It begins with no sense of urgency

Imagine a tremendous heat. Your body feels like it’s melting from the inside out, and your limbs feel as though they are beginning to liquefy. Sweating is the least of your problems. What you really need to do is figure out how to get your sweat to stop sweating. The only people who look attractive in this type of heat are the real Greeks. The rest of us are just a sopping, soggy mess, trying to enjoy our day without passing out in the process.

Sound good? Thought so.

Visiting Greece in August wasn’t one of my better ideas, but when the options are either now, or possibly never, I chose now. My mom and I decided to take two weeks for some serious bonding time, and Greece felt like the right place to go.

We flew to Athens on a clear, bug-free evening only to wake up at the crack of dawn and board a ferry to Mykonos. After some serious Greek island hopping we would return to Athens, but it was the islands that would receive our attention first.
I learned very quickly that time in Greece is different than time in the rest of the world. If a plane, boat, or train is scheduled to arrive at 1 p.m., it will usually show up close to the appointed time in most countries throughout the world. Not in Greece. For some reason, Greeks have no sense of urgency. Ever.

The worst wait was a gruelling four hours on an uncovered boat dock as we waited for the Flying Cat ferry to take us from Mykonos to Santorini. I felt like a basted and burnt turkey fresh out of the oven. The colour of my shoulders would have put a lobster to shame.

The most important piece of advice that I can give to anyone scheduling a trip to Greece is this: do not schedule something soon after a mode of transportation is scheduled to arrive somewhere. If your ferry is supposed to arrive in Athens at noon, for example, and your plane leaves at two, good luck. Wait a day in between all important travels, and don’t give someone waiting for you an exact arrival time. They might be waiting for hours.

Anyway, we arrived on Mykonos after stopping first at a number of other islands. As the coastline approached in the distance, all I could think was wow. Pictures don’t do justice the beauty of seeing an island you’re going to visit for the first time. It’s even hard to put it into words. Needless to say, mom and I were as giddy as a pair of schoolgirls as we walked off the ship and searched for our ride.

Trying to find the man with the sign that read “Hope” was another interesting experience. He was well-hidden in a group of hundreds of other Greeks all holding similar signs. Everyone worked their way through the moving mass of humanity in an effort to find their proper name and proper escort. It was insane. Also, additional people will come and wait for the boats to arrive if they have extra rooms to rent in their hotels. They hold up signs and heckle passers-by, trying to convince tourists to switch accommodations and stay with them instead.

You definitely want to book ahead of time in Greece.

Hotel Despotiko, our home for the following three days, was located on a hill. It looked downwards to the water and the centre of the busy town.

I’ll save time and give you the highlights of Mykonos without going into unnecessary detail. We were there for three days, and I do like to talk a lot, so the “Coles notes” version is probably best.

The windmills: They are one of the most distinguishing features of Mykonos, and are located along the coast across from Little Venice. There is a cute little jewellery shop located inside one of the windmills, and if you ever go there, please tell the gentleman who owns the place that Amanda from Canada says “hello, and thanks for the ring.”

Little Venice: So incredibly cute! Some of the buildings were built along the water, making this stretch of coast look like one side of a canal in Venice. It’s also the trendy bar district that sports many restaurants, coffee bars, and jewellery stores.

The tiny streets: Outstretch your arms. Good. Now measure how wide the distance is from one fingertip to the other. Great. Many of the streets in Mykonos are narrower than that. Everything except the shutters and railings of buildings are whitewashed, and the ground is partly whitewashed and party covered with stone. Just get lost wandering through the tiny streets. It’s amazing.
Men on scooters: Apparently Mykonos is one of the largest meeting places for homosexual men in the world. I’m not making a joke. I have never been surrounded by more men, but have none of them look at me, in my life. And, they love to pair up and ride around on tiny scooters, which are quite popular on most Greek islands. They also all wear scarves round their necks, and the sight is quite hilarious the first time it’s experienced.

People watching: Mom and I found a long seat built into a whitewashed wall, and one evening we plopped ourselves down and watched people walk by. It’s a great way to pass the time, especially if you don’t know anyone else on the island. It’s also a great way to meet other travellers.

The main downside to Mykonos is the fact that it is WINDY AS HELL. So windy, in fact, that I need to say it again. Mykonos is windy as hell. Don’t even try to contain your hair, ladies. And gentlemen, forget the gel. It has something to do with the islands location in the Mediterranean, or something of that nature, but I assure you, Mykonos is the windiest place you will ever visit.
I’ll end this post here, because I think I’ve left enough to think about, but trust me, there’s much more to say about my time in Greece...