Big K's recap of our first few days in Mykonos...

Hello again from Greece, this time from Mykonos.

So, we got a call in our hotel in Athens on Tuesday late afternoon saying that the ferry that we were scheduled to be on the next morning had been canceled. Apparently, that is a common occurence here. So, if you have critical plans that depend on a ferry ride (such as getting back to Athens for a flight home; we're on a plane thankfully we think), good luck. We ended up getting an upgrade to business class on an earlier ferry, but instead of the hydrofoil (flying dolphin) we were on the regular, slower (larger) multi-stop boat. We started out on the back deck for the first couple of hours and had a nice windy, scenic trip, but then mel wanted to go inside (when we thought we only had 30 minutes left on the trip, which instead turned out to be 2 stops and 2 1/2 hours to go). We're hoping the other trips are on the fast boats and not as long.

Once we got to Mykonos, we ended up at the big, new port a couple of miles out of town. We didn't really know what to do (mel wasn't happy about this). We thought we could easily get a taxi or at least a bus from there to town, but that proved rather difficult. Eventually, we did get on the bus to town and got a taxi from there to the hotel. On the way back we will arrange transport through the hotel.

Mykonos is basically a big pile of rocks. The beaches are very pretty, but windy and not that warm. Seriously, I wonder if any of these folks who say they're some of the best in the world have ever been to the Caribbean, Mexico, or Hawaii. We're staying at Elia Beach, which is on the other side of the island, a good 10-15km from town and less crowded than some of the closer beaches. Our hotel is quite luxurious (and expensive for meals). It is pretty white stone (like most of the buildings here) and we have a nice view of the sea from our room.

We've had lots of good food here, mainly pasta and some meats and a Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives and a big block of Feta) with every meal. We also had a few helpings of fresh yogurt with honey. Our hotel on Mykonos has a huge tasty breakfast included, so we'll definitely fill up with every meal.

We're exploring the town of Mykonos today before maybe trying the beach and hotel pools again later this afternoon. It's full of tourists and little shops and restaraunts. Thankfully most of the town is pedestrianized, because the cars drive on anything wide enough to fit through, and motorbikes in any space wide enough to walk through. We're here until Saturday, then it's off to Santorini.

K