Previous Day (Costa Atlantica 8D7N Greek Islands Cruise Embarkation)
Destination: Greece & Turkey
Duration: 18 Days 17 Nights (Aug 06~Aug 23, 2012)
Day 9: Mykonos
The feeling of waking up on a comfortable bed realizing
you’d reached your destination during your sleep was sheer exhilaration!
Especially that somewhere was Mykonos – the Greek island that we missed out on
our Greek tour last October due to ferry strike. Costa Atlantica would be
docking at Mykonos port from 8am to 12 midnight thus giving us ample time to
explore around the island.
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| First view that greets you in the morning! |
We had our breakfast at Botticelli self-service restaurant
and there were tons of food to choose from. In fact, there were simply so many
until I had no idea what to choose. I ended up with bacons, egg, hashbrown (I
love this! Eating this every morning) and some toast. Their yoghurt was nice
too. They had tons of pastry as well but I didn’t manage to try it this time
since my stomach was totally full!
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| Hair Saloon in Costa Atlantica |
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| Slimming Saloon on the Ship too? |
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| First Breakfast @ Costa Atlantica |
After breakfast, we left the cruise with crew scanning over our Costa card for headcount purpose. Our shuttle bus to Mykonos town arranged by Costa (EUR9.50/pax unlimited trips for today) was like 10-20 meters from the cruise and it left right after we climbed on it. What a great timing!
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| The Shuttle Bus |
If you were wondering whether we had a tour guide for Mykonos excursion, the answer was a big NO. We had nothing but a Mykonos map found from internet and our blind sense of direction. *facepalm*
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| The Mykonos Map that we found in internet and used in our trip |
The bus reached Mykonos main parking area and we were greeted by a picturesque bay with whitewashed houses fitting closely together and the beautiful cerulean sea – what a great difference from the sea in Kusadasi!
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| The Beautiful Aegean Sea |
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| A Church on our way to Old Port |
First thing we did after reaching Mykonos was: To leave Mykonos! Yes! You read it right and I typed this correctly. After the bus reached the town, we quickly walked along the shoreline to get to the old port to get ferry tickets to Delos. Delos was an island near to Mykonos and it was one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece! Hmm.. all right I admit that I copied this introduction from Wikipedia. *grin*
We manage to get the ferry tickets at EUR17/pax (return tickets) and got on the 9am ferry. I read in internet the tickets were EUR15 but I guess the price increased due to peak season. The trip took around 20-30minutes. There were lots of tourists on the ferry thus we had to queue up to get our admission tickets (EUR6/pax).
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| Queueing up to get ferry tickets to Delos |
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| Welcome to Mykonos! But we are leaving it now! |
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| Nice Boat!!! |
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| This is our actual ferry though.. *facepalm* |
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| Leaving Mykonos |
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| View of Costa Atlantica docking at Mykonos Port |
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| The Wave at the back of the Ferry |
There were 3 paths that you could follow for Delos visit, 1 ½ hour, 3 hour and 5 hour. Since we planned to take the 12noon ferry back to Mykonos, we tried to finish our visit by 11.50am. We followed the map on our brochure and managed to find the Terrace of the Lions – which was dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos before 600BC – the most famous landmark on Delos.
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| Approaching Delos |
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| Sammy wanna play! |
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| Look at how clear the sea is... |
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| A Round Structure near the entrance of Delos |
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| RUINS! |
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| More Ruins |
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| Terrace of the Lions |
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| The Lions! |
We then saw the lake house and many other ruins – or what was left of it with a few columns. Since we still had some time left, we’d decided to continue on for the 3 hours route – lots of walking and we managed to see Mount Kynthos which leaded to the Temple of Zeus. This was the 5 hours route if you wanted to hike up the hill and we did not have so much time. Thus we continued with our route.
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| More columns |
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| A Close Up |
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| Portico of Antigonos |
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| Mount Kynthos with Temple of Zeus on Top - no, we did not climb this!!! |
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| Walking among the ruins |
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| More Ruins from Afar.. i think this might be the House of Hermes |
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| Just keep walking |
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| Sammy was at Temple of Isis |
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| Mount Kynthos at the back |
We stumbled upon the House of the Dolphins by serendipity – it was similarly named from its atrium mosaic, where Dionysus rode dolphins. It was quite secluded and we were quite lucky to see it. The theatre was next and we actually used it as a platform to get out from the route.
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| The Dolphins Mosaic |
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| Houses in Delos |
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| Theatre from the Top |
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| Trying to get down from the Theatre Top |
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| Without any road! |
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| View of the Houses from Top of the Theatre |
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| Slowly climbing down... |
One thing about Delos is – it was definitely DE LOST! We noticed that a lot of the sites were not labeled and there were no arrow sign to assist tourist on any route. In fact, a lot of us simply couldn’t find an exit to get back to the starting point. We were totally walking in circle scratching our head on how to get out of it. We kept seeing same tourists when we walk round and round and those tourists were simply as LOST as us – you could see plain frustration and puzzlement on their face as well.
We ended up climbing over some railing and walking across some of the ancient houses and some bushes just to get to the main path. Thankfully we managed to catch the 12noon ferry back to Mykonos and took the Costa Shuttle Bus (no waiting again, it was really a very frequent bus) to get back to the Cruise for lunch.
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| Looking for an Exit! |
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| It's blocked!!! HELP!!! |
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| Accidentally stumbled upon this when walking pass houses to find an exit |
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| Finally!!! |
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| We found the main path! |
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| Getting out of Delos |
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| So long! |
We got to the Botticelli self-service restaurant for 2nd time today and grab some grilled chicken, pizza and burger beef patty (this was totally heavenly but FAT!). There were also pasta counters and it served very scrumptious seafood aglio olio pasta! It was so delicious that I wolfed down the whole plate *NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!* eventhough my stomach was already overloaded with food. KILL ME!
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| Amazing clear sea at Mykonos |
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| Doggies!!! |
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| A view of the town |
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| Lunch on board Costa Atlantica |
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| Look at this! |
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| This is the best pasta EVER!!! |
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| View from 9th floor to the top with glass stairs |
After lunch, we took the shuttle bus again to explore around Mykonos. We got into their maze of narrow, winding alleys trying to look for their famous landmarks. The Chora town was crowded with tourists due to summer and we managed to come across many beautiful churches along our way.
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| Back to Chora Town again... |
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| Exploring |
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| What a beautiful town... |
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| Any view is beautiful there! |
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| A narrow pathway! |
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| A Random Church! |
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| Inside the Church |
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| Louis Vuitton @ Mykonos!!! No, we did not go in! Too broke! |
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| Another Church! We are church hunting! |
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| More pictures from the Shore |
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| Another View from the Shore, look at the white houses! |
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| A Church by the Sea |
We finally managed to find the famous Mykonos windmills and took tons of photos of it. Little Venice (where the buildings right on sea edges with balconies overhanging the water) was visible from the windmill area as well. It was photo time!
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| Finally! The Windhills!!! We found it! |
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| Sammy wanna take a photo too! |
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| Shadow of Windmill with Little Venice at the back |
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| A Picture is much obliged! |
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| Sammy is not satisfied with just one photo |
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| Four Windmills in one Shot |
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| Another Church when walking down from windmill |
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| The Windmills photo taken from Little Venice |
We then walked down to Little Venice along the shoreline and found another gems of Mykonos – Panagia Paraportiani! This church was actually 5 churches fused into one… 4 on the lower level, Agios Sozontas, Agioi Anargyroi, Agia Anastasia, and Agios Efstathios and the 5th one is on the upper level, the church of the Virgin Mary (the dome). During our time there, we overheard a tour guide telling his guests that this church looked different in different daylight as well. Impressive!
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| Panagia Paraportiani - Two Churches at this side... |
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| Panagia Paraportiani - Another church entrance here... |
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| Yet Another Entrance on Top |
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| A Full Shot of Panagia Paraportiani, Magnificent! |
Serendipity had us literally stumbled upon a Pelican! The pelicans are the only one of Mykonos attractions that was not so easy to locate as they are very much alive and constantly moving around. There was this pelican lying right below a water pipe waiting for water to flow down! What a darling!
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| Oh Hello Dear!!! |
We then continued to explore the Chora area to look for Hard Rock Café but we just couldn’t find it! We was walking pass the same streets over and over again where people told us where Hard Rock should be. Then we finally found out the reason why we couldn’t find it – the shop was closed! Their shop label was small and not too obvious to notice when it was closed. We must have passed the same roads at least 3 times before seeing it - “The shop will remain closed for a few more days due to technical reasons”! Seriously?! I didn’t have a few days! I only had until 12 midnight! Hmm…. Now I sounded like Cinderella. Ha!
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| Driver in Mykonos must have great driving skill! |
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| Hard Rock - CLOSED!!! |
We were trying to find the bus station to get to Ano Mera where the ancient Panagia Tourliani Monastery was located but we simply couldn’t find the bus station thanks to our zero sense of direction. Since the day is turning dark, we officially surrendered and decided to walk back to Little Venice for dinner (skipping our cruise dinner for the day). Apparently based on some website, having wine at Little Venice during sunset was one of the most romantic things to do in Mykonos. There we were, looking for Katerina’s Restaurant – ranked as number 1 restaurant in Little Venice by Tripadvisor at the time.
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| Another Church! |
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| Getting into the Sea |
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| Can't swim though... |
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| It's getting late... |
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| I think this is the Town Hall... |
We managed to stumble upon another pelican during our journey and managed to find Katerina’s without incident. Apparently you had to make a reservation if you wanted to get a balcony table – that was how popular the place was. Thankfully our waitress managed to get us a table with a window right behind the balcony so we managed to get a view of the purple sunset even though there were customers sitting at balcony table blocking our view occasionally. Obstructed view indeed! Just like our Costa Atlantica Cabin 5146!!!
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| Another Pelican! |
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| Panagia Paraportiani at Dawn |
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| Sun is setting.. |
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| Windmills look different at Dawn too! |
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| Inside Katerina's Restaurant |
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| Interior |
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| Sunset View from Katerina's Restaurant in Little Venice |
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| The Sun is Sinking! |
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| Is that Purple? What is that ship doing?! |
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| Almost! |
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| Just a second! |
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| Hmm... another moment? |
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| Obstructed by land... |
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| Did the land swallow the Sun? |
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| I think it just did! |
We ordered a glass of white wine and a glass of red wine (EUR5 each) to go with our traditional Greek meal of Moussaka (EUR11) and Calamari on the Grill (EUR16). The Moussaka was similar to the one we tried at Naoussa Restaurant in Santorini last October (link). The highlight of the meal was the calamari – grilled with perfection and oh so fresh! Even the sideline tasted wonderfully! Definitely a must try in Mykonos!
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| Our water and wines... |
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| Calamari on the Grill! |
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| Moussaka |
When we walked out of the restaurant after dinner, there was a guy standing there (whom I assumed was the owner) asking us how the food was. We told him it was great and he was like: “Please comment and rate us on tripadvisor!” We were like: “But you are already number 1!” which he replied: “I’d love to remain in number 1!” Haha…
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| Katerina's Restaurant from the Outside |
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| Random Silky!!! |
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| Wanna come with me to be Silky's mate? |
Since Costa Atlantica would only leave Mykonos late, we continue to explore the town at night with chilling wind – what a nice break from the scorching sun earlier! The town definitely had very energetic nightlife as everywhere was crowded with people. We went back to the windmills and Panagia Paraportiani to take photos during night time but unfortunately it all came out dark. Guess our camera was not good enough for night shot.
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| It's night time!!! |
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| A Church at night |
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| Windmills at night - Lumix fails us!!! |
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| Little Venice at night - swarmed by people! |
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| Costa Atlantica at Night from Town |
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| What else? Church! |
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| People everywhere during the night! |
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| Panagia
Paraportiani at night |
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| Greek Frozen Yoghurt from Everest |
We took the shuttle bus to be back to our Cruise at around 10.30pm. I must say Costa Atlantica looked even more amazing at night with lights glimmering all over. We skipped the theater show as well since it was too late. On 12 midnight, Costa Atlantica finally left the Mykonos port to leave for Santorini. Goodbye Mykonos! It was really great meeting you! =)
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| Ready to board Costa from Mykonos |
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| Goodbye Mykonos |
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| View of Mykonos from Costa after leaving the Port |
Next Day (Santorini)
Masterpost (Click this to get to day by day link)
