More of Mykonos

Shereen and I were alone for the morning since Ray had decided to stay over at her friend’s hotel the night before. We started with a trip to the fruit store down the road, which for me, at this stage of the trip where I was really craving simple find-in-the-fridge food, was like walking into a candy store. I settled on an apple the size of my head and a bunch of grapes. I literally bit off more than I could chew with the apple- it was so big that it was going brown before I was even half way through and it was difficult to pose with in photos as Shereen kept yelling at me to hide it. We wandered around the old port taking photos and enjoying the different perspective we were getting in the light of day. 

When we were through we hopped on a bus to get over to a beach our hotel manager had suggested the day before. When we arrived the whole beach was sun-bed only with barely any room that you didn't have to pay for. Luckily I had spied another beach on the other side of the cliff and what looked like the beginning of a path just a little way back up the hill. We walked back and sure enough the tiny and slightly perilous path lead down to the bay. We expertly manoeuvred our way down and past the men selling knock-off handbags and pirated DVDs and set up our towels before racing into the water to cool off. 

After a few hours we packed up our gear and headed back to the hotel.

We got dressed up and arranged to meet Ray and Alana for some sunset cocktails in Little Venice- an area close to our hotel where the buildings came straight up out of the water. 

After some sunset sangria we went to find somewhere to eat dinner down in the port.

The next morning Ray, Sam and Georgia and Rhys (Sam's friends from his hostel) decided to rent ATVs to tour around the island. Ray asked if Shereen an I wanted to go and I really didn't like the idea of trying to drive one myself let alone get on the back of someone else's, especially after experiencing the sharp fast turns the island buses take around corners where they couldn't possibly see what is coming. Shereen was keen but didn't want to leave me so we tried to organise a beach that the two of us could get to by bus and that the others could meet us at on their journey.

But they were all set on venturing out where the bus wouldn't take you, so I sucked it up and decided to get on the back of Ray's.

/Shereen not so confident with her driver Sam

I got the job of navigating somehow, which was not the easiest at all. I was gripping on to Ray for dear life and trying to occasionally read the map at the same time. No roads had names so I had to judge by how far we had come and the direction and shape of the road if I could see it. After a slightly annoying detour we arrived at the first beach. The water was beautifully blue and clear but the whole beach was covered in rubbish. We spent all our time in the water there, except when the boys were jumping off some rocks that were around. 

On our way to the next beach disaster struck. Ray and I ran out of petrol.

Luckily I found a petrol station not far away on the map, so while we waited by the side of the road the others drove off to get us some more fuel. After they came back and topped us up enough to get up the hill to the station we filled the tank and set off for our next destination.

/Petrol station antics

Down a very long windy path that snaked alongside a river we made it to our next beach. The beach was in much better condition than the last but also had a lot more old naked people. We chilled on the beach for a while before deciding to have an early dinner at the restaurant that was there. We went inside and Georgia and Rhys realised it was the same restaurant used in Kings of Mykonos- which I haven't seen and apparently is terrible, but they enjoyed the novelty of it. After a great meal we all got back on the ATVs and started back. We stopped along the river (which didn’t look so much like a river as a toxic waste dump up close) to take some photos on this cool rock balancing above the water. I had been so worried about getting injured on the bikes all day but my only injury was inflicted when I had this giant thorny plant impale my foot with its 1 cm barb. 

Fighting the pain from my flesh wound, I got back on and took everyone on a long scenic route home, which I will pretend was on purpose because we got some great views.

I got dropped off at the hotel while the others went to find some bus Rhys wanted a photo on. The guys returned a while later with some wine and cheese and other drinks in preparation of our night out. I had let myself get really sleepy waiting for them so I couldn't get to into it.

After spending about an hour at this club which was crammed full of people on a Contiki, and a DJ who would say Myknoooooooos every 5 seconds, I excused myself and went home.

At 4, 5 and 8am respectively I woke up and Shereen and Ray had not come home. The first night Ray had decided to stay with Alana she texted us so we didn't worry. But with no word from them about where they were I sent her a text and tried calling but there was no answer. I was starting to get worried until I heard from them about 30 mins later saying that they had gone back to the hostel with the others which I had considered but didn't think was likely since they didn't have beds booked there. It turned out Shereen stole Rhys's bed and Ray had slept outside on this massive collection of beanbags at the hostel.

They got back a while later and I left them to sleep it off while I took a walk and got some breakfast. After a decent amount of window-shopping I headed back to the hotel to find them unsurprisingly still asleep. When they eventually got up Ray packed because she had decided to go to Ios a day early to hang out with Alana. She, Rhys and Georgia left on the ferry that afternoon and Sam came to our hostel to take Ray's empty bed. He had also had a pretty rough night so he slept while Shereen and I went out for dinner. We stopped on our way home for our mandatory crepes and bought one for Sam in lieu of dinner.

The next morning we said goodbye to Mykonos and headed to Ios.

Read about it in my next post xx