SO LONG MYKONOS...

The final day in Mykonos! I can’t believe how fast that went. As usual by this stage were dying to get off the bloody Island. Yes I know within six month will want to be back on it!

We depart for breakfast while waving to Local Christine. We head straight to our local crepe place for breakfast and order our usual tea and turkey, tomato & cheese crepe.

After breakfast we do a quick lap of Mykonos town before heading back to the apartment. We continue packing until the time comes to do our final checks before the dragging of the suitcases. Lucy heads down the stairs first since she only has one suitcase. I pre plan my movements. First the small suitcase followed by the big one. I practically tumble down the stairs trying to get that thing down. It doesn’t help that we have a broken hand rail and I cant hold onto it.

Meanwhile Lucy is watching my slow pain of dragging a suitcase down a stairway. Trust me its 3 times as worst when your sick and all you really want to do it throw the suitcase down the stairs and hope for a safe landing. Knowing my luck if I threw my suitcase down the staircase it would probably tumbled and slam local Christine in the head. Wait that would be a bonus right?

I eventually get down the stairway to meet Lucy. Now the hard part - actually dragging the suitcases to Windmills travel agency. We had pre-booked our transfers to the airport. Stupidly we never think things through and end up paying twice as much for a transfer than a cab. Our reason - we might not get a cab on the morning of our departure. How did we come to this conclusion? We spent 10 minutes looking for a cab yesterday and realised there isn’t any.

So the marathon begins as we start dragging our suitcases through the narrow streets of Mykonos town. We had to stop 4 or 5 times to rest. God I hate to be doing this when I’m 40 or something. We eventually manage to get to the travel agency to realise we are super early. We should have taken more rest stops. Lucy decides to drag her suitcase 100m back towards a bench she spotted in the shade. By this stage I cant be bothered and decide to stand outside of Windmills for 20 minutes.

While standing there some middle aged woman in her early 40’s walks up to me and starts a random conversation. She asked if I was leaving today and I said yes. To which she followed with I have room if you want to stay with me. At first I thought she might be simply friendly when I realised she was trying to pick me up. God I got picked up outside of Windmills travel. I kindly thanked her before she stormed off disappointed.

Eventually the transfer guy pulls up the van and Lucy comes storming over with her suitcase. We load the suitcases into the van and jump in. This is it. Oh no we haven’t seen the exchange woman. The van speeds off and we take our last look at Mykonos.

Last Views of Mykonos

We arrive at the airport to realise were early and the check in counter hasn’t opened yet. So we plant ourselves down waiting. When the check in counter finally opens were like one of the first people to line up.

We check our bags in when the bitch behind the counter demands excess baggage money. Were confused on what is happening. The bitch tries explaining to us that from Milan to Mykonos we were allowed 20kgs. However from Mykonos to Istanbul were only allowed 15kgs. So what the hell do you expect us to do? Dump 5kgs of luggage in Mykonos? What drugs are these Greeks on?

Since were getting a fine I decide to check in my hand luggage as well. Besides its too big to fit onto the plane. We walk over to the security bag check in where we dump all our suitcases onto the security machine. When my hand trolley goes through the woman storms over to me asking me what that thing in my hand trolley is. I tell her its my asthma machine and offer to take it out to show her. She tells me its ok and doesn’t bother opening my hand luggage. God I love the security checks around here.

Were handed our fine as we walk over to the counter to pay approx 20 Euros. I supposed it wasn’t that bad. We walk through the security checks into the waiting area. We sit down and within 2 minutes Lucy spots more bags at dutyfree. She immediately storms over for last minute shopping spree. She returns back claiming she found a bag she likes but doesn’t know whether or not to buy it. FFS woman just buy it and leave me alone to die in peace.

We continue sitting in the waiting area and I’m already missing scary canary and the $40 dollar woman. They were some good times. Our boarding time starts and its like they just announced free big mac’s or something at Maccas. Everyone is pushing and shoving to get onto the plane. This is what this island does to you haha

We start walking towards the plane when a massive wind came tearing towards us. Were practically taking one step forward and 4 steps back. It was like the island was trying to keep us here. I think this island is cursed. Its trying to keep us here by blowing us back into the airport. Honestly we couldn’t hold onto anything and we couldn’t move forward. Eventually when we found a break in the wind we quickly walked onto the plane.

By the time we got onto the plane we were both exhausted and collapsed motionless into our seats. OMG that look a lot out of us. This is it Mykonos, were off to Athens now.

We arrive in Athens to wait in transit again. We had a good few hours for our next flight to Istanbul. Worst part was we couldn’t check in yet. We went searching for Turkish Airlines when we realised their counter is shut. We did the next best thing, searched to steal a trolley. Once our trolley mission was accomplished we decided to finish our phone cards by calling Christine and screaming at her. Trust me it was much needed by this stage.

Were walking through the airport when suddenly I spot something. Oh my god its CLAWFEET. I race with the trolley at Lucy screaming at the top of my lungs its CLAWFEET. It was the only way of getting Lucy’s attention ok. We spot Clawfeet and Colgate guy in a massive check in queue. Next thing you know Lucy starts screaming their names out at the top of her lungs. Clawfeet and Colgate guy spot us and start waving back at us. I think the entire airport heard us causing a scene.

Clawfeet pushes through the crowd to come over to us leaving her husband in the queue. Seriously what is the odds of seeing these people again? They were at the last leg of their trip, heading back to Perth.

Clawfeet approaches us and we start a random chat that drags on for 20 minutes. By the end of it I was ready to cut my hand open so I had an excuse to leave. Meanwhile poor Colgate guy was stuck in the check in queue. We eventually said our final goodbyes as Clawfeet headed back to her husband who was now at the front of the queue.

Our check in counter finally opens and we storm over to it to only realise we are stuck behind a massive group of people. One of the guys had a small kid who wouldn’t sit still. The kid kept running around and dropping suitcases over. When they finally approached the check in counter I found out they had a suitcase full of jars of something. Meanwhile the kid dropped one of the suitcase and the father started screaming bastard at him in Turkish. Its funny the people you find while travelling.

Once our check in is complete we head straight to Maccas. By this stage we need it. We sit at maccas munching away and recapping on Mykonos.

Athens Maccas

We decide to head over to our boarding gates when I spot the CD shop. I storm into it while Lucy goes looking for Ouzo for her coffee guy. I end up buying some Greek Cd’s when I spot CD singles for the TV reality show Je’Taime. I rush out telling Lucy who decides we need to buy one. Next thing you know Lucy storms out of the CD shop with the shish kebab song.

Now that retail therapy is out of our systems we head to our boarding gates. Were on the plane and Lucy manages to pass out immediately with all the pills she has popped. Meanwhile this Arab sitting next to me strikes up a conversation with me. I feel rude if I snob him off but seriously I’m not in a socializing mood right now. The conversation seems to drag on and on. I practically know everything about this guy. The 1 hour flight seemed like a 10 hour flight. Apparently he was transiting in Istanbul to fly to Aman.

Were about to land in Istanbul and everyone has taken their seats. The Arab guy has managed to shut up for 5 minutes. Now I usually try and avoid looking outside the window on a plane but on this instance I was staring out the window. Mainly to avoid another conversation with the Arab guy. I actually noticed that we were about to land but the plane was still going way too fast. I remember thinking at the time this isn’t right. Next thing you know BANG the wheels of the plane touch the runway only for the entire plane to bounce back up into the air before falling back down to the runway. Lucy who was passed out wakes up with a scream. Since she had a sore throat the scream barely came out of her mouth. Welcome to Istanbul, I think were all fully awake now.

That scared the shit out of me. What scared me more was that I actually knew that the landing was going to be awful. For the next 5 minutes as the plane is strolling down the runway soft relaxing music comes on. I love it how they are trying to calm everyone after we nearly crashed on the runway.

Doors open and we rush off immediately saying bye to the Arab guy. Lets hope that’s the last we see of him. We rush to grab Lucy a Visa to get into Turkey. After she gains her visa we stroll through passport checks to collect our luggage. We spend 5 minutes waiting for luggage as every tom, dick and Turk is trying to get their bags. I have to help some old bag get her bags and nearly do my back in.

We grab the suitcases and I head into Duty free. I figured I should get BellBoy some Vodka. The minute I grab that we start heading to the taxi queue when Lucy demands to stop to find an ATM. I wait as she rushes over to the ATM to get money out.

The minute Lucy gets back we jump into a cab to storm through the streets of Istanbul. I don’t know what was more scary for Lucy - the landing in Istanbul or her first cab ride for this trip in Istanbul.

When we get close to the hotel the taxi driver decides to enter the one way street that leads to Sude Konak. For some stupid reason they made that street one way and no cab driver actually goes around the block to get to Sude Konak. We walked into Sude Konak to be greeted by Bell Boy‘s work mate.

Lucy has been screaming at Bell Boy on MSN for the best & biggest room in Sude Konak and boy did we get the best room. Now for some reason we told BellBoy that Lucy was coming to Istanbul with her lesbian lover Christine. However when I arrived to Istanbul earlier I asked Lucy what I should tell Bell Boy. Her response was “Tell Bell Boy I’m seeing my ex lesbian lover’s twin sister who is bi”. Don’t ask me what the fuck that is about. So I told him that.

Anyway we walk into our room at Sude Konak to realise we have been given a dungeon. The room is dark and gloomy. Our view? We didn’t even get a view of a brick wall or another building. We coped a hole in the wall with pipes. We have views of pipes and probably rats running around the pipes. What kind of a sick person does this to us?

We take turns in using the bathroom. There absolutely no air in the bathroom. You take a shower and by the time you finish getting dressed in there your trenched in sweat.

We even brought the bastard a bottle of Vodka and this is what we get!

We decide to take a stroll around Istanbul and look for soup as well. We do our usual and walk past Istanbul’s Chinatown. We stop to look at their menu and the waiter gets really excited at a potential customer. The poor restaurant has no one in it. We promised to come another night and walk off. We both know this isn’t happening. Who comes to Turkey for Chinese food?

Istanbul Chinatown

This is when we spot a Chinese travel agency:



We cant be bothered doing too many laps as were both sick and need something for our throats. I tell Lucy of the restaurant Maestro opposite Sude Konak Everytime I tried going in there Bell Boy would throw a massive tantrum claiming that the prices are ridiculously expensive and that they will rip me off.

So I avoided Maestro until now. Lucy and I walk in and the staff seem friendly enough. Were given a menu to realise that the prices are actually quite reasonable. I have no idea what BellBoy was on about.

Maestro

We immediately order lentil soup to smooth our throats. A few minutes later our lentil soup arrives with bread and lemons.

This was one of the best meals we had. The soup was so good. We finish up with some traditional Turkish Tea:

Feeling a lot satisfied we stroll back to the hotel to pass out. God it’s been a long day.