Fishing and pleasure boats in the tranquil waters off Sapsila Beach on Patmos
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Category: Greek Islands photos
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The famous Greek cat that flies and loves water
The Flyingcat 4 highspeed ferry powers its way through wavy rough seas as it approaches the Old Port of Mykonos on a very windy May day
Fast ferry favourite: It’s a familiar sight in the Cyclades, and a favourite mode of transport for tourists travelling the popular corridor between Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Ios, Santorini and Crete. It’s the Flyingcat 4, a highspeed passenger ferry operated by Hellenic Seaways. Built in England in 1999, the catamaran ferry carries up to 440 passengers in airline-style seats, and can travel at a top speed of 40 knots. It plies the Aegean Sea between Crete and Mykonos between April and late October each year, offering daily trips from May through September (except for two Wednesdays per month when the ship stays at its home base at the port of Heraklion, Crete for maintenance.) It leaves Heraklion in the morning, reaches Mykonos around 2.30 in the afternoon, and then heads back home.
We’ve had a grand total of four one-way trips on Flyingcat 4 so far, though it feels like we’ve been on it more times than that (perhaps because we took its smaller sister, Flyingcat 3, from Paros to Pireaus one holiday).
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Hit the beach! Super Paradise on Mykonos
Overlooking Super Paradise beach and bay on Mykonos
Wild times in years past: I had heard a lot of stories about fabled Super Paradise beach on Mykonos for years before I finally got to go there and see it for myself. I had heard tales about wild all-day and all-night beach parties, nudity and sex from friends who had travelled to Mykonos in the 1970s, 90s and early to mid-90s. Back then, Super Paradise was world-famous not just because it was a popular party place and “alternative” beach destination, but also since it was the top gay beach in the world. It wasn’t exclusively gay, but for years it had a well-founded reputation as “the gay beach on Mykonos” — and the premier gay holiday destination in the Mediterranean. Super Paradise is still popular with gay travellers, but nowadays draws a mixed yet predominantly straight crowd; in recent years, Elia has been the preferred beach destination for most gay visitors to Mykonos.
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