We arrived in Mykonos at a reasonable hour around noon. We stayed at “Mama’s Pension” and Mama’s daughter-in-law picked us up from the ferry. The ferry was an uneasy ride, I wasn’t feeling so hot (not sea-sick) but just unsettled, so the 3 hour ride was a little tough. Unfortunately, I forgot my ferry ticket at home in Thessaloniki and they refused to print me out another ticket, so I had to buy another 50 euro ticket. So frustrating. So incredibly frustrating.
Anyways, Mama’s pension was a darling little hostel and Mama was one of those traditional Greek grandmothers who wear only black. Our room had a beautiful view of the sea and was just a couple minute walk from the water. After setting our stuff down we headed straight down to the beach to lay out for a few hours. It was a public beach, filled with locals and only a couple tourists. It’s not peak tourist season, so it was fairly empty. I’m not a huge fan of crowded beaches, so I was a fan of it being small and unpopulated. The sand was soft, traditional, beach sand (no hot black pebbles or shiny red rocks). The water was shallow, never going higher than my belly button. The water was traditional aqua colors that grew darker and darker as it receded to the horizon. It was salt water, so salty that I’ve never felt so buoyant. I laid in the water, peacefully floating for quite some time. I have never, ever found it so easy to be weightless. I think it was the salt. The water was cold though, quite cold. Small grey and white fished gathered around our ankles, dead jelly fish floated at our waists. We were calm.
We all got dinner on the beach at the only restaurant that is open within a twenty minute walk. Since it’s not the season yet, everything is closed. I bought the cheapest “dinner meal” on the menu-- pasta with red sauce. And, of course, we all shared bread with tzatziki. We watched the sunset as our meal came to a close, it was not an epic Oia sunset, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
We went back to Mama’s and showered and then we got ready for our “big night out in Mykonos” which is the island that is infamous for it’s crazy party scene.
“During peak tourist season in Mykonos you can’t lay on your towel, you have to fold it and stand on it to dance.
Since it’s not peak season yet, we knew it wouldn’t be super crazy, but we were going out regardless. We played some drinking games before we left, up and down the river, chinese poker, and a kind of “rock paper scissors” game that I’d never played before.
We called cabs and headed downtown around 10:30. It was a fifteen minute cab ride and we found a bar quickly and ordered tequila shots in honor of Cinco de Mayo. The first bar was fun, but kind of empty. So we wandered to another bar after about an hour in the first one. The second one started off a little slow but ended up getting packed. A greek guy bought me a drink, a full glass of tequila, but I didn’t really trust it or want it. So I “went to the bathroom” and poured it out. No thank you, mister. We all were dancing and having fun and enjoying a great night out.
I didn't sleep well, so I woke up early at 9:30 and headed straight down to the beach. Everyone except for Colleen headed straight to the airport. Colleen and I had a later flight, at 7:35 pm at night, so we had the luxury of enjoying another day in Mykonos. We spent the entireeeeeeeee day in the sun.
Colleen joined me on the beach around 11:30, so I had a couple hours to myself to enjoy the sun. I ordered breakfast on the beach-- a full breakfast.
I met a small boy, around 3 in age, who was Greek. He was only half, as his mother later told me in full-blast-Greek-language. She thought I was fluent in Greek, which was a huge compliment but also not true in the least, I don't know how I convinced her... Anyways, the boy's name was Vagelis and he wanted to play games with me for over an hour. It started off by him handing me pretty rocks and then progressed to him finding big rocks in the water, pointing to them, and I'd pick them up and he'd throw them to make a big splash in the water, which he called "Bloom." It was adorable, his satisfaction after splashes and his joy at handing me little stones. His purity and innocence was refreshing and reminded me of the greater things in life-- wonder and joy and authenticity.
When Colleen joined me, I got at reading by book, My Name is Memory, which I started on the plane ride to Santorini and finished that day on the Mykonos sand. It was a gripping romance, and I loved every page of it. Too bad I didn't realize it was going to end on a cliff hanger and continue into a sequel, which has yet to be written. GAH. So frustrating.
I got a little sun-sick, from the high, high levels of sun exposure so I waded into the cold water for awhile to lower my body temperature. I drank 2 full liters of water throughout the course of the day and I peed only once in 7 hours. Whoops. I let my body get wayyyyy too dehydrated. But the sun felt so good, I was getting so tan, and water was 1 euro for a half liter bottle, ergo, Lily got dehydrated.
Anyways, we had a safe and relatively fast journey back to Thessaloniki, arriving around midnight to our rooms. What a wonderful long beach weekend in two paradises.
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