Mykonos and Delos

Mykonos is beautiful. White washed houses, narrow & winding roads, beaches, shops and windmills. I spent 2 days there and saw quite a lot.
I stayed 2 minutes from Paradise Beach at their hostel. I booked a cute one person cabin, which is 2/3rds bed lol. Very simple but all you need. Shared bathrooms and showers of course.
These hostel/ camping/ beach resorts have everything: shops, restaurants, bars, mini-mart and a nightclub. It is about 25 min from Mykonos town though, so i took the public bus there my first night. The town is a complete maze. It was made that way on purpose, so pirates could make their loot hard to find. Cool eh. The windmills are sweet- there's 4 in a row on the waterfront. A big draw for the tourists. There are tons of white washed churches. Greek churches are gorgeous inside- lots of wood (unique considering there is *no* timber on the island. None) and gold, shimmering mosaics and paintings of Mary and Jesus.
I was lucky to see the sunset that night- quite gorgeous.

There are tons of shops and restaurants. There is some beautiful jewelry in Greece... but I resisted (thus far)- I just don't want to carry it all lol.
There are tons of cats in Greece as well- I saw an adorable kitten on white washed steps... Picture op!!
There was also this hilarious, huge white pelican- type bird, which was a big tourist draw. It totally enjoyed the attention, but if you got too close, it would snap at you with it's beak. It didnt look like it hurt because people kept going up to the thing. The next day I saw it again near a guy in the back of his little truck (all cars are little here lol) with his black lab dog. The bird literally jumped up into the back of the truck, wings flapping, and stared down the dog, and snapped at the guy. Hilarious. I got a great picture. Of course the dog is growling, barking and generally freaking out. The guy held the dog back but the bird didn't seem scared lol.
Paradise beach was nice- part sand, part pebble beach... clear water, and even rock/ coral only about 5 meters out! It was super cool. I swam out to it and jumped off into the water, as did many others. It made the water look shallow but it wasn't! It also sort of makes it look like you're walking on water!
Oh yeah and the nudity. Plenty. To be forthright, I have seen penises and fake boobs that I just didn't need to see lol. It was mostly old men and European women. There was actually groups of naked people having serious conversations. I wonder- how do they do it?? Just doesn't seem normal to me. Don't they get distracted? And why did that old guy have to scratch himself... Ugh anyway. lol.
I took a day trip to the ancient island of Delos. Luckily the boat ran, while almost all others were on a 24 hour strike. Delos has a rich history and is full of ruins. No one lives on the island- it is strictly an archeology site and people must leave on the last boat at 3pm. It was really cool. It features the famous road of lions, about 5 statues lining the west side of a road. There was an altar, some huge houses in various states of ruin, a theatre, a temple with a statue inside called temple of Isis, as well as a museum with all the originals. There is a big hill that you can climb to the sanctuary of Athena and Zeus. It offers an amazing view of the island and others in the distance. It makes Mykonos and, well, civilization, seem far away.

That night the campsite/ hostel/ beach was having a party, so a girl I met from Nova Scotia named Kate and I agreed to meet up to check it out. We got there soon after the doors opened. The ticket guy flirted and mentioned it was 15 euros lol. We chose the regular beach bar instead. It was good- the only bad thing was the DJ had some skipping issues- you know, that cringe-worthy scratching noise.
We met a few people, hung out by the water, chatted. It was awesome. I'm jealous of Kate. She worked on a tall ship as a teacher for highschoolers. The ship starts in Norway and makes its way to the Caribbean and beyond. Next semester she's a recruiter and, well, I just wanted to know if they needed any admin people on the ship. Or maybe I could do HR? Well we will see haha. Sounds like a sweet job- as long as the teenagers don't do anything stupid lol.
On a sour note, I woke up to Canucks news. Not of the score or the loss, but of the rioting in Van. I assumed they lost after hearing about that lol. It's too bad. All I can think is that now the fans truly know how Rider fans feel. Soooo close but no cigar. It hurts and it's disappointing- but it's just a game. Don't wreck things. Do what I did! Cry for 2 days!! lol.
-hopping away to Ios now!

Ranelle