Mykonos, Paros and wind, wind, wind 💨

We took the ” fast ferry” to Mykonos, it’s very comfortable and a fast ride but they are invariably late. Upon arriving in Mykonos harbor we found our rental car 🚗 waiting for us, the driver had a sign with our preprinted name on it – pretty classy for a $20/day rental car.

The driver took us to our apartment which would have been difficult to find on our own with only Google for help. We had a great views of the harbor, surrounding islands and beautiful sunsets 🌅.

Mykonos was very windy and I could see a few kite surfers in a bay not far away, I was getting “itchy” for a kite session but couldn’t find any shops that were still open as the season had ended!?! I had to settle for a tour of Delos Island, the birthplace of Apollo and the Aegean commercial port for hundreds of years, just not recently. We hired a guide and she was awesome, very informative and witty. Our first experience with her was at the entrance gate as she argued with the admitting guard (in Greek, of course) about how he could better do his job. He stood his ground and she gave him a verbal Greek tongue-lashing. I whispered to Terri that I would have surrendered long ago; I felt sorry for the guy but knew that Terri had picked the right guide. Her explaining of the Greek root of the word “phalic” as being “phalos,” roughly translated as “blooming penis,” got a few chuckles. This was important in Greek-Delos lives as the symbols were carved into the stone walls and touched whenever passed to insure oneself of a healthy life.

The typical Airbnb apartment will likely only offer a clothes washer at best and if the weather is not good enough to hang your clothes to dry then you end up with a stinky backpack! We were starting to run low on clean clothes so I found a nearby full-service laundry that used dryers! We stuffed our dirty clothes into a bag and dropped them off. It was soooo nice to have dryer dried clothes again, the best 12€ we spent.

After four days in Mykonos we headed to Paros, just a quick 40 minute ferry ride. Our Airbnb host met us at her restaurant in the harbor and took us to our apartment. It was down some crazy narrow passageways but was really cute. It did have a low arch in the middle but I only banged my head a couple of times! 🤕😜🤕

Paros was as windy as Mykonos and I quickly found a kite shop that was open and offered rentals! 😃😃😃 Terri knew I was longing to get out on the water and she encouraged me to go and even offered to be my photographer. The shop was well set-up with lots of good gear and the owner even loaned me his foil board towards the end of my session. In all, I had a great time and Terri caught up in her emails and reading for the nearly three hours I was on the water.

Paros is a small island and next to it is an even smaller Island, Antiparos. We took the 5 minute car ferry to Antiparos and drove to a famous cave, The Antiparos Cave. It was set into a mountaintop and had a cute little Chapel at it’s opening. I told Terri that it’s for praying for no earthquakes while you are down the 400+ steps into the cave. I assumed she said a prayer as we didn’t experience any quakes or other misadventures.

Next stop: Naxos