Tales from Mykonos (Day One)

Shortly after accepting a job at Pretty Simple, in early 2015, I had a conversation with Marion from HR that went something like this:

MARION: I think you're going to enjoy living in Paris, and working at Pretty Simple!

JOHN: Thank you. I'm sure I will!

MARION: Would you like to go to Ibiza with us?

JOHN: Say what now?

Yep, for the last three years the entire company has been invited to an exotic location for a four day retreat. Naturally, I was more than happy to join them.

Melanie and I moved to Paris in late September and the Ibiza trip happened a few weeks later. I was still overwhelmed by my new home, so my brain didn't quite know how to process that Ibiza experience. I wrote a blog post about it -- which seems rather contrived and silly now (I said I ran out of superlatives and was having to make up new words) -- but I was honestly flummoxed.

You can read more about the Ibiza trip here: I'm Running Out of Superlatives - Ibiza (Day One)

This year, Pretty Simple took us all to the Greek island of Mykonos!

Mykonos is part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos.

Most of us met at the office early Friday morning (October 7th) and caught a bus to the airport. I shot a video of our trek through the street, but I can't post it because... well... I'll get to that later.

Pretty Simple is growing, so this year it was necessary to charter a 737. Yep, we had our own plane! When it was time to leave, an airport shuttle took us out to the jet.

Here we are on the airport shuttle...

As our plane flew closer to Greece I couldn't help but notice how smooth and clear the ocean was. Maybe it was our altitude but every little island was surrounded by a sandy beach, so it was like looking at a relief map on a solid blue painting, with three dimensional land masses highlighted in white.

The photo below doesn't even begin to capture what I was seeing:

Seeing the Greek islands from the air was like looking at a relief map.

After about a four hour flight we landed in Greece! As we walked into the airport I snapped this [rather bland] pic:

While landing in Mykonos our plane made a very steep low-altitude turn. Must be a small runway.

After picking up our luggage it took about 15 minutes for us to drive across the island, then the buses must have shifted into some super secret gear because we made a super steep climb that almost gave me a nosebleed. I felt like I was in a rocket, getting ready for takeoff.

Once again, Pretty Simple went above and beyond when they picked our accommodations. This time we stayed at the 5 star resort hotel "Utopia", just above Elia beach. It was incredible!

We left our luggage in front of the hotel and headed to the pool, where we were greeted with glasses of juice and champagne.

I enjoyed the ocean view for awhile, then grabbed my key and headed off to my room.

Our hotel was super nice. Notice the stark white walls. This "look" is enforced by Greek law!

My key unlocked a gate, which lead me to a shared deck area, with a big jacuzzi. Except... after looking around... I realized that it wasn't a shared area. It was my private deck! (Some people had miniature swimming pools outside their rooms!)

This was the deck area outside my room. What a view! 

The bed was very comfortable but what are those dangly things hanging down?

I loved sitting on my other deck, which overlooked the pool and the ocean far below!

Now THAT'S a bathtub!

Later that night we headed downstairs for a lovely Greek dinner at the hotel.

On our first night in Mykonos we drove down the hill and had a buffet.

I tried to take a little bit of everything. Turns out I really enjoy Greek food! Who knew?

After dinner some folks partied by the pool, others piled into jacuzzis (oh, to be young again), but I was pretty tired so I went back to my room, polished off the complimentary bottle of dessert wine, and went to sleep.

And that was the end of "Mykonos (Day One)".  Click HERE for Day Two.