The second week of my Easter break, I went to Mykonos. Rosie, one of the teachers I was with at Castleford Academy in March, came to meet me there. And what a fabulous time we had! She’s super great to travel with because she’s pretty flexible and chill, and also hilarious.
Saturday afternoon April 8, I got to Mykonos on a Seajet ferry from Santorini. It took about 3.5 hours and was quite a nice ride actually.
Once there, I went in immediately watch the sunset at one of the cute little bar/restaurants in the Little Venice area. I met an American couple from San Francisco sitting next to me and we had a fun time chatting while drinking and watching the sun set. The sunset was probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in my life that night. So orange. And our conversation was just lovely. I really enjoy just meeting people and talking and having no expectation that we will ever meet again. That has been a really cool aspect of this trip.
These photos are all from the one sunset. It was stunning the entire time.
Sunday I was on my own and all I wanted to do was just walk around and see stuff, so I did. It happened to be Palm Sunday there, as they are Greek Orthodox, though was Easter in the US. So I had a leisurely breakfast and then wandered around the town. Then I saw a processional of people which included kids chanting something and then a bunch of congregants following them. The kids were all holding palm branches. And then they were priests who were all decked out in their priestly garb. They were walking through town doing like a Palm Sunday walk or something. It was really cool to see that. The weather was beautiful. It was a bit cold and windy but sunny. So I just kind of did my thing, enjoying the town and having a relaxing time.
These are some pics from my hotel I stayed in. There was a resident kitty. And the sunset view was not bad either.
Monday was the day Rosie was getting there, but she came late, like around 9:30pm (well, late for me). I decided I would go sit and do some work that day to get a few things tied up so I wouldn’t worry about them while she was here. So I just found different beautiful places to sit and get some work done, and eventually switched from drinking coffee to wine. Then I honestly don’t remember what else I did. I think I just strolled around and eventually hung out at the hotel, because my hotel has an amazing view of the ocean, and it has a swimming pool. The whole feel of it is so relaxing and picturesque. I also had to do some laundry in the sink the first couple of days because I was running out of underwear. So that wasn’t the most fun part, but as they say here, if needs must… Otherwise I would have to pay about €20 to get a load of laundry done at a service. No thanks.
So finally, Rosie got there Monday night and we went immediately and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. We had a lovely talk just about life and stuff and then we walked home went to bed. She got her own hotel room which was nice. It gave us each our own space since we didn’t really know each other that well and weren’t sure if we would want to spend every waking minute together (though it turns out, we pretty much did!).
Tuesday was really windy and cold but sunny as I showed Rosie around town (well, as much as I had learned of it). We walked around town, ate breakfast, just had a leisurely time. We also ended up walking to Ornos beach which was about 35 minutes away. It was a very windy but pretty walk, and it was a beautiful beach. It was much more serene than on the other side of the island. We found a lunch place that was open on that side of the island and had lunch and enjoyed the sunshine, though we hoped the wind would die down. Then we walked back and we were tired so we both took a nap in the afternoon. And we met back up for dinner. Sadly, it was still cold and windy so I wasn’t feeling like dressing up. We had dinner with the sunset view and again, enjoyed each other’s company, talking and laughing. After that we went back to my place and had a glass of wine by the pool and again chatted some more, enjoying the view of the pool, even though it was dark.
Wednesday we did a 6-hour boat tour. Finally, it was mostly sunny and mostly warm! A little less windy which was great. The first stop on the boat tour was a little weird because it was an ancient ruins, but they told us nothing about it. We just got off at this island called Delos Island. It looked to be deserted, and we had to buy a ticket for eight euros to go see the sights…but we weren’t sure what it was all about. Here is a summary of what is on Delos Island. Pretty interesting! I wish we had known that before we got there so we knew what we were looking at…
“The island of Delos is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are among the most extensive in the Mediterranean; ongoing work takes place under the direction of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, and many of the artifacts found are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Delos and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Delos had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. From its Sacred Harbour, the horizon shows the three conical mounds that have identified landscapes sacred to a goddess (it is predicted that the deity's name is Athena) - in other sites: one, retaining its Pre-Greek name Mount Cynthus,[1] is crowned with a sanctuary of Zeus.
In 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing its exceptional archaeological site which "conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port", its influence on the development of Greek architecture, and its sacred importance throughout Ancient Greece.[2]”
So we wandered around in these ruins that were not very exciting for about the first 30 minutes. Then we came upon the more interesting parts. Rosie convinced me to walk up to the highest point on the mountain, which was an amazing overlook. We took some awesome pictures and I was glad I did it, though it was quite the hike. But wow, the views! We hiked back down, and then we went to the other part of the ruins, which were actually more interesting. I wish we had started there. Saw some really cool mosaics on the floors of some of these very old buildings from ancient Greek times.
After Delos, we had a really fun chill time the rest of the afternoon. They drove us to the other island next-door called Rheneia. We anchored in the inlet part so it wasn’t very windy, though it was too cold to swim. The water is this shade of blue I’ve never seen before in any ocean. It’s just amazing. The ship captain and his helper (I’m sure they have official titles, but I’m not sure what those are) served us drinks we chilled and enjoyed the scenery and of just being there…the peacefulness of it all. It was so quiet. It was nice to be away from the island and have a totally different experience. There were eight people on this little semi-private boat tour, and the two crew members. They made us lunch while we had our drinks. And then we ate lunch and got to know each other a little bit better. We had a fun chat. It turned out that Rosie was the only British person and the rest of us were Americans, which I thought was crazy. After lunch we went back out on the deck and chilled out a bit more in the sun with our drinks. And it was just… so nice! A highlight of the trip for sure. Eventually, they pulled up the anchor and we rode back toward the mainland. Rosie just kept saying what a lovely day it was and what a fun time she was having. I was really glad to hear that, because it was my idea to do this boat tour and I would have felt bad if she didn’t like it. I was worried she was going to get seasick because she said she might. But she didn’t! And I agreed with her that it was just such a lovely time. What a great day! We got back around three or so, and also decided we needed to each have some alone time to chill and take a nap.
Then we met up again for dinner and decided we didn’t wanna spend too much money so we went to a souvlaki place called Souvlaki Story on the inside of town. I got a wrap, as did she. And it was so wonderful, and only like nine euros as opposed to like 20 that we have paid before for dinner. We also of course got wine and had a chill time. After that we decided we wanted to go see what other bars were available and just be in beautiful places, because there are so many beautiful places to see here! And we were so happy because it was not cold, so we actually were able to wear cuter clothes for dinner. We went to this one bar that had a very cool vibe that was totally not what you would think of for a Greek bar, but it was awesome. We had one drink there and then we went to another place. We just walked around to see what we happened upon and we found a totally different bar with a totally different vibe. So we sat there and had a drink also. By then we were kind of tired and it was maybe 11 or so, so we decided to head back to our places. Again, what a lovely day! It makes such a difference when it’s warm outside!
Thursday was our last full day. We had already made the decision that we wanted to take some pictures during the day with our vacation-y dresses because we hadn’t had a chance to wear them yet and we wanted photos. So we basically made an entire event out of it. We had so much fun just going around again looking at the beautiful scenes and taking pictures and having fun with it. We stopped and had wine and food along the way as we took photos. At some point during the day, we went and had a wardrobe change because we wanted to take pictures with different clothes. Yes, we are those people.
Also, probably the most random thing of the trip happened today. We were having drinks by the water at a highly trafficked place with lots of restaurants and shops, and this pelican walked up, just in and amongst the crowd. It was hilarious and so random. His name is apparently Petros and he is apparently beloved and somewhat famous on the island: “The Pelican of Mykonos is called Petros (Peter) and is an integral part of the island. It has rightfully become the mascot of the island. You can encounter the cute creature as it strolls at its own unhurried pace through the town's many alleyways” (https://www.greeka.com/cyclades/mykonos/sightseeing/petros-pelican/)
And then we decided to buy a bottle of wine and take it to my place to sit near the pool and watch the sunset – it’s much cheaper that way. Rosie actually got in the pool even though it was super cold! I did not. But we drank wine, chatted and enjoyed my little kitty friend that sort of lives there. Then we were decided we were hungry, so we went and again, got souvlaki from the same place we had eaten earlier (I honestly think we ate the same thing about three times). We were so tired by like 10 PM and decided to head to our respective places. I pretty much went right to sleep. Another beautiful day with lots of laughs, conversations, beautiful views, and ultimately fun times, which is pretty much what I live for.
Friday morning, we were both moving really slow, so we decided to go eat some breakfast around 11. Wandered around and soaked up the last couple of hours of our time in Mykonos. Then we walked back up and got our stuff and went to the airport.
What a great trip! Mykonos is amazing! Rosie is fabulous! She and I have become friends and I can totally see us traveling together again sometime soon!
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