Island Odyssey: Greece2005

It was time to leave Santorini. We all got up before the sun to catch the 7:15 ferry. Ray and I went as far as Paros, near Naxos, while the others returned to Athens. They would spend two nights there, with time to shop and watch the colourful changing of the guard in front of the parliament buildings. From there they flew to London and spent the last few days exploring Windsor and downtown London, fitting in two Musicals.

Paros was a welcome change. It had no visiting cruise ships and was nice and quiet. We followed a tout, waiting at the ferry dock, to a very nice hotel, Captain Manolis, on a quiet back street in the port town, Parikia. Parikia has a Kastro, the old section, with narrow shop-lined streets. There is the ruin of the Frankish Castle, built by the Venetian Duke of Naxos in 1260 AD, using the remains of a temple to Athena from the 5thC BC. All that remains are two walls, built from the ends of marble columns and blocks, some of which still have their original inscriptions. The largest church in town is the Byzantine Panagia Ekatontapylianai Cathedral, Our Lady of the Hundred Gates, referring to the many, but not 100, doorways. You enter through a gate through high white walls, built as protection from pirates, into a large garden courtyard, strewn with marble ruins from various excavations. The stone cathedral has a second floor balcony around three sides, giving a good view to the main altar below with its ornate gold chandeliers.

A German fellow, who had been staying at the hotel all summer, had been invited to a Greek wedding that evening. He told us that the bride would be arriving at the Cathedral between 7 and 8 that evening, so remembering the wedding festivities in Santorini, we were there to await her arrival, along with many of the other guests. Once again the groom, clutching flowers, waited patiently outside the church. Finally at 7:45, just before we had almost given up, car horns announced the arrival of the bride in a spiffy red sports car with a huge bouquet of flowers spread across the hood. There were a few token gunpowder explosions but not as many as the last wedding. Two small children dressed as a ring bearer and flower girl took the bride's train as she walked with her father to meet the groom. All the guests walked with the couple into the church and we went off for dinner. Our German friend told us later that 500 guests were treated to dinner and dancing. He left at 3 AM while others, including the bridal couple, stayed until 6 AM.

My guidebook had recommended a restaurant in town that featured live, traditional music on Saturday evening. We were the only ones there for dinner before the show, but other tourists and several locals started arriving after 9 PM. According to Greek standards, North Americans eat far too early. We had a very good dinner and the music was great. One woman singer and four musicians, playing a violin, a guitar and two different sized bouzoukis took the stage about 9:45 PM. The first violin solo sounded just like the Cape Breton Island Celtic music. Other tunes had African and Asian phrasings and keys. They locals obviously liked the music and knew the songs as they sang along to several numbers. We stayed until after 11 PM, late for us, and they were still playing.

After a breakfast of great pastries from one of the local bakeries, we took a local bus to Lefkes, the medieval capital of whitewashed houses with red-tiled roofs, built on a hilltop in the center of the island. We had to find our way through the maze of narrow streets, built to confuse pirates, to a central square. From there we followed infrequent markers to the entrance to a Byzantine Road linking Lefkes with Prodromos, 4 Km away. It was a pleasant, quiet walk through the countryside over flagstone and marble paved paths. From Prodromos we walked uphill to another small town, Marpissa and then on to the fishing and burgeoning resort town of Piso Livadi. We had our picnic lunch on the wharf, watching fishermen mend their nets and clean their catch. Logaras, a beach just around a headland, looked inviting. We walked over, changed into our suits and had a swim before catching the bus back to Parakia.

Mykonos

Click the photo of windmills above to see an album of photos for Mykonos. Close the window to return to this page.

From Paros we took a 40-minute ride on a high-speed ferry to Mykonos. Once again we chose a hotel from one of the touts who meet the boats, with great success. Our genial hostess, Maria, drove us from the boat to the old section of Mykonos Town to her family-owned hotel, Studio Eleni. We had a good room with bath on the rooftop for 30 Euros per day, very reasonable for Mykonos. Maria gave us a card with a basic map showing the location of the hotel. We needed the map. The streets of Mykonos, like those of Lefkes on Paros, were built to confuse pirates, and they still confuse pirates. As well, the few street signs there are were in Greek letters and there was neither a sign for Studio Eleni nor a house number. By the time we left, after inadvertently exploring almost every section of Mykonos Town, we were getting pretty good at finding our way around town. When we mentioned this to Maria, she admitted people had problems. Earlier in the season she had a young Japanese woman check in. When she didn't return to her room that night, Maria made inquiries at the local police station. The police admitted a young woman had come to them seeking help getting back to her hotel but she didn't have the hotel card with her and didn't know the name, so the police had done nothing. Maria searched around the waterfront restaurants the next day until she located a very upset young lady, who had just spent the night outside. She got to stay another night free of charge and Maria blasted the police, of whom there are only three on the island, for their lack of help.

Our first day in Mykonos, a Monday, we shared the town with a cruise shipload of tourists. They filled the restaurants and jammed the narrow streets. What a difference the next day when the ship had gone and the streets were quiet again. I am afraid cruising is not our preferred method of travel, at least not such a large ship as those that ply the Mediterranean.

One of the main reasons for visiting Mykonos is to take the ferry to Delos, just 3 Km offshore. Uninhabited Delos is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece and was well worth a visit. Ray and I wandered around for nearly an hour but I became frustrated at not knowing more about what I was seeing. Ray continued to tour on his own but I joined a small tour group with a guide who I found very informative. Delos was first established as a Temple to the cult of Apollo about 1000 BC but by the 3rd C BC became a major trading center with a population of up to 30,000. It became very wealthy, especially with a lucrative slave trade under the Romans in the 2nd C BC. The island was abandoned after being sacked by pirates in 67 BC and laid undiscovered until French archaeologists made a deal with the Greek government in 1873 to start studies. Nothing grows on the island and everything had to be imported. Because there is no soil on the island, the original walls of the building remained uncovered, although their wooden roofs had disappeared. Marble statues lay strewn over the island and mosaics that once graced the rooms of houses still retained their colour. There are a few springs but not enough to support the large population so an elaborate system of cisterns and waterways was devised. After the Athenians took control of the island, no person was allowed to be born or die on Delos. Sick people and pregnant woman were shipped to another island, thus ensuring that Athenian control was maintained as no one could claim native ties to Delos.

We returned to Mykonos for lunch and decided we had enough time to visit one of the island's beaches. We took the local bus to Psarou, a protected beach just a few Km away on the south side of Mykonos. We had our last swim in the Mediterranean before returning to Athens the next day.

In Athens we just had time to enjoy a nice meal in the Psirri district, a trendy restaurant and bar area near our hotel. The next day we flew to Gatwick where we met up with the rest of the crew. We had a good time that evening relating our separate experiences over dinner and beers.

We got an early morning Zoom flight to chase the sun back to Canada. Now we have just about adjusted to the time change once again and are not quite adjusted to the chillier and wetter weather we are experiencing.

All in all we had a most successful trip. We saw ancient ruins, ate great food washed down with lots of wine and beer, visited picturesque towns and enjoyed the clear waters of the Mediterranean. Would we go again? Certainly, and there are lots more islands out there to explore.