What's worse? Meeting new friends and then having to go away, or meeting new friends and having them leave you behind? The girls and I have been discussing this today as we leave Mykonos on the high speed ferry to Athens. Our apartment in Mykonos is nestled in a maze of narrow alleyways rising steeply from the sea. On our first day here the girls made friends with a gaggle of neighborhood kids who are off school for the two week Easter holiday. Despite the language barrier, they sang songs, told stories and played endless games of tag and hide and seek from sun up until well after sun down. We tried to change our ferry and hotel reservations to stay an extra day on Mykonos for their benefit, but it would have cost too much. Oh well, saying farewell is just as sad tomorrow as it is today.

Connections with other children are so few and far between on a trip like this that Deb and I decided to put aside our Mykonos plan and just roll with it. Sometimes we left them in the whitewashed alleyway with their friends for an hour and strolled down to the waterfront together to watch the boats come and go over a beer or glass of wine. More often we took turns exploring the rabbit warren. Mykonos is a legendary party destination. This early in the season, though, it's pretty tame, which suited us just fine. The streets are lined with expensive shops and hole in the wall delis and crepe counters where you can sit on a painted metal chair on the sidewalk and watch life go by.

We enjoyed Mykonos a little more than Santorini. Here's a few reasons why:

One: When we arrived at the Lefteris Hotel Costas, the owner, invited us to join his family on the terrace for an Easter Sunday barbeque. He plied us with bottomless beers and a steady stream of lamb chops, chicken souvlaki and fresh salad. He shook his head resolutely when we offered to pay him for the food and drink. "Easter is our special time and you are our guests."

Two: Whereas Santorini sits high on a cliffside, Mykonos is a waterfront town. The harbour is lined with restaurants and cafes with all the chairs facing the promenade and the water. You can sit for hours smelling the salt air and watching the people, fishing boats, sloops and million dollar yachts come and go.

Three: The weather was better on Mykonos. We were able to sit on our west facing balcony in shorts and T-shirts every evening and watch the sun sink into the Aegean. One day we hiked to a nearby beach and the girls enjoyed a fresh swim in the sea.

Four: It's too expensive to shop. This is a summer playground for the very rich and famous. The designer shops don't seem to lower their prices in the shoulder seasons. After being quoted €250 for a pair of shorts, Deb had no interest in dragging me into any more shops. We bought nothing here.

Five: There are three museums. Two don't open until June. The third is a tiny space filled with a few headless statues and about a thousand vases dating from the fifth and sixth century B.C. They all looked the same to me. It cost €2 to get in and I was out again in 45 minutes. My kind of museum!

Six: The place is crawling with cats. I suppose it's meant to control the rat population (we saw none). I love cats and found it hilarious to observe them interacting with one another in there own little fiefdom. At night you could hear them howling, moaning and hissing at each other on the alleys. Once I had to go out on the street in my underwear and shoo them away from our door. All I needed was curly black hair with long sideburns, a furry chest and a grease-stained wife beater and it could have been a scene right out of "Streetcar Named Desire."

Seven: Our place had a little kitchen and we were able to cook our own breakfast. Nothing takes away the traveling blues like standing over a stove. Making poached eggs brought me right back to leisurely mornings in our camper in New Zealand.

The Greek Islands are the first and only place that we've used a travel agent on this trip. For some reason we didn't have the time or patience to research all the possible island routes and ferrys from Turkey to Athens. We found a reputable agent in Bodrum who did it all for us - hotels, ferrys, transfers. It was nice not having to worry about anything, but I'm not sure it was worth the added cost. We found we had less flexibility to make changes when we booked through an agent as opposed to directly with the ferry company or hotels. It's also dead easy to do it yourself. When you arrive at any of the islands there are always five or six old ladies there waiting with signs inviting you to come stay at exactly the type of place we like - cheap and homey. There are two types of ferries between the islands: slow ones with no assigned seats and open air decks; and jet ferries where you strap yourself into an assigned airplane seat and skim atop the water at the speed of noise. The latter are great for commuters or those short on vacation time. They're also a lot more expensive. Unbeknownst to us, our agent booked us on this type. It cost us a lot more and we are unable to enjoy the scenery from the deck as we weave our way through the islands towards the mainland. From now on, we trust our instincts and book our own travel. So far trains and long flights are the only thing we've truly needed to book in advance. That may change as we approach Western Europe in high season.

We're not really looking forward to Athens that much. From all we've read and heard, it's a big dirty city that just happens to have the Acropolis in the centre of it. No matter, we'll spend a few days taking it all in before catching a 20 minute flight to Dubrovinick, Croatia - setting for "Game of Thrones" and a bunch of other fact-based medieval history. Then it's up to Split for some sailing. I can hardly wait to get out on that water.

Here's Athens up ahead on the horizon now! Cradle of western civilization you say? Let's see about that.