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Flying Cat 4 is making great progress across the Aegean. It feels like barely any time has passed since leaving Santorini and we’re already pulling in to Ios for a quick pick up before heading off again at high speed towards Paros. The next stop is ours and just two and half hours after boarding the super fast cat we’ve arrived at Mykonos.
We want to slow things down a bit after a busy few days on Santorini and have booked two nights at a beachfront hotel on the opposite side of the island from the main town. A member of staff from our hotel is waiting for us at the port and drives us the 15 minutes across the island to check in.
At our bargain rate, we had expected a garden view room but we are stunned and elated when we’re shown upstairs to a gorgeous room with balcony doors opening out on to views of beautiful clear blue waters and the beach below! Absolute heaven. Off-season certainly has its bonuses.
Our backpacks look a little out of place in our 4-star room but we quickly dump them down and begin rummaging through for our swimmers.
We change, apply a good layer of sunscreen and head downstairs. After a long, cold, grey British winter, strolling onto Platis Yialos beach in flip flops, shorts, t-shirt and sunglasses feels unbelievably good.
The beach curves around a bay with five or so beachfront hotels as well as a further eight or nine others set into the hillside further back. The vast majority of the hotels haven’t opened for the season which is good news for us because the beach is empty and we’re able to take our pick of front row sun lounges. Hooray again for off season!
We get ourselves set up about two metres back from the azure water’s edge and pretty soon our afternoon disappears into a mix of lounging, reading, relaxing, and for Lachlan, even a little swimming.
We grab dinner at the hotel’s restaurant before returning to our room where, with the sounds of the beach below, we drift off to sleep.
Wednesday, deciding that we should see more of the island, we catch the midday bus from Platis Yialos to Mykonos town. After a brief 15 minute journey the friendly bus driver drops us off at the Mykonos bus
Mykonos town
White washed buildings, blue timber framing, and potted geraniums for colour. station and we’re presented with a choice of four narrow little streets all heading downhill into the main part of town.
Full of excitement, we pick the narrowest one and set off to see what this side of the island has to offer.
It instantly doesn’t disappoint as the combination of the whitewashed houses with blue timber framing and streets full of white outlined stone pavers is so mesmerising that we can’t help but grin as we walk hand in hand downhill.
It is a complete fluke but our path takes us straight to a part of the town called ‘little Venice’ where the buildings perch on stilts over the water’s edge. As we wander about checking out the unique architecture we turn around to notice that uphill to our left are Mykonos’ famous row of windmills.
After a closer inspection of the windmills we head back in to the narrow windy streets and continue our exploration. It’s great fun as we’ve got no idea where we’re going and we actually don’t particularly mind where we end up.
One street leads into another and so on and after about 10 minutes of random turns we
Windmills
Mykonos town pop out of onto another part of the waterfront - this time around the small harbour on the main port side of the town. With a fleet of brightly coloured traditional fishing boats bobbing up and down in front of us, and a huge marble fish filleting table to our left, we decide we can’t head back to Platis Yialos without trying the seafood on this side of the island. But the problem is that it’s not quite lunch time so we saunter back in to the streets again to see what else we can find.
After further aimless wandering, and a little back tracking, we stop by a little bakery for feta filled pastries and the cheapest Greek coffees of our trip. We then pop into a bakery and green grocer to pick up some supplies for a picnic dinner on our balcony tonight.
When we reach the decision that we have just about seen all that we want to see on this side of the island we weave our way back through the narrow whitewashed windy streets to a restaurant we had spotted earlier in the day. With an array of fresh lobsters, prawns, sea urchins,
Mykonos town street-scape
Great place for strolling squid, and baby snapper laid across ice out the front it is most certainly a seafood restaurant.
We order Greek salad to start (yep - we’re hooked) and for mains Lachlan chooses the fish of the day and Ariana takes advantage of trying something hard to find elsewhere- octopus pasta!
We take our time over lunch and while we’re letting our food settle we spot the famous pelican of Mykonos, Petros (or Mr Percival as we like to refer to him as). Petros struts up the hill, past our table, up the stairs and on his way he seems to agree to be photographed by tourists - but only on his own terms. The most unusual thing about this pelican is that, unlike those we’ve seen many times in Australia, it’s pink!
Back at our lovely beachfront hotel we set ourselves up on the balcony in the late afternoon with our mini picnic. As we gaze out to sea watching the sun sinking into the Aegean Sea we think of how fortunate we are.
Thursday is our last morning on Mykonos so after breakfast we get down to the beach early to find brand new wooded
beach chairs have been added overnight, complete with comfortable lounging cushions. Front row centre is our spot yet again and we enjoy some precious time reading in peace to the sound of the ocean. Heavenly.
After our last lunch at the hotel (complete with free dessert- as has become common place almost everywhere we’ve eaten), we enjoy an entertaining ride back to the port with a chatty taxi driver. He gives us some great advice about what to see and do on Paros (our next island destination) and confirms to us yet again just how friendly and welcoming Greek people are!
After a short wait down by the port we board another Flying Cat 4, buckling ourselves into our seats for the next and final stop on our Greek Island hopping adventure - Paros!
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Dad
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It is a very different world to Athens..
Hi, The islands we visited were very nice but not that clean and painted blue ..maybe too close to Athens Dad