Day 27 – May 26 2010 – Mykonos, Paradise Beach, Club Tropicana, and Tribute to Il Divo

Today, Pieter was off work and we were on a mission to make the most of Mykonos! We had our boat drill this morning, which was extremely annoying on such a beautiful day in one of the most perfect places in the world. So as soon as we were off the boat, we were headed to the bus depot in the center of town to catch either a bus or taxi to the world famous Paradise Beach. We knew that trying to get there, have a little time to enjoy the beach, and get back in time would be ambitious, but we were determined. I had been to enough ports at this point and had yet to visit a beach? This was unacceptable! I really wanted to go to Super Paradise, which is the world famous gay beach, but in addition to a bus ride, there’s also a ferry (of course) that you have to take from Paradise.

The bus stop was very crowded and we had to fight our way onto the bus. We were packed in like sardines and it was hot as hell! Not the best start to the afternoon, but I honestly didn’t care if I was at the beach for 5 minutes. The ride was really cool - I got to see the less inhabited areas of the island as we made our way to the southeastern side that is lined with beaches of all kinds. The buses only run hourly and clearly, don’t have enough space for everyone who wants to get on (a good number of people were left behind and there were pretty much NO TAXIS at the taxi stand…. Silly when there were tons of people who would have taken them). We pretty much decided that next time, we would rent scooters or an ATV and drive out ourselves. As it was, the bus could only go maybe 20 miles an hour, so it wouldn’t have taken much time at all, lol.

Upon arriving at Paradise, literally, I was in heaven and forgot all about the trials and tribulations of getting there. The beach was pretty small and fortunately, it wasn’t too busy. It was covered in umbrellas and chairs belonging to the few different clubs/restaurants along the beach. The sandy was very hot and pretty rough – lots of little pebbles really. We found an excellent spot, near the restaurant – Club Tropicana, which made me instantly start singing the Wham! Classic…. “Club Tropicana drinks are freeeeeee……” Haha… I was so excited to just lay in the sun, so I immediately did that while Pieter went shopping in the gift shops.

Eventually the server came over and took our lunch order – Greek Salad, Pizza, and Fries (the standard fare) and I had a glass of wine to celebrate making to Paradise with about an hour and a half to enjoy it before the bus came back. After eating, it was soooo hot and I just had to go check out the water… it was freezing! But I had to go in a little bit, for photography’s sake! After a little while longer in the sun, we had to pack up and head out to the bus station just outside the beach.

On the way out, we saw that it was happy hour and I had to stop at the bar to have a frozen drink under the natural canopy made out of some sort of leaves or straw or other dried out flora. Then we went to the bus, where it was a fight again to get on. Luckily, we knew how to maneuver around the slow pokes and wait in the right spot. We got a seat, but unfortunately sat in front of a group of four college-aged girls from New Jersey who were incredibly annoying in their conversations about how high their Amex bills were and how they hoped Mom was keeping their rooms clean while they were away on vacation. Aye….

Once we got back to the station, the race was on to the ship. We docked this week, but not near the town, so we had to literally run for a solid 10 minutes to this parking lot, get on the shuttle bus, ride back to the ship, stand in line to get back on and finally arrive back on board with just a few minutes to spare. They really make it tough to fully enjoy the ports! Ha!

I was thinking about how nice it would be out on my new found deck 8 viewing spot, so I suggested Pieter, Eric, Sydney and I head out there to layout, swim and watch the sailaway from my Greek home. We had a blast in the “fishpond” and Sydney did an impromptu photo shoot with Eric poolside. He got some great modeling shots and some candids of us all. It was really nice to watch us leave this port and get some more sun.

 After a totally packed day, what else is there to do but go see a show! HA! There was a tribute band of sorts who sang in the style of Il Divo playing in the Stardust tonight, so we all got ready to go see them. They were from Canary Islands, Spain, and Italy and sang a pretty wide range of selections – from jazz standards to a bizarre Freddie Mercury set. After the show, I needed some Stacy, so we went down to the Atrium to hear him play some Gershwin melodies and tell some stories. On the way out, we stopped by the Chocaholic’s Buffet, which features 500 pounds of Chocolate. MMMmmm great ending to a great day.