Exploring the Town of Mykonos

After spending the day lounging around at the fabulous Saint John Resort, we made a quick pit stop in the heart of Mykonos to eat a late lunch, shop for souvenirs, and find ourselves some authentic Greek baklava. We only had about 3 hours until we needed to be back at the ship, but we were still able to get a good feel for the slow-paced Mykonos life. Walking through the narrow streets of this sleepy Greek fishing village reminded me a lot of Sanotrini, except less hilly and a little more run down. It was easy to see that tourism is the main focus of Mykonos these days. With 2 to 3 cruise ships dropping anchor in the Old Harbor each day, much of the town caters to its hundreds of visitors from all over the world. Thankfully, we were the only ship in port that afternoon...so, we meandered through the town with ease. While not as awe-inspiring as some of the other Greek islands, Mykonos still had a unique charm all its own with lots of quaint shops and cafes and arbors overflowing with colorful flowers around almost every turn. Not to mention some pretty stellar food. D and I scarfed down our chicken slouvaki & gyros with homemade tzatzki sauce like ravenous animals. And later, we hopped from bakery to bakery to find the perfect bites of baklava. The winner? Patissaries Mandarini. Might I recommend the chocolate baklava? It's mouthwatering and practically oozing with sweet honey. I stay up late at night still lusting over those tiny drops of heaven. If only I could have brought an entire pan home! All in all, Mykonos would definitely be a place I'd visit again. Even though the town is small, there's still a few things we didn't get to do. Next time, we'd hike to the windmills along the back side of town and hunt for Petros the Pelican, an old "celebrity" of the town's waterfront. I'm actually not quite sure how we missed him. Supposedly he's huge! All the more reason we'll have to save our pennies and come back someday. Darn, right? ;)

Next stop on our cruise recap...ISTANBUL!

If you've missed anything from our recaps thus far, you can catch up right here.

Mykonos: Day Pass to Paradise

I found this Saint John "day pass" absolutely by chance. Shortly after we booked our Mediterranean cruise, I joined the Cruise Critic forums (also known as the most helpful time suck I've ever experienced). I added myself to our sailing's Roll Call forum and started chatting with other people who were going to be on our ship. We exchanged info about ourselves, passed around the research we'd done on our ports, and shared tours we were doing while in said ports. We saved so much money and met so many nice people via these forums...but I'll save that humble brag-fest for another post. Long story short, this is where I stumbled across the glorious resort day pass. Saint John doesn't advertise it anywhere on their website...it's kind of just become this "cruise insider excursion." I emailed the hotel and they sent over the day pass info and reservation request. €30 later, BOOM...we were in. D and I now like to think we're part of some elite group of fortunate souls. The Greek gods smiled upon us there on that tiny island. And now if you lucky ducks ever find yourself in Mykonos, you're also in the know. You're welcome.

Upon arriving to Saint John (via our air conditioned shuttle bus that conveniently picked us up at the cruise port...sa-weet!), we checked in for our day pass and were promptly handed chilled glasses of champagne. Right then I knew we were in for a treat. The concierge gave us a map of the property, a brief synopsis of what facilities we could use (which was basically all of them...spa, pool, private beach, restaurants, etc.), and pointed us in the direction of paradise. You couldn't get me out that patio door fast enough! I was giddy as a school girl walking down the long, tree-lined walkway (or the stairway to heaven as I affectionally dubbed it) to the pool. When I first laid eyes on our tropical oasis for the day, I almost died. Too stunning for words! From then on, this is pretty much how our day went:

Lounge around, read a book, and tan.

Order a drink.

Snap some photos.

Order another drink.

Dip our feet in the Mediterranean (was still a little too chilly for swimming).

Order homemade tzatziki sauce and pita bread. YUM.

Take a dip in the pool.

Gratuitous infinity pool ledge photos.

Munch on free pistachios.

Annnnd order one last drink.

Sounds like a pretty amazing day pass, doesn't it?  Good Lord, it was. Beyond amazing.

True story. A PREGNANT woman walked across the ledge of the infinity pool and took some pretty stunning photos of her and her cute bikini clad bump. She took full advantage of the gorgeous locale the seriously cool infinity pool. Genius, right? D and I thought we'd be awesome too and get a few of us out there. If a pregnant woman can do it, we surely could! Nope. Bad idea. I was shaking like a leaf the entire time. The drop on the other side of the pool ledge was much steeper than one would think, and all I could think about while I baby stepped across the pool was broken bones and a ruined vacation. We only made it a few steps further before I declared that was good enough! Snap the friggin' picture already so I can get the heck off of here!! I'm only a little afraid of heights...but I look 70 different kinds of uncomfortable in this photo. I HAD to show you, though. 

I mean, I risked my life for it, after all. ;)

D, on the other hand, HAMMED IT UP on that infinity pool ledge. I think he thought he would "show me how it's done," so to speak. Little did he know that the photos I took of him strutting his stuff would eventually end up circling their way around the ENTIRE squadron (big wigs included) while we were still cruising. I may or may not have uploaded one to Facebook (oops). They subsequently showed up in the Monday morning briefing slides upon his return back to work. OH and that's not even the best part. Let's just say that the guys at work decided to take a few liberties with one of the photos. Photoshop is a dangerous thing. Serves you right, show off! Everyone got a good laugh out of it...including D. All in good fun. :)

I feel a "Hunks of Mykonos" calendar coming on.

Ahem...back to our relaxing day.

 Dear Lord, take me back! After lounging and soaking up the sun all day, the nice people of Saint John kindly loaded us up in their shuttle bus and dropped us off in the heart of Mykonos (per my request) so we could do a little sight-seeing. We got our relaxing pool day AND our sight-seeing all rolled into one great excursion. It's the vacationer's dream, right?! More of our afternoon exploring the lovely town of Mykonos--coming soon!

Mykonos: Saint John Hotel, Villas & Spa

For our 9-hour stop on the island of Mykonos, Greece, D and I knew we wanted to spend our day doing something unique, but relaxing. We've so been missing the Caribbean-esque resort-type vacations. You know the kind of vacation I'm talking about. Ones where you spend every waking second catching rays at the resort pool or private beach, sipping on cocktails as tropical music plays in the background, never leaving the resort grounds except to go to a limbo drinking contest at Señor Frogs or Margaritaville. Sigh. Those kinds of vacations have seriously been lacking in our lives since moving to Europe. You have no idea how much you miss something like that until its gone. Granted, we get to explore Europe and view things I've only ever read about in history books, but those trips, the kinds of trips we've been taking over the last 2 years, aren't true vacations to me. I know, you're all giving me some serious eye rolls here. But I think my fellow expats can relate. Bleeding feet and achy backs from hours of sight-seeing doesn't constitute as a relaxing vacation in my book. So, as soon as I stumbled across the opportunity to have a REAL relaxing "day pass" to a 5-star resort on the island, we literally JUMPED at chance! Lounge chairs, cabana boys, and an infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean Sea? Total no brainer. I have to say, it might have been the smartest (and most refreshing) excursion we did while cruising.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Saint John Mykonos Hotel, Villas & Spa.

Also known as...heaven.

More details on our "day pass" in Mykonos tomorrow! Y'all come back now, ya hear?