Day 11 & 12 March Break Trip: Mykonos to Athens to Toronto

(Read about Day 10 here)

(Read about Day 1&2 here)

Day 10 (March 18) we started to make our way back home.  But we got to spend the morning doing whatever in Mykonos.  Nancy and I went back to the more expensive food market because the AB Food Market is closed on Sundays.  We bought supplies for another crafty lunch!  We also found out that morning that there was a marathon going on.  Children and adults were running past us, music was blaring, and there was a huge crowd cheering them on at the finish line.  What shocked me was how that many people just appeared on the island.  Did they live there?  Did they take the ferry over?

After lunch, we went back out on the streets.  This mini adventure included our typical run-in with the local cats and dogs, souvenir shopping, and squeezing our way through an incredibly small gap between two buildings.  Sylvia and I made friends with a cat and it followed us almost all the way back to the hotel (if not for the mini sand beach it dared not cross).

Mykonos is a beautiful island and I would love to come back during a more busy season when the island is in full swing.  I also recently found out that Lindsay Lohan has a bar there and I've seen a couple photos of her relaxing there.  It's weird to think she and I went to the same place.  What an icon.

This is the Blue Star Ferry that we took to arrive and depart the island.  Crazy nice inside.  This ferry took us back to Athens where we took a short bus ride to a city just outside Athens and where our hotel was that we previously stayed.  Only this time we stayed at a hotel just opposite.  Our morning call time was something like 4 am so we tried to stay up all night.  We walked to Athens (~20 min) and got gelato.  We also hit up a gas station mart and got creme cheese, croissants, and more lemon cookies!  Then we went back to our hotel and watched a movie (which movie? beats me).  In the end I crashed and had about a two hour nap before it was time to get up again.

Our layover flight was in Germany.  We found out that our flight was overbooked and the airport staff were asking if people would want to stay back four days and be re-compensated like 900 euros.  We were very tempted and I honestly probably would have taken the offer if I wasn't traveling with a group.

When I got back to Canada it was like nothing really changed (except for me crashing at 10 pm for the rest of the week).  There's a certain rush and high you get from being in a new environment.  If I get the chance, I would love to learn more of the Italian language, but also improve my French speaking skills.  I've been in French Immersion since kindergarden and I still feel embarrassed when asked to speak French to locals.

I freaking love Europe.  I'm thinking of taking a year to study abroad there.  

Something cool I discovered is that visiting big cities like Rome and Athens didn't feel far off from Toronto (besides the unbeatable architecture), which makes me appreciate the city I live in much more.  This summer I've been exploring downtown a lot more.  I went on a mini ROM Walks tour around the Arts and Entertainment District yesterday and learned a lot about commissioned art installations around every block and the history of Toronto that I never knew before.  I've been downtown countless times but never stopped to admire the details.  I also discovered how beautiful walking out west along Harbourfront and through Ontario Place is.  I always thought I had done everything there was to do in Toronto that didn't cost a fortune.  Man, was I wrong.

Traveling with really good friends is a blast.  Sena and I have dreamed of going to Paris together since middle school.  Hopefully someday our dream will come true and you might just read about it here!  We also planned on sharing an apartment together.  That's a topic for another post someday.

Anyways, this is the last post from my March Break Trip to Rome and Greece 2018.  It took awhile for all the post to go up, but I'm glad it's done.  As much as I love when bloggers post super long update posts with tons of photos, this was gonna be way too lengthy and had to be split up.  Now I can spend more time living in the moment than trying to relive the past (and also get more fashion related posts up cuz I miss those).  Grazie mille for reading, especially those of you who have read this series start to finish.  Here's to new adventures!

Ciao,

Sophia

(Read about Day 10 here)

(Read about Day 1&2 here)

Day 10 March Break Trip: Mykonos + My 18th Birthday!

(Read about Day 9 here)

(Read about Day 11&12 here)

Day 10 (March 17) began with an early morning jog through the winding curves of the Greek island, Mykonos.  It was about an hour long jog of beautiful mountains and sea.  You can't tell in the picture above, but on the other side of the road there was a little green hill filled with green shrubs that looked like the trolls from Frozen.

On our jog back to the Hotel, we came across a herd (?) of chickens.  Okay, I just googled the collective noun for chickens: Brood/Peep.  Now we know.

Then we got a bit daring and veered off the road to go hike through a bunch of rocks and we found a carcass of some big animal.

After the jog, we came back to the hotel, freshened up, and went for breakfast.  By we I mean Natalie and I.

Once our group was assembled, we headed out for more exploring, lunch, and picture taking.  Of course, there were a ton of adorable cats and dogs everywhere just chilling in the cool afternoon breeze.

Over there by the windmills we found an adorable dog and I was rubbing his belly.

You can see me holding my own lemon cookies lol.

For lunch we made our way to our favourite market; The AB Food Market.  Now that we were familiar with what to buy, we stocked up on food like bread, salami, salad, tomatoes etc...  We also got a bit adventurous and bought some sweets.  It was at time that we discovered how delicious lemon cookies are.  We devoured the entire roll and just had to make our way back there.  We bought all of them lol, but there still wasn't enough for everyone so we tried looking for some at other markets.  Like I said, AB Market had the cheapest lemon cookies.  But we did find an outdoor vendor and purchased a whole head of romaine lettuce for 1 euro!  There was also a school across the AB Market.

 

This is the blue opal crystal ring my friends bought me.  I was looking forward to doing lots of shopping in Mykonos, but that clearly didn't happen with all the stores being closed or too expensive.

For dinner our whole school group went out to eat at one of the restaurants facing the water.  I ordered the salmon pasta.  And at the end of service I was surprised with a chocolate cake dessert!

(Read about Day 9 here)

(Read about Day 11&12 here)

Day 9 March Break Trip: Athens to Mykonos

(Read about Day 8 here)

(Read about day 10 here)

Day 9 (March 16) we arrived in Mykonos after a long ferry ride that began it's journey early in the morning.  Mykonos really is a beautiful Greek island with its white buildings and stone pavements.  As pretty and serene as it is, it is very much a vacation/tourist island, which for some people is all they need.  But I would recommend going during tourist season (summer) as most of the stores were undergoing yearly renovations in anticipation.  So lots of cafes, restaurants, clothing shops, jewelry shops etc... were inaccessible and roaming the barren streets grew too familiar only after two days.  It seemed as though we had walked all the roads in the main area of the island.  

My favourite part?  The cats.  They were plentiful!

Since we found our soon to be favourite local market called AB Food Market (unbeatable prices and great selection) we bought groceries to make dinner. (I can't seem to remember what we did for lunch hmm... I also can't remember if it was this day, the next day, or both days that we went to the mini beach outside our hotel...)

We made sandwiches and a salad whilst playing music.  Our new favourite song became Ximeromata by Konstantinos Argiros.  I for one learned pretty much all the words and will gladly sing with you anytime of the day.

Then we watched Mama Mia and called it a night.

Thanks for reading,

Sophia aka The Sophia

(Read about Day 8 here)

(Read about day 10 here)