Our one day in Mykonos has so far only lasted about 8 hours, and 1 of that was working out where our hotel was, and the remainder sleeping.
We wake and head down to breakfast, and realise it's a pity we're not staying here for a bit longer, as the hotel has a great setting for breakfast. The bad side about being up a steep hill is lugging your 20kg of luggage up it past midnight. The good part is the view. We're looking out over their swimming pool over the rest of Mykonos, while cool chillout music is playing. Good stuff. If they played some Groove Armada's At The River it would be perfect. But they don't. Bugger. This is one of the songs I can no longer access on my ipod because the Eee broke it :(
We have breakfast then it's time to check out and have a look around the city of Mykonos to see what it's like by the light of day. Turns out it's better by the darkness of night. It's nowhere near as pretty as Santorini, or even Naxos, which was quite a nice place. You can tell this is definitely geared toward a different type of visitor.
We have a look at the few interesting sights there are on offer, then decide to confirm which port our boat is leaving from. In the interests of saving time in Mykonos, we had got our tickets for today's trip printed out while we were waiting for the SuperJet in Santorini. The first thing the guy in the travel line office says is “Where did you get this ticket? This boat is cancelled.”. WHAT??? “yes the oceans are really bad today”. Yes we're well aware of that thank you. Bugger again. So we now have a choice – we can try to book 2 seats on the Blue Star boat going out at 13:50 (a little under 2 hours away), or try to get onto HighSpeed 2 again, which will be leaving at 22:00 that night. There is no way we are doing another midnight landing, especially into Athens. Ok we'll go for the 2pm one. But we can't book that at this office, as these guys don't handle Blue Star, we have to go over to the Blue Star office and ask there. We run over to the Blue Star office and find that they have had 2 cancellations, but they are in 1st Class and it's 40 Euros per person. This is less than our original trip was going to cost so we grab them. Meanwhile Celina has gone over to another office and got the refund for our cancelled boat, which we use to pay for these tickets, plus some spare change to boot.
Since we are now leaving in about an hour and a half, we decide to go back and grab our bags so we're ready to go. We make the trek uphill one last time, then make our way slowly back through the now-crowded city streets. One thing I sometimes forget when wearing our packs is that, fully laden, I am about 3 times as deep (front to back) as normal. This can cause issues when turning around in confined spaces for example. More than my fair share of pedestrians cop this today I think.
Back at the port we ponder getting lunch, then decide to wait, as we can find nothing but hot greasy food. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but after having lugged our bags around for 20 minutes on a 35+ Celsius day, that's the last thing you feel like.
Our boat it turns out is even nicer than the HighSpeed2 from yesterday – in first class of course. We grab one of the “boudoir” seating arrangements that consists of a circular couch thing surrounding a little table. Very swish. There don't seem to be too many people at all in 1st class at this point, which is great, as we can both sit back and get some rest.
At one of the 2 stops along the way before we reach Athens, we are joined by a throng of extra people, all in first class it seems. Some crotchetty old woman sits down in our boudoir, then says “these booths are supposed to be for 5 people you know” referencing Celina stretched out having a sleep. I ask her if she's expecting another 2 people, to which she replies that her husband is coming up. To which I reply well he's got plenty of space there hasn't he (which HE DID), sitting next to her. To try and wipe the just-sucked-a lemon sour look off her face we shuffle around to make some more space. Her husband then joins us, and promptly stretches out on the seats for a nap! I shuffle back around so Celina can have a sleep as well and swear that if this old bat says anything I'll rip her a new one. Pardon my French. She doesn't say anything unfortunately.
The voyage passes reasonably uneventfully (bag count – 0. Assisted by Travacalm). We arrived at the mainland port of Rafias, and begin the arduous task of finding a bus that goes to Athens. This is made harder than expected by the surly coach drivers who will not tell you even the general direction in which to look for the regular buses. Snobs. We eventually find them and are greatly impressed by the young ticket lad who is able to help us out telling us where we are going to stop in Athens, and how to get to our final destination. Plus Celina said he was hot, so that was a thrill for her.
After arriving in Athens, we manage to find our way around thanks to ticket lad's ^ instructions. We descend into the underground metro system, to emerge one station later at Omonia square, sort of a central location in Athens. Our hotel is just a couple of blocks from here. Walking these streets for the first time, I am not sure whether Athens feels dodgier than Madrid and Lisbon, or whether it's just the whole “first time” thing. At least I haven't been offered any drugs here, where I was offered something or other about 5 separate times in Lisbon. I must have that look about me.
We find our hotel and are pretty impressed with the front – big glass doors, nice gold writing, looks pretty swish! I am not aware at this point that this is one of the few 2 star places we have booked for this trip. The first interesting point is the elevator, of which there are 2, one for 2 people maximum, and one which can handle a massive 3 people. I have the good fortune to catch the 2 person lift, which, with my pack, I can JUST fit inside – the doors do have a little trouble closing, but I shuffle around and we're away.
Next interesting thing is the room. Ok so it's 2 star, and it is RIGHT in the centre of Athens. And it's 50 Euros a night. So what can you expect. The good points – There is a/c, a fridge, and beds. The bad points – the room is small, there is no shower curtain, no rail for a shower curtain, no mounting point for the shower, no hooks to hang your towels from, no towel rail, and the toilet flush seems a little weak. I am later proven true in this theory when something gets “stuck at the gate”. All in all this room is made for sleeping in, then getting up really early and going out all day, and not coming home until it's dark and just going to sleep. Luckily this is the way Celina plans her holidays so we're in luck.
The shower is an interesting exercise. One hand is constantly occupied (steady on) with holding the shower head, as there is nowhere to actually place it. You can hang it back over the taps, but I couldn't get this to happen without it spraying out everywhere, and, due to the lack of shower curtain/screen/anything, flooding the bathroom. Which basically means turning the shower off, hanging the showerhead up, opening the shampoo bottle / shaving cream / whatever, lathering etc., then turning the shower back on, and starting up all over again. It's an exercise in patience and could probably be fine tuned to a perfect routine, given time and inclination, neither of which I am blessed with in this particular instance.
Today's moment of humour – there is a shop in Mykonos called “Business Solutions Shop”. Their website - http://www.bs-shop.gr.
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