Wednesday August 8, 2012
Between our days in Naples and Mykonos we had a day at sea, which was a nice way to catch up and relax sans taxing itinerary. Mykonos was a unique port; we were only there from 7am until 2pm, and the shallow harbor forced the ship to tender rather than dock. Tendering means that our ship anchors near the port and smaller boats take groups of people to and from the docks. Due to the limited number of boats, we wanted to be two of the first passengers off the ship so that the better part of our day was not wasted waiting. Unfortunately our time on Mykonos was the least of all of the ports, just 6 hours, so we had to make the most of it. That morning we woke up extra early and rushed down to the lobby at 6am, hope we would get “Tendering Tickets” in the first group – we ended up with Group 4, good enough! As we waited for our group to be called to the galley we watched the sun break over the mountainous island, nothing on the cruise thus far compared to how beautiful it was.
We touched land at 7:30, and were early enough to have everything to ourselves – which meant Kyle was able to pop off many shots of people free landscapes. We made our way past a night club that appeared to still be open, (full of drunk people that seemed determined to party on through the morning). The white buildings hovered over the crystal blue ocean, backlit by early morning light creating a surreal atmosphere. In the first half and hour Kyle took over 500 pictures of pelicans, windmills, cats, churches and the ocean. We were lucky to be the first people at the windmills, Kyle had been to the island before and knew a more direct path from the docks so we snuck around the coast successfully beating the crowds.
We played on the beach near the windmills, collecting shells and taking in the views of Little Venice. A grisly bearded man broke the ambiance as he came strolling up the dirt path, approached the edge of the sea, stripped to his skivvies and jumped into the azur water. After a short while he returned from the ocean, dressed himself and continued back up the dirt path into town. Emboldened by his behavior Megan stripped down as well and also went for a swim. Kyle acted as a lookout to the mischievous 9am brazen swimming session. Reenergized we headed back into town as the shops were now open - Kyle cringed as Megan rejoiced! Every shop had different knick knacks that had to be examined. As a reward for tolerating yet another round of "junk" shopping, Kyle decided we would go for coffee on the water in Little Venice.
As the tiny town filled with tourists the ambiance was lost, we headed back to the ship for lunch by the pool and waved good-bye to Greece for a few days.
Xo, K&M
