Mykonos in Pictures

Thursday, June 16, 2016
The third stop on our Mediterranean Cruise was the island of Mykonos. Best known as the personal playground of Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, this island's economy is based almost entirely on tourism. Property is dreadfully expensive, and many people who work in the tourism industry live there only "in season," because they can't afford to live there year-round.

Mykonos is gorgeous. In service to tourism, all the buildings must be painted in blinding white. People are permitted to paint their trim and shutters whatever color they want, but "Mykonos Blue" is most common.

A typical apartment in the town. Businesses are on the first floor, quarters above.

The water is lovely and clear, and I understand why it attracted the jet-setting crowd when Mykonos was nothing but a poor community with a fabulous location. The old port is still in use, although the new port is where cruise ships are docked. They only have room for one, so the lines take turns using the port. Other ships are forced to anchor out, and send launches (what I would call a "liberty boat") to ferry passengers to town. We were lucky, as it was NCL's turn to use the port when we arrived.

The view of the town and surrounding bay. You can see the yachts docked next to the town.
Mykonos is known as a "party" town, and has been a destination vacation spot for rich gay men for decades. In Mykonos, that community found a place where they (and their money) were accepted and safe. There's still a gay bar there called "Jackie O" which I understand is pretty well known in the LGBT community.

There's also a kabillion chapels, temples, and churches. Most are private family chapels, and most are dedicated to the Greek Orthodox faith.

The most photographed church on Mykonos, according to our guide.
The food was also as fabulous as you'd expect. We basically just ate appetizers the whole time we were there, because olives, and hummus, and pita, and spanakopita, and saganaki, OH MY.

From a "sun and sea" perspective, this was our favorite port of call. I suspect we'd love the rest of the Greek Islands, as well, so we've added a Greek Islands sailing trip to our bucket list.





0 comments: