Mykonos

(Note: this post was written on Friday, June 20, though I'm only just now posting it.)

I'm currently sitting in a fancy airport hotel in Athens on our 5 year anniversary.  We just had a delicious pizza buffet lunch at the airport and bought a couple of mini wine bottles to sneak back with us for a real celebration!  We have to get up at 2:30am to catch our 4am flight to Spain (who schedules a flight that early?) so we are laying low and going to bed early - and pretending our real anniversary is tomorrow.

We also just got done with three relaxing days in Mykonos and are wrapping up Part Two of our 3 week jaunt around Europe.  I also just had the realization that we will officially be home to Dallas in less than 2 weeks and I'm feeling...antsy.  And numb.  Part of me thinks traveling for 3 weeks is too long but I never want the fun traveling and great times with Drew to end.  There's so much left to do in Dublin but I don't want to go yet because I don't want to be done.  There's a lot to look forward to in Dallas but I don't want to leave Dublin.  Everything is conflicting and makes me anxious but excited but frazzled but eerily calm at the same time!  I thought I'd be crying all the time at this point because of my sadness at leaving but...my emotions seem to have left the building.  I'm sure they'll pop up when I least expect them at a very inopportune time.  Ah well.

So...Mykonos!  Mykonos is a lovely little island that's full of beaches and wild night life, along with beautiful young guys and girls to go with it.  We decided that 'mykonos' in Greek either means "We're young and slutty!" or "God, we're old."  You can guess which category we fell into.  If you're a hot young gay guy or a scantily clad 20-something lady, this is your place.

That's not to say we didn't have an amazing time!  Our hotel was a real highlight - they do orientations every day for people that arrive and Anna and Yianni (the owners) have "Greek nights" once every 3 days - where they teach you how to make tzaziki and how to Greek dance and introduce you to everyone in the boutique hotel.  We were naturally feeling intimidated and awkward but we instantly clicked with a gorgeous gay couple from London who were just as anti-social as we were.  Gary and Peter became our fast friends the rest of the week!

I didn't take a ton of pictures in Mykonos but here are a few for fun:

View of the pool from the pool bar.  Really pretty.

Another view from the edge of the pool.  Lots of cruise ships!

Sunset drinks at the pool.

Hey.

We saw so many pretty sunsets this trip but its virtually impossible to capture them on a camera!

Views of Mykonos town.

And some blue/green water with some giant ships.

Dinner at Niko's Taverna!  This was a large copper jug of wine.  Yumm.

They're known for a dish called the Lamb Kleftiko, which is basically the most tender lamb ever with potatoes, onions, carrots, feta cheese, and loads of olive oil and garlic baked in foil.  I'm going to learn how to make it when I get home but this stuff WAS GOOD.

We had so much success with the four-wheeler in Santorini that we decided to rent another one here for 2 days.  We drove to Agios Sostis beach on the first day, a "virgin" beach (meaning there aren't any chairs or restaurants on the beach), and it was rugged and beautiful.

There IS an (evidently) world famous restaurant, Kiki's, up on the hill, that serves huge grilled meat dishes and super fresh salads.  

I forgot to get a picture of the giant feta and tomato stuffed chicken breast we ordered but managed to capture these colorful salads.

Anna at our hotel told us we HAD to go to either Paradise Beach or SuperParadise Beach one day "for the experience".  Paradise Beach is exactly what you think a crazy party town beach full of sluts and guys on the prowl might be.  Packed full of beach bars and chairs and waiters bringing everyone drinks and loud bumping music!

And here's me, eating a watermelon.  In a one-piece.  Which I thought was cute and thought were coming back but even if you DON'T have the body for a two-piece, you should wear one anyway.  Or risk being scorned!!

At 4:30pm, the music REALLY starts pumping, and hired dancers start twerking on the table tops.  This goes late into the night when the party moves to the actual clubs up on the hill where famous DJs usually frequent in the summer.  Boy George is playing next week!  Gary and Peter are going.
We left around 5:30 because we'd had all the fun we could stand and there was no way I was ever going to get drunk enough to dance on a table in my suit.  Sorry, partiers.

Another pic on our last day before we flew back to Athens!

And here's Drew eating a delightful room service anniversary dinner, consisting of a club sandwich for him and a burger for me.  We had ourselves a nice little staycation.

 If I had to choose between the two, I'd say I liked Santorini more, but only by a hair.  Our hotel and the owners were so wonderful and that really made our stay so memorable.  The food was delicious and the city was fun to wander around and get lost in.  The people watching was more fun than anything and we loved/hated being reminded exactly how old we are.  Dangit!

In present day, it's currently our last night of our trip and we are headed to a fancy dinner to celebrate/mourn.  More soon!