Mykonos, the island that once I loved was the island of Mykonos during the seventies, fully and completely different from Mykonos today. Mykonos of the real domestic and foreign aristocracy mixed harmoniously with the hippies and backpackers from America and Europe who stopped briefly on their way to ios and then to Rhodes, Turkey, India and Kathmandu. Although they had started the first charter packages and mass tourism mainly from Holland, Germany and Sweden, the island had another beauty. Even the stone terraces and the lunar landscape of the island was beautiful, untouched wilderness and without the current myriads of modern Greek yuppie villas and numerous hotels and hotel units.
The beaches except Platis Gialos, which then had a couple of hotels were truly magical, not a trace of sun loungers and umbrellas, beach bars, restaurants, water sports and all who go on package to all the Greek islands today.
At night the best place to sleep was our sleeping bags and even in the small town beach between Remezzo and Leto. The Paraga (hut) beach had a small hut (hence and the name) with a roof of palm leaves, something like a snack bar serving coffee with brackish water rather plain water. The food other than the traditional souvlaki (cost then just a few drachmas) was a hundred times cheaper than now. Near Paraportiani was a snack bar that I do not remember his name, there you could had the best breakfast in Mykonos, 3-4 fried eggs or scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and a huge tin of orange juice and all this for 10 drachmas, as for the room rates, you could find room in the country with 30 drachmas a day and drink Greek coffee with only 2 drachmas!
The bars in Matoyianni just a few with romantic evenings at Vegera and billiards and the music of Eagles in Angyra, amazing music and romance under the Remezzo and dancing at 9 Muses were in great glory.
One of the most beautiful of this era was the lack of traffic chaos, few roads and few cars and fewer buses. This was the Mykonos of 70.
Of course, the island has kept its traditional beauty which is mainly concentrated in the capital that almost nothing has changed except the type of tourism, crowds from the cruise ships who spoil the view from the Little Venice and the coast by passing like a cattle and various wanabe from the Greek show business ( especially the breakfast and midday television shows) and the modeling crowds that overwhelms the island on weekends in the hope of a photographic flash from a paparazzi from the weekly tabloids.
The island however it is still the most cosmopolitan island of Greece and is recognized internationally as a Mecca of tourism, landscape, bright light and the almost surreal beauty, dominated by the colours of white and blue, that is the main attraction of the island. Despite the general accuracy plaguing Greece and the islands will also find in Mykonos cheap eateries, shops and accommodations in particular except July and August.
The island is probably less suitable for those who are still looking for authentic Greece and calm because Mykonos is known for its rowdy nightlife, the crowded, bustling beaches and its reputation as a Greek island with a greater tolerance for nudism and gay.
