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Published: February 17th 2013
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MykonosToday we all got to sleep in for the first time since we had left London. I slept until 10 am, then went to breakfast with Karly and Sharna. The breakfasts here were amazing - there was so much food and it all tasted great. For the next few hours I got ready, booked a massage for the next day, mailed some postcards, and used the computers in the hotel lobby. It was quite nice to not have anything to do, and to just catch up on de-stressing and some chores.
At 1:30 pm, I met Karly, Sharna, and Debs to catch the bus into Mykonos town. Once there we split up - Karly and I went shopping one way, and Sharna and Debs went the other. Mykonos town was absolutely beautiful. I just found everything about it so peaceful and relaxing. The shopping was really great too, so different from huge stores on Oxford Street or the Champs Elysees. Everything was much more expensive than I was expecting though. I ended up buying a hand-made black dress scarf, souvenir / gift soaps, a small painting, and some more postcards. Everyone we met in the stores was so open and
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Streets of Mykonos town welcoming.
We stopped for lunch at a beachfront restaurant and the staff here were also extremely nice and friendly. They gave us a complimentary glass of wine as soon as we sat down. By this point I was becoming more of a wine fan, since it is something that everyone drinks in Europe! For lunch I had spinach cannelloni, which was delicious. I should have tried Greek food though! For any picky eaters (which I am one of, I admit) definitely try to go out of your comfort zone and try local foods at least once! We chatted with our waiter and the hostess for a while, and they gave us some tips on sightseeing and the nightlife in Mykonos. I really wish I remembered the name of the restaurant.
After lunch, we walked back to the bus stop and met up with Sharna and Debs, who had spent their day similar to ours. The bus got us back to the hotel for 5:30 pm. I phoned home, then got ready for our night out tonight! When I returned home and saw pictures I realized that today was the start of a tradition in our tour, where people
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New "thing" to do? would get naked then take pictures of themselves on different monuments. It was actually really funny (I didn't partake obviously) haha.
?Mykonos by night tour (31 euro): Head into town with the group and get the low-down on Mykonos as you wander through the little lanes. After dinner at a traditional tavern, there's heaps of free time to head towards the action and hit the clubs. We'll take you back home after the clubs shut, so you don't need to worry about a thing.
This optional sounded great, and I believe every single person on our tour was signed up for it. At the last minute, a group of us decided we would rather have done it on our own, but it was too late to get out of it. Oh well! (at least we thought). I LOVED Mykonos, but I have to say this is probably the worst optional on the tour. The first part of it was a "walking tour", which was really just us following this lady around until we got to our destination (the restaurant). She talked so quietly, and walked the entire time, that you couldn't see or hear her unless you were
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Debs, Karly, Sharna, and I right behind her in the line. We did go up to a viewpoint where there are some traditional windmills that you can see on many Greek islands. The photo ops were incredible.
From here we walked to our "dinner at a traditional tavern" - Paraportiani Restaurant. The setting was really nice, but I think this is the worst restaurant I've ever been to (and I wasn't the only one who thought this), especially compared to my experience at lunch. The food wasn't that great, and the service was terrible. The servers were so confused as to who ordered what, what we were allowed to order (since we paid one price for the optional, we were limited as to what we could get). I actually ended up with pork chops and fries, which wasn't actually an option for our tour, and wasn't even what I originally ordered. Our table (Debs, Christine, Jason, Teresa, and Rosi) didn't even get our included shots or dessert, although all the other tables did, and we asked about three times for them to bring more out. I asked the waiter for some butter for my bread, and he pointed to the washroom and walked away.
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Windmills Contiki - stop partnering with this restaurant!
After dinner we started our pub crawl. This party was actually really fun. Me and Debs, for some reason, decided to go one step ahead and skip the first bar (Jackie O Bar) and go straight to the second (I'm thinking it was called Down Under Bar?). We met a clown on stilts who helped us find the way there since we got pretty lost. We got one free shot, and then ordered a few more, since they had some pretty interesting ones on special.
The third bar was the Scandinavian Bar, which was the one recommended to us by our server at lunch. It was so much fun. Here we met up with everyone else from our tour and partied away into the night. We got three more free shots here (not sure how), and everyone was dancing and going a little bit crazy! Me and Debs went out to get some air and ended up at a smaller bar across the street. I kind of remember me pretending to be from New Zealand and her pretending to be from Canada, and trying to flirt with the bartenders to get
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Scandinavian Bar more free shots. I'm pretty sure it didn't work haha. After this we got some ice cream and relaxed down by the harbour and chatted with all the Greek boys who passed by 😉
We ended up going back to the pub for a bit, then walked back to the bus stop to catch the 3 am bus back home. I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed.
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