Day 19: Athens to Mykonos

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Ferry across to Mykonos and look forward to a teriffic 3 day break on one of the most picturesque Greek islands.

Had wake up calls at 5am so we'd make our ferry this morning. The hotel breakfast was really good, cereal, fruit, the obligatory cheese, ham and bread, and there was tea cake and a whole cake mixing bowl full of nutella ! Drove to the port and boarded the ferry as foot passangers, while Marty took the coach to the parking lot. We had to sit in the smoking section, as that's pretty much all there was. 'Con ferry' the trip was aptly named by Amanda, as there were convicts on the boat. We saw them handcuffed together and travelling with guards.
Played shithead with Julia, Melissa and Nat L-Z to pass some time, but the ride was pretty uneventful and smokey. It only ended up taking us 5 hours, which we were thankful for.
Arrived at the old port and were met by some of the CAPs (Contiki Action Planners), and got on a bus to go across the island to Kalafatis. At this stage we realised we probably couls have brought all our luggage over instead of living out of our day packs, but who needs more than swimmers anyway. Mykonos is really cool, I thought it'd be a lot more commercialised than it is. Pretty much all of the buildings are the traditional blue and white, which looks really cool. The island is very dry and rocky, when I turn my back to the ocean I feel like I'm in the desert. It only took 20 mins to get to the other side of the island, apparently the taxis do it in 3. The Aphrodite Beach Resort is really cool, it looks a lot smaller than it does in the brochures. It's right on the beach, has a pool with volleyball and waterpolo, a gym and a tennis court. The rooms are great, we have swipe access cards so we don't need to share a key for once. The resort is also cashless, you put money on your account and just have your card swiped when you buy anything.
Spent the afternoon lying around the pool, sunbaking until 7 (it doesn't get dark til like 10 here), then had a buffet dinner in the restaurant. At 9 we had the 'man o man' competition, and Scott and Keith were up against the driver and 2 guys from the other tour. It was so much fun, they had to answer questions, sing, dance and do exercises, and we got to vote for the best. Scott ended up winning, so he gets to do the cocktail mixology course tomorrow. Had 2 euro shots at the bar during happy hour, then was back to drinking Amstel beer. Stayed up until 2, was great knowing we didn't have to get up for anything in the morning.

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