Mykonos
We spent a full 4 days and a bit on Mykonos, arriving after 9pm on Thursday, 20 September and then returning to Athens midmorning on Tuesday, 25 September. Mykonos was really the “holiday” part of our vacation, and I’m sure you’ll get the impression from this selection of pics that all we did in that time was eat… and eat… and eat… in between sitting on one of the island’s many beaches of course.
We travelled to Mykonos by Hydrofoil ferry, which was awesome – we seemed to have organised some slightly more expensive (although not business class) seats for ourselves because we sat in pure comfort. While the cheaper seats were lined up in rows like those in an airplane, we sat in a lounge area, at a table, with a lot of leg room and seats that could recline back as far as you wanted because you wouldn’t affect people behind you. I admit I entertained the fantasy that this is what flying as a passenger in an airship must have been like. Spacious and luxurious!
Fast too. The Hydrofoil got us to Mykonos in 3 and a half hours. A conventional ferry would make the trip to this popular Cycladic island in 5 and a half hours.
I won’t bore you with a day-by-day account, but we did seem to time our trip with a short period, every late September, when a relentlessly strong, chilled wind blows through Mykonos. It’s the price of skipping High Season I suppose. The wind wasn’t much of a problem in terms of the beaches, which are generally sheltered, but it did mean the seas were too rough for us to catch a ferry to Delos, a tiny nearby island that was an sacred holy site in Ancient times, and today remains one of the most important archaeological spots in Greece (according to my Lonely Planet Guide anyway).
It ended up being a case of Murphy’s Law. On the Tuesday we had to leave for the mainland at 11am, the weather was perfect, the winds stopped and the Delos ferry was running again. Moral of the story: if you’re on Mykonos and you want to go to Delos, dump whatever other plans you’ve been entertaining and leap onto the first ferry that is running, because it might not be making the trip tomorrow.
But I digress. Mykonos is an exceptionally picturesque spot, so we took plenty of pictures. It’s pretty much devoid of greenery; just rocks and shrubbery. That’s probably why the white-walled buildings with their rounded edges and brightly painted doors and shutters stand out so impressively. This is the view from our hotel room balcony, as well as of the hotel itself.
Our hotel was a 400m or so walk up a hill from Mykonos Town, so pretty much every evening, and a portion of every day, was spent negotiating the town’s maze (literally) of narrow to even more narrow streets. We managed to disorientate ourselves quite a few times until we learnt to recognise a few key intersections as guides.
Of course, being a touristy island, we could afford to be a bit more lazy and do things at a more leisurely pace. Apart for some bakeries, nothing really opens before 10am. But with the sun setting only around 7:20pm, stores are open well past 10pm, and restaurants, bars and clubs well beyond that. Still, if you want to see the town as a functioning, traditional Greek port, it’s worth your while to get down to the Old Waterfront before 10am. Then you’ll see some of the locals going about their business, a tiny vegetable and fish market under way and most importantly, you can explore the deserted streets before the massive cruise liners (always stopping in at the New Port for the night) vomit hundreds of elderly American tourists onto the island.
We took plenty of pictures in Mykonos Town, which includes a section known as Little Venice, where buildings are constructed right on the edge of the sea. It’s also an area that looks up at the famous Mykonos windmills. The following picture was taken from the veranda of the (duh!) Veranda Club, a bar that probably has one of the best views in Little Venice.
Of course you can pause here to take photos, no problem, but we chose to sit down, order some fruit cocktails and chill for a while. The juice you see here was knocked over about 30 seconds after the photo was taken. We ordered a replacement, and later learnt that they were €9 each. That’s R90. For fruit juice. *gulp*
Yes, the islands tend to be more expensive than mainland Greece. Fortunately all tavernas let you look at their menu before you sit down, so you can gauge whether meals are in your price range. Pretty much you’re looking at around €10 (R100) a person for a filling sit-down meal – which actually isn’t too bad. Obviously it’ll be a bit more if you also have appetisers and dessert, or share a bottle of wine (usually available in 375ml, 500ml and 750ml formats) as opposed to drinking water and soft drinks.
We tended to eat a big lunch and then only snack in the evenings, so we would often pop in at night to Jimmy’s, a Mykonos fast food institution for the past 30+ years. We must have eaten about 4 of these gyros each. At €2.50 (R25), you get a big fried pita containing tomatoes, fries, Tzatziki, and hunks of chicken cut from a giant skewer. Delicious! We also discovered the joys of giant crepes packed with banana and chocolate.
In terms of the cultural side of the island, we visited the small local Archaeological Museum, which was predominantly a pottery and ancient tomb stone collection. It included this vase, which depicts the Trojan Horse. We also stopped in at a comprehensive Maritime Museum and the traditional 19th Century Mykonos House right next door.
We tried to visit as many of the island’s beaches as possible while we were at Mykonos, catching the always-running buses from the 2 main bus stations. Otherwise you get around on hired little quad bikes, scooters and motorcycles, which can easily navigate the roads. Given the way Greeks drive though, we were too afraid to try it.
First up was the legendary Paradise Beach, which was actually pretty fricken amazing. It’s very much a youth beach, but anyone is welcome there and anything goes. Topless bathing is common on all beaches in Greece but there were some saggy middle-aged Germans (men and women) doing the full-on nude tanning and swimming thing. Every time the one guy stood up he’d scratch himself… lovely!
Anyway, during the day there’s a very nice, chilled vibe on the beach. In the afternoon, the party starts at the beachfront Club Tropicana Beach Bar, where Happy Hour runs from 1-11pm. And there’s literally a party every single night. We were there on the day that all the Contiki guys and girls came through from the Contiki-owned resort on the other side of the island. We hooked up again with a Aussie guy, Sam who we’d met on the Spotlight on Greece Tour, and who is doing the 2-year Working in UK Holiday thing.
We weren’t planning to stay for long, but with the dancing on stage, a very drunk blonde Contiki tour leader pouring Absolut Vodka down people’s throats, cocktail after cocktail, and meeting other Aussies (who came over to admire Paul’s Tool cap), we stayed there until one of the last buses came through.
Next up was the more conventional, family-friendly Platy Gialos Beach. Here we discovered that very often beachfront hotels seem to “own” the patch of sand in front of their property. So you pay €10 to use 2 sun loungers and an umbrella, have access to the hotel’s facilities and receive €10 off a bar or restaurant bill of €30 or more (for the record, the sun loungers were free at Paradise Beach). We used our €10 voucher for lunch – I had some swordfish and Paul had this full-size stuffed calamari, which was amazing!
All the beaches we went to were sand beaches, although the sand tends to be coarser and heavier than on SA beaches. This means it doesn’t blow around and sting you when the wind comes through. We swam at Platy Gialos Beach, and the water was surprisingly cold, probably around 22°C. But it’s crystal clear, much more salty than the Indian Ocean, and most surprising of all is the complete lack of waves!
After spending so many years being pummelled by our East Coast waves it was exceptionally strange to have baby 1-foot waves breaking at the foot of our sun loungers. That’s as big as the swell got.
Next up was a very sand-blasted and wind-damaged Elia Beach, where we stayed approximately 10 minutes. It was the most remote and quiet of the beaches we went to, but there was a clear reason for that… it sucked. Plus, the hire rate for 2 loungers and an umbrella was €12.50. Um, yeah…
Last of all was Psarou Beach, approximately 50 metres up the road from Platy Gialos. Again, this was a more conventional beach, although with millionaires’ yachts and boats parked out in the bay, we felt more like we were in the quieter scenes of a James Bond movie. But I won’t post up that pic of Paul doing his Ursula Andress (or is it Daniel Craig?) impersonation. It’s on Facebook instead.
Before we left Mykonos we did splash out on one really nice meal at a Waterfront tavern: This 2 person seafood platter, containing sword fish, crumbed calamari, olive-oil soaked octopus, fried sardines, mussels, prawns and medallions of a local fish. We were so full afterwards. Although I think we did still have crepes on the walk back to the hotel.
So, yeah, Mykonos was great. It was a bit sad to have to leave it and return to the mainland reality, even if we did so with tans acquired under the gentler Mediterranean sun.
We travelled to Mykonos by Hydrofoil ferry, which was awesome – we seemed to have organised some slightly more expensive (although not business class) seats for ourselves because we sat in pure comfort. While the cheaper seats were lined up in rows like those in an airplane, we sat in a lounge area, at a table, with a lot of leg room and seats that could recline back as far as you wanted because you wouldn’t affect people behind you. I admit I entertained the fantasy that this is what flying as a passenger in an airship must have been like. Spacious and luxurious!
Fast too. The Hydrofoil got us to Mykonos in 3 and a half hours. A conventional ferry would make the trip to this popular Cycladic island in 5 and a half hours.
I won’t bore you with a day-by-day account, but we did seem to time our trip with a short period, every late September, when a relentlessly strong, chilled wind blows through Mykonos. It’s the price of skipping High Season I suppose. The wind wasn’t much of a problem in terms of the beaches, which are generally sheltered, but it did mean the seas were too rough for us to catch a ferry to Delos, a tiny nearby island that was an sacred holy site in Ancient times, and today remains one of the most important archaeological spots in Greece (according to my Lonely Planet Guide anyway).
It ended up being a case of Murphy’s Law. On the Tuesday we had to leave for the mainland at 11am, the weather was perfect, the winds stopped and the Delos ferry was running again. Moral of the story: if you’re on Mykonos and you want to go to Delos, dump whatever other plans you’ve been entertaining and leap onto the first ferry that is running, because it might not be making the trip tomorrow.
But I digress. Mykonos is an exceptionally picturesque spot, so we took plenty of pictures. It’s pretty much devoid of greenery; just rocks and shrubbery. That’s probably why the white-walled buildings with their rounded edges and brightly painted doors and shutters stand out so impressively. This is the view from our hotel room balcony, as well as of the hotel itself.
Our hotel was a 400m or so walk up a hill from Mykonos Town, so pretty much every evening, and a portion of every day, was spent negotiating the town’s maze (literally) of narrow to even more narrow streets. We managed to disorientate ourselves quite a few times until we learnt to recognise a few key intersections as guides.
Of course, being a touristy island, we could afford to be a bit more lazy and do things at a more leisurely pace. Apart for some bakeries, nothing really opens before 10am. But with the sun setting only around 7:20pm, stores are open well past 10pm, and restaurants, bars and clubs well beyond that. Still, if you want to see the town as a functioning, traditional Greek port, it’s worth your while to get down to the Old Waterfront before 10am. Then you’ll see some of the locals going about their business, a tiny vegetable and fish market under way and most importantly, you can explore the deserted streets before the massive cruise liners (always stopping in at the New Port for the night) vomit hundreds of elderly American tourists onto the island.
We took plenty of pictures in Mykonos Town, which includes a section known as Little Venice, where buildings are constructed right on the edge of the sea. It’s also an area that looks up at the famous Mykonos windmills. The following picture was taken from the veranda of the (duh!) Veranda Club, a bar that probably has one of the best views in Little Venice.
Of course you can pause here to take photos, no problem, but we chose to sit down, order some fruit cocktails and chill for a while. The juice you see here was knocked over about 30 seconds after the photo was taken. We ordered a replacement, and later learnt that they were €9 each. That’s R90. For fruit juice. *gulp*
Yes, the islands tend to be more expensive than mainland Greece. Fortunately all tavernas let you look at their menu before you sit down, so you can gauge whether meals are in your price range. Pretty much you’re looking at around €10 (R100) a person for a filling sit-down meal – which actually isn’t too bad. Obviously it’ll be a bit more if you also have appetisers and dessert, or share a bottle of wine (usually available in 375ml, 500ml and 750ml formats) as opposed to drinking water and soft drinks.
We tended to eat a big lunch and then only snack in the evenings, so we would often pop in at night to Jimmy’s, a Mykonos fast food institution for the past 30+ years. We must have eaten about 4 of these gyros each. At €2.50 (R25), you get a big fried pita containing tomatoes, fries, Tzatziki, and hunks of chicken cut from a giant skewer. Delicious! We also discovered the joys of giant crepes packed with banana and chocolate.
In terms of the cultural side of the island, we visited the small local Archaeological Museum, which was predominantly a pottery and ancient tomb stone collection. It included this vase, which depicts the Trojan Horse. We also stopped in at a comprehensive Maritime Museum and the traditional 19th Century Mykonos House right next door.
We tried to visit as many of the island’s beaches as possible while we were at Mykonos, catching the always-running buses from the 2 main bus stations. Otherwise you get around on hired little quad bikes, scooters and motorcycles, which can easily navigate the roads. Given the way Greeks drive though, we were too afraid to try it.
First up was the legendary Paradise Beach, which was actually pretty fricken amazing. It’s very much a youth beach, but anyone is welcome there and anything goes. Topless bathing is common on all beaches in Greece but there were some saggy middle-aged Germans (men and women) doing the full-on nude tanning and swimming thing. Every time the one guy stood up he’d scratch himself… lovely!
Anyway, during the day there’s a very nice, chilled vibe on the beach. In the afternoon, the party starts at the beachfront Club Tropicana Beach Bar, where Happy Hour runs from 1-11pm. And there’s literally a party every single night. We were there on the day that all the Contiki guys and girls came through from the Contiki-owned resort on the other side of the island. We hooked up again with a Aussie guy, Sam who we’d met on the Spotlight on Greece Tour, and who is doing the 2-year Working in UK Holiday thing.
We weren’t planning to stay for long, but with the dancing on stage, a very drunk blonde Contiki tour leader pouring Absolut Vodka down people’s throats, cocktail after cocktail, and meeting other Aussies (who came over to admire Paul’s Tool cap), we stayed there until one of the last buses came through.
Next up was the more conventional, family-friendly Platy Gialos Beach. Here we discovered that very often beachfront hotels seem to “own” the patch of sand in front of their property. So you pay €10 to use 2 sun loungers and an umbrella, have access to the hotel’s facilities and receive €10 off a bar or restaurant bill of €30 or more (for the record, the sun loungers were free at Paradise Beach). We used our €10 voucher for lunch – I had some swordfish and Paul had this full-size stuffed calamari, which was amazing!
All the beaches we went to were sand beaches, although the sand tends to be coarser and heavier than on SA beaches. This means it doesn’t blow around and sting you when the wind comes through. We swam at Platy Gialos Beach, and the water was surprisingly cold, probably around 22°C. But it’s crystal clear, much more salty than the Indian Ocean, and most surprising of all is the complete lack of waves!
After spending so many years being pummelled by our East Coast waves it was exceptionally strange to have baby 1-foot waves breaking at the foot of our sun loungers. That’s as big as the swell got.
Next up was a very sand-blasted and wind-damaged Elia Beach, where we stayed approximately 10 minutes. It was the most remote and quiet of the beaches we went to, but there was a clear reason for that… it sucked. Plus, the hire rate for 2 loungers and an umbrella was €12.50. Um, yeah…
Last of all was Psarou Beach, approximately 50 metres up the road from Platy Gialos. Again, this was a more conventional beach, although with millionaires’ yachts and boats parked out in the bay, we felt more like we were in the quieter scenes of a James Bond movie. But I won’t post up that pic of Paul doing his Ursula Andress (or is it Daniel Craig?) impersonation. It’s on Facebook instead.
Before we left Mykonos we did splash out on one really nice meal at a Waterfront tavern: This 2 person seafood platter, containing sword fish, crumbed calamari, olive-oil soaked octopus, fried sardines, mussels, prawns and medallions of a local fish. We were so full afterwards. Although I think we did still have crepes on the walk back to the hotel.
So, yeah, Mykonos was great. It was a bit sad to have to leave it and return to the mainland reality, even if we did so with tans acquired under the gentler Mediterranean sun.
Comments