Mykonos!

I am sailing away from Greece right now and these past 4 days have flown by! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday on the Greek island of Mykonos. It was a beautiful island and I am very happy I spent my time there. We took a ferry that was about 4.5 hours long. It was the perfect place to catch up on sleep.

The island was very mountainous and the land was desert like except in a few areas. Our hotel was gorgeous! It overlooked the Aegean Sea and had the most beautiful pool. Our room even had a view and the bathroom was almost the size of our cabin on the ship which was funny! The hotel was about 15 minutes away from the main town but it had a beach that was close. All the buildings are whitewashed and have accents of blue. I think that the matching style of the buildings made the town beautiful.

The town has many very tiny streets and is closed off to most cars. There were very cool shops and little restaurants. This local bakery had amazing baklava! I also tried honey fritters and they sprinkle cinnamon on top. Everything looked so delicious! I had great food experiences on the island. I enjoyed Greek salad and fell in love with feta cheese. The saganaki cheese was so good and different than American Greek restaurants serve it. I had a gyro (or 2) and they were amazing. They put fries on top of the sandwich! They were also really cheap! I had a lamb kabab that was so tender. I also love frozen greek yogurt. The hotel served us breakfast, the bacon was outstanding and so were the pastries. Fresh squeezed orange juice is very popular.

There was an olive wood shop that sold the most beautiful kitchen supplies and wooden art. The store owner told us about the oldest olive tree (over 1000 years) and it still produces olives every season. It was a beautiful tree. I went into a sandal shop where they make leather sandals and found a pair that I liked and were unique so I treated myself. I also found a necklace with the evil eye and this hand symbol which are culturally Greek. I was so excited I finally found one I liked.

My favorite part of the trip to Mykonos was finding the island mascot. In the 1970's a fisherman found a hurt pelican and nursed it back to health on the island. The pelican was named Petros and it was the lone pelican roaming the island until it died in 1998. Many island residents were upset so 3 pelicans were brought to the island to replace Petros. They were named Petros, Petros, and Petra. I ran into Petros/Petras two times on the island. I was so excited that I embarrassed my travel partner. Haha oh well. Petros/Petras has free reign of the island and wanders into restaurants and down the streets all the time.

The windmills on the island were so beautiful. They had them locked but it was the perfect place to watch the sunset. I can see why windmills would be beneficial on an island like Mykonos, the wind never stops blowing! At night by the beach it was like being sandblasted....not a nice feeling. But the breeze was nice especially since Athens was lacking this.

This breeze did come back to haunt me though. The ferry to go back to Athens was delayed two hours due to bad weather and high winds. It was the ferry ride from hell! So many passengers were vomiting and it took everything I had to keep it together. After 2.5 hours we made it to a port and then we had to take a bus back to the ship. I was so thankful for land! After living on a ship for a month, I figured I would be use to tough seas. Guess not.

Overall Greece was great. Time needs to slow down! One day at sea then I'll be Turkey for 5 days. I'm so excited for Turkey! I have lots of homework to do and sleep to catch up on tomorrow. Yay!