Greece!

Leon and I have been talking about visiting Greece for a long time. We decided to take a three week holiday and explore the Greek islands.

We left Vancouver headed to Athens via Montreal. The flight was uneventful except that the plane leaving Montreal was only partially full. Unfortunately, we didn’t move quickly enough to claim an empty row which would have allowed us to lie down during the 9 hour flight. As it was, we sat up and I managed to get about 20 minutes of sleep.

We arrived in Athens at 11:00am to a hot and bright day. Our hotel, although modest, was located perfectly between the Port of Rafina and a city beach. Leon bought me a lemonade at the beach and we sat enjoying the colour of the water. After a brief afternoon nap, we walked to the port and picked up our tickets for Mykonos. Dinner was a generous portion of assorted fish, tomato and black olive salad and potatoes at a seaside restaurant. Nothing fancy but after missing lunch, it was welcomed. The ouzo was complimentary, by the way. I understand that is customary after one pays the bill. How nice!

I tried to get a good night’s sleep but I found myself waking up several times to finally just give up on sleeping after 5am. Jet lag is always a problem for me and the fact that I am just too excited to sleep!

We skipped breakfast and made our way to the ferry nice and early. After a 4 hour sail, we arrived in Mykonos, our first island stop for this holiday. We took a sea bus from the new port into the town, then walk through the maze like alleys toward the taxi and bus stand. It should have been a 7 minute walk, but it was indeed a maze. By the time we got to the transit plaza, Leon came up with the great idea that we should rent a quad to get up to our hotel which was about 2km further up the road. Brilliant!

We got our small luggage on board and arrived at destination quickly. As soon as we got off the quad, we noticed how windy it was. And I mean windy with a capital W! Like a gale much of the time. The pool was sheltered behind a glass wall, but that made no difference. In fact, it was unpleasant to sit outside in that area. Walking was nearly impossible without hanging on to each other!

We checked into our room and made our way back down the hill to a market which was managed by a nice Greek/Canadian lady. I was very thankful to find gluten free crackers and a few other products. We then had a late lunch at the beachfront taverna before going back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. Well, at least Leon swam. I just sat in the lounger and watched. The wifi was great so we decided to catch up on some computer time and retire early. Once again sleep eluded me, mostly due to the sound of the wind shaking our door and window. Sheesh!