Weekly Update 1/5/22 - Mykonos and Meltdowns ⋆ Greek Island Bucket List

Well, it’s been a bit of a week!

I was supposed to be going to Ios island 30 minutes away from Santorini, but I felt like I needed longer here before moving on. I was able to get a full refund on the Airbnb I booked in Ios and instead booked to stay on Santorini island.

Back to Straight-Forward Planning

Living on Thirasia was lovely, but logistically not straightforward. Now it feels like a real treat to be on Santorini and able to jump in my car whenever I want and not be reliant on a ferry schedule.

Anyway, when I say straight-forward I don’t mean that straight-forward since there’s always the cats to think about. I booked a cheap hotel in Fira to see us through the turn-over period before going to my next place as had to l to leave Thirasia earlier in the day than expected.

It was comically bad. I knew from the reviews it would be. On Google Maps, it has a 2.7 rating. But all I wanted was a spot to leave the cats for a few hours that wasn’t a hot car. The room itself wasn’t awful and the bed actually felt quite comfortable. But the bathroom was dirty (I didn’t use it) and there was some rubbish left from the last person. Behind the fridge had never seen a hoover.

But I found a place round the corner that serves the best brunch ever so that was pretty cool.

Next Home

Anyway, I moved somewhere nicer for a few days but you know the flipping builders followed me here. I didn’t even get any respite today. Sunday morning and the noise started at 6:54am!

Other than that the space was nice to look at if a little impractical. But the cats like the garden so that’s all good. Today I moved to the place I’m staying for a bit longer and it’s more practical although I’m a bit worried about dogs in the area. Hopefully, my cats still have their stray, wily ways and haven’t become completely soft and spoilt.

A Dash to Mykonos

Before I moved I popped to Mykonos for the day to get my hair done. I tried four times here to get it done and in the end, I surrendered and decided to go back to the Italian in Mykonos. Don’t judge me but I had to take 4 flights to get there and back in a day. I couldn’t do it quickly enough with the ferries as they’re still on a spring timetable and I didn’t want to leave the cats too long.

I know we’re not supposed to be doing any more short flights but in my defence, I haven’t flown in or out of Santorini or Mykonos. And for the purposes of this blog I wanted to see what the experiences were like. I also took the lower CO2 version and paid to offset my carbon (if that actually does any good).

Plus I found out that the tech industry is actually worse for the environment than the travel industry. So doing the thing isn’t as bad as me telling you about the thing (that’s a whole story for another blog post).

But I probably picked the wrong day for it. Flying in propeller planes in a yellow wind warning isn’t that much fun. I’m a nervous flyer anyway and 3 of the 4 flights were on little planes. We were bouncing about all over the place and the normal service didn’t happen as even the stewards had to stay strapped to their seats. The flights were all around 30 minutes each and I was counting every one of those minutes.

But I got there and back safely and it all worked perfectly. I kept getting warnings that the connection time at Athens was tight. But in the event it was fine. I flew into a gate just a few meters from the one I was going back out from. Since I had no luggage the timing was perfect and I had time to read my book.

Shopping in Athens

After I got my hair cut I got a flight back to Athens. I’d booked a later flight back to Santorini so that I could pop to Glyfada – Athens Riviera – to grab a few summer bits. The weather’s gone directly from winter jackets to short sleeves with no stop for jumpers. And I needed some lighter clothes. I was planning to get some in Athens mid-month but I needed a couple of things in the meantime.

Aaand a Meltdown!

It was a long day but mission accomplished I got back to Santorini and was ready to see my cats. On my way back I got a message from the car hire people saying the police had ordered them to move my car at the airport. (They don’t do towing away here so much as removing your number plates and leaving you a fine.)

Anyway, I’d apparently parked in the minibus parking even though I properly looked for any signs to say that area wasn’t for cars. When I landed I couldn’t find where they’d moved the car to. I was wandering around for an hour at 10 o’clock at night even with directions from the car hire company.

Sometimes my brain just doesn’t seem to process things the way other people expect and in the end, I was so tired I had a bit of a meltdown. But I finally found the car and made my way home. The cats were none too please about being cooped up all day but they’ve forgiven me now.