3 May 2018, Thursday

We woke up very early today because we had to catch an early ferry to Mykonos. At about 5:35am, we checked out of our Airbnb apartment in Plaka and walked to the train station at Syntagma to catch the Metro to Piraeus. From Syntagma, we would have to change a train at Monastiraki to take the green line to Piraeus.

At Monastiraki station, while we were taking the escalator up to the green line train platform, we encountered pickpockets! This was what happened: I was leading the way, with mum behind me and dad further back. I was carrying my backpack while mum and dad had their big suitcases with them. While we were on the escalator on the way up, I happened to turn back to check on mum and dad when I saw two guys coming on the escalator behind dad. And suddenly, I thought I saw the younger guy reach out to press a button on the wall. Immediately after that, the escalator stalled, and the guy made a sound like “Ohhhhh”, like he was surprised that it had stalled.

When I saw that, I was confused, because I was thinking, “Didn’t he just press the button to stop the escalator? Why is he acting surprised?” Alarm bells should have gone off in my head but they didn’t. Maybe it was due to the lack of sleep or due to it being too early in the morning. I was puzzled by his actions, but not alert enough to know what it meant yet.

I wanted to go down to help mum carry her suitcase, but the younger guy moved up to help mum carry it. I couldn’t really see dad because he was further down and my view was blocked by mum and the younger guy. So I assumed that the other guy would help dad carry his suitcase too. In any case, I wouldn’t be able to reach dad because mum and the younger guy were behind me, climbing up the escalator. As such, I continued walking up the escalator towards the platform, occasionally turning back to check on them.

After I reached the platform level, mum and the younger man came up behind me and the man gave a whoop of “Whoooo!” and made a show of shaking his arms, like he was very tired after heaving the suitcase. I said thanks but I was guarded in my response. He probably also knew that I was suspicious of him because I had caught him in the act of pressing the stop button earlier.

Shortly after that, dad came up to the platform and I was surprised to see that he was carrying his own suitcase. Turns out the other man did not help him at all. I was getting more suspicious at this point, but I wasn’t thinking quickly enough to immediately ask dad to check his belongings on the spot, in the presence of the two men.

We moved to a less crowded part of the platform, about 15m away from the escalator. I then voiced my suspicion to mum that one of the guys may have pressed the button to stall the escalator intentionally. Mum checked her belongings and everything was intact. We then saw that dad’s sling bag was unzipped, which was definitely suspicious, because he always kept it zipped.

We asked him if it was unzipped before, and he said he had taken his handphone out of the sling bag earlier to use the phone, and had forgotten to zip it back. His face was a bit blank when he said this, like he was in a state of shock. We asked him to check the sling bag thoroughly and he said everything was intact. His sling bag was mostly empty anyway, but his handphone was inside, and miraculously, it was not stolen.

Besides the sling bag, Dad was also carrying a small backpack. But at this point, we didn’t have time to check the backpack because the train had arrived. Also, we were so focused on the sling bag that it didn’t occur to us to check the backpack as well.

After boarding the train, mum noticed that both compartments of the backpack were open. We were 100% sure that the backpack was zipped up before, so that confirmed our suspicions that the older man had rummaged through both the backpack and the sling bag while dad was heaving his suitcase up the escalator. Thankfully, there was nothing valuable in the backpack and nothing was lost. Nevertheless, it left us feeling quite shaken as we made the journey to Piraeus.

It was a good wake up call, and perhaps also good that it happened early during the trip, because it definitely makes us much more alert for the rest of the trip. I should have been quicker on my feet to realise that something was wrong. I guess I was a bit too complacent in trusting the goodness of people and assuming that nothing of this sort would happen. The truth is that it does happen. No one is at fault here and there is no use blaming anyone. The most important thing is that we didn’t lose anything and no one was harmed.

Let this be a lesson to everyone to be careful, especially when you are taking public transport. Those guys have probably executed this routine many times. We were easy targets because we were carrying big suitcases. It was also very early in the morning so the coast was clear for them to carry out their misdeeds. Nonetheless, I believe they would still have dared to do it even when it is crowded. Perhaps, the crowd would be even better for them to disguise their actions. Oh well, lesson learnt!

Anyway, we reached Piraeus station at about 6:20am. We collected our Blue Star Ferries tickets from a booth at the station before making our way to the port, which was about 5 minutes’ walk away. From Piraeus, we would take the Blue Star Naxos ship to the island of Mykonos. I had booked the cheapest ticket, a Super Economy Seat and it cost 29 Euros (S$48.73) for the 5 hour 15 min ferry ride.

The Naxos is a huge catamaran that carries vehicles as well as passengers. We were lucky that a new line opened up just as we arrived so we were one of the first few to board the ship. We were directed to a non-air-conditioned deck area where it was free seating, with chairs and tables instead of allocated seats. We chose a table near the café and away from the sun. Soon after, the deck was swamped with noisy students who seemed to be going on an excursion. The tables filled up and it seemed like there weren’t enough chairs for everyone. At 7:30am sharp, the ship departed Piraeus.

For the next few hours, we were surrounded by noisy teenagers and chain smoking adults. It was hard to get a good rest because of all the noise and the smoke. I was regretting slightly that I didn’t pay more to get the Air Seats, which are aeroplane-style seats in a quiet area. At about 11:20am, the ship stopped briefly at the island of Syros and all the noisy teenagers disembarked. Thank goodness! The chain smoking adults remained though, but we changed seats and filled our tummies with some fast food from Goody’s Burger House.

The ship made another stop at Thinos before we finally arrived at Mykonos at about 1:05pm, about 20 minutes behind schedule. After disembarking, we struggled to find our Airbnb host, who was there to pick us up from the port. Seemed like everything was going against us today! As a last resort, we enlisted the help of another driver to call my host and eventually we linked up. Phew!

Airbnb Apartment
Address: Μητροπόλεως Διαμερισμα, Μύκονος, επαρχεια 846 00, Greece
Host: Apostolos
Price: S$635.50 for 2 nights
Airbnb link: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/13746676 

All my worries faded away after checking in to the Airbnb apartment. It was large and beautifully furnished. I especially loved the wooden floorboards and colour scheme of white and Tiffany blue. It was so soothing and easy on the eye. After the ordeal we went through to get here, we decided to take our time to settle down before heading out to explore.

At 5pm, we went out to see what Mykonos had to offer. We soon realised that the apartment was in a perfect location. It was just 100m from Kato Milli (windmills), the landmark of Mykonos island. It was also practically in the heart of Mykonos, with Little Venice just a few minutes away.

I fell in love with Mykonos the moment we walked through the labyrinth of alleyways in the Little Venice area. All the buildings were unique and no two were alike. It felt like being in a maze but with no dead end. Everywhere we turned, it led us to another alley that we had not seen before. We kept discovering new shops and restaurants at every corner. Mykonos is truly an amazingly special place unlike any other!

We then walked to the Old Port area to collect our Sea Jets ferry tickets to Santorini in advance. The Old Port area is also quite beautiful, with many restaurants offering harbour views.

We spent the rest of the evening exploring the alleyways before having dinner at an Italian restaurant called D’Angelo near the windmills, which our Airbnb host had recommended. After a few days of Greek food, it was time for some pasta and pizza for a change of palate. The dinner bill came up to around 42 Euros (S$68) altogether. The waiter also served us a surprise free shot of limoncello (lemon liquor) after our meal. It was strong but good!

After dinner, it was back to the windmills for the sunset, and we then roamed around Little Venice to soak in the atmosphere. We didn’t do much shopping at all because generally, prices in Mykonos are twice of that in Athens. The island is catered exclusively to tourists so everything here is expensive. The day didn’t start off too well but it got better as it went along and ended on a perfect note as I fell asleep soundly on my comfy bed…