Mykonos, GR Round 1

We left for Mykonos early. Like before even Nick wakes up early. I'm pretty sure Joe was still drunk from the night before (we'd celebrated our friends 30th birthday) and Joe had made margaritas (there's two tequila bottles in our recycling, if that is any indication). So, we set 4 alarms and woke up just fine. The flight to Mykonos was pleasant and by 10.30 we were there! Arrived to the hotel, got an 'upgraded' room and soon after, we set off for the beach, Platis Gialos. There are basically all these little coves along the coast where the water is calm, stunning hues of blues and greens that you can see straight through all the way to the bottom. Every beach has chairs for rent (or in the low-season, just buy a drink!). We were still low-season so could get a chair on every beach we visited: Elia, Paradise, Panormos, Platis Gialos. Joe really got used to those beds and even made the comment, no more laying on the sand for him!;)

One day we rented a car and tooled around the island, checking out many of the beaches listed above, ate lunch at a secluded spot down a dirt road where you could choose fresh fish from the fisherman who caught it that morning. Most importantly, we set out to see a few monasteries (because we are so religious) in a town called Ano Mera. We happened upon a small monastery with a bunch of cars parked outside so we stopped off and had a look in. Through the open door we could hear a myriad of loud female voices. Joe said "I am not going in there, it sounds like a bunch of Greek women, yelling at each other." I jumped in and left Joe outside the door. When I emerged a few minutes later, there were 2 or 3 middle-aged Greek women surrounding him, indicating he should go upstairs "for cake and coffee." He was laughing and said we're not going up there. But, Greek women are insistent and a few minutes later we were seated in a small, dark, crowded room where women shoved food endlessly into Joe's hands (all the while ignoring me) and chattering to us in Greek. The most histerical moment of the whole experience was a woman putting together a plate of food for Joe, then turning her head as she pushed it towards him. Then, the moment he took a piece off the plate, she immediately replaced it with another pastry.

Luckily we knew the nicety words and were able to employ them with the women. The one woman who spoke English well told us that it was a feast day and that the monastery only opens twice a year for such celebrations. It was one of those moments when you give in to the randomness of life and the small, odd joys that an open-mind allows. The generosity and hospitality towards us, and our ability to accept it shows me how far we've come since we moved here. Honestly, we would have been far to uncomfortable 3 or even 2 years ago to walk up those steps into that loud, chaotic room. It was truly an unforgettable experience.

We also visited the sacred site of Apollo's birthplace, Delos, which is forgettable and quite frankly, I'm already trying to. It's one of the most important sites of Greek antiquity but, as most of you know, I have a hard time appreciating crowds (and there were throngs of them). That, and the site has not been reconstructed whatsoever, so mostly you look at half walls, get scratched by thorns and weeds, then look at some pillars, a bit of rubble here, there, everywhere and it just makes imagining a bit challenging. Joe would say 'he's glad he saw it' so even he didn't give it rave reviews.

Mykonos was really nice, not necessarily a place we were return to, but we ate some lovely food, most notably the steamed mussels at Joanna Nikos, enjoyed our post-meal Ouzos (cinammon was the best) and relaxed in the sun. Really, how can it get better than that? Oh, yeah....Santorini up next.