Last Updated on August 25, 2023
After a complicated breakup, I flew out of Madrid to see my sister who was on vacation and headed to Mykonos, Greece.
Coordinating our meetup was a bit difficult because it happened so last-minute. My plans to see her came together within 24 hours of me landing on the island.
As excited as I was to be returning to Mykonos for the second time, this visit I was traveling there with a different purpose and mindset than the first time I went to Mykonos one year prior.
During the year I lived in Spain, I uprooted my life to move abroad in hopes of making a long-distance relationship work by eliminating the most challenging aspect of the relationship: the distance.
After things went south in that relationship, my whole life was in disarray as I tried to figure out what to do, where to go, and who to turn to.
When I heard my sister was going to be heading to Athens and then to Mykonos with her significant other at the time, I asked if it would be okay for me to meet up with them.
As you can imagine, coping with such a heavy heartache and living alone was not an easy transition.
My sister and I are incredibly close. She’s not only my sister, she is my best friend. We’ve been through so much together over the years. If there was anyone who could lift my spirits after such a depressing time in my life, it was her.
In addition to seeing two familiar faces, I loved the idea of returning to one of the most famous gay meccas in the world. Mykonos is one of my favorite islands I’ve ever been to. It will always hold a special space in my heart for the memories I have from staying there.
Excited about the prospect of seeing my sister in person, I hopped online to begin booking my trip. I didn’t have much time to look for a suitable last-minute accommodation on the Greek island.
I didn’t want to intrude on their vacation so I asked if I could join them for just 2-3 days. I began trying to coordinate a visit so I could see them in Mykonos once they had already completed the first portion of their vacation which was being spent in Athens.
I still get a chuckle of this screenshot I took at the time.
I think this was one of the first times in my life I had intentionally sought out a 1-star hotel because my goal was to ESCAPE EVERYTHING AND GET TO MYKONOS FOR AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE TO SEE MY SISTER TOMORROW.
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Quite literally, I did not care if I needed to sleep in a cardboard box, I just needed to see my sister and everything else I could put up with or figure out later. I was fortunate enough to have a comfortable trip to Mykonos the year before so I didn’t want to spend any more than I needed to.
While I did get something a bit nicer than the cardboard box I joked about, it was literally still a bed to sleep on, a roof over my head, and nothing more. (Seriously, that’s all it was.)
I suppose it was also all I truly needed.
After arriving at the property, it made sense why it was 1-star.
Not even toilet paper was provided.
When I arrived at the hotel it was past midnight so everything was very dark out. The view seemed pretty nice, but I went to sleep mostly unaware of what was in store for me.
So here’s the thing. My sister wasn’t staying at this property, I only booked it because it was cheap and in close proximity to where she was staying.
On Google Maps, it said it was a 22 minutes away by foot. But I tried to be creative and find a shortcut. I’ve illustrated my idea in purple. The yellow square indicates the main snafu: a point of disconnect.
In theory, my idea should have meant a walk no more than 10 minutes long from my sister’s hotel.
I imagined myself taking a nice comfortable stroll along the streets of Mykonos. Except when I finally tried to leave my hotel to find my sister at night, I found myself walking up a dirt path. After climbing the hill, I faced a brick wall barrier.
I had already come this far. No turning back now, right?
Here’s a photo of me staring over the brick wall looking out at my sister’s property wondering if I would actually survive the rest of the journey there or if it was better to turn back.
I gulped and threw my body over the cobblestone wall. Landing on the other side, everything seemed to be okay. I didn’t get electrocuted which was actually a real concern I had the first night I crossed it. It turned out to be no big deal.
During my stay in Mykonos, I got very comfortable making this trip because I rarely spent any time at my 1-star hotel.
What felt like a pretty frightening and sketchy walk at 1:30 AM on my first night back on the Greek island turned out not to be so bad during the day. Turns out my little off-road shortcut worked!
Better yet, it was only 8 minutes!
Here’s a time-lapse I took of the trip from my 1-star property to paradise.*
*More details to come in an upcoming blog post! Stay tuned!
Just imagine me doing this walk in the dark with no light except from my cell phone. Haha.
Where is the most sketchy hotel you have ever stayed?
Have you ever booked a stay at a 1-star property before?
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Rocky, your entire story about the shortcut on the map had me cackling. I am so happy it worked out for you!
Hahahaha I wish I had taken a time lapse at night, it would have been even more telling of how ridiculous the journey was in the dark!
Haha, I’d never consider throwing myself over a wall as a shortcut; I’d probably just throw in the towel. Your tenacity worked, though! I’ve had my fair share of staying in sketchy and/or cheap accommodations (many in my earlier days of travel), and while they definitely save money on your trip, I think I’m at that age where I’d prefer to pay extra for a bit more comfort and safety!
Hahahaha, exactly. I did what I had to do and like you said, it worked! 😁 Once this Thursday’s blog post is published, I believe you’re going to truly understand WHY I was willing to go to these lengths to leave the place I was staying at behind. Let’s just say it’ll all make sense if you read that upcoming post hahaha.
Back to your comment- Saving money is nice, but I completely hear where you’re coming from and I’ve actually even seen a similar trend in my own travel preferences over the years. For instance, I tend to be more willing to pay more for direct flights because I’ve realized the energy and time consumed by layovers is many times not worth the savings. It’s a case-by-case decision but sometimes the extra money is worth it for some added comfort!
The first night in Nashville on my honeymoon… you could see the streetlights through the large gap in the door, no shower door and the carpet was sticky. We did not stay more than one night there. I guess I should feel lucky we had toilet paper at least. I am glad in spite of the one star stay for you, that you still had a good time there with your sister!
Oooooh no!!! I’m glad you were able to relocate ASAP under those circumstances! I hope the next place you went to was better. I told my sister it didn’t matter where I stayed and I meant it. The entire trip was just to be in close proximity to her so we could talk and spend time together. So we totally did have an amazing time. Plus, the place she stayed was quite a bit nicer than where I was!