Day 7

Early departure for Delos on a different boat. Delos, we learned, was the financial capital of Asia Minor in the centuries before Christ. From 500 BC to 88 BC countries from Egypt to Greece brought funds to be kept on the island and they were safe until the island was captured and destroyed in 88 BC. The people who lived there all lived in their own areas according to their language and currency. Each group of people built a temple to their own god, but each Spring they spent a month celebrating and worshipping the god Apollo; who owns the island. Because the island was the God’s, no one was allowed to be born or die on it. At one point they even shipped all the poor and middle class off the island and only the very wealthy could live there.
For a long time they didn’t exchange currency, but lived with their own language and currency. About 300 BC they starting exchanging currency and were the first in the world to do so. Their homes were huge; 4000 square ft and larger. They didn’t have street addresses, but identified their homes with statues of the owners in front of the home. The statues were headless and permanent. When one took ownership, they placed a sculpture of their head on top of the statue. When you wanted to find a person’s home you walked down the street until you saw their statue.
The homes each had a central atrium open to the sky. The floor of the atrium was covered with a mosaic. Under the mosaic was porous rock to filter the rain water and it collected in a cistern for their drinking water. They also had a rudimentary sewer system. The island sits at a point where they have never had an earthquake that is why many parts of structures still stand. The reason most of the buildings and statues are destroyed is because of the capture of the island in 88 BC.
The ride to the island was rough; the wind blows hard in that area and the seas were choppy. The ride back was even worse. At one point the bow of the ship went up and then way down; so far down that I could see the water, not just the spray, over the window of the boat. We were rockin’ and rollin’, people were screaming like they were on a roller coaster.
We went back to the island of Mykonos and walked around the shops. The Greeks are fairly obsessed with the phallus and you see it in almost every shop you go into. It’s disturbing to say the least. We went into Katrina’s Little Venice restaurant to eat lunch. We had Mousaka, Pastitio, and smoked, marinated salmon. We finished it with a piece of Baklava and ice cream that we all shared. It was delicious and cost us E 50 or about $20 each.
We had the midnight buffet by the pool. It’s much smaller than they used to do. Royal Caribbean has stopped doing the huge grand buffet because of the waste. There was dancing opposite the buffet and Becky and I danced for a little while.