GREECE! Athens & Mykonos

GREECE!

I have never been to Greece and it was high on my bucket list. My daughter had a last minute opportunity to travel, so YES!

We had one day in Athens and had to make the most of it. We got to the hotel at 10am, changed in the smallest bathroom I have ever seen and left our bags with the front desk. Neither one of us can sleep on planes, so we each threw back two coffees and started walking to the Acropolis.

Because we were so tired, we didn’t think to ask our hotel HOW to get to the Acropolis… Emily punched it into Google maps and we were on our way. Except Google maps had us walking the wrong way. It sent us to the back of the Acropolis, through residential neighborhoods and miles from the entrance.

It took us a while to figure this out. About two hours. When we couldn’t find the entrance and didn’t see another sole trying to go to the Acropolis, it dawned on our tired brains that we were lost. And hot. And hungry. A French tourist at the top of a horrible hill we climbed, told us we had to go all the way down and then all the way around to get to the entrance of the park. This is me coming down one of 400,000 stairs to start all over again.

Here is the actual entrance to the park – three hours after we started. I secretly hoped Emily would want to bag the whole thing, grab a late lunch and head back for a nap at the hotel. NOPE!

Crowded.

But beautiful.

Once we got to the top (again), it was so worth it.

I actually don’t know how we are still standing!

We Ubered back to the hotel and rewarded ourselves with a rooftop Aperol Spritz. We had a delicious dinner at the Central Hotel in Plaka. We were starving too – only coffee all day. Full Mediterranean appetizers all around and the best Moussaka we had on the whole trip!

View of the Acropolis from dinner. We had a 7am ferry in the morning, so goodnight Athens and onto Mykonos!

We took the SeaJet ferry to Mykonos. So easy, assigned seats and great coffee/breakfast on board. Our hotel, the Santa Marina Mykonos, had someone waiting for us at the dock to pick us up. I highly recommend an arranged pick up during the busy season. Hoards got off the ferry with us, all scrambling for the few cabs available.

Unlike our trek in Athens, Mykonos was all about relaxing. Here is our room at the gorgeous Santa Marina We were here for two nights.

Our private deck.

One of the many pools and the beach at the hotel.

A nook for coffee.

The Buddha-Bar at the hotel has lunch, dinner and late night parties. Lunch is less chaotic. Late night is BUSY.

We did nothing when we arrived. Sat at the beach the entire day.

The people watching was unbelievable, so the Kindle sat in the beach bag!

Boats were coming in and out all day to use the beach or go to Buddha-Bar.

Everything is pretty!

We found this adorable seaside restaurant at the bottom of the hill from our hotel for dinner, APAGGIO. Local seafood and all things Greek. The restaurants at our hotel were crazy busy, so we opted to wander elsewhere. We had mussels here with fresh tomatoes and feta that were incredible!

Seafood risotto.

View on our walk down the hill to the restaurant. We loved it so much, on night two we had plans to go into town for dinner but decided to eat at APAGGIO again.

We went into the town of Mykonos the next morning because the weather was a little funky. Here are the famous windmills and all of the cute waterfront restaurants.