“Then in resurrection there were various pranks. Barrels fell – even dad Vasilis threw. However, the world was familiar then.”

A Brief History of the Old Timers Mykonos it refers to past Great Saturdays – and is somewhat outdated. The familiar world is now lost among hordes of strangers, among them tourists, who throng the narrow district of the Cycladic’s only seaside town. Some await the climax of Holy Week on a platform below the piercingly red Milos, which has stood there the color of Cycladic stone and lime since the 17th century. Others are already sitting in stores, turning off their loudspeakers – not for long.

After midnight on Holy Saturday, nightclubs that recently noise pollution complaints, turn up the music volume. The sounds are confused. It’s not too late, and the intense physical altercation between the customer and the store’s security monopolizes the tourists’ interest. Few buildings appear to serve as a home, most of which are businesses of health interest and commercial stores. In such a densely populated country, various uses of space are concentrated. Near the temple, where the Sunday liturgy continues for an hour after “Christ is Risen”, a barker in a pizzeria informs passers-by that there is also a picnic going on there.

“They take out doors and make windows out of them. Added black frames. They paint the cobblestones black.”

For those unfamiliar with the subject, one walk through the tangled streets of Mykonos Town is not enough to uncover degree of arbitrary and illegal conversion into constituent elements of a protected settlement. “The country is suffering, it is suffering. From the point of view of the fact that there are constant interventions in traditional houses, ”a resident of the island tells K. “They take out doors and make windows out of them. Added black frames. They paint the cobblestones black. It is forbidden. Like illuminated signs. They’ve lost their temper.”

Shortly before the official start of the tourist season, the island remains in the shadow of urban development, but few believe that anything will change.

fence island

Mykonos at Easter is covered with a thin carpet of green and yellow fluff – at least in its undeveloped territory. Extensive development is the hallmark of the island, but the situation is aggravated if you walk to the beach.

“When the municipal council decides on the beaches, they say: ‘Don’t give up: Panormos, Agios Sostis, Fokos, Ftelia’, and at the same time they have been working on them for years,” said the owner of a hotel in Mykonos. wishes to maintain his anonymity. “Two municipal decisions and a presidential decree from 2005 speak for him. Panormo that it is a beach of natural beauty. He doesn’t give up and they don’t have sun loungers.” On the contrary, in the summer sunbeds reach the very sea and are issued for no less than 150 euros, he says.

“The Principote case slipped away. I’m not an island virgin either. I also committed lawlessness, ”says the same hotelier. “We all made it 150%. But Principot escaped. We are talking about 4000 square meters in Aegialos. With wood, plastic and panels. These things don’t happen.”

In Panormos, the history of maritime business goes back a long way. From the original tavern by various owners from the 1970s to the 2000s to its current use as a luxury beach bar. Someone who used the phrase “Principality of Mykonos” gave – say those in the know – the idea of ​​a name that sums up – for those who oppose its operation – the “state within the states” of Mykonos.

But fences also close the beach at Cavo Paradiso and at nice meadow. A bar was built on the shore of the latter, and the public road changed direction and passed behind. “Fences come because what you do from the inside is not visible. They build four-meter walls, which is also prohibited – the wall must be 80 points and requires permission. They close everything around, put a door and inside you can do whatever you want. At some site that I don’t want to mention now, 50 staff quarters were installed on three and a half acres. And the vice mayor went there to open the road a little more, and didn’t eat firewood,” says the hotelier, but pointing to the mayor’s office in response to the question of who is less involved in decisions to stop all types of violations.

“Open beaches are far away. To fly, you need to fly in a helicopter,” says the owner of the hotel.

“If a bulldozer doesn’t fall on Mykonos, the job won’t get done,” says another resident.

Tourist saturation

“Now there are very few Myconian shopkeepers. Very few left the same job to their children. The rest have no culture, the people. Their problem is how to make more money.” The opinion of many locals about the decline of arbitrariness and aesthetic monotony is that the foreign capital that is invested in the island does not “hit the spot”.. “We are the latest generation to catch up with the old Mykonos cheese dairies,” says the hotel owner.

“Let the remaining 20% ​​not be wasted.”

“Perhaps a visiting tourist wants to see what you see, but that’s 80%. For me, the main thing is not to lose another. I don’t want us to be 100% like that. In order not to lose this remaining 20%,” he continues. “They tell me to change clients. I don’t want. I want the client that I had. Who called me from the winter, who worked and saved money to come here, eat Greek food, to be able to go down to the beach, go to Delos. Why should I become one with the pool? VIP is good, but why am I being pushed to throw out the second one?

A younger hotel room owner who doesn’t necessarily disagree looks more realistic. “If you ask anyone (an entrepreneur), they will tell you that the island simply has the right funds to listen to the demand and needs of international sponsors in order to provide an attractive tourism product,” he says.

However, it is necessary to find out if it is included in the travel package. the sewer stench that engulfs the island every moment. “There is no infrastructure. They say it’s like in Cannes, but here they clean the streets only when they post a picture and take a picture. There are five wells, three are lined, two are plugged. Last summer, during a boat trip from Ornos to Prasonisia, we were caught by an incredible barrel in the middle of the ocean “Aleomantra, where the biological treatment is located, is four kilometers away. And my friend with the boat says to me: “Come in, don’t get splashed from the sea, don’t catch any cholera.” If the international committees find out about this, they will close it, but no one speaks”.

“The problem is not with the screamers and not with those who scream. These are the ones who don’t talk,” the businessman says pointedly.

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