Mykonos

Wow, wow, wow. I am writing this from the Mykonos airport leaving after such a short two and a half days. I cannot believe that an hour after I arrived I was regretting coming here and wishing I was still in Istanbul. Granted, Istanbul was unbelievably incredible, but to have extra time there would not have been worth skipping time in Paradise.




Yes, Mykonos is paradise. I have seen it written now in too many guide books/brochures and heard it from every single local and have now seen it for myself: Mykonos is the most beautiful place on earth. My pictures will never do it justice, but it is just squeal-with-delight, doubt that you're actually here on that island you've only seen stunning photos of before, amazingly beautiful. I did not experience rain here, but I was told (and can definitely imagine) that even when it does rain here in November and December, it is still gorgeous!








So my time in Mykonos began what I think will be a routine of putting on sunblock religiously every morning on every inch. You might think I was more diligent about this in Tampa than I actually was. I let my 15 SPF face moisturizer do its work and figured that sitting in an office most days got me off the hook and allowed me to skip the arms, shoulders, chest, back and legs. But not here. Not after seeing some prematurely aged Greek women's skin. Every morning, every inch.




My time was really divided between beaches, walking around Mykonos Town, sleeping (often, at the beaches!), and eating. I didn't go to the beaches to party in the late night as I couldn't see myself with the energy to last any more nights until sunrise and there were an enormous amount of bars and dancing right in town. Two beaches in particular are most known for this - Paradise and Paraga - and I never went to either of them as I heard they were rather dead during the day that week at least until the music gets turned way up a few hours before sunset.




Mykonos Town is the touristy part of the island. It must have been where most residents lived at some point though because I learned that Mykonos was one of, if not the only one of the populated Greek Islands, to build its town at sea level at the port instead of on higher ground. Pirate invasions were a frequent problem because of this, but Mykonos had a creative strategy. They designed their town as a labyrinth with all of their streets being part of the maze. This was one of the reasons I found myself wishing I was back in Istanbul my first night... I got lost in my first 15 minutes!! My host had an unexpected loss in his family and had to go to Athens for the funeral, but had helped me find other accommodations in town and I got lost trying to navigate on my own! I couldn't even try to retrace my steps to try again. Streets have no signs and no names. I was actually told by a local to leave breadcrumbs! But back to the pirates - it really was a strategy that worked as the pirates couldn't really track down the same person twice or find their destination of interest or even find their way back to their ship. I commented, "isn't this bad for tourism not having street signs to help newcomers navigate? Tourists like to feel like they can manage on their own and be self sufficient from time to time and who really ever could in this maze?" The locals' response: "who cares when you're in paradise." Still I was definitely not the only tourist looking lost around every corner!
























Everyone gets around by scooter here (and at times the smell isn't so pleasant with the exhaust fumes wafting in the streets). The roads are what we might call alleys back home and cars just can't fit down them. Of course when there are too many pedestrians on the roads, scooters can't fit either. I was told that in July and August it becomes so crowded that you have to walk shoulder to shoulder and it's a constant jostle of people as you try to walk through town.




Many restaurants just use the streets as part of their real estate and let tables overflow into the street!




So a note about when to visit Mykonos...July and August are high tourist season, but really only up until Aug 20 (there is a giant holiday in Greece on Aug 15 after which the summer really winds down). I never had a beach to myself, but it certainly almost felt that way with the more peaceful and quiet tourists in late May. The beaches with restaurants and cafes tend to have nice cushioned lounge chairs lined up all the way from their decks to the water and I was told that in August, the lounge bed I was camped on at Psarou Beach in front of Nammos Cafe rents for €1000 a day. And I got it for free! Granted, this one restaurant/resort might be the priciest there is on the island. An orange juice on their menu was €12! The day prior I was relaxing at Platis Gialos beach at the much more reasonably priced Yialo Yialo restaurant where in total I spent only €15 for a pineapple juice, a warm vegetarian sandwich/tortilla wrap and a scrumptious ice cream sundae. And the sundae was nearly half of the bill's total!








I learned that Mykonos has about 10,000 residents, but gets about 2 million tourists a year NOT counting all the cruise ships that bring their passengers to the island for a day visit, so it is certainly a popular destination! Without even planning it this way, I came at one of the best times! September is another perfect month, and possibly more perfect than late May/June because the water is a bit warmer by then. I would love to go back myself before my flight home and am looking into it, but right now it would mean cutting out another destination.












As an island, Mykonos has limited resources and resource #1 is water. My host, Sakis, tells me that the island is incredibly over capacity because of this. 10,000 residents is much more than it can even handle. A lot of the population growth has only been in recent decades and while the island looks sparse on google maps satellite view, I do not think it's a very recent image. I commented to Sakis that flying in, the island looked quite empty with lots more room for development and that is when he reminded me of the true resource-limited capacity of the island. It rarely rains here and there are rather few trees and the roofs are built flat to retain water as reservoirs. Apparently the joke on the island is "The forest is burning!" with the response of "What forest?"








And I had to just take a photo of my hotel room's shower too! No curtain, no overhead nozzle holder, nothing! It really discourages you from lingering in the shower for very long!!




If Istanbul is city of color, then Mykonos is the city of whites and brights! I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking!












The small building off to the right in the photo above is the building used for the last scene in the Bourne Identity when Matt Damon reunites with the girl and she has been renting scooter bikes.







This is the part of Mykonos Town (at night) called Little Venice.











They have to re-paint the white pattern/shapes on the sidewalk quite often. One local told me he paints the sidewalk and steps up to his house about once a month! I guess keeping up the charm takes time and energy!










And I got to try both Greek Raki (stronger and completely clear as compared to Turkish Raki) and a Greek drink called Mustiha. It comes from a plant that is only grown in one place in the entire world, a Greek Island (Helos, if I remember correctly) and it is strong! I had to take the babiest of baby sips to finish my drink! I figure "when in Rome" but I am really looking forward to going back to being able to just ordering margaritas and mojitos already!


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