REACHING OUT FOR LIFE

Mykonos Island

REACHING OUT FOR LIFE

As a child I was rarely given direction. I basically raised myself. That had its good and bad points but one of the good points was exploration. I could explore everywhere and anything I wanted to explore. For example, one day a group of neighborhood kids and I riding our bikes decided we would ride to the local slaughter house. We didn’t know what “slaughter house” meant but we wanted to know. We rode for hours and, luckily, we never found it. I was free and adventerous.

In my adult years I had many adventures. I wanted to try everything at least one time. And I mostly did — not robbery or murder or abusing others but other things. I wanted to know how different situations felt.

I always wanted to travel but never had the money or the companionship to go any where. After I found my soul mate, we decided we would take a first time out of the country vacation. We would travel to Greece and island hop. I found the greatest excitement in my life as I began making the plans. Just making the flight tickets was exciting. I quickly began to see more and more choices and decisions that needed to be made, as I am sure most of you who first started flying on vacation experienced. For me, planning the trip was as exciting as going on it! My mate left it up to me and I reveled in it.

The time finally arrived! We flew into Athens, arriving early in the morning. It was an overnight flight and of course neither of us slept. Wore out was an understatement but the excitement was spectacular. On arrival the plane was met with what looked like a double trailer cattle bus, a small one following a larger bus. Both busses were rusted out on the bottom and the tires were pretty bald. We were of course skeptical. The bus took us to a concrete building where a man in a booth looked down on us from a booth on high, scrutinizing our passport with a definate scowel on his face. Nothing was welcoming at this point in the arrival.

We were ushered into the airport. It was small, too small for an international airport in my imagination. They did not check our luggage, we just walked through. Going outside, we sat down on the sidewalk curb to wait for a bus or taxi and decided we must have gone to the wrong country. This had to be what we imagined Beirut to be or some third world country. It couldn’t be beautiful Greece. Not the one we saw in travel magazine pictures - but it was.

We didn’t know the language or the money exchange from US dollars to drachma, the greek money currency (before they adopted the Euro). A bus finally came and we got on, not knowing where it was going, and just held out our hands with change for the driver to take what he needed for us to board. Once on board, we sat by a couple of Canadian men who worked for the airlines and they took us to a hotel in town. At the hotel, they wanted to keep our passport. Everything we had read before the trip said “give your passport to no one.” Well, after a verbal tussel with the desk guy, the airplane guys said it was OK to let them keep the passports and that it was required by everyone from outside Greece. It made sure we didn’t skip out on the bill. We got a key and took our luggage to our room. There was no air conditioning. It was early September and hot. There were screens on the windows. The hotel was full of school children, yelling and screaming. We hoped it would quiet down at night. We were so tired and excited.

We offered to take the Canadian guys to lunch for helping us and they accepted. We washed up, grabbed the key, and off we went with the guys. They took us to an outside restaurant in town and we all ate. The bill was 50 + US dollars. The guys saw us coming, so to speak, and took advantage. After the expensive salad, we ditched the guys and headed back to the hotel for some sleep. To our great surprise the keys to the hotel had no name on them. We had no idea where our passports or luggage was! We walked around for several hours looking for a hotel with a handicapped ramp in the front. It was all we could remember about the hotel and that it was between two other stores in a long line of stores. We walked by the police station but since we didn’t know the name of the hotel, they couldn’t help us. We just kept walking. Finally, finally!! we found it. We went to bed. Exhaused.

We were up at dawn to leave this hotel because the kids partied all night. We went back to where the stores were, by the restaurant. We visited a few of the stores and sometimes there was no one working in them. They just trusted everyone to not steal. Different from America.

We noticed there were police on many corners or in front of buildings. We approached one of the police to as for directions to buy airplane tickets to the islands and he immediately drew an ozzie, putting his gun between us and him. Did not expect that! Maybe we looked scary after being up for two days. He relaxed after he found out we were not threatening and gave us the directions telling us what we needed to know about buying tickets. He spoke pretty good english. He said the tickets were sold by a government agency that was going on strike later that day. The garbage people had already striked, apparently for a few days now , since there was garbage lining the streets of Athens. A truly lovely site for the capital.

We made our way to the government office and no one spoke English there; of course they didn’t! The travel capital of Greece and no one speaks the universal language. A woman in the office buying tickets for herself translated and we paid for tickets to Mykonos, the closest island. The plane was leaving in an hour, “better hurry.” We got there just as the plane was getting ready to leave. It was the last plane out of the city with the strike startting. The plane looked like the bus we initially encountered on arrival at the airport. It was a small prop plane that didn’t have a door — all the way there, no door. And, of course, no seat belts either. We were glad to land.

Mykonos was absolutely magical. We rented a hostel room in a building on the side of a hill. There were no glass windows, only wooden shutters. When I opened the shutters you could see the bay below and the Agean sea. An ocean liner docked out away from the cove. You could smell the ocean and the town was small and quaint. We had twin beds and a private room but had to share a bathroom with all the others in the building. The landlady reminded us to not put toilet paper in the toilet because the plumbing was old and “no one does that.” The room cost 18 US dollars per night. She was glad to get US money, since the exchange rate was 25% higher than the drachma. We slept — really slept

The first day exploring beautiful Mykonos we found fresh bread in a basket outside a restaurant. We bought a loaf for 1US dollar. The sign on the door said “hamburgers.” I ordered a sandwich, expecting it to be beef. — I am an American — but it was not beef. I don’t know what it was. There was some type of meat hanging in the window of the shop from a rod, cut in a spiral shape, looking like a kids toy top. I never did know what kind of meat that was but I didn’t eat it. I also read they ate cats there on the islands, presumably to keep down the cat population. No more meat for me in Greece. We walked and explored, stopping for coffee at an outside cafe on the cove. The small row and sail boats lined the shore, about 20 feet from the tables where we drank coffee. They had a mascot penguin who hung out on the shore by the boats. Behind the restaurant was wooden windmills. I believe there were 6of them. There were several shops and restaurants on the cove. We ate lunch, having greek calamari and a cesar salad. I didn’t know what calamare was, learning afterward it was squid. It was good. I thought it was some type of fish. The greek salad totally consisted of sliced tomatoes in olive oil — nothing more. We were happy.

On our explorations during the stay in Mykonos we found a small jewelery shop. The proprietor’s name was Roger. He told us he was closing for lunch but to come back later in the day. We obliged. On arrival, Roger locked the door behind us. He told us his friend would be there soon. He then tried to kiss my mate. It became clear very quickly that we were expected to have sex with these guys. My friend told him, with my complete agreement, that is “NOT HAPPENING.” She blurted out, “I AM CATHOLIC,” like that would matter. Roger told us many American woman come for sex — well that was not us. We were actually looking for a necklace charm, a very different goal I would say. Roger apologized and gave us a good deal on a gold snake charm, which we named Roger. We all parted friends.

At the end of the cove was an oriental rug shop. It was run by Maria and her husband. Maria’s daughter lived in New York so she spoke good english. We talked about food and Greece. She asked if we had tried Ozo. It is a Greek liquor. We asked her if they liked American coffee. We brought our portable coffee pot and cream/sugar with us. We decided we would come back after the store closed and we would share drinks. Ozo tasted like licorice and was the consistency of 1% milk. We are not alcohol drinkers so only a little was enough. It was fun to share an evening with Maria and her husband.

We were there about 3 days and left by boat to go to the next island. I will make that my next story. I loved Mykonos and Greece so much I didn’t want to leave. I would have left my job, my home, my family (all grown) to stay there. My mate would not stay so we had to leave. I cried for three weeks after returning to the states. Greek islands are truly magical. I will tell you more about them if you are interested. Let me know.