Happy Halloween from Mykonos

For how much we all love the holidays, it’s crazy that not one of us thought about throwing in a few fake mustaches, eye patches, masks (or anything Halloweenish) into our suitcases.  This was the extent of our Halloween festivities...a few carved pumpkins on a table in the cruise lobby and Jenni’s scary spider necklace.

We spent Halloween on the islands of Mykonos and Delos.  Taking a ferry between the two of them.

I have no idea why Mykonos’ nickname is “The island of the winds”.

We started the day at Delos looking at all of the ruins with our crazy guide Yolanda who was more concerned about her free coffee and having us search the ruins for her lost map(ah) than giving us any information about what we were seeing.  

Delos is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece.  Delos had position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made this island the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis in 900 BC.  Even thought the guides claim to speak English, it is still so hard to understand what they are saying.  Yolanda liked to add an extra “ah” to end every sentence.  Gavin clarified with our tour guide that it was true that Apollo and Artemis were twins(ah).  And the answer is yes.  They are twins and were born on the island of Delos.  The only thing I got out of all of the ruins tours was how they collected their water with cisterns and an aqueduct system.  The rest I had to get from Wikipedia, like that a number of purifications were executed in the 6th century BC by the city-state of Athens to make the island pure for the proper worship of the gods.  All of the graves had to be dug up and moved to another island.  After that it was prohibited that anyone could die or be born on the island.  Delos - unlike other Greek islands - did not have an indigenous, self supporting community of its own so in later years it became uninhabited.

Standing in the Theater which at one time had enough seats to hold 5500 people

We took the ferry back to Mykonos and immediately fell in love with the architecture and bright colored doors and flowers against the backdrop of the white buildings and blue sea.  And the windmills?  Oh I loved the windmills!

“Petros” the pelican has been the official mascot of Mykonos for over 50 years.  In the 50’s, a wounded pelican was found off the coast of Mykonos shore and nursed back to health and remained on the island.  He was supported by the locals and known by the name, “Petros”.  He died 30 years later but three new pelicans were brought to the island and  now reside around the town of Mykonos.

Mykonos windmills

Little Venice--rows of fishing houses that line the waterfront with their balconies hanging over the sea.  

The streets in Mykonos are narrow and winding with little shops, restaurants and boutiques with the cutest white linen clothing and souvenirs.  And free entertainment for tourists who may not even be looking for entertainment.

Loved everything this beautiful island had to offer and that was without even seeing any of the beautiful beaches with the white sand and crystal blue water.

Up next . . . Kusadasi, Turkey