Another blissful sea day passes and now – Mykonos…just one of so very many Greek islands. Having been here before I was reminded of what I liked about it the first time. For the most part it is just a great island to walk around on.
It has its own version of Venice – Little Venice – that sits right on the shore. In fact, most restaurants there have their outside seating where you can look straight down into the water over the guardrail. The town sidewalks simply wind their way through the seats.
Walking off the main beach / shoreline area takes you to a myriad of up and down, tiny, crooked streets that have (for the most part) no discernible markings. Cobblestone passageways lead through private home areas that mingle quite contentedly with store frontage.
These streets are not meant for vehicles and some barely support foot traffic. Yet delivery trucks are very common and, more often than not, getting out of their way involves going into the nearest store. The staff are friendly and, while not pushy, always willing to spend your money. The goods and services they offer run the full range of excellent to ‘made in China’.
Going further away from the sea will ultimately also take you away from the throngs of tourists and into a more sedate part of the town.
Despite the lack of markings, there remains one rather common feature here as many other places we have visited – if you’re going down a hill, you’re heading to the sea. Getting lost is impossible to do…unless you drink too much Ouzo, fall and knock yourself out.
Almost all the buildings are white with blue trim, pretty much a defining feature of the area. Some, however, seem to be trying to break with that long-standing tradition as there are white with green trim, yellow, magenta…but the basic white remains. It really does help to reduce the heat in a building.
There may not be an over-abundance of things to do here, but the beach areas are good, the food is great, the weather is outstanding and it’s also a wonderful place to tie up your personal watercraft for a day or two.
