On Wednesday morning, we woke up at 9 and got ready to leave for Mykonos. The hostel had certain times that they would drive to the port – we got the 10:30 “shuttle” to our noon ferry. We got dropped off at the port which was about 15 minutes away from our hostel and had about an hour to kill. We sat at a restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat; Cara and I split an omelet which wasn’t an omelet like home. It was so flat and almost crepe-like; it barely had any cheese too – kind of weird.
Our ferry from Santorini to Mykonos was high speed and only took 2.5 hours (much better than the eight hour one). We all either napped, read, listened to music, or wrote in our journals the whole time. It stopped at one island before Mykonos.
We got picked up at the port by the hostel, Kymata, along with five other girls that were on our ferry. They are abroad in Florence for the semester. I’m pretty sure that this hostel consisted of only three “apartments”. We had one up stairs and the Florence girls (who had to split up) took the other two that were below us. I liked this hostel better because it was much closer to the action. There were four beds in one room (so we were all together) and the shower actually had a curtain. This hostel, however, wasn’t as great of a deal as ten euro a night.
We dropped our things off once we got there and decided to explore the town. The streets of Mykonos are SO cute. Cars can’t drive down them because they are so small. The only way to walk through the village is via foot. All of the buildings are white (just like in Santorini), and I was surprised at how many designer stores were there (Sephora, Juicy Couture, Diesel, etc). I loved walking around and “getting lost” in the streets, as our hostel manager described it. We strolled upon a salon called Beauty World, and Cara and Korissa wanted to get a pedicure so while they did that, Steph and I explored some more.
Korissa and Cara finished up with their pedicures and we left to get some lunch; we stopped at a gyro place and ended up making friends with the people that worked there. Korissa needed to find a bathing suit because she couldn’t find the bottoms to the only one she brought. Steph and I went back to our hostel to shower while Korissa and Cara went on the hunt for a suit.
They came back a little while later (their mission was successful), we got ready and headed out for dinner. We went to a restaurant in the section of Mykonos along the water called Little Venice. One thing I noticed about Greece is that everyone smokes in restaurants. It’s actually really nasty. At one place that we ate at, a man was smoking directly below a “No Smoking” sign. Pretty ironic.
It was 11:30 when we finished dinner so we headed towards the area where all the bars are located. While en route, we met three guys who also go to John Cabot but are Italians and are full-time students there. The seven of us, along with the Florence girls from our hostel that we ran into, decided that it was too early to go out just yet; so, we went to the Florence girls’ room and hung out for a few hours.
At 2 o’clock (I’m not used to going out that late in Rome), all of us went back to the center to find a bar. We ran into even more people that we recognized from JCU; one of the guys is in my Political Theory class and another is in Korissa and Cara’s International Business class. They are abroad here in Rome as well and go to Notre Dame and Michigan State at home. So ALL of us (we were a group of about 20 now) went to a bar or two that looked like they had some action since most places are dead until tourist season. We called it a night a few hours later.
Thursday 3/25/10
We got up Thursday morning and went to breakfast at a restaurant that almost reminded me of a NJ diner, because their menu was so extensive. It ended up being our favorite place to eat in Mykonos – we went there four times in three days! We sat at the same table each time too haha.
March 25th is Greek Independence Day and marks the independence of Greece from Turkey. There was a parade going on and although we didn’t really actually see the parade, we saw parade “elements” such as a marching band and little kids holding Greek flags. It got me excited for the Florham Park 4th of July parade this summer!
We weren’t very active on Thursday; we mostly just hung out and basked in the sun, as well as wandered around the town some more. It was a beautiful day but SO windy. It was actually windy the ENTIRE time we were there. When there was a hiatus of wind for a minute or so, it was pretty warm; we were lucky that it didn’t rain at all, but I wish it had been a touch bit less windy!!
We went to dinner at the same restaurant we had breakfast. I saw something on the menu that looked intriguing – cheese salad. I figure it was, well, salad with cheese in it. I asked the little old lady waitress what it was and all she said was “feta’ (she spoke no English). I asked if there was lettuce too and she said “feta” again. I figure that she just didn’t understand my question so I was like whatever and ordered it anyway; Cara did too. They gave us the option of having it regular or baked. I chose regular and Cara picked baked; when they brought it out, all it was was a block of feta cheese (hence why all she said was “feta”). I don’t know about anyone else but just eating feta cheese for a meal isn’t what I call delicious. We made the best of a bad (and VERY SMELLY) situation and asked for bread too. So I basically ate bread for dinner with olive oil and a little bit of the stinky cheese. We were pretty unsatisfied with our dinner but it was Greece so I guess that I can’t really be surprised that feta can be considered a meal.
That night, we went back to one of the bars that we were at the night before. This night, however, it was all and ONLY Greeks. On Wednesday, they played all songs that we recognized, but Thursday was entirely Greek music. It was a great way to experience some local Greek flavor. Some Greek guys got us in a circle and we were dancing around screaming “OPA!” I felt like I was straight out of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. It was a lot of fun.
Friday 3/26/10
On Friday, we decided to rent a car to see more of the island and to go to the beach! First, however, we ate breakfast AGAIN as the restaurant from twice the day before (I think the people there were getting sick of us); this time I definitely did not order the cheese salad though! Anyway, we rented a small yellow SUV which I dubbed “The Yellow Submarine” at a cost of 35 euro for the day. Korissa was elected driver and I, of course, called shot gun (one of my greatest skills is calling shotty first – just ask my Clemson roommates). We had to fill up the gas tank first, and we actually had some difficulty finding a gas station, but after we finally did, we headed to the beach!
We went to the beach that was supposedly windless (not so true), parked our car, and spotted a little cove that seemed like a good place to settle ourselves. It was NOT easy getting there, though. We climbed up and down rocks; I thought I was going to face plant and crack my head open or fall into the water. There was no sand where we decided to lay – just small rocks. We made-do, however, and placed a sheet down for the four of us to lie out on. It wasn’t too uncomfortable. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach then went to drive around some more. We stopped in another little “village” on Mykonos to get some chicken souvlaki for lunch.
After that, we went back to our hostel to relax, shower, and get ready for dinner (it sounds like we ate nonstop which mayyy be somewhat true). We went to a restaurant in Little Venice where they greeted us with shots of Ouzo; Ouzo is a Greek liquor that we learned to love by the end of the week!
After dinner, we met up with our new friends: the JCU study abroad kids. They were staying at a really nice hotel which they could only afford because they squeezed seven people into one room. They told us that Kenan Thompson was staying at their hotel; they had seen him in the lobby. For those of you who don’t know who Kenan Thompson is, he is a former Nickelodeon star from the shows “All That” and “Kenan and Kel”. He is now on Saturday Night Live sometimes.
As we were on our way to a bar we ran into… KENAN! Our friend Pierce went up to him and said, “Hey man, I know you probably get this a lot but can we get a picture with you?” So a whole group of us took a picture with Kenan Thompson! It came out blurry though which I’m SO upset about. He ended up going to the same bar as us so for basically the entire time we were there, we were taking borderline stalker pictures of him haha. By the end of the night, I ended up getting a (non-creepy) picture with him and the girl he was with.
Saturday 3/27/10
Our ferry back to Piraeus was 2:15 so we had some time in the morning to kill. For breakfast, we ate at (yes, you guessed it), our favorite and much-frequented restaurant. Afterward, we bought some postcards and sat on benches near the water.
Our shuttle back to the port was at 12:30, so at that time, we went back to the hostel to get into the van to drive to the port. The Florence girls were on our ferry as well. We boarded early and sat down and hung out. The boys came on a little later and sat near us. The ferry took five hours and we basically just napped, listened to music, and sat in the sun on the deck for the entirety of the trip. We docked at 7-7:30ish in Piraeus.
We didn’t have a hostel booked for Athens so we followed the boys and the Florence girls to the one they were staying at – Easy Access Hostel. We took a taxi there which was a much easier ride than the bus ride from the airport to Piraeus, and luckily they had availability. The four of us stayed in a room with our own private bathroom which was nice.
Cara, Steph, and I were hungry so went to find an ATM and somewhere to get dinner. I cannot even express to you how seedy the city of Athens is. I thought for sure that I was going to get murdered and/or raped and/or mugged while I was taking out money. We even saw someone dead on the side of the street – no joke. It was on the opposite side of where we were so I didn’t get the best look but the person looked completely lifeless and the cops were swarming the area. It was so frightening.
There were hookers EVERYWHERE and at least two to three people asked us if we wanted to buy drugs. Luckily we found the guys as they were going to dinner so we joined them; we felt WAY more comfortable going in a big group rather than just three 21 year-old girls. I got one last chicken souvlaki. We went back to our room, showered, and went to bed.
Sunday 3/28/10
We woke up at 9 AM to take advantage of the free breakfast at the hostel (toast and coffee—nothing too special). Our flight back to Rome was at 5:30 PM with Olympic Air. However, Steph originally booked her flight with Easy Jet for Monday by accident. When she changed it (and thank God she did or else she would have had to stay by herself overnight in Athens), she had to change it to another Easy Jet flight for earlier Sunday afternoon. We didn’t want her to go to the airport by herself so we all hopped in a taxi and went to the Athens airport at around noon.
The Athens airport is really bizarre; the shops and cafes are before security but you need a boarding pass to get to them, so we avoided going through security for a while because we didn’t want to be stuck without food/entertainment for 5-6 hours. We got coffee at a café and sat there for a while reading and writing in our journals. Steph’s flight was at 2, and she was on the same one with the boys.
With about two hours to go before our flight (or so we thought), Cara, Korissa, and I went through security. They called us to board an hour and a half before our 5:30 takeoff time which we thought was strange – then we started to take off not long after we boarded. I was utterly confused. Cara and Korissa were sitting two rows behind me and across the aisle. I shouted back to Cara, “Why are we taking off so early?” The guy next to me answered and said, “We’re not taking off early. It’s a quarter to six. Today was daylight savings”. We had NO idea. Thank God we got to the airport super early! The time change from Greece to Italy combined with daylight savings really threw me off.
I ended up chatting with the old guy next to me the entire flight home. He lives outside of Athens and was traveling to Rome for business. He spoke so slow and I thought he had a slight accent so I asked if he was Greek or Italian – turns out he’s actually American and from San Francisco but has lived in Europe for quite some time. He told me a lot about Greek culture such as family values, the social acceptance of smoking indoors, and the Greek Orthodox Easter.
We had to go to the restroom when we landed at FCO, but I didn’t want to go to the one right at the gate because it’s always the most crowded; so, after finding a further one, we followed signs for baggage claim. I had no idea there were multiple baggage claims, however, and we ended up at the wrong one. Neither Cara nor Korissa checked their bags – only me. We went back passed through security so there was no way for me to get to the other baggage claim.
I asked three or four airport workers what to do, but they were so vague and various on what their directions were. I thought that I would never get my bags back! I finally figured out the correct place I needed to be and had to show my passport/put my purse through security to get back in. I eventually got my luggage back—after a stressful 20 minutes. I felt really bad because Cara and Korissa were waiting for me the whole time. Just add it to my list of horrible traveling experiences from this semester!
