Santorini to Mykonos

Tuesday Mark and Steph went to a wine museum which they quite enjoyed for about 6 Euro or so which gave you a couple of wine tastings and a tour. Then they hung out by the pool and relaxed. Chels and Susanne were off on a moped adventure again. This time we had to rent one bike for the two of us as you need a motorbike license to rent a bike in Santorini which Chelsea did not have. Susanne, however, happened to have taken a course years ago right after university and still has a class “A” license which allowed the rental for us. So we stepped it up to a 125 cc “machine” (as Chelsea calls it) and took off for a day of visiting beaches and seeing the countryside. We saw the black beach (mostly volcanic rock), went to the red beach, then a white beach where we had some snacks (more octopus for SD)

We then joined Steph and Mark for dinner at a popular little place close to Pension George’s later in the evening. The seafood was supposed to be really fresh at this restaurant and as it turns out, they were right! Susanne was more than happy with her grilled squid (they brought the whole thing out, not sliced or cut up…yum!). Mark and Susanne finally tried Ouzo (I know, about 10 days too late, but we just never got around to it as the wine is quite cheap). Well, Susanne is a Sambuca fan and was a bit disappointed with Ouzo compared to Sambuca. Does not quite have the kick and is sipped over Ice. It was OK, but not quite what we all expected.

We strolled around again in the town of Fira in the evening. It is a really bustling place with a lot of people in the streets, bars open all hours of the night, stores open until midnight and very much geared toward tourists and their wallets. Fun place, though!

We left Santorini today after dropping the moped off, doing a bit of shopping in Fira and hopped on the hi-speed ferry to Mykonos via Ios and Paros. It was called the “Flying Cat 4” and looks kind of like “The Cat” at home. We arrived in the afternoon and were welcomed by a German lady named Christina who runs Mama’s Pension just outside of the port. We lucked into a great place again. Both the Santorini and Mykonos hotel were recommended by a friend of Steph’s and we owe her a bottle of wine, I think. There is a pool next door which belongs to an aunt or cousin, some other relative runs a restaurant next door; the whole street seems related and Christina is a bundle of energy who told us exactly how we best spend our time to see most of the Island in the one day we have here.

Off it was to the rental agency again: this time an ATV for Steph and Mark, and another moped for Susanne and Chelsea. Mykonos has about 10,000 people on the island in the winter, and about 30,000 in the summer. By the amount of young people on the ferry it was quite obvious why Mykonos is known as the party island. We drove around the Northern part of the island before sunset and Susanne had to kick Chelsea off the moped a couple of times as this little moped is only a 50 cc and really struggles making it up hills. While Steph and Mark lucked into a more powerful ATV, we ended up coming to a complete standstill going up two hills and just about fell off the bike because we were laughing so hard! Susanne would kick Chelsea off, make it to the top of the hill and then let her back on. We learned later how to take better run-ups and how to duck and weave to be the most aerodynamic….this is all at about 40 or 50 km/hour so we must have looked like quite the beginners… it was all good though!

Tonight, we are staying at the hotel to enjoy the views from our balcony during the sunset and are then heading into town for supper and a glimpse of the party scene. Tomorrow we are off to visit some of the other beaches (some of known as party beaches and we are almost expecting something like Miami Beach during Spring break). Everyone stays up all night here, we are told, so we are curious to see how things shake out.