Tag Archives: Ferry

Europe 2022 – Santorini and Mykonos Day 12

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We started the day by leaving our AirBnb in Thira (Santorini), and heading to the docks slightly south of where we are staying over in Athinios (only cost $30 to bring all 5 of us).

I think the most interesting part about the the ride is that since the west side of Santorini is basically on a cliff, there is a road that descends I would say about 500 meters down. Pretty cool.

We then grabbed lunch at another Mediterranean place while we waited. Details found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/08/05/athinios-restaurant-cafe/

Fyi, for the ferry, booked it the day before using ferryhopper.com. It was only $89. I would recommend getting there really only 30 minutes before departure (and it was easy to get in front of the line). Line was a bit chaotic, but going inside the ferry itself was fine (and seeing cars go into the ferry was kind cool). Also, the interior of the ferry was more upper scale than I expected. Definitely a good experience.

Along the way we stopped by the islands Ios and Naxos. Ios didn’t seem too interesting, but it did have more “rectangular” looking buildings, but still white and blue (but obviously judging the “interest” tfrom the boat isn’t the best). Naxos looked pretty cool though (looked fairly modern and lively). Think that may be a good place to visit next time.

When we got to Mykonos, we ordered an “Uber” (it’s a van contracted by Uber) to the Airbnb. Interesting thing is that Mykonos itself is a walking city, so the Uber can only drop you off to a street that is “close-ish”.

As we got dropped off, I did notice that Mykonos I less hill-y than Santorini, and a bit more upscale, but has more space (same crowdedness).

After going to the AirBnb, we ended up going to a beach nearby (Paralia Choras Mikonou) for about an hour. The beach had a bit too much small rocks (not super sandy). Probably wouldn’t go back to it (although it did have a wheelchair accessible beach contraption).

We then went around town to shop. I actually a couple of things. I got a Greek type shirt, and also some Ray Ban sunglasses (to replace the ones I lost).

Afterwards, we ended up going to a restaurant that is right below our AirBnb called Eva’s Garden. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/08/06/evas-garden/

After dinner, pregamed at the Airbnb (learned a game called shoot the dealer).

We then ended the night at Cavo Paradiso, where Afrojack played. Some key notes is that shirts and shorts are allowed in the club, DJ came on at 2:30am, and they don’t check ID. Also, grabbing a (didn’t use Uber) taxi costs $35 (although kinda got scammed since he said $25 initially). Overall, people were good to talk to, and had a great night.

Croatia – Hvar/Tisno Day 5 (Defected Day 1)

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Last day in Hvar. We checked out of our apartment at 10am, and got brunch at the same place we got brunch on the first day:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/04/bb-club/

We then caught a ferry back to Split at 1:00pm to catch our ride to Tisno. We hired our Uber driver (that picked us up from the Airport), which cost 850 kuna (compared to 1200 kuna on Uber or Bolt).

We got the festival entrance, and at first got tested for COVID (it was a 10 minute test). Fortunately all of us were good.

We got to security, and they made us throw our opened alcohol out.

The tent was relatively good, but initially was missing a fan (we had to ask for one). The general store was also useful for toilet paper, water, and wine (they had not hard liquor unfortunately).

The festival itself has 3 stages. There is the classic stage (beach stage), olive grove, and defected stage. The first and last were good since they played more deeper music (like tech house).

The food itself was good (got gyoza and fries). However the wait for gyozas was wayyyy to long (like 20 minutes). But didn’t get food poisoning, so that’s good.

The DJs I remembered seeing (that were good) are mainly in the defected stage are Monki, and Armand van Helden.

Croatia – Hvar Day 3

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Third day in Croatia. We started the day by packing up our AirBnB and heading to the dock. We took an Uber to the dock (which only cost $6).

The boat ride to Hvar (which was by the Krilo boat company and only $15), was about an hour (a bit longer than was advertised), and for the most part pretty chill. They had a pretty good latte onboard, which helped start the day.

Once we reached the island, we went to the Hostel checkin (Helvetia hostel), which was 5 minute walk from the dock. The guy at the hostel was super chill, and actually let us check in without David (who the reservation was under), as well as didn’t ask us to pay yet.

The apartment we rented out was an 8 minute walk up hill (a bit tiring because of the heat). But the place was actually pretty good for a last minute find.

After checking in we headed near the docks and found a really awesome restaurant (so far the best food I’ve had in Croatia). The place was called BB Club. More info here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/04/bb-club/

We then met up with David and Milly, we headed to hike up the highest point in Hvar, Napoleon Fortress (took about 45 minutes each way). The view was amazing.

After, we headed for dinner at a place called Restaurant Mizerola. More information can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2021/08/04/restaurant-mizerola/

After the restaurant David, Rob and I went to a Carpe Diem party (Carpe Diem is a restaurant, and also a close by island). We took a boat taxi there. The DJ, Lawrence Klein, played some deep house (his podcasts were basically burning man deep, so we expected that all night), but still had a good time. The venue/island also looked pretty sick. Some notes though is that credit card is only accepted for drink purchases over 500 kunas.

PS. For grocery stores here, Studenac is the main one to go to (although Tommy’s also exists).

Macau Day 2 and Last Night in Hong Kong

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We started the day super late (because of the night of clubbing). I got up at 1pm, and we made our way to The MGM where we ate at a really good buffet called Rossio (at first I thought the it was a crappy buffet since the seafood and sushi sections were well hidden).

  
After, we took the TurboJet back to Hong Kong island (we originally were gonna arrive at Kowloon, set to depart at 5:30pm, but we then realized we could do a stand-by thing, which allowed us to leave at 5pm, and got us to arrive at Hong Kong island).

When we got back, we headed to my hotel to check in, then stroked through LKF one last time.

  
We then headed to Causeway bay using the bus (Jasmin wanted me to experience what it’s like being a local).

At Causeway bay we walked through Times Square, and then got some Din Tai Fung (I gotta say it’s much better in Jong Kong than SF. More variety, and it’s also 1 Michelin Star in HK).

   
    
 
We then got a mango fruit desssert drink, which apparently is a think in HK. It was so good that I did end up finishing it (and I really want planning on doing that).

We ended off the night by taking the Tram back to my hotel (again, it’s a tourist thing).

   
 

Macau!

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Because of the previous day, we started the day off a bit later than expected (around 12pm). We ended up ferrying over to Macau using the TurbJet near Hong Kong station around 1:05pm. The ride was super bumpy, and I definitely got sea sick.

   
 
After an hour we arrived in Macau. Immigration was really easy. Also, getting to the hotel was easy since the Venetian had a bus that took us from the ferry terminal.

When we arrived at the Venetia, I immediately noticed how packed and busy it was. I’ve never even seen Vegas like that. Although checking into the hotel was fast.

The room itself looked very similar to the Venetian in Vegas. Except I noticed that it seemed a little cheaper (from the paint used to the quality of the decorations. One wouldn’t notice unless they stayed at the one in Vegas). 

   

 After dropping our stuff in the hotel, I explored the inside of the hotel a bit. Like Vegas, you can access other hotels from the inside. However, I noticed that the Hotels focus wayyyyy more on ships and the mall aspect than Vegas (which is something I really didn’t care about). 

Shortly after we made our way to The Ruins of St Paul (it was a church that burned down and the only remnants was the facade). It cost about 200 Macau dollars (equivalent to 200 HKD). Jasmin though it was a rip off, but I didn’t care since we were behind on time.

  
After he ruins, we went food tasting around Sendak a Square. Jasmin got me to try the Portuguese egg tart, the macadamia cookies, the Portuguese pork sandwhich, the pork jerky and a bunch of other samples:

    
   
After Senado square we we walked to the Wynn (we were trying to get a taxi, but then realized it was about 1KM away).

     
   
From the Wynn we took a bus to Wynn Palace (which is on the side of he river where our hotel is).

 
From the Wynn Palace, we went back to the Venetian briefly. I then walked around to check out the other hotels (the Parisian, City of Dreams, Galaxy).

   

  

  

  
 

First Day in Hong Kong!

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So the first thing I did when I got off the plane was to get an Octopus card (basically the suica equivalent in HK, which proved to be super useful in Japan). Then I took the airport express train to Hong Kong station, which only took 24 minutes!

From Hong Kong Station I made my way to my hotel in LKF. On hind site, I should’ve continued taking the train to Central station, since walking on the street proved to be a challenge. Many of the sidewalks had fences so you couldnt j walk easily. So with my not so light luggage I had to take not so straightforward paths. In some cases, there were overpasses that needed to be taken (didn’t realize that for a bit). And finally, when I got to the street near my hotel (Wellington street), it was on a hill! When I went on the hill, I overshot the turn I was suppose to take! Eventually I got to my hotel.

After getting to the hotel I met up with Jas around 2:00pm. We headed straight to the Intercontinental Hotel for high Tea (along the way we strolled through the avenue of stars). 

  
   
 
While walking, she explained that for construction, the scaffolding they used are built from bamboos:

  
After high tea, we checked out some sites a long the way back to Central (including the Tsui … clock tower). 

   
 
When we went back to central, we ferried over, which gave some nice views of the bay.

  
When we got back to central, we ordered an Uber, which took us up to Victoria Peak. Here are some pics:

  

While we were up at the peak, I got to ty this amazing McDonalds salmon burger:

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When we came back from Victoria Peak, we got dinner at a restaurant called Tsui Wah restaurant. Apparently it’s a place people go when they are super drunk and ending the night.

   
 
After dinner, we joined a pub crawl that went to 4 bars in LKF, and one nightclub. Two of the bars were called boomshack and the other one was called Geronimo. On the pub crawl I met one guy from Boston that was telling me that when he was in Macau, he hung around some prostitues that told him how the trade was like. They said there is one guy that coorindates where each of them go, and they have connections with various clubs in Asia (and they fly the prostitues around Asia). Also, apparently they need to make a minimum of $3000 USD a month.

Another guy I met at the pub crawl was named Alexander (Mason). He worked as a manager at Nobu, and helped open up the Nobu in Miami. He said he was a “host” originally at a nightclub, which is one level up from a promoter. I added him in FB and he said to contact him if I wanted to try and get into a club in Vegas (Encore Beach, Wet Republic).

I also met a person who works for Muni.

We ended the night at a club called Magnum. I thought the drinks were over priced. It was like $10 us for a bottle of water! I was definitely like WTF. 

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