Our Big Fat Greek Adventure-Mykonos 2023

Hello world,

A comical start to our trip to the Greek Islands, when at 3.10am, we hopped into the hire car out the front of our house and drove off headed to the airport. Ten minutes into the trip, the driver gets a text and moans oh no, and as he randomly did a U turn in the middle of our main road and asked Steve if his name was Sebastian ……… no I’m Steve, aren’t you Peter? It turned out the car parked between our house and the guy 2 doors down, was an Uber not a corporate driver that we had pre booked!

Can you believe it, the car we had jumped into was our neighbours Uber driver, also it seems booked for 3.15am, so a quick 10-minute trip back to our house in Stella St to meet Peter our pre-booked car in his lovely Volvo station wagon playing classical music was a slight step up from the Camry with a towel on the back seat that in hindsight had Steve thinking, gee I’m surprised about the booking being a Camry and  we still made it to Sydney International airport for 4:03am, where the whole Emirates Premium Economy experience really is a fabulous way to fly and Steve’s Qantas gold status is a bonus.

 A stop in Dubai and on to Athens with ease, the only crappy layover was the three hours in Athens, awaiting the flight to Mykonos.

On arrival into Mykonos, we had another slight glitch with the driver collecting us, he didn’t seem keen to wait for us and our luggage and left to take other travellers to their hotel, with us left waiting outside the airport.  Several locals offered to take us to our accomodation, but as it was included in our holiday rental that seemed a little silly, however standing at the airport at 12.45am, 35 hours after leaving home it was fair to say, I kept my mouth closed as I knew nothing nice would come out if I opened it.

When Harris turned up to pick us up, he copped a mouth full of Greek from the guys at the airport, but he clearly felt the same as me as he didn’t say a word either.

The trip from the airport was super quick and as we arrived at Cloud Blue to dreamy accomodation all is forgotten. Straight to bed and we woke to a stunning view from our room and balcony of the gorgeous Aegean Sea.

First up coffee! In day light, I realised we are staying 100 metres from a previous visit I had with my kids and know exactly where I am.

I knew an early morning wander into the cobble stone streets of Mykonos would feel a lot like home.

On our first morning in Mykonos, not far from our accomodation is a quirky shop selling everything from coffee to carpet. The store opened at 7:00am and serves yummy coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Steve is almost the barista the first day as he explained our order.  By day 4 they know our order and also have almond milk. They still can’t quite get the piccolo right, so I just order an almond milk cappuccino with half milk.

The shop is quite eclectic. They actually service yachts, villas, apartments etc. and stock eco products, alcohol, chocolate, nuts, chips as well as furniture, incredible tiles, lots of toiletries and make up products and of course make early morning coffee.

It’s also right beside the scooter hire! We are on a roll and it’s not even breakfast!

We hire a scooter which is our SOP when we are travelling and after recently hearing about our friends Robyn and Al, Greek Island car experience, when they visited the island of Tinos, having a driver squeeze a car through a ridiculously narrow lane and side swipe a street of cars, it also seemed a good option from an insurance point of view.

Everything is screaming European summer.  Whether that is seeing the Arctic P- the previously owned Packer owned boat for the 4th time (on our travels) or what we like to call the “f off” super-rich boats, all roped off in bays for the rich and famous, to the stunning summer fruits which I have to say are quite expensive (more on this later) and don’t start us on the current trend of under wear as street wear with a mesh dress over the top of a g-banger – I mean come on girls don’t we need to leave something to the imagination??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We nearly saw a few accidents as driving and riding male and females, couldn’t help but look – us included to see if scantily dressed girls walking past, have or haven’t got undies on?

The beach clubs are also thriving here.  We aren’t massive fans of the continuous doof-doof or the never-ending music. Give us a quiet cove and our sea shoes and we are happy to just jump in the sea and enjoy the breeze with a bag of nuts, a bit of fruit and chill.

Today in fact we have been to Agios Sostis, where the most amazing old Greek restaurant called Kiki’s Taverna is located. It is said to be like Mykonos of the 1950’s, a beach BBQ that opens at 12.30pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need to be in the queue and stay in the queue or potentially wait for 2 hours to be seated. It’s worth the wait and you do have to wait, if you leave the line you go to the back of the queue.  However, they are just lovely people and hosts and supply chilled Rosé of ice for anyone waiting for a booking.

We (Steve) jagged a table for the first sitting thanks to him taking his book at 12:00pm and sitting on a ledge near the restaurant and being told not to move by the restaurant owner.

Picture this, a large tree older than time is the restaurant canopy. Underneath sit tables and chairs with a view over a coastal cove. The hot BBQ coals are ready, as are the salads that have been lovingly made by the Yaya’s.

You can choose 2 salads, while amazing chunky sourdough bread with olive oil and salt is brought to the table.   It is so hard to say no to the bread and yes it was incredible.

Nicholas, a Sydney based Greek from the coffee/beer shop in the old town Mykonos recommended Kiki’s and we absolutely loved it.

In his words, where we were at the beach port part of Mykonos was Disneyland, whereas Kikis was the real Greece. We always love getting local recommendations, and they never ever disappoint.

We haven’t quite mastered the sharing meal thing and we really should as food is not cheap here, plus the meals are quite large.

I ordered a pork chop and Steve a stuffed chicken breast. My pork chop was like a brontosaurus chop and Steve had half a chicken stuffed with feta and sun-dried tomatoes and of course they served it with an oven baked potato and butter.

No, I didn’t eat it all and in fact neither did Steve. They thought we didn’t like our meal. The meals were just huge! Lesson learned.

Another win this trip was sunset at a venue called 180-Sunset Bar-in the hills above Mykonos town.

 Love or hate Instagram, I personally love it and Steve mostly follows me and watches Sienfeld reruns.

 Anyways I found this place on Instagram and booked us a special treat – the windmill front row seats to watch the sunset.

Yes, it was a minimum €100 per person spend and when Steve went for a walk and saw the bar area with 100 people queuing to order drinks and food, it was well worth the booking and not missing sunset.

They pay the same price for food and drinks, and we just got excellent seats, exceptional service, wonderful cocktails and beautiful stress-free memories to treasure – you can’t put a price on that, just incredible!

It is fair to say we have laughed about the fact that as we head out in the morning for a walk and a coffee- yes, I technically call this a photo opportunity – there are less people and gorgeous golden light, we have been amused by the number of beautiful people we see who are just heading home from the night before. Mykonos is one hell of a party town!!!!

We are just loving being on holidays. One of our dinners we tried to be uber cool and booked it for 9.00pm…… yes, I know that’s sometimes my bedtime at home when I get up for personal training, but hey we wanted to see the town alive.

We had an amazing, yummy dinner – Steve had wicked mini beef burgers, which he said looked so good, he didn’t know whether to eat them or just clap at them, as they were so spectacular. I had a deconstructed Moussaka which was just incredible (see the photos).

By the time we had finished our meal and salad, and ventured out, the town was just coming to life. All the morning coffee bars, become night clubs and champagne houses darling!

I’ve never seen so many exposed bum cheeks and collagen and I’ll let you guess which cheeks I’m talking about!

Seriously we love a good people watch and have had a blast meeting and chatting with the locals as we shopped and enjoyed coffee and a beer or three through Mykonos town and further out on the scooter.

 Steve may have bought me a special little pink sapphire ring and Yannis the shop owner, then booked us into Kalita, a restaurant just near his jewellery shop. Once again, follow the recommendations of the people you meet when you travel, and you will never be disappointed.

After we had finished our meal, we walked past his shop on the way home, he invited us into his shop for a glass of wine, the Greeks are so hospitable. It is so lovely to be here again, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine and the ambience through the town.

The food here is amazing, and as I said we aren’t getting too hung up on the exchange rate, or we would never have left Australia, but occasionally you just go WHAT!

Like the second time I bought a punnet of the most delicious, sweetest strawberries I have ever eaten. Today we went to the big supermarket called Flora near the airport to get this little bottle of Greek olive oil that the restaurant has last night and the waiter recommended- it was only €8.00 at the super market and I really liked the bottle. While we were there I thought oh, i’ll grab another punnet of strawberries.

Over here in the supermarkets and mini marts they have someone standing at the weigh station in fruit and veg. I handed over 2 bananas to be weighed, which I noticed when I got home were €.92 and then as I un-bagged the delicious strawberries, I noticed the sticker, it said the strawberries were €23.00 a kilo WTF!

 The little punnet of strawberries (see the pic below) cost me €12.42 and with current exchange rate that’s about $30 Aussie!!!!!!

I’m not even sure where they are from….. needless to say, I’ll be eating every last one of them, even the stodgy one in the bottom.

Have I mentioned how delicious even the non-fat Greek yoghurt is? Seriously I just love it. And could eat it every day.

 I still love Mykonos today as much as I loved it 20 years ago and 7 years ago when I brought my adult kids.

This morning after taking photos and with the camera in the backpack as we set off for a walk, we nearly got blown over the edge of the cliff the wind was so strong. Apparently, that’s a Mykonos thing in August. Who knew. It’s 27-30 degrees so the wind has not been an issue really.

 Mykonos can get a bad wrap these days with so many Greek islands being so much more accessible, and cheaper. We chose to start here before heading off into a few other Cyclades islands, and it’s been amazing.

 I adore the old town early in the morning, I’ve never been to the backside of the 6 windmills in my three visits so we made sure we walked along there, I finally found the old church of Panagia Paraportiani in the old town near Kastros and the old castle.

 I mean how can I have missed this beauty before?? And the more remote outer beaches that you need a scooter to access and have the beach BBQ’s, they are just divine.

Just for reference points the cost of taxis is high. A quick 6-minute trip costs €35, that’s expensive, considering it only costs €40 a day to hire a car or a scooter. You also need to have a motorcycle licence these days to ride a scooter, although you can rent the 4-wheel quad bikes.

But really if you live in Australia, it is the Mykonos vs other islands question just like the “is it cheaper to live in Perth or Queensland conversation?” It comes down to personal choice, I guess.

Steve has never been to the Greek Islands; I have planned pretty much 4 nights on 5 islands for us with a 4-night stop in Dubai on the way home. I think that will give us a great adventure.

Well, that’s about all for now, I’m off for a lie by the pool before I wake Steve up and drag him off for a sun downer somewhere and get in a sneaky photo opportunity.

Our big Fat Greek adventure continues next in Paros, we are jumping onto the Sea Jet tomorrow, so we hope you follow along via instagram and of course on the wonky camera, till next time.

Mrs Wonky and the baggage passport controller xox