2 days in Rhodes and then 2 days in Meteora, I think it’s time to say that we’re ready for the main reason why 40 of us are here. A trip 22 months in the making: The Yacht Week Greece.
Since Sidian had to leave early to catch an afternoon flight out to a wedding in Mykonos, we left Meteora insanely early at 5am back to Athens.
After Sidian dropped us off at the airport, I retrieved my bag at the Care4Bag storage facility at Arrivals and then took 2 Ubers to Alimos Marina where I re-stored my big bag at their facility for €5/item/day.
Then I walked everyone to the 3 separate AirBnB’s I booked for everyone who went with my advice to always stay the night before as close as you can to the marina before your first day of yacht week.
Melinda, Maggie, Roxanne, Vivian were supposed to stay at the “Sunny Apartment” but the owner saw our big group and immediately threw out Victor (who had arrived early) and locked the door on us, leaving us out to dry under 101ºF without even wanting to hear our explanation that not all of us were staying at his property and that we were only dropping off 4 people to stay at his place. What a weirdo. Within 10 minutes I immediately booked the last AirBnb remaining thanks to Victor and Jeff and got an even better apartment nearby anyway. I didn’t know that when I wrote in my orientation e-mail earlier that morning that “that trip frustration could be a detour” could get so real so quickly.
As Victor and Jeff moved over to the AirBnb, Randall and Phil got an entire 4 person apartment to themselves when they arrived later at midnight after missing their earlier flight (Thank goodness for Randall and Phil there was a later flight leaving at 8:55pm on Aegean from Bucharest).
Taejin and I shelled a little extra for the penthouse Sea View apartment right next to the marina which Roxanne got to take advantage of well when I had to move her from the Sunny Apartment from hell.
Settling in the afternoon and waiting for people to arrive in, I texted people where to meet as we unwinded at Cape Sol. I then got as many people as we could for dinner at To Nisi Fish Tavern. All-you-can-eat seafood for €15 per person!
After dinner, Taejin, Paul, Christina and I went out for drinks and hookah at Jafar Cafe before turning in at midnight.
The next morning after check out, we parked ourselves at the Bolivar Beach Club next to the marina for approximately €20 per person, which included sunchairs, umbrella shade, and attentive food and drink service all day.
Christina even brought me French macaroons from Paris!
As we waited for the rest of the group to fly in, we also helped some of the chefs with ordering provisions for the week. The great thing about Greece’s marinas was that we could order ahead on the Balaskas app and have the groceries delivered directly to our yachts later in the afternoon!
By 4pm came around, it was time to get ready for check in. Paying our tab at Bolivar, we walked the 10 minutes up to the marina where Andy helped me retrieve the bag I left in storage, gave my credit cards as a security deposit for all 4 yachts (trusting Christina with the other one at their separate marina), and waited for us to be let onboard.
With flags for each yacht to hoist up, I figured it was worth getting them up as soon as possible; it’s not easy to get 4 massive flags of your travel blog at the last minute.
TYW staff even came by and handed me this orange flag that they said was rare to earn: ROUND FOUR HERE WE GO for my 4th trip with TYW.
As we freshened up, changed, and waited for groceries to be delivered and stored, we ordered dinner as well to our yachts to minimize any organizing stress.
About a 5 minute walk south from the main marina, we headed to our first party of the week at Cape Sol.
Cheers to our first day of the next best week of our lives!
While we partied with all the space to ourselves inside, this was waiting outside:
By midnight the official YW party ended and we tried to get out before the crush of locals were let in. Grabbing some cash from the ATM for Christina, Gina, and Michelle, I then headed back to my yacht to get in as close of a full night’s sleep before the rest of the week.
- At time of posting in Alimos, it was 38 °C - Humidity: 30% | Wind Speed: 31km/hr | Cloud Cover: hot as balls