I might not have a flying car, but I do have a Passport and a credit card. With my tools in hand, I boarded a plane and began my Greek adventure.
My first stop was Mykonos. Mykonos is an island of wind surrounded by beautifully blue beaches.
One thing I wouldn’t recommend is renting a van for 9 people. The roads are thin, some requiring cars to pull to the side in order to let an oncoming vehicle pass. Life’s an adventure—and we pulled it off—but next time we’d get two smaller vehicles.
The island is quite small, only 33 sq miles, so one can easily explore it in a day with a rented car. My favorite things were the bakeries, food, and beaches. There’s quite a bit of night life, but traveling with my retired relatives, we opted out of that scene.
There are over 365 church on Mykonos. We stopped by several, but the most photogenic seemed to be the Panagia Tourliani Monastery. The Church of Panagia Paraportiani is supposed to be another iconic church. The view and surrounding area was great, but the church itself was underwhelming.
It was remarkably beautiful, the inside well painted, but it’s contents left more to be desired (although it is a small island). There are many churches on the island, some publically owned, and some privately owned. Certain ones we went to appeared to be a place of only collecting money.
After the Church, we went to different beaches. The northern beaches receive the most wind. Ftelia beach has larging rolling waves coming in, and the beach was empty. The southern beaches seemed the nicest, but were the most crowded.
The lighthouse is in the North-West part of the island. The roads that lead there are small dirt roads. There’s a photogenic cliff, but I was too scared to take a picture on it. As I approached the cliff, the wind felt stronger, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand their safely.
Delos
Before visiting Delos, you should know the island is uninhabited. Theres only one gift shop, one overpriced cafe, and a lot to look at. Delos also gets a lot of wind. It’s an ancient city covered in dust, so be prepared to take some of that dust home. I packed light bringing only 3 pairs of jeans… I had to buy some new jeans to make it through the trip.
I’d recommend going, but bring a snack and bottle of water. The history of the island is impressive, as are the ruins and remains of the civilization that was there. The original goddess of the island was one of nourishment and creation. Later on, the island would become known as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The Delos’ people had a remarkable story of becoming the center of the known world, which would tragically make its people the target of many misfortunate laws and events. The people lost their identity in the island, and the island gradually fell to ruin.
The island is presently filled with cats. When touring the island, there were many cats relaxing throughout the island. The ferries bring in bags of cat food to drop off at the island. Most of the cats are fine interacting with people and have no problem approaching people.
One of the remarkable things about Delos are the mosaics. Photos are available online, better than what I could take. The mosaics are large, detailed, and colorful. Statues and mosaics weren’t originally black and white, many of them had color that has been lost over the years.
It’s remarkable what the ancient civilizations were able to accomplish without our modern day tools. Smooth detailed statues, large buildings and stadiums, and a sewer system. The ancient Geeks had toilets, which went missing from society for centuries.
Magic in Mykonos?
I don’t know the couple in this photo, and the sunset photo is shopped… However Mykonos is someplace I would visit again, preferably in the warmer time of the year.
My top 5 highlights were
- Windmills of Mykonos. The sun sets behind the Windmills, which may be worth the view.
- Souvlaki Story. They had really good food. Getting 7 people to agree on a place to eat is difficult. Having everyone finish talking about how good the food was is astonishing.
- Cream filled Baklava. I don’t have a photo of this, but a bakery had Baklava with a vanilla cream cheese filling. It was less than a euro, and I would have paid more if they charged more for subsequent pieces.
- The Beaches. We visited 3 different beaches. All of them beautiful, some more swimmable than others.
- The Drive to the Lighthouse. Imagine driving a 9 person van on a single lane road, where traffic can go both ways. We did it. I never felt more alive.
One of the things that shocked me were shops advertising “Greek Yogurt.” I’m in Greece, shouldn’t I assume I’m getting Greek Yogurt? There were also a lot of menus with certain “ingredients” in quotes, which I’m assuming has a different meaning that I’m used to. Seasoned “beef” makes me wonder if it’s really beef.
I definitely want to go back. Instead of doing a tour of Greece, I think it’d be nice to spend a longer time in Mykonos. The island is small, and you can see it all in a day, but I’d like to sit and enjoy it more.
