What a Weekend... Now Holy Week

As I walked through the streets tonight, a voice came over the loudspeaker... singing. It is officially the beginning of the Holy week. The voice was from the main church in Chora where I live. Most of the time, I will write about how the Greeks love to party, but they also love to pray. I don't consider myself to be religous, but I still find it very interesting. The long hours of service, the attire... and of course the food.

Let's back up for a second. It has been a very full weekend here in Mykonos...

Friday night Mixalis and I went out, of course. First stop: Lola. This place is fantastic. Gill and Demetrios (the owners) are so nice, the drinks are delicious, the prices good and the overall atmosphere is the best Mykonos has to offer. While there enjoying our cocktails, I met an old friend of Mixalis... Utz. Who just happens to be a rather famous German director. He is hilarious... The stories. Like the time he woke in his new Mykonian house to find a bunch of Chinese tourists on his roof taking pictures of the incredible view... Only in Mykonos. Aanyways, after a few laughs, we headed to one of my old haunts: Babylon. The drinks are strong and the music spins until... well, until the party stops. It was a great time. Drink after drink -- oh yes, and shot after shot. We were pretty hammered by the time we left at 4 am. And so it goes.

When I finally peeled myself off the bed at noon yesterday... with a hangover. I went through my usual Mykonos routine: stumbled down the stairs, made a Nescafe, sat and tried to reflect on the previous night. The weather was amazing. The wind had finally died down and the sun was shining briliantly over the port as we made our way to Allegro for coffee with the crew.

After a couple of hours in the cafe, Mixalis and I went back to the apartment to prepare Gordon's famous Bistro Chicken -- it was a big hit amongst the boys (https://www.starchefs.com/GHamersley/html/GHamersley_roastedchicken.html Note: No matter how you prepare this, it will never be as good as the authentic dish in Boston)-- then went out to find apartments. Every place we saw was asking for ridiculous rents, so I decided to go with one that I saw a couple of days before. Mixalis called the woman, Natasha, and asked if the flat was still available. She was waiting to hear back from a couple that had expressed interest. To which Mixalis said:

"No, Tana will take it... She is from a very well known family in America, you know." For the record, I'm not.
"Ah, yes, I saw her..." replied Natasha.
"Yes, she will take the apartment today."
"Okay."

So... I got an apartment!

To celebrate... or not really to celebrate... really just because, we went to Lola for cocktails, followed by dancing at Babylon. Last night was daylight savings here in Greece, so my head didn't hit the pillow until about 6:30 am. I may have been distracted on the way home... Not by some hot man, unfortunately, but by the most adorable kitten. I considered taking it with me. As usual, I slept great... Until 13:30! I don't know what it is about being on this island, but I sleep so well.


Today, I moved in to the new apartment to discover that I have the most amazing view! Seriously, it is absolute paradise. Pictures to come, I promise.

I have cut off communication with Thanos... I received some text this morning about being deep. WTF. The thing is, I never respond anyway. Why are Greek men so aggressive. Damn.

AND... I found a way to kill the time until work begins. Apparently, there is an American movie being filmed here and there is a casting call for extras. If I am just going to hang out in the sun all day anyway, I might as well get payed for it, yeah?

Wow, it just started to rain. I have never seen rain in Mykonos. Until tomorrow.