Yamas (cheers) – We arrived in Greece after almost 18 hours of traveling and three flights. With one last 30 minute short trip from Athens to Mykonos, we could finally settle in. As we were landing, Linda looked at her watch and said, “it’s 12:30 so almost lunch time.” A Greek man sitting nearby interrupted, “you’re in Greece now. Almost breakfast time.”

(You can probably tell by the sentence structure and correct grammar that a guest blogger has made an appearance, thanks Lily!  Our niece and nephew, are spending the week with us in Greece.  A week in the med never hurt anyone as they make their way through college as incoming freshman and sophomores. Back to Lily…)

With all the massive yachts and insane partying going on throughout the island, it’s hard to remember the 360 billion euros of debt this country is in. People here are happy, carefree, and seemingly doing great. The only real reminder we got of the economic crisis here came from a young man working at one of the restaurants we ate at the other night. Greg asked him how long he has lived in Mykonos and he said all his life.

“Why would you ever leave? It’s paradise,” answered Greg.

“Not for me. Not anymore,” the young man said.

He proceeded to tell us that he had been trying to leave to go to work in America for years and could not get a visa. He told us he works hard and that he pays more than he makes just to get by.

(Bad grammar begins)

We spent the next day walking the coast line hoping for cove to cove each with their own unique personality. First there was scorpion, a high end lounge style beach with cabanas, beds, restaurant and of course the “Mediterranean dream” drink; crushed ice with gin, aromatic bitter, cucumber and fresh ginger syrup.  Then came Paraga beach, much more happening with restaurants and clubs lining the back of the beach, where the sand ends the party begins.  Bottle service, cow bells, professional dancers and American club music rounds out the party.   Last stop on the trek is Paradise beach, everyone describes it as spring break and it was as advertised.  Lots of table dancing, shots, 2 for 1 sugar infused drinks and an obnoxious DJ interrupting all the songs to say something totally irrelevant.  Now we are sounding old, unacceptable while cruising the med with our niece and nephew.  Today we realized Europeans don’t give a shit about sunblock or anything related to sun protection.  Sitting out in the bare sun from early morning until sunset oiling up, swimming and not a hat or umbrella in sight. On the other end of the spectrum, we went through an entire bottle of spray sunblock in one day and rigged up our own sun shade by throwing towels on our slatted cabana roof like a bad episode of McGuiver.  ….Btw, how do Greeks know about our college spring breaks?

(Bad grammar ends)

With a lack of an appropriate transition here, I’ll talk about the food.  Let’s start with the chariso sausage and lamb meatballs dipped in tzaziki from our hotel which we had twice in three days. My favorite was the pita and tzaziki from a place on Namos Beach. The coffee here is dreamy. Greg thinks there should be a business model around selling traditional coffees from all over the world. Also all the cheese here is awesome. I wonder what we are doing differently to our cheese in the states.

Another thing I noticed as a server in a restaurant back home, is the difference here in serving food. First, all the waiters and waitresses here take your orders on their iPhones in an app and then send them to the kitchen from there. I thought we were supposed to be super technologically advanced?

Second, the Greeks do not understand food modifications at all. At the restaurant I work in, at least half the orders I take have modifiers. No cheese, no onion, add mustard, cook it more, etc. at Scorpios beach, greg ordered hummus with cucumber slices instead of pita bread and the waitress looked at him like he had four eyeballs. She ended up slicing up chunks of cucumber and mixing it into the hummus.

(Back to poor grammar)

A few closing thoughts:

-Many people told us, “everyday here is Saturday” and we like it that way. People here don’t overthink things, live simply, and never rush anything. After all, there’s nothing wrong with eating breakfast at lunchtime, not sweating the small stuff, and ordering off the menu.

-Day 6 and we saw our first police officer on the islands, does that make it safe because there is no crime or unsafe?

Link to more photos of our entire Greece trip (Mykonos, Santorini, Ios, Athens):