Port of Call: Mykonos - Joy Ride

The saga that was the pursuit of the SIM card continued when we docked in the next port of call, Mykonos. However, the first thing that we did when we docked was to take the bus (E2) to the Little Venice area and decide what to do with our time here.

Across from the bus stop was an ATV rental shop. It was like a light bulb moment. It did not take much convincing; we knew what we wanted to do, we were all in for a little adventure. We opted to get the bigger one where 2 people could ride. Operating it required no prior experience, which was good for us since only one of us had tried this before.

We arrived in Mykonos on a blustery overcast October day, the clouds were threatening with rain, but before our time in the island came to a close, the clouds parted revealing a brilliant Grecian blue sky.

Now back to the SIM card saga for one minute. The moment we rode off the rental shop, we went straight to the Vodaphone store. Again they were unsuccessful to provide us with the compatible SIM card for my phone. It was becoming very frustrating. The same phone encountered no problem with SIM card compatibility when we traveled in Asia prior to this trip/cruise. In the end I resigned to the fact that I got 2 choices – buy a new phone for Europe use while we travel, or don’t call home at all. I chose the latter. Afterall, I had access to my email and Facebook and messaging so it was the wise choice I believe.

And so we went on a drive around the island. Much of what we saw in Mykonos is a landscape that is dry and rocky. Not too much vegetation. The island is quiet and aside from tourists in ATVs, there’s hardly any action on the roads at all.

Just like in Santorini, many whitewashed houses perched on the hill. However, here they are not clustered together, especially the ones farther inland the houses are built farther apart.













We had a little map of the island courtesy of the rental shop and we followed it to a beach area. The beach is almost empty except for two carloads of people who we found to be doing selfies and left within a few minutes of our arrival. There were many cats in the area timing our arrival at their meal time.







The waters were rough and the winds were howling, so chilly that we didn’t stay much longer. We followed the road back and decided to go where the road leads us. We stopped many times to enjoy the view and take pictures and stopped for gas. Our friends didn’t gas up because their gauge was showing a full tank.















Once we found ourselves back in the Little Venice area we took the road that would lead us to the other side of the island. We stopped at a grocery store to stock up on some noms and whatnots then went back on the ATV. We were enjoying the leisurely drive around the island, until we realized that our friends were no longer behind us on the road. We stopped to wait for them, when fellow ATVers passed by us told us our friends ran out of gas and were pushing the ATV uphill to get gas. So we went back and found them pushing the ATV. Apparently the fuel gauge was broken; it was still showing a full tank! We volunteered to get gas for them, but we had no gas container. We pushed the ATV back to the grocery store where we dumpster dove for an empty 2-liter soda bottle for the gas. Thankfully the gas station was two shakes away from the grocery store and within minutes the ATV had gas and was ready to move. The friends drove to the gas station to fill up, really fill up this time.





By this time, I was eager to see the area known as Little Venice – the main tourist area. This was where we parted with our friends. With gas tank full, they wanted to drive some more and we chose to walk and do some photography in Little Venice.

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