I left my heart in Greece

The beaches in Mykonos are the most beautiful I've ever seen. The sea is gorgeous blues and greens, so clean and clear it looks like it's never been touched. I tried to capture it's perfection on my camera, but no matter how many different settings I tried, or angles I shot from, it was never quite as stunning as what I saw with my own eyes.

This island stole our hearts. Elissa fell in love with one of the locals, and I fell in love with lazy days by the sea. Our original plan was to stay on Mykonos for only one or two nights, then hop to a few more islands before stopping in Athens on our way to Croatia. But the longer we stayed, the more difficult it was to leave. In fact, we almost considered skipping Croatia to spend more time on the islands, but ultimately couldn't fathom not taking the much anticipated bus ride through Macedonia and Albania.

"You don't want go through Albania," our friend Constantinos said.

"Very, very bad place," added George, Elissa's island boyfriend.

The Greeks hate Albanians, and Turks, so we took everything they said about either country with a grain of salt.

We spent our last days on Mykonos as lazily as possible, in anticipation of the marathon traveling that lay ahead. For two nights, we camped on a bluff overlooking Peraga Beach. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that heaven must resemble the view from our tent flap, especially at dusk when the sun sinks behind the the hills of Mykonos, showering rays of yellow, red and pink light over the cerulean sea.

Our friends Constantinos (Sing Yi's Mykonian fling) and George were our personal tour guides during our four days on the island, taking us to the most secluded beaches and the best local restaurants, all the while regaling us with Greek myth and island folklore.

The fact that we actually survived driving with either of them however, is a miracle. Never have I ever seen such small cars drive at such fast speeds, on such incredibly narrow and often rocky and unpaved streets. On our third day on the island George took us to the most secluded beach on Mykonos (or so he says- and I guess he should know), which is usually only accessible by boat. We quickly found out why.

After driving for about half an hour through the paved streets of Mykonos (I don't know how anyone ever knows where they're going- there aren't any street signs to speak of), we arrived at the bottom of an incredibly steep and treacherous dirt path (I won't dare call it a road because that would be an insult to real roads.)

Fortunately, George's 1999 Smart car, which has been driven to and from the UK twice, and at the time had three girls crammed in the backseat and one seated in the permanently-stuck-in-full-recline front seat, was up to the task- or so George said.

"This car. Best car ever. No problem," he assured us.

I was not so inclined to agree with him.

Sure enough, about half-way up this completely desolate path in the middle of absolutely nowhere, the car (now named Gandolf) had a meltdown.

"Shit! I forget about the water!" George grumbled.

Fortunately, the view of the sea wasn't so bad from high up this rocky path, and after a few minutes Gandolf is ready to go again. This time the snappy little bugger made it the whole way without any trouble, and only a few prayers.

To be fair, the beach that George took us to was worth the terrifying car ride. Every beach I went to on Mykonos seemed like the most beautiful beach I'd ever seen, but this one, a completely secluded inlet with a sandy beach and rocks cliffs on two sides, easily took the cake.

After several hours of lazy sun bathing, sips of Prosecco, dips in the sea, and yoga on the beach (I did a headstand in the sand! Yay!), we headed back down the path, a bag of fruit balanced on the windshield because it wouldn't fit in the back of the car, finally ending up back at the boys' cliffside condo with a stunning view of Paradise Beach (this name could not be more appropriate), where we ended up staying until Friday, when we finally pried ourselves off of Mykonos and headed to Athens to begin the trek to Croatia.