by Rebecca on 2008-12-09
We went down to breakfast at about 10:00. We found Amy and Tony in the café and sat with them and learned about the rest of their day in Athens. We went back up to our room and got ready to go ashore on Mykonos. We decided to take the computer to see if we could find any wireless networks in town while we were there.
We wandered along the harbor and through a few streets looking at shops. The water in the harbor was so clear, we could see down to the bottom. Rebecca found a nice place to sit, with a wireless network coming from a restaurant next to us. She checked her email and started posting a blog entry while I browsed in a shop for souvenirs. From this point, we were able to see some ferries entering and leaving the harbor. Rebecca thought they might be the ferries to Delos that the cruise people said would not be running today. She left William with the computer and walked around to find out what the deal was.
After a few minutes, Rebecca ran back (yes, ran) and announced that the ferries we were watching were indeed going to Delos, and the one docked at the moment was the last one of the day. And it was leaving right now.
We sprinted to the end of the dock, bought our tickets, and were the last people on the boat before the crew raised the gangway. We barely made it! Good thing we were sitting down by the harbor where we could watch the ships come and go. The ride to Delos was beautiful. It took about thirty minutes. Once we landed on Delos we had to buy another ticket to get into the archaeological site to actually walk around the Greek ruins there. We spent about three hours learning about the ancient Greek settlement there. We even climbed some very rickety rock steps to the highest point on the island, Mount Kynthos, which is the legendary birthplace of the god Apollo. Delos has quite a colorful history, both for its religious sanctuary to Apollo and for its strategic location in the Aegean Sea. It was a thriving settlement up until about 88 BC, when King Mithridates of Pontus sacked it and the island never recovered. We were really glad to have made it out to Delos because thereʼs not a whole lot to do in Mykonos except eat, shop, and go to the beach.
In the evening we watched Destino, a film collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. Itʼs about 60 years old and had never been released until a few years ago. It was only 6 minutes long and looked just like Salvador Daliʼs paintings fused with Walt Disney music. Definitely strange, but in a cool way. (Itʼs all over YouTube, if youʼre that curious.) Then it was time to eat, and after that, we went to bed.