Palm Sunday, Mykonos Style

April 9, 2017

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Having slept at weird hours as a result of lots of traveling, we woke up rather early (1 AM). By the time 8 AM rolled around we were more than ready to eat breakfast, which, by Greek standards, is really early. We decided on Kadena Cafe, mostly because it was open at this time. Ryan had greek coffee (non-filtered finely ground coffee) and salmon on toast with cream cheese. I had the frittata with asparagus, bell pepper, zucchini, and feta. As we enjoyed our breakfast, locals were setting up for the traditional Palm Sunday Horos as well as assembling  a small market that sold flowers, vegetables, and fish. When Ryan was done with his coffee, the waiter read his fortune from the left over grounds (much like with Turkish coffee). According to Ryan’s coffee grounds he will have good financial fortune that he will have to earn (no lottery for him) and his father’s family will experience a medium sized obstacle.📷But first, coffee 📷Breakfast of Olympians 📷Fortunes be had 📷Market During breakfast, Ryan took the time to look up some fun historical facts about Mykonos. Evidently, the island was ruled by the Venetians for some time, hence Little Venice. We also learned about a local heroine, Manto Mavrogenous, who used her family’s fortune to help gain Greek’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.📷Manto Mavrogenous After breakfast we went for a nice walk up towards one of the higher points of the island where we saw great views of the bay, and where we explored (and possibly trespassed) an odd old building.📷📷📷📷Church on top of the hill Following our walk, we had some time to kill before the festivities began, so we spent some time back at our apartment relaxing.📷Enjoying the sun….before the burn Mykonos, like most islands, runs on its own time. The festival was supposed to begin around 12:30, but ending up being around 1:30 PM. This allowed for us to see the dancers practice before the performance, as well as walk around downtown for a little while.📷Horos practice 📷More practice 📷📷just your average Mykonos palm cross Each area of Greece has their own special traditions in regards to Palm Sunday and Easter in general. Mykonos celebrates with horos (greek dancing) spanning the length of the bay. Instead of standing among the crowds, we were able to snag a great spot along the pier.📷And the horos begins 📷Following the performance we headed over to Nice n Easy in Little Venice to grab lunch. Despite arriving around 2 PM, it was still considered early for lunch (most eat around 3 PM). Although we attempted to eat a light lunch by ordering salads, it turned out that the salads were huge, and also delicious.📷Lunch at Nice n Easy 📷Look at this smug mug 📷Smoothie and local beer from Tinos (the island in the background) 📷Mushrooms with kopanisti (Mykonian cheese) and greek salad 📷Mixed green salad with dried fig and goat cheese After eating our not so light lunch and free digestive liqueur (this one was more lemony), we headed back to the apartment. The plan was to take a quick nap, but that nap turned into about 3 hours. When we finally woke up around 7 PM, we were still rather full, so instead of dinner we decided to skip ahead to dessert. Where better to eat than a place called, The Taste Diaries. After dessert, you guessed it, we went back to sleep. This trip so far is all about good food and catching up on sleep.📷Waffle with greek yogurt, tart cherries, and almonds 📷Nutella and orange crepe