Mykonos

Thursday, August 18

We got to Mykonos airport at 11:30pm and there was a driver from the hotel waiting for us. Even the airport is a square, white building, and it has triangular shaped holes cut out in the walls. It was lit from the bottom and reminded me of something from Star Wars.

When we got to our fancy pants hotel (we figured if we were going to go to Mykonos we may as well live it up) an older man greeted us. He spoke very quietly and calmly and at first I thought he just seemed very posh and serious. But when the bell hop came to carry our bags to our room, the older front desk man sized up our backpacks and said, “guess you won’t be needing him to carry anything” and then laughed too hard, like an evil villain would have. I liked him even more for it.

The poor bell hop led us the wrong way and even tripped on the stairs at one point. When he led us to our room he waited for us to put all of our luggage down, expecting a tip. We felt a little bad but said “thanks so much for showing us to the room! Good night!” And he left. And we passed out.

Friday, August 19

We slept in and woke up just in time to get breakfast. I had read some negative reviews about the breakfast, like you had to pay more for coffee and the only vegetables were tomatoes, but we thought the breakfast was amazing. It was a full buffet of mostly pastries- savory and sweet- but they also had fresh fruit, multiples types of eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh OJ, and a coffee machine. We stuffed ourselves.

Then it was time to explore Mykonos. We started to walk from our hotel in Agios Stefanos to downtown Mykonos. This meant walking along the freeway which wound around the cliff side, and it was terrifying. We soon spotted the Sea Bus, a ferry that runs between the new port and the old port, and we ran to catch it just in time. It cost €2 each, one way, but it saved us 30 minutes of walking on a scary freeway.

We got out at the middle stop and walked along the beach to the town. We walked around the seafront to the old church called Panagia Paraportiani. We listened to a tour guide explain that the church was made to look like it wasn’t a church. It did look like a 5-year old had gotten carried away with the paper maché project and has covered the whole thing.

Then we walked into some narrow streets, through souvenir shops and restaurants until we found ourselves on the water again. We had been looking for Little Venice and when we looked back we realized we had just walked through it. I guess the buildings over the water gives the area its name.

We walked up to the iconic windmills and took some photos before going back to the Little Venice viewpoint to get some overpriced cocktails. I got a honeydew melon something and Carl got the ‘greek lover’ which had gin and rosemary in it. We took more photos and enjoyed getting sprayed by the sea a little bit.

Then we wandered through some touristy shops before getting the sea bus back again. This time we tried to find a shortcut up the hill instead of along the freeway. I was wearing my very slippery sneakers and I quickly discovered how prone to erosion the hillsides are. With both my feet slipping down the hill I reached out to grab something and found everything around me was a sharp cactus, weed, or some kind of dried out dead plant. Thankfully, Carl came back down the slope a bit and helped me up, while I complained the whole way. Needless to say we would not be taking that shortcut again.

We finally got back to our hotel and immediately changed to put on our swimsuits. We went to the pool and found two beach chairs with our names on them. It was so nice to hang out in the pool and stare down at the ocean below. We stayed there for the rest of the day.

For dinner that night we walked up the hill to Limnios Tavern. The place was a little on the classy side, but we ordered to share. We got half a carafe of house wine, dolmas (with meat), eggplant salad, and a lamb shank. The lamb was good, but the real winner was the eggplant salad. It was like Baba Ghanoush but with onions, tomatoes, and some kind of red pepper.

They were in a rush to serve us and take our empty plates away and then, like always, we sat for forever trying to ask someone for the bill. This is the number one thing I miss about the US. Going back to the hotel we had to go back down stairs in the dark. But at least we didn’t have to walk along the death road!

Saturday, August 20

We woke up at 8 and went downstairs to get breakfast, trying not to over indulge this time. Then we went to the bus stop to avoid having to walk on the road again. When the bus came, the driver turned it around so skillfully in such a tight space that I had to pull my legs up from the wall i was sitting on otherwise he would’ve crushed them.

We got on and watched as the driver grew impatient with a woman asking him to wait for her boo that forgot something in their room and then, when the boo came running out, the driver went to get himself a coffee.

After a short ride to town we had to walk along the beach and boardwalk again to get to the old port. Here we met our tour boat.

We took the ferry out to Delos island. We ended up booking a tour with a guide and we’re really glad we did. Our guide told us that she had worked as an archeologist on Delos for five years, before they had electricity there, before UNESCO came. She also had a newborn baby with her for some portion of that time, which boggled our minds, especially as she explained how she kept food cold using an old stone barrel and a piece of leather.

She was well suited for the job and she told us so much that it was hard to follow everything. She told us about the islands early inhabitants, the related mythology stories, and how the town grew to 30,000 at its height. (Mykonos island now has 10,000). It was so so hot and all the plants on the island were dry as a bone. We wondered how so many people had lived here.

As our guide spoke, she scattered some cat food down. Stray cats popped out from everywhere and some of them followed along with the tour group like they were eager to learn. It was very cute. She told us that the island has a kind of lizard only found on the island and so they feed the cats so the cats won’t eat the lizards. We thought about telling her that this is a terrible plan, especially because we could see the cats were not being neutered or spayed. But they were really really cute.

After the tour we were given free time to explore to the top of the mountain. It was an awful hike to the top and I don’t know how so many people did it in flip flops. But the views from the top were wonderful, 360 views of Delos, the surrounding islands, and the beautiful clear, blue ocean.

We were about to leave when a girl asked Carl to take a photo of her. I was admiring the view off to the other side when I looked over and noticed that the girl’s skirt had blown up. She smoothed it down and apologized, but the moment was still a little awkward and flustering. That’s when I noticed Carl was standing on my phone. I had put it next to my purse to take pictures without it and hadn’t picked it up yet. I yelled at him and found it had a big chip in it. I was mad at the time, but now looking back on it the whole moment was just a flustered, awkward mess that we laugh about.

We hiked down and got back into the ferry for a quick ride back to Mykonos. When we got back we bought two Fantas and chugged them right there, outside the store. I could’ve drank a gallon of Fanta at that moment. We walked up the hill to a phone shop and I got a new glass screen for my phone.

On the way down we stopped to get some pictures of Mykonos from above. We shared the photo spot with two guys which made us realize that we’ve seen more male model influencers taking photos in Mykonos than anywhere else in the world.

For lunch we went to a spot called Sakis. Their specialty is souvlaki, which is grilled meat, usually on a skewer. We got the grilled meat platter and sampled all the meats but also a good tzatziki and slaw. We chugged more sodas and then got a large water to go for our journey back to our hotel.

We took the bus back again and felt bad to see the same driver at 4pm that we had seen at 9am that morning. He remembered us and I think he was telling us jokes but his accent was thick, so we just laughed and nodded along.

Back at the hotel we changed into our suits and headed to the beach. The beach is right across the street from the hotel and even though it isn’t necessarily private, it was less crowded than the other beaches on Mykonos. We laid our towels on the sand and then had to quickly move them a few minutes later when we saw how high the water came in.

We relaxed on the beach until the sun went down. I befriended a little beach lizard that I almost picked up. There was a woman who was very proudly topless. She seemed to be strutting around the beach and frolicking in the water to attract attention. Then a crazy (local?) lady sat very close to Carl. When I was in the water I saw her taking selfies and there is a 100% chance that Carl was in the background (perhaps purposefully?)

A couple came and sat next to us, tied up their dog to a beach rock, and went into the water. The little dog whined and barked the whole time they were in the water. The only time it paused was when the topless lady came over to pet it. So it was a fun time for all.

Once the sun went down, we decided we should get something to eat. The bodega across the street actually had a pretty good grill. We ordered a Greek pizza and got a bottle of Rose. While we waited for the pizza, we (I) had a whole sleeve of brownie Oreos as an appetizer. We took the pizza back to our room and sat on the balcony to eat, drink, and enjoy the view of the beach at dusk.

Sunday, August 21

At breakfast we enjoyed the company of a cute orange cat that the hotel staff were obviously wary of. Then we took the public bus – with the same driver! – to the new port.

We got tickets and waited for our ferry, the Golden Star. When it arrived we watched as the mass of people pushed toward it. As we boarded the ship swayed side to side and the gangplank slide back and forth. The staff person said “watch your legs”, or maybe he said “bags”. We watched both. They let us on the ferry all at once in a big crowd and then, when we were standing in the very hot hull with the cars we realized we needed to turn around and go up the stairs.

Somehow the mass funneled into a single door where a man was checking tickets. I was impressed with their ability to get the humans inside and push off on time but the process was horrific. Onwards to Santorini!