Today we are visiting Delos. The actual reason for visiting Mykonos. Mykonos is famous and all but it is nothing during the off season. Shuyi and me are no party animals so it's fine.
As usual, we were running late. It was early in the morning and there wasn't many people around to ask for directions. No time to set up a committee but we managed. With 15 minutes to spare and the ship in sight, we were relieved.
As we were walking towards the ship, shuyi tugged at my shirt and pointed at this gigantic bird I missed just chilling by the pavement. It's Petros the pelican whom you'll read about in guidebooks. It's not the same Petros (unless pelicans are evil immortal birds) but Petros is the island's mascot do if you're a pelican in Mykonos, you're Petros. I won't categorize anything big enough to punch me as birds.
As usual, we were running late. It was early in the morning and there wasn't many people around to ask for directions. No time to set up a committee but we managed. With 15 minutes to spare and the ship in sight, we were relieved.
As we were walking towards the ship, shuyi tugged at my shirt and pointed at this gigantic bird I missed just chilling by the pavement. It's Petros the pelican whom you'll read about in guidebooks. It's not the same Petros (unless pelicans are evil immortal birds) but Petros is the island's mascot do if you're a pelican in Mykonos, you're Petros. I won't categorize anything big enough to punch me as birds.
Petros doing the waltz
Look at the evil beady eyes. Thank god for zoom lens. Zoom lens with longer reach than Petros.
How does it put on the lipstick?
maybe it's Maybelline!
Shuyi strongly believed that all animals must be molested. Even though it is grotesquely huge, shuyi showed true professionalism as an auntie and reached out to touch it.
shuyi ventured into Petros' killzone
Petros was not happy and threatened to punch shuyi.
do you feel lucky? Punk?!
Remember人参阿姨? Here is 人参佬. Again, such a cute couple. We never got a picture of them together but can you imagine the level of awesomeness?
i'm the P.I.M.P
We got on the ship and off we go. It was, as usual, a bright and sunny day.
Nautical themed navy striped top with shorts and topped with a straw hat. Someone thought about what to wear this morning...
shuyi loved the fluffy cloud hanging on the summit of the hill and took dozens of pictures of it. The least I could do is to edit a few of them.
sorry i made the sea too dark
now with moon!
we were given such stickers for identification for the guided tours
as usual, the wind was slapping us crazy
We reached Delos and chaos ensues! Everyone wants a ticket, no one (ok at least me and shuyi) knows which tour leader to follow and there was lotsa cluster fuc*king around. Not cool.
wopee... more rocks
Eventually we got things sorted out and this is our guide.
you have better behave yourselves!
A stern guide who is not afraid to put you in place if you stray or make yourself a nuisance.
The guide gave us a brief history of the island. This used to be a melting pot of religion. The people here are rich and they are open to religions from around the world. In actual fact they kinda view it as their god with different names.
"So you wanna call him Buddha? ok cool. Zeus is called Buddha now."
Most importantly it is the birthplace of Apollo, the sungod. Legends has it Zues, the super horny god of gods knocked up this girl called Leto, she went around seeking for a place to give birth. No one dares to mess with the super pissed Hera (jealous angry wife) and asked her to take a hike.
Somehow the island shrouded in fog gave Leto permission to give birth to Apollo after Leto made some wild promises of fabulous discounts at all supermarkets in Athens. Leto popped out Apollo, the shroud lifted and Delos became super sunny. Horray. If you think that is far fetched, wait till you read about the birth of Athena.
Another couple that caught our eye is this one. We call him Uncle Curry. 咖哩叔.
is that fish head curry i smell?
no, we do not have tikka masala for the guided tour
poetry in motion
phallic symbol carved in the wall to ward of evil
me doing a "dōmo arigatō misutā Roboto"
We would go from area to area and our guide will give a description of what they thought the area used to look like. You couldn't see much as all there was were mere shadows of what things used to be like.
咖哩叔 is so funny. he reminds me of an Indian Mr Bean.
mill for olives and grains
or a tamiya car race track
some dude dug it out in 1929 and found it imperative to vandalize it straight away.
Jerk.
i was here first! na na na boo boo!
This is the toilet. There used to be wooden planks over drainage with holes to facilitate... well, shitting. The richer ones would have it made from marble. And they need their slaves to warm up the marble seats before they can use the toilet.
The slaves did not warm the marble using their asses if that's what you're thinking about. That was what you were thinking about. Don't lie.
The checkered design was made to look like a carpet. Ain't it easier to just get a carpet huh?
look like the flooring for our parking lots
this is what it used to look like (we think)
ready to pounce if she tries to run with the camera
咖哩叔 & 咖哩嫂
Delos was the most prestigious place to live in back then. It's like the Sentosa Cove of Greece but with a more mythical flava. At one point, it was considered so sacred that no one can give birth or die on Delos. If your giving birth or sickly, they dump you in some crappier island nearby. Don't ask me about accidents or murders. You just cannot die here. Live with it.
Being a rich place, they have the whole aqueducts and drainage system done up.
yes, i know... those heels...
The sacred way or Orchard Road as we call it was the most happening place to be. The world's first StarBucks was uncovered here by archaeologist in 1899.
to the left, you can see the flagship LV store
As mentioned, religion was liberal back then. The small temple in the picture is for some Egyptian goddess which was quite in vogue back then (Athena with heavy eyeliner). The guide rolled her eyes when asked if there was a 大伯公 temple back then. Discrimination!
This reminded me of a Pez candy dispenser.
The famous Terrance of Lions dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos who were some rich bastards back then. Everyone wants to be in Apollo's good books. Back in those days, they do not have zoos and many pilgrims get to learn of animals such as lions from the statues.
in no way related to Singa the Lion
shuyi showing utter disrespect to the statues
The statues left outside were replicas. The actual ones are housed in the museum which was surprising free (cost included in entry la fool).
Before entry, it is important to read the dos and don'ts.
Actions like this
and this
are frowned upon.
This is the close up of the original mosaic found in one of the courtyards. The court yards are shallow pools filled with water to give the nice cooling effect. Uber stylish. This mosaic depicts Dionysus, the god of wine, riding a leopard.
Why the god of wine? You see son, when you're rich, you worship god of high class stuff like wine and Cuban cigars. You don't worship super weak god like the god of buns or noodles.
The level of detail is amazing.
The real lions. Same level of boringness.
roar...
We skipped the museum and wandered around before the ship departs.
indecently short skirts
These moss were all over. Looks pretty disgusting huh.
stop camhoring! let's board the ship!
ok 1 more!
When we reach Mykonos, Petros was there to seek attention again.
so... we meet again...
The hyper winkled pouch thingy under it's neck is super disgusting.
All sorts of animals came to greet shuyi
i love green necked ducks
if they taste good, i'd love em even more
We started walking back to our hotel to regroup (read: sleep).
lunch
Off season is time for maintenance. Got to maintain the white on white look.
We kinda strayed from the usual shopping streets and found ourselves in the sleepy residential part of Mykonos.
And we saw this hilarious signboard.
shut up and scrub!
Sipping juice in the balcony with the glorious view behind you: pretentious.
The room was pretty nice. Near the sea, nice view from the balcony and even spots a rustic wooden roof.
Vicky's cat is so chill. We always spot it sleeping on the printer.
put my head back after you're done, please
thanks
all the squid went to the hips
i'm just big boned ok
We emerged from the room and headed to the bus station to go to Paradise beach. Mykonos has 2 famous beach: Paradise and Super Paradise Beach. Both are nude beaches. Super Paradise is super gay. Make a mental note to stay away from there.
The beaches are world famous (so they say) and party starts from the late evenings, gets red hot around 2am and lasts all the way to 9 or 10 in the morning. You have to be on drugs to stay high for so long.
let's go already!
When they mean off season, the mean off season. Like deserted off. Like MC off. Like we're-the-only-2-person-on-the-beach off.
We were surprised that the bar was still open but there were no customers at all.
We sat down for our dinner (some packed bread, ham, tuna and cheese). I had to fight off about a dozen cats after they smell tuna in the air.
Too bad the Ministry of Deliciousness was closed. 1989 to 2009... geddit?
registered under the Ministry of Awesomeness
There was absolutely nothing to do there and it was starting to get really dark. We headed backed to the bus stop and waited for the 2nd last bus back to town. Don't ever count on the last bus. Always have plan B. Remember: sleeping along the road is never Plan B.
The fat cat tried to get some Cola love.
trying to look uninterested
what are you looking at pussy?
you want a piece of this?huh?
I finally persuaded the cat to fu*k off.
emo
Shuyi moved in for the kill.
score!
After shuyi rubbed all the fur off the cat, we boarded the bus.
Back in town, we wandered around and got some shopping done.
yeah!
Shuyi can never resist discounts
uncle ain't reading the papers
Frank popped out for some Greek coffee. The uncle used an expresso machine to make Greek coffee. A disgrace to Greeks everywhere.
Back to the hotel. Tomorrow we start on the last leg of our tour in Athens.
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