Mykonos, Greece – One Summer Day

Author: PenelopeCorelli
Date of Trip: July 2009

Saturday, July 25: Mykonos, Greece

When it was time to go ashore, we got a large bottle of cold water ($2.95) for our ship’s bottle holder with strap that we bought at the exit on another day. We lined up for the port shuttle into town. It took about 20 minutes to get on, as it did not appear to be well organized.

Walked around Old Town Mykonos. A boat in front of a taverna with squid hanging from the sail lines. Narrow streets, cars going up and down the little roads of the city, vying for space among the throngs of tourists. White, boxy buildings, churches, some red domes. Doors & shutters painted dark blue, light blue, red, green, yellow, purple. Greek bell towers and stray cats. The town pelican, Petros, waddles boldly across the street into a restaurant, taking his fame for granted. (Apparently, the original Petros was hit by a car a few years ago — this one is his replacement.)

The windmills — 4 in one spot — sit upon a hill overlooking the town. A few others are located elsewhere on the island.

We stopped at a coffee cafe for an iced mocha and a Fanta lemonade (4.70 €). More walking. Lots of shops selling jewelry, souvenirs, Byzantine icons, and liquor bottles in shapes of questionable taste.

Many beachgoers. The famed nude partying beaches are on another shore.

We bought 2 bus tickets for the Monastery town of Ano Mera (2.80€) and located the correct bus stop. Got of in Ano Mera about 4:15pm. Stopped at Fisherman’s Cafe in the center plaza — there’s a large eucalyptus tree growing inside it, and a caged finch that sang prettily. Monica was our waitress. We ordered Amstel beer & another iced mocha. Had a dish of fried zucchini balls (shredded zucchini & cheese) with a cucumber dipping sauce. They brought a plate of bread, a staple of the eastern Mediterranean countries. No butter is served with bread in Greece and Turkey. Total: 16.95€.

They had Wi-Fi in the restaurant, so we asked about Internet access & the password. The owner, seeing our phone, brought over his Acer notebook and generously let us use it! So for about 45 minutes we checked our emails and sent a photo back home to the family.

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After paying our bill, they asked us to wait and brought over a plate with chunks of sweet honeydew melon.

We walked to the monastery a few yards away and walked inside the pretty church.

A ship’s tour was there. I took a couple of photos before the tour guide said, “No photos!” There was no sign to that effect anywhere inside the church, but I stopped anyway. An outside sign also had no mention of camera rules.

Saw a robed Orthodox priest in the outer courtyard. I wanted to take his photo, but didn’t have the nerve to ask him, so I didn’t.

We then decided we were done here and went to the bus stop, but weren’t sure exactly when the bus was coming. We had arrived at 4:15 and the driver said the next bus leaving would be at 5:20 or 5:30, I didn’t remember which. It was already later than that. DH said he saw a bus pass at about 5:45. Well now it was almost 6pm so we just waited (hoping that there was another!). We were just about to phone for a taxi, when the bus came by at 6:40pm. It was crowded, standing room only — the beachgoers were returning. The last bus, we heard would be in one more hour. Paid 2.80€ again for the return trip.

We rode back to Old Town standing on the front stairs near the door. We walked to a waterfront cafe we had passed on our way into Mykonos. Dh had a snack of Greek coffee and ham & cheese toast — a pressed and grilled sandwich (7€).

We saw a passenger from the ship who sat with us for a while and chatted over a beer.

Got on a returning shuttle and went back to the ship, as there was not much else to do here. It was another very sticky hot day. We felt that 10 hours was a long time for this extremely picturesque, but very small island.