Recharging in Ios, Greece

Ios, Greece is known for being the young, backpacker party island. Here, I recharged my battery (of all places! haha).

We took a ferry from Milos to Ios with Zante Ferries. I went out to dinner with some new friends Kenzie & I met from the hostel (shoutout Jon and Amit). The hostel I stayed at was called Francesco’s. They had free pickup from the ferry and you had to pay in cash for this hostel. I will add that there are many stairs to get to this location. But, this was one of the most beautiful hostels I've stayed at. The people who ran it were so friendly - everyone got a free welcome shot. AND they had a pool/ dining area with one of the most gorgeous views. At night, everyone met in the dining area to drink before they all moved to the bars. Ios was Kenzie's favorite island in Greece too!

"Greece was my favorite country overall because everyone was so welcoming! And we met so many travelers our age - Ios was my favorite!!" - Mackenzie

At this point in my trip, I had been backpacking for about three weeks. Being an introvert, my social meter was running out & I was on more of an eat, pray, love journey rather than "party". So the first night, I stayed in my hostel room while everyone else went out to the bars. To reconnect with myself, I journaled. Then I turned on this big, loud a** fan and got one of the best nights of sleep I had on the trip so far.

Today I'm in Ios. I'm going to figure out my next moves. I don't want to party at all. It's making my attitude a little sour. I need to shift my thinking into a positive light. There is still much to do here while not partying so I will research and do that instead.

So the next morning, I went and grabbed a smoothie at Moonlight Cafe. It's right next to Francesco’s. TIP: the smoothies in Greece are amazing. I have never tasted a better smoothie in MY LIFE. I then relaxed at the pool & that's where I met my friend Maude! We then decided to take a bus to the Far Out Beach Club. We heard great things about this place. There was a lot to do: paddle boarding, volleyball, scuba, restaurants/bars, pristine beaches, etc! So we all split a pizza here & tried espresso martini's for the first time. I was pretty impressed - they were delicious. After we laid out for a while & swam we went back to the hostel. We showered, chilled, then got ready to go out. I got convinced to go out at least one night here on party island. It was nice in the beginning - I met a lot of new people and everyone was fun to be around. That definitely raised my vibration. Unfortunately, the bars were only accepting the green pass that night. So we all ended up hanging out in the streets and drinking (There was about 20 Irishmen on Holiday. They were the funniest kids I've ever met. I laughed so much that night that my stomach hurt until the next day).

The next morning I planned a little solo relaxing beach day for myself. I took a bus to Manganari Beach. There is only one bus there and one bus back so I had to be super careful with time. The bus ride was a little long-about an hour. At least the view was nice though. I rented a cabana to myself, read, swam & finally got alone time. It was soooo good for my soul. I needed it. This beach had the clearest water and was a sand beach! It reminded me of the Caribbean - but less palm trees and more rocks. When I got back to the hostel I felt more relaxed and at ease. I FaceTimed my family for a bit to ground me as well.

Kenzie ran into some girls (S/O to Malvina & Youstina) the night before. So we all decided to get ready and head out to dinner together. This was a beautiful moment for me that encompassed traveling. You never know who you connect with. I had one of the most wonderful meals and dinner conversations with everyone. After dinner, we went to the roof to watch the sunset. Then everyone went out except I stayed behind to get sleep. Our ferry (Blue Star Ferries) was leaving the next morning at 7:55 am so we needed to be there very early to check in. Funny enough - Kenzie and I woke up in a panic around 7 because we slept through our alarms due to that big, loud a** fan!!! We broke a SWEAT packing up so fast and sprinting down all the stairs to get to the ferry. We made it just on time. We were so tired we slept almost the whole ferry ride back to Athens (not to mention we finessed our way to the upper class seats so we could be comfyyy).