MILWAUKEE-NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST ELEVEN

THE BEAUTY OF MYKONOS

Who says you can't have fun in a hurricane. Apparently this part of the Aegean is well known for its heavy winds. I don't mean just your average gale but winds approaching and exceeding hurricane one force causing evacuation notices on some of the islands.

We were relatively sheltered for most of our stay but it was fierce.

On our intended last day the seas were roiled enough to stop all boat traffic forcing us to rebook our boat to Santorini.

We weren't alone. Why I booked us on a boat is something I'm feeling guilty about especially since Rick is terrified of traveling on water. We met one couple that was forced to abandon their beach cottage because of the winds.

With in seconds of talking to them we realized they had a whole different attitude toward the word "vacation". The cottage by the sea turned out to be a shack with no electricity, running water or a loo, to each his own.

Our biggest inconveniences were having to weight down our towels at the pool, suffer the consequences of bad hair, have our drinks served in plastic cups because the glass ones broke when they fell on the hotels poolside stone floor and try to keep the unicorn from flying out of the pool.

The one good thing about the winds was it came with it's own supply of air-conditioning against the burning power of the sun.

Rick and I hadn't been back to Mykonos in what amounts to decades. What we found was the Mykonos we remembered had long since disappeared. The quaint port where fisherman would pull in their colorful boats at the end of the day had gone the way of the fishermen themselves lost to a community they could no longer afford to make their home. Little Venice where we had eaten fresh octopus that had been hung out on rope lines was now a tourist's trap with unimaginative food choices served at ridiculous prices.

The saving grace of Mykonos besides our hotel was once you got into the tight winding center of the city with its stone streets, whitewashed buildings with colorful trim and hanging bougainvillea in reds, corals and magentas

was you could begin to remember the Mykonos of yore as long as you could imagine it without the hordes of tourists.

There were times the crowds were so thick you'd have to wait ten minutes for the throngs of cruise boat tourists going in the opposite direction to pass by so you could forge ahead.

We did find out a little local history about the streets of Mykonos from our waiter at Uno Con Carne. Apparently Mykonos was a haven for pirates many of whom came in to Mykonos looking to pilfer and pillage.

To deter the pirates the villagers laid out the streets in a very confusing network of winding streets, tiny alleys and dead ends. Their purpose was to confuse the pirates to the extent that they would become totally confused and disoriented and give up trying to loot the village.

It was apparently better to find your way out rather than carrying your stolen treasures one more foot.

We on the other hand were more than willing to tote our loot through the streets without too much fear of being attacked by the local defenders of Mykonos.

Most Mykonosians were more than willing to allow us to part with our money as we shopped and shopped and shopped once again.

We had found one home store we desperately wanted to return to with Emmy since we had promised the proprietor we'd bring her in
but we never made it back zigzagging through the streets always ending up right back where we started and never finding that store again.

One can't even begin to count the number of calendars highlighting the beautiful doors of Mykonos.

Doors and window frames are typically painted in vibrant primary colors

or soft pastels giving Mykonos its rainbow trim made more vibrant by having everything else washed in white.

It wouldn't have been difficult to construct a calendar of my own.

And as colorful as its buildings it's the inhabitants that brush on another layer of paint to the canvas of Mykonos.

It was Emmy who discovered a little shop of linen apparel all hand-sewn by diminutive seamstress, Ioanna, who took over the shop in 1972 from her mother who had opened it back in 1952.

Ioanna had learned from the best and the quality of her work was unmatched.

She was a woman who loved what she did telling us, "first I look at the quality and then I see the design".

It impressed Emmy enough to come out with these pants that she's now worn almost exclusively since she purchased them.

There was another component adding to the carefree quality of Mykonos: its abundance of wild but harmless cats that seemed to roam the streets and beguile the tourists.

A regally aloof cat can reduce even the most hardened cat hater to begrudgingly give one or two of them a little scratch on the head.

Mykonos still has a magnetic appeal that's hard to resist. As someone who loves to capture moments of time in a digital world I found there was still plenty to see.

Maybe not always on the large perspectives and grand views that demanded exceedingly lengthy wait times to get off a picture without someone photo bombing me

but now looking at the smaller pieces, the little details that began to define the island in a more personal way for me.

If the local women their hair tied up in babushkas were no longer out in the morning washing down the street in front of their homes

there were still bits and pieces of their lives I could find, the clotheslines outside their doors

and the cables wrapped around their shutters.

One can't do a post on Mykonos without referencing its windmills.

They're the iconic image you'll see in every poster in every travel agency trying to lure you to the island of gay fun and breathtaking views.

If you decide to go to Mykonos take along a bit of patience or opt for one of the smaller less touristy options. After all there are around 220 to choose from.

Dream, smile, live, love. It's not a bad motto to live by.