Thursday, May 29, 2014

I couldn’t believe it was our last full day in Mykonos! Three days went by too quick 🙁 We made sure we had a full breakfast this morning because we wouldn’t be able to have lunch until 1 or 2 pm since we will be having a half day trip to the archaeological island of Delos! Before we headed out, we informed the front desk that our flight tomorrow is at 6:50 am (early flight again due to changes in flight schedule by Aegean)! I felt bad of the early flight so the guy has to wake up early to drop us off at the airport. The lady said the driver will meet us at the lobby at 5!

Once again, we had to walk the “short cut” to get to town.

I am short but look at this that we had to walk through:

We walked to the port and bought the tickets inside the Blue Star Ferry office for 18 euros round trip per person in cash, they charge some fee if pay with credit card! I always carry some cash just in case the restaurant or ticket office accepts cash only. We went right across the mini market to buy a bottle of cold water (we should have bought two bottles)!  We took the 10 am ferry, the ferry was large:

View of the harbor from the ferry:

The windmills and Little Venice:

I didn’t make a note of how long of a ride it was but I guess around 20-30 minutes. As we approaching Delos, there were a few ships there, they were the organized tours as well as day trips from Naxos ships. Here we arrived at Delos!

The personnel from the ferry pointed departure times are 12:15 pm and 1:30 pm! I walked to the ticket booth to pay for the entrance fee – 5 euros per person. There were also tour guides available for 10 euros per person in many different languages. We hardly follow tours because we need the freedom to stop and take pictures as long as we like 🙂 The first thing that caught my eyes right after entrance gate was this flower! I have never see this type of plant before!

Second, I had a glimpse of where the tour groups headed and went to the other direction to avoid the crowd!

The island is a well known archaeological site in Greece. According to mythology, it’s the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis! The island is uninhabited and there’s only one restaurant and a bar located near the museum so bring plenty of water as it’ll be a long walk just to buy water!

First, the Agora of the Competaliastae:

The mountain peak in the middle is Mount Kynthos. Don’t forget to bring sunscreen and constantly apply it because the island is open, hardly with any shades!

There were wildflowers throughout the island which I found pretty 🙂 It has been a long time since I last seen many wildflowers since we lived in a city!

Hubby enjoyed his time video-graphing them as well:

The purple flower stood out from the rest:

We found the Terrace of the Lions!

Nearby is the Foundation of the Poseidoniastae:

The walls were built from stacking those rocks together, was pretty amazing! We got there just before another tour group arrived 🙂

There were so many sites there that I forgot some of the name but I bought home the pamphlet so I can identify them but hopefully I can remember where haha!

From far away, we saw a stairway up the Mount Kynthos, hubby wanted to climb it….

On our way up…already have a view of the port all the way on the left:

Perhaps it was a good thing that it was cloudy or else it would be hot and burn! We had to stop once a while for water so we won’t get dehydrated! I think this is Quarter of Inopos and the house with columns in the middle is the House of Hermes:

Temple of Isis:

On the way….

Here is the stairway:

Be very careful of loose rocks when walking on these stairs! When I stand on the bottom looking up, it has the feel of stairway to heaven! I told hubby I’ll stay here and he can climb hahaha!

Photos from hubby as he made his way up to the mountain:

He said it was excellent view from the top and while it was hot underneath, up here was very comfortable because of the sea breeze! Yea yea yea he just want me to be jealous! On the top, a lot of people stacked 7 rocks together for good luck….we did it back then when we were in Aruba!

View of the island from the top:

He was up there for a long time, he sure made me wait! While waiting for him, I took a panorama of the island:

He said it was much harder walking down than walking up because of the steps might not be secure due to loose rocks!

Photo of me with the stairway even though I didn’t climb it hehe!

We walked the other way so we could visit the Theatre. On our way, we saw this..was it waterway underneath?

The Theatre!

House of Dionysos:

Mosaic floor in one of the houses!

Agora of the Delians?

We were down to the port at 1 pm and the ferry back at 1:30. I thought we could take the 12:15 ferry back and didn’t expect so much to see! 3 hours were just enough time to walk through the majority of the island! Goodbye Delos, it was a great experience, I wondered how it will look like back in its flourishing days?

We got back around 2 pm and since it was way past lunch time, our only choice for lunch was to find a gyros place. This time, I know exactly where to headed to Sakis!

Hubby ordered a pita portion and I ordered a pita..they were delicious!!!!!

The restaurant inside with menu of choices:

Total cost of our yummy lunch and a Fanta: 10.2 euros 🙂 Cheap eats could be great too!

Unfortunately after lunch, it started to get windy and very cloudy that we afraid that it’ll rain so we quickly walk our way back to the hotel! Passing this low bridge again!

My plan of bringing a tripod back down to town for photos of us two shattered by the weather! The wind got very crazy and it looked like a storm out, luckily, we made it back to the hotel before it poured! We waited patiently hoping for the storm to pass and then we could walk down for dinner. NOT!!!! Hubby asked if there are any restaurant near our hotel. I said there’s a good rating restaurant at Vencia hotel which is very close to our hotel. Without a second thought, we walked over!

A stuffed plate on the house:

We ordered the marinated octopus, it was very good! I really the sauce with the crispy toast underneath!

Hubby ordered the steam mussels of course! They didn’t overcook it and the sauce was tasty 🙂

I saw a cat right outside the window:

This kitty lost one of his/her legs 🙁

For main course, I ordered the risotto with mussels, it was good. I was worried that it might be salty like the paella I had in Spain!

Hubby’s seafood spaghetti with a king crab leg was really good! The crab really added extra flavor to the dish. I had a try and I give it a 4 stars! It would be a 4.5 stars if it was made with thin spaghetti or linguine, both hubby and I don’t like the thick pasta.

Dinner total: 63.5 euros, not bad for good food! I went out to the pool area for some photos because I know they have a very nice infinity pool with the best view of the town without the interference of the electric poles and wires. I saw the photos online when I was planning where to stay 🙂

There are three 4 stars hotels up here with the view of town and a swimming pool: Alkyon, Vencia, and Hermes. I first booked Hermes but I saw a lot electrical wires and poles blocking its view…..not good for photos. Vencia has the best pool and view but the cost is almost double. So I picked Alkyon, attracted by its beautiful lobby and no major wires or poles blocking the view!

After dinner, the storm finally passed away and left with a good night sky for us to take some night photos of the town. We grabbed our tripod (finally) from our room and took some pictures from the pool area as well as the back entrance.

Our last views of Mykonos! Mykonos is a cute little town, I would recommend three days here if you are not into parties and make a half day to Delos. As I have mentioned, I would stay right in town for convenience, I could have taken more photos if I live right in town. Once we made our way back up to the hotel, we didn’t want to walk back down and especially walking back at night with no street lights via the short cut. Despite of that, Alkyon is a great hotel, excellent service and best breakfast 🙂 I will never forget the “marshmallows” of Mykonos!