Carrie's Adventures: July 2006

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Mykonos beaches

Mykonos has gathered a strong reputation for it's party life and it's beaches. On the south side of the island there are 3 or 4 beaches which have helped the island gain it's reputation. As you can see the island itself is not very big, but the narrow and winding roads mean that to go from the town itself to Paradise takes about 30 minutes on the bus.

The first beach we went to was Paradise. It is definitely a party spot with 4 to 5 bars on the beach, each playing music for those who have purchased the chairs in front of their establishment. The day is generally spent with everyone packed kinda like sardines under their little huts and making your way from the water to your chair, to the restaurant, back to the chair. They do have servers that will bring you drinks and coffees, so from that perspective you are quite well taken care of. This is the view of the beach from the water....

The second beach we spent time at was Super Paradise. Located a bit further east, you are able to get to this beach only by private car, or by boat. Buses are unable to get here due to the narrow and windy road. It is situated further back into a cove, making this area more protected. It seems that the beach is divided into 2 areas ~ the straight part of the beach and the gay part of the beach. As you get off the boat, you choose to either go left or right ~ Akis and I went right.

If you go to the very left end of the beach this where you will find the 'boys' and some of them are naked... There is a restaurant that turns club after the beach day is done, overlooking the boys. They have a great view of the bay along with a pool.

From this end of the beach, looking back to where we were you can see all of the beach spots available. Generally during the high season, it is next to impossible to get a spot on the beach. I guess we were lucky as none of the 3 days saw any difficulty with getting a spot.

As the Europeans do, there were many women who went topless on the beach. This took a bit of getting used to for me as this generally isn't the way at home unless you have made a point to visit Wreck Beach ~ but hey, when in Rome...

On our last night home from Super Paradise, we got off the boat in Paradise to take in some of the after beach action. This is when you see all of those in their beachwear go and shake their groove thing... And yes, some of the scenery was quite remarkable ~ and even some for me. The one with the bare bum, he wore nothing but an 'elephant trunk' to cover himself ~ I wonder what he tells his mom when he talks about his job... The amazing part of that all is that some of these folks are hired by the clubs just to dance ~ now that seems like a hard life ~ bathing suit, sun and dancing...

Mykonos ~ Hora (the town for us non Greeks)

The first two mornings on the island we managed to get up and wander around the town. I have been educated that this is called 'hora' and is the centre of the town. The mornings began quite slowly as I got up for breakfast and then we had coffee/tea out on the balcony before heading off to take in the sights.

The town is exactly as you see it on the postcards, and to be honest, I think I was surprised. After seeing the buildings in Athens, knowing that it was apartment after apartment, I was skeptical that this picture of Greece actually existed!

My first exposure to the town was seeing the windmills and Little Venice. Sitting right on the sea, it was a beautiful place to have dinner and take in the activity.

We walked through the narrow streets and it was everything that the postcards and calendars show. What was hard to navigate though was finding your way back to a place you had been before. With every street looking the same, you weren't sure if you should turn right at this white building or the next...

Churches seem to be everywhere. This one seems to be one of the favourites for photos and is commonly seen in calendars and the like, while the

There is a mascot for the island ~ and I was amazed one night to see that he actually allows people to pet him. He poses quite well for photos!

The port side of the town has an open area where all the cafes look out onto the port and the moored fishing boats. The smallest church is there and on our journey the first night we saw a wedding procession go along the stone walkway to the church to get married... What was really noticable was the plunge of the dress to the navel and the slit up to her upper thigh. And I think I heard Akis mutter under his breath 'lucky guy'...

The evenings had us coming back to the hotel and sitting by the pool with a coffee and then take in the sunset. Yes, I could get used to this lifestyle!!

Sunsets:

Mykonos ~ getting there...

Early Saturday morning, we grabbed the suitcase and headed down to the pier. After a week of getting up at 11am, it was a bit of a challenge to get there for 8am!

We managed to get on the ship along with all of the other vacationers ~ apparently July 1st is a popular time to go on vacation. We did however also manage to find the slowest ship on the fleet!

We left at 8:30am and sailed for a couple hours ~ the ferry stopped at a couple of islands before landing in Mykonos which gave me a taste of what I was going to be in for...

Upon arrival to Mykonos, the ferry docked at the new port. This meant that we were North of town and in need of getting to town. This is when I am really grateful that Akis does have a cell phone as there were no taxis to be had at the port. Can you imagine? I would think this would be the first place you would be!!