Mykonos. Notoriously the gay party island of the world, only behind the likes of larger cities such as San Francisco & Sydney (statistic from Doug), and we were soon to find out why. The first 25 minutes of being on the island we did not see one female. It was muscular men being greeted by their equally built partners, or in some cases, their cross-dressing counterparts at the airport. So we decided to move out of the airport loop and onto the road, where we found scooter after scooter go past with ... yep, again more coupled males. We were starting to think we were out of our league here immediately. Keen to move out of the area we begun walking in the general direction of where we thought our accommodation was, in the hope that we'd flag down a cab on the way, but it was never to come. If you were an entrepreneur, a smart business move would be to start up your own cab company on the island as there are no taxis to be found anywhere. Fortunately for us, after walking 30 minutes and only moments before complete darkness of the night, a Macedonian man piled us in to the back of his ute & got us down to our Tropicana apartments on Paradise Beach; from here all current concerns were forgotten and there was plenty of fun to be had.

Deciding to spend a tad more freely on accommodation for Mykonos, it was definitely worth it with the location, as our balcony overlooked Paradise Beach and could literally see into Tropicana Beach Club. With nothing else to see inland in Mykonos during the day, besides many larger boulders, a few half-built abandoned houses and the odd mountain goat, we spent most the daylight hours making use of the swimming facilities at our place & the beautiful water at the beach. Jack, Joe & I decided we were all well overdue for a haircut, and scared at the prospect of a Greek hairdresser giving us the national specialty; a perm, we thought it'd be a good idea to cut each others hair. A few missing chunks and a couple of stray longer bits lead to Jack looking 5 years younger and Joe looking like Jim Carey starring in 'Dumb & Dumber', but overall they seemed to be taken well by most of the people we met. Our staple diet in Mykonos consisted of none other than Gyros. A small lamb, pork, or chicken kebab-like pita, loaded with French fries, tzatziki sauce and a pinch of salad. Hardly the most nutritional item on the menu but at 2 euro and delicious in taste, we went through plenty of them between us, as it served to be our lunch, dinner and late night drunken snack over the 4 days. I went through the best part of half a dozen during one night. The result; a mean Gyros hangover.

Our final day in Mykonos, Jack & I partnered up to get quad bikes (I swore I'd never ride a scooter again after Thailand so this was a sufficient substitute), as did Joe & Doug, and explored the coastal line of the island in search of other beautiful beaches. We swung by the town to see what it had to offer and to purchase ferry tickets to hop between each of the Greek Isles, buy Joe a flamboyant pink singlet which he had to wear as part of losing a bet, and grab some cheap vodka for the nights festivities. From there we went in search of Super Paradise Beach, or as the population of the area call it; Ssssuuuuuper Paradise. Having put an adjective in front of the name of what was an already lovely clear-watered beach in our opinion, we couldn't wait to see how amazing this beach must be. And when we eventually arrived, we weren't disappointed in the slightest. A cove in between rocky mountainside on each side, the view of the water was unbelievable with photos not doing it any justice. Slightly more chilled than Paradise beach, we swum around in the deep, aqua-blue water for a good hour taking in how stress-free our life is at current, and how tough it is going to be when having to go back to face reality.

Whilst the days were very relaxing and pleasant to be swimming in beautiful waters of the Aegean Sea, they were far from the highlight of our stay at Paradise Beach; with the nightlife providing many fun stories and memories for us. The afternoon would be occupied by drinking games on our deck with BYO alcohol to save funds on the pricy alcohol prices within the beach club & nightclubs. Once at a good level, each night before the sun would set we'd make the 1 minute journey across the car park and into the Tropicana Bar. In here it reminded us of the party lifestyle of Koh Phangan; a small party beach on an island which otherwise is pretty bare, where you can crowd surf, dance on tables and peoples' shoulders, shirtless, barefooted, bring your own drinks and it be impossible to get kicked out by security no matter how hard you try. These were by far some of the funnest nights of our trip so far, and some of the cheapest, which lead to loose shenanigans such as dancing on stages, jumping between tables, nude swimming out to docked boats, late night quad biking and even one night managing to recruit the entire left-over crowd at the Tropicana at close back to our apartment for a party till the early hours (with our MacBooks, iPhones and iPads lying around everywhere, it was a surprise nothing was stolen by the large number of random people in our place).

The only thing that was thought to be a downside during my stay in Mykonos was waking the last morning to realise I had not brought my wallet home with me. No idea where it could've got to, I had almost conceded defeat that I'd lost my travel card, cash and credit card before checking the beach to find that some good samaritan had found it in the sand & handed it in the bar; very fortunate. With that, we returned our quad bikes and bid farewell to Paradise Beach & Mykonos as we departed for the port. An island that started off a bit shaky but in the end far exceeded our expectations. Our next stop is 2 nights in Paros to detox and sun-bake before what seems to be the most-hyped island of the Greek Isles; Ios.