (very similar to Venice, Italy but much smaller). We stopped for some photos here and then walked right up the street to the windmills. The Windmill are was very crowded but still very pretty and a must see when in Mykonos Town! We were pretty tired from walking after this, so we found a cute bar on the water in Little Venice. We sat down and ordered a cocktail each. They were 16 euros each, so we only had one BUT it was so worth it! The bar was called SCA RPA.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was dinner time so we opted to eat at the restaurant at our hotel again, but this time we would keep it Greek!! We ordered our first tasting of calamari in Greece, Megan got her first Greek salad (has no lettuce), and Barrett order Greek sausage with tzatziki, pita, and fried potatoes (otherwise known as fries lol).

Overall we really enjoyed Mykonos! Next up: Naxos!