It is hot and humid today. Everything feels wet and I’m breaking out in a sweat as soon as I leave my room. I go back to the old town to explore more of the alleyways as this is my last day in Mykonos before I go on my week long sailing trip. Every corner I turn there’s colourful doors and staircases showing brightly against the stark white backdrop of the buildings. The city’s bylaw is that every building must be white for uniformity but it also makes sense as it also reflects the intense heat of the summer. Doors and stairways can be painted any colour imaginable and I see purples, reds, blues, turquoises and yellows. Some of the buildings have flowering trees and bushes creeping up the sides or potted plants on the small decks. This is a photographer’s dream.
It’s early Saturday morning and I see the aftermath of the previous evening. Empty liquor bottles on ledges, clear plastic cups abandoned on the cobbles and the odd pair of shoes left behind. The garbage men have started early to clean the streets and due to the narrowness of the alleys, everything is done by hand and then carried out to a waiting pickup truck at the mouth of the alley.
By 10am I’m fried by the intense humidity and head back to the hotel. It’s my last chance to have the decadent French toast slathered with creamy yoghurt that has been sweetened with honey and topped with fresh fruit.
At 4pm I meet my Intrepid sailing group and skipper, Fotis, at the new port to begin our adventure. There’s an elderly couple from the US, Laura and Tom. Tom used to play professional basketball in the European league which isn’t surprising based on his height of 6’5”. He once played one-on-one with Michael Jordan! Sam is from Texas and is a doppelgänger of a coworker’s wife and I feel as if I know her already. Alex is from the UK and takes charge of making our grocery list and extracting cash from all of us to pay for said groceries. For this trip, we’re in charge of the galley and making our own breakfasts and lunches. Gwyn is originally from Wales and also extremely tall, and I’m still trying to work out how he’s going to sleep in his bunk as when he unfolds himself into it, it looks like he’s laying in a coffin that’s too short. I offer my room, which I have to myself (what a luxury!), but he declines. I may opt to sleep on the upper deck on the benches as I find the cabins a bit claustrophobic and hot. It would be worth the bug bites just for some fresh air.
We go into town for a group dinner. After filling our bellies Sam, Gwyn, Alex and I head off to the shops in search of sunglasses for Sam. I locate an absolutely hideous mirrored pair with a large square frames for only 10 euro and Sam is game. “I think we should all have to purchase something trashy and touristy in solidarity with Sam” and we’re now on the hunt to buy something absolutely crap. I find a baseball hat that has “I’m in Mykonos Bitch” brazened across the front, Gwyn purchases a t-shirt that I can picture some Eastern European man wearing with lots of gold chains and Alex finds a hat that has something about a dick written on the front. We’re all set for the next week.
Sam and I discuss the merits of procuring a stand-up paddle board from a nearby catamaran that has one strapped to the side of the hull. Surely we could sneak out of the dock early enough in the morning that they wouldn’t notice it missing?
Our boat is docked at the new port in Mykonos and the other boats are still lively with music and talking at midnight. The other boats seem to be occupied with all men, so not sure what that’s all about. With four women on our boat, we are the subject of a few looks and comments. We’re very lucky in that our trip has only six people instead of the full complement of eleven. I can’t imagine how cramped it would be on the boat with that many people or how everyone would fit into the cabins to sleep. Off to catch some zzzzz’s and I’m happy for my earplugs.
