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May 16, 2007
Mykonos… the world famous, cosmopolitan Greek Island that is also the location of where the hit movie from the 80’s, “Shirley Valentine” was filmed. The ship arrived at around 7:30am and after a nice leisurely breakfast we caught a shuttle and went into the nice little town of Hora. No tours were going to bog us down today, as we left the day open. For a short while we just walked along the harbour, where we saw many cafés and restaurants. As we walked around a corner near where the smaller boats were docked, we saw 3 very plump contented pelicans resting on a cement wall. A few tourists were gathered by them to take photographs. We did the same. I could not get over their size!
After a little more walking under the morning heat of Hora, mom recommended we sit down and enjoy a beer at one of the quaint harbour restaurants. Afterwards, we decided to rent a little car from “Action Rent a Car”, a four seater economy vehicle that was $35 Euro for the day. I am so glad that we did this as it allowed us to explore the island
and stop along the way if we wanted to take photos or check out an interesting shop. The crude map that we got from the rental agency was adequate but difficult to navigate with. However, the island was small enough and figured we could not get too lost. It seemed that many people had the same idea and rented little jeeps and june-buggy type vehicles. Our first stop was to find a gas station and put in $10 Euros as that would be enough to get wherever we needed to go. They do not have enough time or manpower to fill up their cars with gas. This seemed like a simple task, but finding a gas station was more difficult that we thought. It took us 3 stops of asking people to finally find a gas station! A very nice local told us that we should go to some of the beaches as they had beautiful views. The roads in Mykonos are built rather strangely, but apparently they were built that way to confuse invaders of the island. I enjoyed the very windy, narrow, rock wall lined roads. Mom looked a little nervous as I drove around briskly like one
of the locals. Although I think she appreciated my relaxed nature about dealing with driving in a different country. We stopped at a beautiful beach where the color of the water was both turqoise and dark blue. It was my goal today to get into the water and put my feet into the Aegean Sea. I finally got a chance to do that. Unfortunately, the water was quite chilly, so I did not stay in very long. I imagine that it warms up by September.
After that, we headed towards another beach to put my feet in and saw some more spectacular views. Then we headed onto another road which led us to a Chocolate shop., which I could not resist to check out. They had a wide variety of different chocolates, cakes and ice cream. Mom ordered “rose” ice cream. Yes, you read that correctly - made from rose petals. I had the Panacotta ice cream, which is like a butter-caramel flavour. It was lovely to try this very rich and creamy delight all for the low price of $1 Euro each. We split another little treat which was similar to a Florentine, but it was toffee almonds
The real Shirley Valentine
Yes, her name is Shirley and a wonderful Greek man followed her around until she decided to marry him. dipped in chocolate. A great stop to take the edge off. Our last exploration was at the Super Paradise beach, a very relaxed and comfortable spot to sunbathe and enjoy a meal. We did not do either, but I did get my feet in the water again and had mom take some photos of me. The water was beautiful and I wished I could spend more time, but there was more to see and do. We were starting to get really hungry as 1 cup of ice cream could only hold you for so long and we had not eaten since 8:00 am and it was now 3:00 pm. After driving back into town, we parked at the free parking place - a very large parking lot at the edge of town and walked back into the streets of Hora. We entered a literallabyrinth of shops and restaurants, but since mom was in need of food quickly, we walked back towards the pier to eat. A friendly waiter invited us to sit down. Mom had the lamb kabob gyro, I had he pork gyro. My pork was excellent, but I think mom was a little disappointed with the lamb, as
it was ground lamb formed into a long shape as opposed to cubed lamb. The yogurt and tzadziki that they put on our plates was excellent, better than any other I have every tried as it was so creamy. Our friend Lena that we met on the ship was walking by and we invited her to sit down with us for awhile. She was going to go eat at the famous Antonini’s at 6:00pm, so she did not eat with us, but I will have to ask her later how her dinner was.
After we ate, we headed back into the labyrinth of shops that are behind the restaurants that line the harbour. So many shops that glisten with gold and silver jewelry with varied gemstones and enameled work. There was not a lot of difference from one shop to the next. I was specifically looking for opals, which looked like the color of the Aegean sea. This turned out to be a difficult task, but unbelievably, we found a little shop where an English speaking woman was working at. Apparently she is South African, and called herself the “real Shirley Valentine”. We both laughed and were intrigued. She told the story of how her Greek man followed her all around the world. She finally succumbed after 12 years, married him and was working in his jewelry store. She gave us a good deal on a beautiful pair of earrings which I bought for my mom as a birthday gift. After a little more shopping it was time to head back to the ship. A very long day.
We both picked up some wine at a local merchant before leaving Hora. We had done this many times before and had brought it on ship without any difficulty. Since I had to send back the rental car, I invited my mom to leave ahead of me and take the shuttle back to the ship. I took back the rental car and then grabbed another shuttle. When I got back on ship, I put my bags on the scanner as usual, but I guess they were looking when I put my bag through and noticed a bottle shaped like wine and it was confiscated until I leave the ship. What a drag. My mom had escaped this fortunately, but somehow I got caught. Oh well, I thought, I will have it in Turkey. However, I truly feel that this is a ridiculous rule and poor PR.
Overall, I enjoyed our stay on Mykonos as it was fun to have the freedom to move around on our own free time. Mom said that although it was nice, it was not her favorite and will not likely be back. I cannot say for sure whether I will be back, but I’m certainly not opposed to the idea.
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