Mykonos

Mykonos was the last destination of my nine day Greece trip. This island, is part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Siros, Paros and Naxos. It’s a pretty popular tourist destination, and go figure, its absolutely stunning. Mykonos is the epitome of the picturesque notion of Greece. Strikingly white stucco homes with bright red and cerulean blue awnings lining hilly streets, and the ever-visible turquoise sea.
We were in Mykonos for three nights and two full days. The first day some friends – Nick, Nate, Jackie, Jesse, Anna and Ian- and I took a ferry to the uninhabited island of Delos. On this island there is a mountain covered with boulders- a treacherous climb, but we heard that the view from the top was definitely worth it. Now, there are two types of people in this world; those who, when presented with a mountain such as this one would say “it looks dangerous”, or “it’ll take us too long to get to the top- we’ll miss the ferry home”. The other type of person would say “There’s a mountain! Let’s climb it!”- to them, the ridiculous action would be to not try and climb the mountain. Luckily, my travel companions were of the latter type, and we scrambled our way to the top, and the view was beautiful. Surrounding tiny Delos is just the Mediterranean sea, dotted with pretty little islands, sailboats, and no tourists.
One of my friends suggested we climb down the alternate side of the mountain and jump off the huge boulders into the sea. The Mediterranean looked so inviting, especially after our sweaty uphill climb under a cloudless, 80 degree Greek sky. We spent the next few hours just swimming in the sea, laying on the huge rocks, and enjoying the utterly simple natural splendor around us.
Riding back to Mykonos on the ferry, I felt so incredibly content; so high on nature and it’s beauty, the warmth of the sun, and the companionship of great people. I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn’t at first acknowledge the little Japanese man sitting across from me on the ferry deck who was asking me a question. He was wearing a New York tee-shirt, a San Francisco Hat, camera around his neck; the perfect stereotypical Japanese tourist. He asked me where I was from and where I was going. I told him and asked him the same. Conversation carried on along these lines for a while, and then he asked me what the coin was that I had on my necklace. I explained to him that it was a Chinese coin, which I had found it on the ground in St. Louis, thought was interesting, and strung it on a chain as it had a hole in the middle, but I didn’t really know that much about it. He then asked me if I’d like another like it, and handed me a beautiful, silver Japanese coin with flowers engraved on it, and wished me the best of luck in all my travels. This simple gesture filled me with so much gratitude; it’s a moment I will remember all my life.
The next day I went with the whole group to the beach, but I had a plan in the works with some friends and one of the SLAs to go somewhere very cool. The SLAs, or student life assistants, are twenty-somethings, who are just out of college, and who spent a year at the Loyola Rome Center while they were still in College. Now they work here and help out students on campus. Now, we students had to sign a contract before leaving on this trip saying that we would not rent any motorized vehicles while in Greece. However, the SLAs were allowed to do so, and one SLA, Ian, whom I have befriended, wanted to rent a jeep to go to a desolate beach on the other side of the island that he heard of from a man who worked in our hotel. We needed the jeep because there are no actual roads leading to this beach, just bumpy dirt paths. So Ian rented a convertible jeep and took me and my friends to this beach, called Fokos. The ride there was so much fun and I really enjoyed the alternate view of Mykonos afforded to me by this chance to get far away from the tourist center. We stayed on Fokos, an aquamarine beach surrounded by gothic looking rocky cliffs until sunset.
That night, the whole group got together to have out last Grecian dinner. I’m sure I don’t need to point out that the food was delicious, but it was. Our dear tour guide gave us a speech for good blessings, and we toasted up our last “lammas!” (greek word for cheers). This somewhat sad dinner of goodbyes suddenly turned ridiculous and happy when a Pelican walked into our restaurant. I spent the rest of the evening dancing the night away in clubs and running through the streets of Mykonos with my friends.