I finally made it to Mykonos on the weekend to meet up with Diana and Jim. The itinerary to get there was a little less than ideal (one overnight bus ride plus one 6 hour long ferry ride) but nothing that I'm not used to by now. The plan of action was to sneak me into their hotel so I could stay with them for free and thus afford to go to Mykonos at all (backpacker habits die hard!)
The sneaking in wasn't much of a problem, I made a big show of "leaving" with my suitcase, only to smuggle it back in much later at night! The first night there was my name day, which in Greece is actually kind of a big deal! I know a lot of you are probably shaking your heads right now, but it really is! Name days in Greece are actually bigger than birthdays and August 15th is the celebration of the Virgin Mary (Maria in Greek), only second to Christ himself. Can you tell Greece is an Orthodox country? Anyways, our first night in Mykonos was definitely our biggest and it brought back some good memories of when Sandy and I went in 2004.
Highlights include: Scandanavian Bar, eating 4 gyros a day at Jimmy's (that was actually just Jim, me and Diana topped out at 2), naked old men at Super Paradise beach, trying to drive away from Super Paradise Beach and the tires of the car trying to find traction on the 50 degree angle road, trying to sneak in and out of the hotel day and night, meeting random Europeans, dancing outside of churches at night, paying WAY too much to go to Cavo Paradiso and almost ending up stranded on the island! Like the headline says, spontaneity is not rewarded and my last minute plans to island hop ended abruptly when I couldn't find a ferry ticket to another island OR back to the port of Athens! Needless to say I was a little freaked out since D Squared were leaving and I couldn't afford accomodation in Mykonos. Luck was on my side once more though, and I ended up finding an out of the way route back to Trikala, but it was a close call!
I got back to Trikala, where my favourite cousin lives, last night and will probably stay here till the weekend when it's time to hit up a different island; Skiathos! Our other cousin Amalia has been living there for the past several years, so it's an excuse to see her and hopefully redeem my last visit out there! Last time I went was in 2005 with Alexandra and her boyfriend, and needless to say, it was less than ideal. I'm hoping a girl's only trip to the island will provide my memory with a revamp of Skiathos!
Ah yes, in the meantime I also managed to FINALLY get my Greek citizenship, which means I am officially a member of the European Union! This means I can live and roam freely through any EU country with ease...it also means that I can easily be arrested now. I guess you have to take the good with the bad! More news when I get back from Skiathos!
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