Half day in Ios then ferry to Mykonos!

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Ugh we dragged ourselves up at 10:30am after only a couple hours of sleep to pack and check out of our gorgeous hotel. Reception held our luggage and since our ferry wasn’t until 5:00pm-ish we spent most of the day at the hotel pool getting some sun and floating in the pool.

This is about when I started to really feel like I was getting a cold so Steve went and ordered me a vitamin C drink from the upper pool juice bar. It was terrible! I got the lower pool bar to remake it for me and it was much better. It had bananas, apples and kiwis in it. I let George know the first one was so bad it was undrinkable and he was not happy. I for one was really exhausted and tried to catch a nap on a pile of the floats in the shade, but as soon as I started to drift off it was time to catch our transfer to the port. As a matter of fact our agent for the transfer was at the hotel about half hour early so we got to the port early. Steve watched the luggage while Rachel and I did some shopping.

There was a huge luxurious passenger yacht in the slip where the ferry needed to dock so we could board and we got to see the passengers running like mad for the ship when it only had moments to pull out into the harbor to make way for our ferry. The Flying Cat we took was just a passenger catamaran so we had to carry all the damn luggage up the stairs onto the ship. Luckily some random guy offered to help me with my big luggage while Steve helped Rachel with hers. The flying cat was pretty small in comparison to the Highspeed ferries we had taken before, luggage was piled up everywhere! I ran to the rest room after we found or seats and I was just coming out when the ferry took off at 5:10pm on the dot! I had a really hard time keeping my footing while I climbed back over all the luggage that was piled up by the restrooms and staggered back to my seat. Steve and Rachel had grabbed us a quick snack, we settled in for was turned out to be quite a bumpy ride and I was damn glad I took a couple of Bonine for motion sickness! We all tried to sleep but the seats were really uncomfortable as I’m pretty sure the ship was designed for quick trips. The ferry stopped at Naxos which was really pretty. It was a really quick stop though and not many people got on or off. We also stopped at Paros.

We got to Mykonos around 7:00pm and looked for our transfer. I spotted a guy holding a Princess of Mykonos sign so I asked him if he was our transfer. He just shrugged. I think we asked him about three times before we got a straight answer and he asked to see our transfer slip. Not a very warm welcome so we named him douche bag driver. It was a bit confusing to me as we had an agent that met us on Ios both times we visited and on Santorini in 2007. DB Driver drove us in the hotel van to the Princess of Mykonos and helped bring the luggage into the lobby. I’m pretty sure he refused to carry our bags up to our room (no lift here) when the desk clerk asked him to in Greek. Steve speaks Greek fluently and I know enough to understand basic stuff.

The hotel is about a kilometer north of the new ferry port and Mykonos town is about a kilometer south of the new ferry port, so the hotel is a good 2 kilometers from town and about 20-30 minutes drive to Paradise Beach where some of the better known dance clubs are. We had room 203 overlooking the pool deck. We would have had a great view looking out to the new port from our balcony but it was blocked by the enormous cement wall/back of the pool shower! However the hotel is gorgeous, the downstairs reception area, hall and restaurant areas are full of traditional decorations and artifacts. We decided to eat at the hotel restaurant Kapari (which means caper) since we had a 20% first night discount voucher. Our waiter was named George who was also the operations manager at the hotel. The food was awesome.

When we were checking in there was a couple there meeting with a rental scooter agent and both of them were covered with road rash and limping. We saw this same couple at dinner and they came over to talk to us when they were leaving. It turns out they were from Spain and on their honeymoon and had wrecked their scooter and because there isn’t any full insurance coverage for scooters they had to pay for a new one. Ouch, not a good thing to happen on a honeymoon. I’ve got to hand it to them though they seemed to still be having a good time and had a great attitude about everything.

I had booked a rental car for us to use on Mykonos, but had arranged for it to be delivered to the hotel on Wednesday morning since we were getting in so late. I got a rental car here because I had read repeatedly how difficult it was to get a taxi on Mykonos where there is 30-40 taxis for the 200,000 tourists that come in July and August. By now it was around 11pm or so and since I was feeling crappy I went to bed and Steve and Rachel decided to go out. I mentioned to them that it could be a problem to get a taxi, but they decided to chance it.

They said it took about half hour to catch a taxi from the hotel and the driver didn’t want to take them to Mykonos Town, he said it was easier to take them to Cavo Paradiso out at Paradise Beach (can you say ‘driver gets kickback from club for every fare he brings out there’?). It was a little pricey to get in 30€s which included one free drink. They met an Aussie couple Matt and Paige and hung with them at Cavo. They said it was an awesome time right up until they tried to get a taxi back to the hotel. First the mobile phone had somehow gotten locked in Steve’s pocket and they didn’t have the PIN to unlock it. They got someone at the café to call them a taxi but there was no answer repeatedly. So they got breakfast at the café and a couple hours later finally got a taxi with the help of the waitress Alexi at the café. They woke me up around 8:30am when they finally made it back to the hotel.

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Photos

Ios Palace Hotel
From Mylopotas Beach

Ios Palace Hotel - one last look
From Mylopotas Beach

Me floating in the pool
Ios Palace Hotel

Ios Port
This boat was in the spot our ferry needed to dock in

Mykonos - View from hotel pool deck
Princess of Mykonos

Me & Rachel
Dinner at Princess of Mykonos restaurant Kapari