Mykonos, July 2023

Mykonos City seafront from across the bay, promenade with bars and restaurants, buildings are white and the light is orangish during dusk

Two windmills in front of a blue sky, each windmill is a simple round white building

Beach from above, top third is water, with some stones, mid is the beach with a cat sleeping and the bottom consists of green plants

White buildings, standing directly at the waters edge, with colorful Venetian balconies from acress the bay

Small Greek church, with a light blue dome

Details of a church tower, through two arches the bell is visible; a yellow flag is blurred in the foreground

Tiny street, white buildings, outdoor stairs leading to the first floors, small shops

Three cats and a dog standing and laying on a street with a white building and stairs in the background

White building with a dark blue balcone and shutters in the first floor on the ground floor are two wodden doors

White buildings with the ocean in the background, there are many ships

Last week we went to Mykonos on a summer vacation and the island is beautiful. Mykonos City is very pretty and extremely photogenic (as you can see above) and the beaches and the water are perfect.

While life was good on the beach, getting there was risky. As it is typical for tiny touristy beach towns in southern Europe, the streets are narrow, there are no sidewalks and too many cars. Here the problem was exaggerated by the fact that hotels were sending black minibuses to pick up their guests, tourists were renting massive Jeeps and SUVs and for some reason quad bikes were very common on the streets.

The other thing, and I think this is not just a problem on Mykonos, but in all of Greece are illegal beach clubs. All beaches in Greece are public, but nevertheless beach clubs put sun loungers and parasols out and charge somewhere between 50 and 200 Euro per day for them. If you're lucky they leave 10 meters of public beach on the sides.

On one day we were taking a boat to another beach and we passed a lot of boats and this was the first time I have ever seen super-yachts up close and wow, they are disgusting. These yachts are monstrosities, they are super dark and look less like pleasure crafts and more like warships. We were feeling guilty, because this was our second vacation by plane this year and here we were watching the super rich blasting diesel into the ocean.

In the end I spent four days on the most beautiful and cliché beaches you can imagine and this radicalised me further. Whatever we do about climate change, the super rich don't give a fuck and we need to take their private jets and super-yachts, because they are not giving them up voluntary.