Off to Ios

Our ferry wasn’t to leave Mykonos until mid afternoon so after breakfast Tim and I caught a bus to the beach just up the road, Stefanos. While, not quite as nice as Platy Gialos in my opinion, it was a nice beach and plenty of space to lay down our towels, we were going to pay 10 Euros for a lounge again. After an hour or so at the beach we decided it would be best to head back to the hotel, we had forgotten our sun cream, and didn’t want to fry. We walked back instead of taking the bus, it wasn’t a long walk, but there wasn’t much of a footpath, so it was a bit dodgy. Back at the hotel we just lounged around the pool and had a swim before heading to the port to catch our ferry to Ios.

We arrived in Ios and dropped our bags at the hotel before meeting back up to take the bus up to town. Ios’s township was adorable as well. It had much more of a community feeling than Ios, children could be seen playing in the Plaza, etc. However, up in the town it had the same charming narrow streets, white washed buildings, and blue shutters that could be found in Mykonos. Steve led us to another of his favorite restaurants that had a beautiful outdoor terrace. Steve recommended the lamb in the oven, and of course everyone ordered it, unfortunately, or as it turned out fortunately, they only had three servings left. So some of us obligingly agreed to have chicken in the oven instead, we of course ended up being the lucky once, as when the lamb came out it was hard as rock and was more bone than anything else. I was one of the lucky ones who had chicken, and I must say my meal was delicious, but poor Steve, all those with lamb could do was complain about how awful it was, and I must say it was beginning to be a bit of a down, until they brought out the EZ towels. For those of you that don’t know what an EZ Towel is, it is apparently a product of New Zealand, and our fellow tour member Robin Worthington, just so happened to be a representative for the product back home. She was so excited that they had EZ Towels in Greece that she practically gave us a full on infomercial telling us of all of its amazing uses, much like Bubba and his shrimp in Forest Gump. Anyway it provided for a good laugh (both for us and for our fellow diners on the terrace), saved the meal, and turned into a long running inside joke for the remainder of our tour.

After Dinner we headed to a pub to watch the USA vs. England game. I headed back to the hotel with Sue and Granddad a bit earlier than the rest to try and get a bit of work done. Sunday we would have almost a full day in Ios before leaving early evening for our final Greek island destination, Santorini.

The Birthplace of Sun and Soaking up Sun

After breakfast at our hotel, Tim, Granddad, Sue, and I took the bus into town to catch the ferry to Delos. After a short ferry ride we arrived in Delos, a completely uninhabited island, and met our tour guide to begin our explorations.
While one of the smallest of the Greek islands, Delos is one of the most sacred as it was the birth place of Apollo and his sister Artemis. As the birthplace of Apollo, Delos is also the birthplace of sun, and is historically one of the sunniest places on Earth. Zeus was the father of Apollo and Artemis, but their mother was Zeus’s mistress, and Zeus’s wife was very jealous and feared by many and for that reason, no one would accept Zeus’s mistress into their port except for Delos.

In addition to its importance in Greek mythology, Delos also thrived as a commercial center under Roman rule because the Romans declared it a tax free port. Despite its small size, approximately 1 square kilometer, Delos’s population at the end of the 2nd century B.C. was approximately 20-30,000. Delos was also a very diverse city with people from many different nations/religions co-existing. Citizens of Delos were free to worship their own Gods; others often assumed that their neighbor’s God may likely be the same God as their own, just with a different name. Evidence of this is found in the fact that Delos was home to the first Synagogue and that temples exist not only to Greek gods but to Egyptian ones as well. Delos was destroyed once in 88 B.C. by the Miltradetes and once more in 69 B.C. by Pirates. Delos was never fortified because they believed they were protected by the Gods, so when destruction occurred, its business and people moved on elsewhere and neighboring islands further decimated the city, re-using its structures for their own building materials. Today only 1/7th of excavations are complete.

After arriving back in Mykonos we stopped in town for gyros before Tim and I headed to the bus stop to catch a bus to Platy Gialos, a beach recommended to us both by Steve and the locals. The beach was nice, although we did have to pay 10 Euros for a couple of beach chairs and an umbrella, the beach was so packed with them you couldn’t lay a towel down between them anyway. The water in the Mediterranean is very cool, but refreshing on a hot day. After a couple of hours blobbing at the beach we headed back to our hotel to freshen up real quick before meeting the group to head to dinner.

We had dinner with the group at a little Greek Taverna just up the street from our hotel, I had the stuffed tomatoes which were very nice. After dinner, Tim, Steve, and I headed into town to watch a bit of the soccer. We enjoyed a few beers, or in my case more of that ridiculously cheap wine, and in no time the game was over. Somehow I managed to drag Tim into a dance club where I had another couple glasses of wine, although as Steve and Tim both informed me very little ended up in my mouth, most of it ended up on them or on the floor. What can I say it’s hard to dance with a full glass of wine! Needless to say I laid off the wine for the next couple of days.

A Maze of Blue and White

Our ferry arrived in Mykonos early afternoon and we were much to the relief of our fellow passengers transported to our hotel. After a long travel day we had a couple of free hours to rest and relax, which Tim and I spent poolside enjoying a light lunch before heading into town for an early dinner. Steve introduced us to a great restaurant or “creperie” rather where I had a Greek crepe with ham, cheese, tomatoes, peppers, olives, and feta, so far Greek food has been divine. Along with the crepe I enjoyed a nice Greek frappe, which is essentially iced coffee, but as with all coffee I have come across in Europe thus far, extremely strong and delicious.

After our light dinner Tim and I spent some time strolling through the charming streets, if you can even call them that, of Mykonos. Code in Mykonos states that everyone must white wash their building and paint their trim once per year. Citizens of Mykonos can only paint their trim blue, red, green, or yellow, and although blue is the most common, you do see some of each, and in a variety of shades. Mykonos is also famous for its 21 windmills. All of which contributes to Mykonos’ pristine charm.

Later Tim had his first of many gyros in Greece before we headed back to the hotel and to bed, Friday we planned to head first thing to the neighboring island of Delos to explore its ruins, so we needed our rest.