Saturday, 6.12: Day in Delos; Picspam

Day 2 in Mykonos meant a day in Delos, one of the islands adjacent to the Mykonos. At one point, Delos was an important Greek religious site, later developing into one of the biggest trading ports in Greece. For some reason or another, the economy eventually shut down there, and the rich merchants who lived on the island moved away, leaving their houses, statues, and religious icons behind. Because the island went to ruin due to mass evacuation and not conquer and seizure, the ruins are "remarkably well preserved," whatever that means for ruins.

We headed out early in the morning on the ferry that leaves from the port in Mykonos, and soon enough, we're on the island. It's gorgeous if you like the ruins look, and I have to say that some of the houses were actually very pretty and the mosaics in them were pretty much intact. This post will mainly be a picspam of the ruins we saw. It was pretty epic.

The first leg: Entrance --> Lions

We walked around some pretty ruined ruins, but there was some cool stuff like some in tact walls and marketplace-type structures.

This last picture is of me in front of the famed Naxian Lions of Delos, eternal guardian lions of the Sanctuary of Apollo, or...what's left of them. And all that's left is their roar.

Second leg: Lions --> Museum

We ate lunch at a little cafe next to the museum on the island and Liz had fun feeding this one stray cat that attached itself to her and skedaddled as soon as it saw that Liz was out of food. The museum itself was quite small, with mostly unlabeled statues and stuff recovered from the island. Below is an example of a large, headless and apparently shinless statue.

Leg 3: Museum --> Port

From the museum, we climbed up to the top of a hill to find the Temple to Isis, also known as the Temple of Aphrodite (shown below, pic #2). When the Greeks started combining the gods of different peoples that they conquered, Aphrodite became associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis, which greatly improved Aphrodite's reputation for licentiousness by associating her with the story of Isis and Osiris. What romantics. Next to it, the Temple of Hera. Apparently, this shows the time period at which these buildings were constructed, as the Greeks would have never put Hera and Aphrodite together in more ancient times. Also, we visited the House of the Trident and the House of the Dolphins, both so named for the mosaics found on the floors of these houses (see below).

The day on Delos comes to an end in the early afternoon and we spend the rest of the day napping on the beach, eat a nice fresh pasta dinner at a restaurant, and browse the shops. It was a more peaceful end to the weekend, because our flight back to Athens was at 6:55 AM Sunday morning. Those who slept on the beach that night got eaten alive by bugs, and thus, I'm glad I stayed in the cabin which had some screening from the insects.

Again, it is lateish night as I am uploading this, and as I am planning on completing more of the List tomorrow, when there is a Metro strike, I should go to sleep! But here's a parting pic from Delos, reminding everyone to have a bit of fun even if you're in a place with SUPREME HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE.

Peekaboo to you,

Angela