The One Savage

Monday, September 23, 2013

Delos and Chora

We are currently on a ferry, on our way from Mykonos to Athens. I think we're expected to get there in the evening, around 8pm local time. Since the ferry has wi-fi, it seems like a good time to update and share some pics!

Yesterday, we toured the island of Delos, which is said to be the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis. Back in the day, the island was a religious center and a center of commerce, with around 30,000 inhabitants. It was also the central location of Delian League, the military alliance formed between Athens and other local powers following the Persian Wars. It was evidently an very diverse city, home to people of various countries and religions. The city even had designated spots for worship of these other religions (including a Temple to Isis and the oldest Jewish Synagogue in Greece). We took a tour of the archaeological site, which included the ruins of the agora (town square), high end shopping and residential district, amphitheater, portico, and three Greek temples. Cool things I learned: ancient Greeks had systems for public water as well as private, indoor cisterns, they had underground public sewer systems (which would be accessed from private homes), and they utilized arches (for functional purposes, not decorative).

View from the ferry

Closer view, with the House of Trident with the roof and columns toward the right.

Some of the residential and shopping district

The stone walls were all dry-stacked (no mortar or anything)

Lots of marble, most of it from the island of Naxos

Atrium within the House of Dionysus. Evidently a VERY rich family, as they had a large house,
beautiful mosaic floor, and a private indoor bathroom.

House of Trident, apparently the home of some Phoenicians,
based on the lion-heads on the columns.

Public cistern, these arches (which were dry-stacked and had no keystone),
would have been supporting a roof.

Remained of the amphitheater

View from the propylaea

Random cat, listening to the tour guide talk about the Naxian Lions

Naxian lion (recreation)

4 of the 9 Naxian Lions. One was taken by the Romans and placed in front of the armory in Venice,
3 were destroyed, and the 9th is out of frame.

Palm tree, planted near the site of the birth if Apollo and Artemis

We then visited the local Archaeological Museum of Delos, where many of the original statues, mosaics, and other artifacts are on display.

Mosaic from the atrium of the House of Dionysus. The image shows Dionysus (god of wine/grape harvest)
riding a tiger, presumably returning from his travels to India.

Naxian Lions

(some info on those Lions)

Statue from the top of the Temple of the Athenians, depicting Boreas
(god of the north winds) kidnapping the princess Orithyia

Beautiful sculptures (look of the folds!)

Statue of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), killing a deer

Not sure what this is...some guardian lion, but it reminded me of Grellah for some reason :)

The entrance to the museum was, once again, crowded with local cats, who were hungry enough to swarm around crumbs of some hard crackers. As we left, I had to stop and check them out -- shared some croissant and water. Very cute! Though, one of the bigger ones was pretty grabby as I tried to distribute the croissant...

Eating crackers

After Delos, we returned to the old port at Mykonos. Since we were near to Mykonos' main town, (called Chora), we stuck around for lunch, explored the shops, and grabbed a light dinner. Lunch for me was the delicious shrimp saganaki (recommended to me by Erin). Now I have to learn to make it!

View of the port

View of Mykonos/Chora from the ferry

View of the section of town called Venetia (little Venice)

View of the Church of Panagia Paraportiani

Pretty view

View of sunset from the port

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Ano Mera and Agrari

We arrived in Mykonos yesterday afternoon and spent the evening getting settled in and learning to area a little bit. Had a nice dinner at a local taverna. Today (Saturday), we rented a car and drove around the island. The roads are really narrow, windy, and steep in a lot of places. Most of the island seems to be arid, rocky hills and valleys. Lots of rock walls and shrubby ground cover.

Anyway, we headed toward the center of the island to a town called Ano Mera. Nearby is a place called Paleokastro, which is home to a monastery and the remains of an ancient castle. The drive up to Paleokastro was kind of crazy, but the view was nice, and the scenery of the drive was cool.

Bougainvillea near out hotel entrance. These were all over Santorini too! Really beautiful AND cool because the pink parts, which look like flowers, are actually modified leaves (bracts), surrounding tiny white flower clusters.

Wider shot of the entrance

Another view

The roads of Mykonos.

Overlooking Panormos Bay and Ftelia beach

Remains of the old castle. The monastery is hidden on the other side of the hill.

A panaoramic, just in case :)

Once we'd had enough of old castle remains, we headed back down to the main square of Ano Mera and had a snack. Had something called ekmek during lunch, which seemed to be a Greek version of the Australian "snot-blocks". (Tasty.) The town seemed to be crawling with little cats. At lunch, the waiter taught me a few Greek phrases, including "eisai gata", which means "you're clever/smart/cunning", but directly translates to "you're a cat". Makes sense to me.

Here's a cat selling souvenirs

And being pet

Cat sleeping

A little church. Part of the nearby Panagia Tourliani monastery, I think.

Cat sleeping

Guarding the restaurant

Being cute

Doing their thing

After Ano Mera, we headed down to Agrari beach, which was a nice spot to sit and paint a little bit. Pretty water and a nice view of the surrounding hills.

Towards the end of the day, the sun is setting in the opposite direction,
lighting up this hill and making it very orange.

Tomorrow: a tour of nearby Delos island.

Nea Kameni, Palea Kameni, and a schooner cruise

Thursday was mostly taken up with a volcano hike and boat trip. We started in Santorini's new port, Athinios, where we boarded a schooner called Afroditi and headed toward Nea Kameni, the newer of the two volcanic islands in the middle of the Santorini caldera. For 2 euros, I hiked up and down the island, which was pretty barren (not surprisingly) with a bizarre mix of black, red, tan, and sulfur-yellow colored rocks and a few scrubby plants. Also very hot, with a few sulfur-y gas vents within the rim of the main crater of the volcano. I was't with a tour guide, but I eavesdropped on a nearby group and learned how, by digging a shallow hole in the gravely surface along the hiking path, you can feel the heat/hot gases produced by the volcano. There were several shallow holes created all around the crater rim, and everyone was sticking there hands, then pulling them out quickly due to the heat. I tried it and it was definitely hot. And smelly.

I remember when we hiked the glacier in NZ, our guide pointed off to the distance on one side of the moraine and explained that we should avoid that area, because a sulfur vent had recently been disturbed and exposed, and it wasn't safe to get too close. Wonder why nobody seemed concerned about a similar set up on the volcano? Maybe less concentrated gases?

View of Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni from above Athinios port

Boarding the Afroditi

Coastline of Santorini

Stopping at Nea Kameni

View of the main crater (click to see larger)

Rocks and shrubs

Another view of the main crater. Probably not obvious in the photo, but gases are
coming up around those yellow-green rocks to the left.

Cairns and Fira in the background

Colorful rocks

Anwyay, the volcano was not beautiful, but it was very interesting, especially considering its history.

Next stop for our ship was Paleo Kameni (the older volcanic island, adjacent to Nea Kameni), where we were able to jump into the water and swim to the hot springs. Hot springs were kind of more like warm springs and they were also pretty smelly, but it was cool to see. The water was orange-yellow.

I'm somewhere in there, making my way toward the hot springs.

Hard to tell from the pic how orange the water was as you got further back

Back on board, heading to Thirassia

Mom, Oia in the background.

We moved on to Thirassia for dinner, and then toward Oia to once again enjoy the sunset. It was interesting to see Oia from below, including all the people huddled near the western tip of the town trying to capture the sunset. To be honest, while it was beautiful, it didn't seem all that amazing to me. I guess I am spoiled with those Boston sunsets :) (Actually, Plain City, Ohio offers a pretty nice sunset.) It was very scenic though, with several boats, the sunset, and Oia up on top of the cliffs.