We all have these places in the corners of our minds that we can drift off too when life becomes ‘too’. Too stressy, too boring, too organized. Usually these places in our minds exist out of some tropical island far away from your daily life, a place to escape to just for a bit, to feel the sand beneath your feet, to feel the waves bumping against your body and to emerge in a plain of mysterious blue. Beaches, and then I mean the tropical white sandy blue waves kinda beaches, covered in palm trees, hidden between orange rocks so only a proper hike will earn you a trip there. The ones where you are forced to relax as there is not a single thing to worry about at a place like that, you can literally not even find anything negative about a place like this except for finding sand on places where you’d rather not. I found several of these places in life, but now, I am discovering an entirely new one. Greece, a country with so many islands that it is not even possible to state how many there are. Looking at those inhabited, it scores around 166. Taking into account all those tiny non-inhabited ones, we easily head towards thousands. And all of them fit into that image of your perfect daydream. It has always been on my bucketlist but, so were so many other things so, it had to patiently wait for its turn. Now that covid didn’t leave too many options, it was rather easy to prioritise whatever island was reachable by means of a cheap flight. And that’s how the road, or plane, led to Mykonos. Mykonos is one of the more northern Greek islands, just a bit below the mainland. Yet it took us a 2h flight to Barcelona, a sneekpeek in Barcelona city, 4 remaining nappy hours at the airport, and one more 3h flight to this big bounty rock hiding in the middle of the ocean.
The descent was thrilling to say the least, for a second I figured the island was probably as big as the plane as it had to make endless twists and turns to finally reach the tiny airport, leaving me relieved to have reached solid ground again. And warm ground it was, it was around 11 and the sun was burning down a proper 28 degrees on our faces. Yet, the biggest surprise ever was the tornado alike wind heading our way, forcing me to take off my beloved white beach-hat. Having removed the face masks and having returned my hat to my head, I could feel the holiday starting and the school stress from the last weeks, fading. Luckily my white ass skin was saved from a sunburn as we were going to be picked up by our camping-transfer. Having sit down, I noticed I was completely waking up again after hardly having slept anyway, because as always, nothing fascinates me more than discovering new places. I kinda felt like I ended up on a different planet, a dry, but very impressive little planet. Around me the area was hilly, and orange alike, due to a massive gathering of rocks scattered over the entire island, colouring it in an orange shade. It gave me the feeling as if I was in Arizona, a rocky hilly area that seemed to thrive because of how dry it was. Only the thuglife plants were growing here, being your typical movie cactus of impressive sizes, or the tiniest little succulents sucking up precious water drops from the dry ground. And then obviously there’s a few trees such as olive trees or wanna-be pine trees with about 10 needles hanging on for dear life. All this together still created an oasis of green over the rocky island hills.
What turned this island into a lively being was the presence of the typical peppermint houses that we all think of when we hear Greece. They looked so smooth that you actually do want to bite them like a chubby marshmallow. But I always thought they’d taste like peppermint, with their blinding white colour that probably took around 50 painting sessions to become this blinding. They formed a perfect contrast with the yellow hilly landscape filled with massive rocks. It was so dry that you’d expect one of these dehydrated bush rolling over the street escorted by some kind of music from Ennio Morricone. The roads were extremely hilly and curly and the massive rocks by its side made it impossible to see what was waiting behind the corner, which sometimes was an insane downfall or a crazy climb. I almost got a panic attack imagining myself driving here but felt perfectly safe with the happy Greek transfer guy behind the wheel. For them, the dutch roads were probably hilariously easy. After a little while of crisscrossing the hilly curves, always way too small because of the tiny walls by the road, keeping cattle such as donkeys or hilariously tall goats away from the road. it looked as if the whole island was 1 big volcano. Dry, yellow and rocky. I loved the adventurous tiny roads accompanied by marshmallow alike houses by the road. if not for those, the houses seemed to be made from the exact same rock the one that was scattered over the entire island. Tiny, grey brick houses, or barns. I noticed the island was filled with empty barns, abandoned shacks or not so house-alike homes. There was something dessert alike about this island that I hadn’t experienced before, and it wasn’t until an infinite plain of blue appeared at the end until I realized again, I was at an island. Surrounded by the biggest force of nature, the waves of the blue depths with all its secrets kept licking the sharp rocks protecting the island.
We now arrived at our camping, and although my focus is always on the positive side, I have to be honest ; do not go camping in Greece during summer. The wind was insane. It was as if a constant tornado was terrorizing the island, making it impossible for us to even put up our tent. With a lot of big rocks, shouting and violence, the tent stood, only to wake up later from the wind attacking our poor little home and to find ourselves bathing in sweat. We assumed the night would be better, and after this rocky powernap we headed to the best part of this camping; our own personal beach. Following dry sandy paths with beautiful olive-coloured trees by its side and a sun shining down a solid 30 degrees upon my white skin, there it was. I hadn’t seen these shades of blue in forever, maybe a vague childhood memory of Ibiza was triggered. The front of the surprisingly quiet water was completely clear, showing its soft sandy bottom and colouring a shade of baby blue beneath the sun. the water remained crystal clear for a while until it emerged into a mesmerizing deep blue. The baby blue was still arising now and then, like colourful spots in the blue. But overall, as deep as us vulnerable humans dared to submerge into the depths, the water was nothing but a see trough plate to the sandy bottom with its green rocks, reflecting the rays of sunshine to create this rainbow sparkle on every inch of the sand. And all of this beauty was hidden between orange pointy rocks, protected by tiny floating boats up ahead, and intensely enjoyed by a surprisingly small group of people. We didn’t need a long time of laying on one of the way too fancy but very welcome beds.
We bought diving masks for this specific occasion alone, as the Dutch waters don’t exactly allow one to go snorkelling. Not that we did that either, we just dipped our heads below the water to look around, roll around, and come back up the breathe. Like proud amateurs. The moment I let myself slid down the little stairs and felt water like a soft blanket hugging my legs, I let myself fall back. And it was as if I was caught by velvet that slowly started went from refreshing, to a pleasantly perfect. My tiny legs were kicking around as I made circles to inhale all the beauty that this glass-alike water fed the eye. The sandy bottom was like a pillow to my feet and the sight of the boats floating around made me feel like I was on the perfect summer holiday we all dream of now and then. So I put on my diving glasses, took the deepest possible breath, and kicked myself towards the bottom until I was basically laying on the sand, to be a part of the fish squad under water that, with very offended looks, quickly slipped away. I chased their silver tails for a while until I got out of breath, and then put both feet on the bottom to rocket myself towards the sky, watching the sparkles of the sun break trough the never ending surface of blue.
- It's an amazing life
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