Day 18 – Syros – Mykonos

Travel day. It was time to finally go home but a full day of travelling and waiting around was ahead of us. Checking out from Hotel Emily and writing a little comment in the guest book, the owner Alex was sad to see us leave. We were his first guests from Ireland ever.

When we arrived at the port, we collected our boat tickets for our last ferry of the trip. However, it was absolutely rammed. Luckily, we had been blessed with a good tanned base and acclimatised to the sun that we sat outside. Inside, it was impossible to even move around. Blue Star definitely oversubscribed this time.

Saying goodbye to Syros, it was an island that totally caught us off guard. We expected a quiet island like Sifnos. It was very much for the tourists that arrived and the huge shipbuilding port stretched for miles along the coast. Before leaving, we also caught a glimpse of the tallest and oldest lighthouse in the cyclades.

After a stop in Tinos, we arrived in Mykonos back where it all began. Needing to run to get the sea boat to Mykonos Town, we just about made it. Despite our boat being delayed for 40 minutes, we still had about 7 hours to spare before our flight.

The majority of that time was spent walking around Mykonos town – having lunch (Louis had his last gyros of the trip), cooling down with a frozen yogurt and ice cream and finally chilling in a bar/restaurant to charge our phones.

In the end, we decided that going to the airport earlier would be better because it was free to sit and would probably be air conditioned. This was not the case. Our gate wasn’t up and each section had it’s own security. Therefore, we sat outside in the 30 degree heat for a few hours.

Anna was kept occupied by 3 stray kittens playing around near to us and I went to explore the nearby supermarket, which turned into a nightclub towards the meat and dairy sections. They also had an off licence the size of a small house.

Finally, our gate came up and we went through. We were delighted to get seats in the cool airport but our dreams were quickly shattered. The terminal hosted gates 1, 2 and 3 and it was rammed. With bodies literally everywhere, we found a spot beside the toilets downstairs.

Even Anna was calling it a shambles of the airport and she couldn’t be more right. There were delays all over the show – Our flight ended up being delayed an hour because the 7.15pm flight to Paris had still not arrived and it was 9.00pm now.

Thankfully, we arrived in London Gatwick with any problems after our flight, even getting ourselves a meal deal on the plane. However, it wasn’t plain sailing yet. Louis got stopped at passport control as his passport wouldn’t scan with the electronic machines. It was half past midnight and we just wanted to go to bed at this stage.

We were staying in BLOC Hotel right in Gatwick Airport and it was great to be in a fully furnished professional hotel again with a comfortable bed, English TV and mood lighting. One step closer to home.