Day Four, Mykonos

I was expecting our ferry to Mykonos to be more in line with the Staten Island ferry, but Greek ferries are huge and more like cruise ships. Our departure time is 7:30 a.m. so everyone isn't in the mood to do much but sleep once we get on board. Unfortunately it smells like the last person to sit in my seat has never seen a stick of deodorant, but once I get over the stench I drift in and out of sleep for awhile. Few things are as comforting to me as the lull of the ocean and I can sleep like a baby on boats. A few hours into the trip a little Greek boy sitting near us runs over and punches Kelly. Two women, presumably his mother and grandmother, watch as he hits Kelly for a second, third, and fourth time. It's crazy that people let their children run around hitting strangers. Then again, there are no rules in Greece.

The ferry ride takes about 5 hours and then we take a 20-minute bus ride to our hotel. During our drive we pass by nothing but whitewashed houses with blue windows...this is what I've been waiting for, we're really in Greece! Our hotel is nowhere near the main part of town, but that's fine by me because a beautiful beach is steps from the front door. The pool is beautiful and has a volleyball net and diving board (uh oh, I feel an injury coming on). There's also a bar at the pool, excellent. We check in to our room which is modest and reminiscent of the guest room in a grandma's house. The beds look pretty old but they must be sturdy because I'm sure they've seen their fair share of action. This is probably the least nice hotel room during the tour, which is strange because the grounds at this hotel are much nicer in comparison to the rooms. Maybe we just got a shitty room. We have a view of a field full of goats and later find out there are cows out there, too (I wake up to mooing every morning).

By now it's mid-afternoon and we join some of our buddies at the pool to have a few drinks and get some sun. Some of us show off on the diving board and find out the pool is filled with saltwater which kind of makes me feel like I'm on a cruise ship. I make friends with the pool bartender, Yorgos, who also serves as the hotel deejay. He asks me to make him a list of current American music and I can't help but laugh because he has no idea who he's dealing with. I make a short list of the few current songs I know and surprisingly don't slip any Phil Collins in for good measure. We head inside around 5:00 to get ready for tonight's optional, dinner and bar hopping in Mykonos town (cost: somewhere around 30 euro). We take a bus into town and much to our delight, Missionary Man plays on the radio during the ride. Of course Kelly and I are the only people that know this song. Once we start walking through town I find myself leading the pack alongside Dave. We have a hilarious chat about euphemisms for vaginas. I think this was when I realized he's even more of a crude smartass than I am and from there on out I adored him.

We stop at a few landmarks in town (a famous church, the Ramrod club, the windmills) for photo ops. Dave tells us there are more than 500 churches on the island and I believe him; every other door we pass is the door of a church. I guess a lot of people need to repent their sins after visiting this island. The town is exactly what I pictured: a labyrinth of narrow cobblestone sidewalks weaving in and out of white buildings. Every few meters an alleyway leads to the sea and the blue water contrasting against the white of the buildings, especially as the sun is going down, is an awesome sight. We have dinner at an open air restaurant. There's another Contiki group already at this restaurant, too, making me skeptical about the quality of the food. My first impressions are wrong, dinner is amazing! We have Greek salad, fried cheese (Teneal says it's called houloomi, which I had never heard of before but it's delicious), fried zucchini balls (these aren't very good), and a whole sea bass (eyes, teeth, and all!). I'm not usually a fan of staring into the eyes of my food but this is one of the best fish I've ever eaten. The incredible thing about the food in Greece is it's prepared very simply but since it's so fresh everything is full of flavor. I could write an entire post about feta cheese but I will just say it's SO much better than at home (and I love the feta at home). I would have been perfectly happy eating nothing but feta and tomatoes for 2 weeks. During dinner we find out a little more about Scotty and Stampy. We'd heard they live in Kazakhstan and had thought it was a joke but turns out they do in fact live in Borat's home country. They work for 8 weeks and get to travel for 4 weeks so to them it's worth living in the middle of nowhere. I'm completely confused by this but also intrigued as I've never heard of a work arrangement like theirs. For dessert we have some type of pie and I have my first and last shot of ouzo (I couldn't stomach it, it's brutal). Kelly and I also killed a huge bottle of wine with our meal so by now I'm ready to stop stuffing my face and get my drink on.

Our first stop is a tiny but upscale bar named Katerina's. I remember being so happy at this point because 1) it's really hit me that I'm in Greece 2) that wine from dinner really did the trick and 3) I've finally stopped converting euros to dollars in my head after every purchase. I have a few more drinks here and meet Natalie and Evan from Melbourne. We never did any type of formal introductions or icebreakers so it was up to everyone to make their rounds and meet everyone. Turns out Natalie is a dance teacher, so we talk about So You Think You Can Dance and I tell her Kelly and I danced for years (but I doubt anyone believed this after seeing some of my moves). This bar was more of a sit around and talk type of venue but for our next two stops this won't be the case.

At the next bar we go to the guy working at the door is wearing a Miami Heat jersey (D. Wade to be exact) and also happens to be rather attractive. Kelly and I hang on him for a few minutes but I don't think he even knew anything about the Heat. We go inside and the TV on the wall is playing nothing but clips of different animals mating. Elephants, turtles, meerkats... no animal was left behind. So this is Mykonos! Things get crazy here and we learn it's perfectly acceptable to dance on anything you want. There's a narrow ledge lining one wall of the bar and a few from our group climb up. Layne and Teneal even crowd surf here (how they weren't dropped is beyond me). We spot a small child wandering around the bar and are at first disturbed but then notice he's selling glowsticks (this is a normal occurence in any of the bars we visit for the rest of the trip). For some reason when you're drunk you just NEED glow sticks, so our group usually purchased a large quantity of whatever crap the kids in the bars are selling. By the time we leave this bar my drinks for the night have included beer, wine, champagne, mixed drinks, and shots yet I'm still totally coherent. Side note: Amazingly enough, I never blacked out, threw up or got hungover the entire time in Greece. My theory is I always woke up drunk and continued drinking so I never had a chance to sober up and get a hangover. Vacation Kerry is an unshakeable bitch. The next place we go to is Scandinavian Bar and it's a bar downstairs and a club with a huge dance floor upstairs. Of course we all head upstairs and continue dancing on top of anything we can climb. Scotty somehow managed to climb on top of a doorframe. Before long Kelly is hammered and wanders off by herself. I later find out she was meeting random weirdos, including the guy who worked at the front desk of our hotel... not at all surprising.

Later in the night I'm out on the front balcony with Staker and we see Dave rush out of the club carrying Lisa. It freaks me out and we hear they're on their way to the hospital. We later find out she was trying to climb onto Layne's shoulders and she fell off. She ended up with a fractured pelvis and for the rest of the trip she is on crutches. Yes, we had two gimps on our tour and I think that's a testament to the kind of group we were working with! The night ends with a drunken bus ride home and I go to bed anxious for the next day at the legendary Paradise Beach.