Day 15 - Still In Mykonos

Espresso Freddo: 1

Today was definitely more fun.  To start with both Mary and I were feeling well again.  We both were able to have a filling breakfast although the coffee was sadly Bad.

Afterwards we went into the centre of town to catch up with a cousin, Vanessa.  She was spending a few days in Mykonos on a girls' holiday with friends from city where she lives in Austria.  Something you can do when you live in Europe.  I'm so envious.

We first just sat in a cafe and had coffee and caught up on all the news.  Then we fled the town.  There were 3 large cruise ships in port and there was an endless stream of people coming ashore.  Two of the ships were relatively small, only 2,000 passengers, while the third had over 3,000.   And we though the centre of town was crowded yesterday!

Vanessa and her friends were staying a little out of town and so she had a hire car.  She was happy to drive us around as she had no fears about driving on the narrow, winding roads.  In fact, she even stopped in the middle of a roundabout so she could check the map on her phone to see which exit she should take.

First stop was the Armenistis lighthouse.  Here, purely by chance, we ran into Vanessa's friends who were also doing a driving tour of the island in their own hire car.  Mykonos is not very big.

Next stop was Ano Mera village in the middle of the island.  It is the second largest town on the island and being right in the middle of the island has a different feel.  It also had a number of tour groups off the cruise ships but was nowhere near as crowded as Mykonos Town itself.

The only things to see in this village are a monastery and the town square.  As Vanessa wasn't suitably dressed to visit a monastery we skipped that highlight.  She was in shorts (a woman, showing her legs, the horror!)  

We spent about 2 minutes ambling around the village square (it isn't very big) before settling in at the Pame Plateia restaurant for lunch.  This was a random choice but turned out to be an excellent one.  It is basically the Greek version of a tapas bar at is just serves mezze (small dishes) and drinks.  We had about 8 different dishes - all of which were Good - and beautifully presented.

After a leisurely lunch Vanessa drove us back to the hotel (so we didn't have to walk all the way uphill to it - yay!) before heading off to join her friends again.  It was lovely to catch up with her.

After a very undemanding siesta we eventually headed back into town for dinner.  Fortunately, most of the cruise peoplewere back onboard.  Unfortunately, it had started to rain.  Just lightly and it wasn't cold but still not what you want on holiday.

We first went to check out a restaurant Argiris had recommended.  I think an uncle of his owns it.  It serves traditional Greek food.  Unfortunately it also keeps traditional Greek hours and wasn't open for dinner yet.  They consider 8pm to be a suitable dinner time, although they will feed you at 7pm if you insist.

We didn't feel like waiting, especially given it was raining so we headed to Pasta Fresca Barkia instead.  This is an Italian restaurant where they make their own pasta.  It is housed in an old building with 3 floors of tables for customers and the kitchen in the basement.  You get between floors using a lethally narrow and steep spiral staircase.  

We were on the 1st floor.  This has quite a low ceiling and there were beams across the room that meant you had to duck to walk under them.  I could have probably managed to walk under it without stooping but my head would have brushed the top.  There were also tables on small platforms (why?) so their headroom was even lower.  You would need to be well under 5 feet tall to stand upright.  It was an occupational health and safety nightmare but very entertaining to watch the poor waitstaff rushing about.  Working there must be hell on their backs with all the ducking and crouching they have to do, never mind the stairs!

The food was very Good with a wide selection of dishes.  I was amused to see they had two versions of carbonara.  One with cream and bacon for the tourists and the proper one with guanciale, pecorino and eggs.  I didn't try their tiramisu as I was too full, which was shame.

Tomorrow we are off to Paros.  Hopefully it will be less crowded, although cruise ships dock there too.