On the boat again...
Successfully made it to the new port of Mykonos, where I caught my ferry to Paros. It was about a 2km walk, fortunately all downhill. The sirocco (or Greek equivalent) was blowing strongly, making me glad I decided not to bring my contacts on this trip, as the dust was murderous enough. I think the coating on my sunglasses has been sandblasted off.
The wind is no less fierce on the boat, but at least there's no dust to be picked up from the barren-looking land. Mykonos reminded me of much of California in that respect - all borwn and rocky. The sea is much choppier than on my ride down from Thessaloniki as a result of the wind, but the ferry is large enough that the ride is still smoove.
I had a nice dinner last night in the Little Italy section of Mykonos Town. They had a 0.5L "Homemade Wine" o the menu, so I had that to drink - quite light-bodied and refreshing, and just a little more than I normally drink of a bottle. It wasn't that strong, so I thankfully wasn't staggering up the hill when I walked home. But after my long walk from Paradise Beach yesterday (I'm revising up the distance to 5km, based on today's walk), it was hell. Just for kicks, I estimated the incline at about 40 degrees at its steepest - this without steps, which I have come to appreciate for their ability to make a steep climb much less taxing.
I continue to be impressed by whoever provisioned the Greek mobile phone network. Here we are, with basically no land in sight, and my signal is almost maxed out. Maybe the boat has a repeater on it. Or maybe it's that there's nothing to block the signal, which gets severly attenuated. Whatever, it's impressive.
I'm vaguely ashamed to say that I've learned less Greek than Bulgarian - but given the places I'm going to in Greece, it scarcely seems necessary, what with English being the lingua franca of the international tourist set.