Astypalea, Kos, Nisyros & Symi

/ˈsiˌsɪknɪs/ Show S"My experience with seasickness is that at first you are afraid you will die, then after a few hours you are afraid you will not. "
--G. Yancey Mebane, M.D.



Sailing is a fun sport if you have the stomach for it. Monday - Oct 13 was another one of those long days. Two of our crew fed fish while many of us watched the horizon. A few iron stomachs actually went downstairs and slept in the galley. Thankfully, the waters calmed down around lunch and the rest of the sail was quite enjoyable. We landed at Astypalea right in time for dinner.

Astypalea is a very small island with 1200 people on it. The main tourist attraction is the castle built on the top of the hill. It was built in the 1400s by the Venetian Querini family to get away from the pirates that were inhabiting the Aegean Sea. We walked up to the beautiful castle on the hill in the dark. It was quite a walk--but beautiful. We stopped by a row of windmills, skirted our way through the small town with cobblestone alleys, and watched the old men and teenage boys fraternize together at the local taverna.

The next morning we headed off for Kos. The seas were almost like glass. Kos is considerably larger with 30,000 people. We arrived around 3pm and rented scooters once again to go see the Asclepieion (hospital) where Hippocrates was born on Kos and is thought to have received his training. Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, revolutionized ancient medicine in Greece by distinguishing it from other field, thus making medicine a profession. Hippocrates is most famous for writing the Hippocratic Oath.

We also saw the Plane Tree of Hippocrates where he taught his students medicine. The tree is only 500 years old, probably a shoot off of the original tree that would have been 2400 years old. Scaffolding is holding up the ancient tree now.


After our historical tours, we headed into Kos town, which was the biggest town we've been in since Athens. It's a harbour town with a huge fortress at the end of it. The wall around it is fascinating because it is built with leftover Greek ruins. For example, there was a block used in the wall with a carved head in it. The people who built the castle in the 1400s used anything that was lying around. We ended the night with Gyros and french fries and a hour plus scenic route home in the dark. On the way, we drove through an area that had just gotten rain. The smells of the herbs and flowers were so aromatic and incredible.

Though we had rain and wind the night before, the seas were calm and we ended up motoring with no wind to the island of Nisyros. This was a pretty interesting island because the center of it has an active volcano crater. We rented scooters again - this time only 7 Euros, then off to see the crater. It was deserted when we got there. It looked like we arrived at the moon. It's quite different than seeing a crater in the states where we would stand behind a guardrail and look down into it. We were actually able to walk down to the caldera, where the crater floor is warm (and signs say unstable ground). There were small fumaroles where puffs of steam were coming out and yellow smoke from sulfur. The place smelled horrible. There was a small ash eruption in the 1870s, and some seismic activity in the 1990s, but it did go through our heads more than a few times that this was an active volcano.

We drove around the island to an itty bitty town with narrow walkways and tons of cats. We visited a volcano museum (not the greatest) and stopped on the side of the road where there was a very small geothermal cave. It was nice and warm --and it didn't even stink. It felt great since we were a bit chilly from our scooter ride. We ended up at another castle before having dinner on our boat that night. One of the unique features we noticed on Nisyros was the terracing all over the island. It's amazing! Almost every bit of the mountainous island is terraced with rock walls. The terracing provided them flat land to farm and helped preserve every bit of water since the summers are extremely dry...but this was incredible--the man hours alone to do this.

Jared & Barry Jenkins sporting twin shorts

Our next stop - Oct 16, Symi.Today we sailed in Turkish waters on our way to Symi. Lynn said we were officially in Asian waters...so this makes it a 3 continent trip. The Turks and Greeks hate each other. Probably because they have fought over land for thousands of years. The Ottomans controlled the islands for hundreds of years until their downfall in the early 1920s--then Italy came into the picture. Most of the Greek islands were not actually Greek until after world war 2.
What a beautiful island. Probably one of our favorites. It is totally different than many of the others we have visited. It has a different look and feel. The houses were peach and yellow going up the mountainside with large stairs coming down to the harbor. Symi rivaled Santorini in a completely different way...a warm and sunny way. We walked the shops of the harbour, buying jewelry and paintings, looking at the sponges that used to contribute the wealth of the island and then decided to head up to the old town square on top of Symi...which started off with a few stairs and kept going and going and going....

Jared loved the photo ops. Everywhere we turned there was another picture waiting to be taken. The colors were so bright and vivid.
It was quite a hike to the top of the plaka. It's amazing these people still live here and walk the stairs all the time. The views were beautiful. Although this island only has about 2,600 residents, there are 12 churches and 13 chapels on this small island. We were told each family would build their own church. Just amazing. Our next stop is Rhodes--our final destination. In some ways it will be nice to know we'll never get seasick again--at least not on this trip. But the sea has it's own attraction. It draws you to it...calling for the next adventure, demanding respect, promising thrills and offering tranquility and sights yet to be explored.

"I do not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now." -Henry David Thoreau - from Walden

Santorini

Santorini is as beautiful as they said it would be. We sailed right through the Caldera. Santorini is a crescent shaped island. It used to be a regular island that had a volcano in the middle of it. It blew up and the center of the island sank into the sea. One of the largest volcanic eruptions the world has ever
known happened on this island causing the caldera. People have connected the eruption to the legend of Atlantis.The largest city (Thera or Fira - either is correct) is on the top of the steep cliffs almost 1000 feet above the huge lagoon.

Here we are sailing through the Caldera. The water was so glassy as we went through. Kevin joked that we should throw out a ski behind the sailboat.






When you think of the Mediterranean, Santorini is what comes to mind - white stucco houses, blue doors, pastel colored homes and rounded roofs. Absolutely beautiful! We docked on the other side of the island and rented scooters to get to the Fira.




"Wild Hogs of Santorini"


We rode all over the island on our scooters. Here's a self-portrait at Red Beach.The island had beaches with red sand, white sand and black sand. Lots of variety. Notice our matching shirts. Lynn and Caren got the whole crew two different sets of matching shirts. We looked pretty sharp with 10 of us wearing the same shirts :)
We spent 4 days on Santorini because of strong winds. If we had to get stuck on one of these islands, Santorini was the place to be stuck. Boat after boat filled the harbor trying to get out of the wind. We actually anchored onto another sailboat since there was no room on the dock.

Traveling around the island, we went to the small town of Oia. It is very well known for its sunsets. The famous Oia Sunset is considered by many as one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Tourists flock from all over to watch it from a castle. We took some really pretty pictures from that famous point. We also took lots of pictures of this gorgeous town.




Oia by day. The windmills and architecture are just amazing. There are churches everywhere.
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We spent one afternoon visiting Ancient Thira - incredible ruins on a hilltop 2,000 feet above sea level. Over 5,000 people - Dorians, lived there in the 9th century B.C. I was so happy we had scooters. We watched people walking up the almost 2 1/2 mile hairpin climb. Even after we got there, we had to walk another 10 minutes in 45-50 mph winds....wow!!! At the top were panoramic views of the ocean and town below.


Ancient Thira at the very top of the mountain -who lived there and why?? They had to be in great shape just going up and down that mountain...the slaves must have brought food.

We spent our last day in Santorini relaxing and exploring. I think we went on almost every road on the entire island in just 4 days. We found a nice little beach--called Perissa Beach. It was a pretty cool day with gusts of winds. We cringed as we watched European tourists in their speedos splash through the waves...brrrrr.
We also found a fun little restaurant. We had a great time taking pictures of all our food....see it below.

Foods of Greece

L-R: Stuffed Vine Leaves; Traditional Greek Salad; Greek Mixed Meat Platter; Lamb in Clay pot with melted Feta.

After 4 days on Santorini we decided to call it quits and head out on Mon, Oct 13 to our next island, Astypalea. (Paros was cancelled because of the wind storm). Little did we know it would be the second longest day of our lives....

At Sea - Kea, Mykonos, Delos & Paros

We spent Sunday on the sea. Probably the longest day of our trip in very rough seas for 8 hours as we sailed to Kea. Just stopping for lunch was a blessing for all of us, since we got out of the waves for a few minutes. Besides our mighty captain and his wife and a few of the crew who had tough stomachs--the rest of us studied the horizon quite intently that first day...with a few fish feedings. I'm proud to report neither of us lost it--but we were elated when we hit land that evening and ate a traditional Greek dinner.

Jared & Barry Jenkins setting the sails.

Here I am actually sailing the boat--okay, just steering it. This was a lot harder than it looks. This is not your little powerboat in the lake! The waves were big, the wind was strong and you had to use quite a bit of strength to hold it steady. After 30 mins. I told the captain I was done. We set sail for Mykonos Monday morning.

You can't visit Mykonos without seeing Petros the Pelican (I think he the 2nd, the 1st Petros is actually stuffed!) This guy wanders the island asking for free fish handouts and is welcomed everywhere. He's been the island's mascot over 50 years. He actually went inside the restaurant kitchen while we were there and snooped around.

Mykonos is known for its windmills. They are really beautiful. They were used to grind grain into flour and have made Mykonos famous since the 1600s.

The next day we went to the sacred island of Delos. We took a ferryboat over to it. Delos is an amazing island with incredible ruins. In Delos' prime, over 30,000 people inhabited the small island of Delos (abt 500-100 B.C.). Because of its central location, Delos was a major slave trade area, sometimes selling up to 10,000 people in one day. The homes in ancient days were large and spacious--maybe 3-4 stories high with large kitchen and running water toilets. They told us everyone from all over the known world at that time came to Delos to shop and trade.

Delos was also one of the 3 most important religious centers in Greece. It has a huge temple to worship Apollo since Greek mythology says this was his birthing place. In ancient Delos, people were not allowed to be born or die. They would ship them off to a neighboring island.

It also is home to the Terrace of the Lions. Huge lions built for Apollo. You probably recognize them. Delos eventually was taken over by the Romans and eventually became a Pirate Lair during the Ottoman period. Here are Lynn Wootton, Jared, and Barry Jenkins at the Lion Terrace.

After an afternoon at Delos, we rented scooters and explored the island of Mykonos. It reminded me of Wild Hogs in a way :) We went to Paradise Beach--the only non-nude beach on Mykonos. It's supposed to be this hugely popular beach that people come to from all over the place, but the sand was pebbly and hurt our feet. We weren't overly impressed. Hawaii and Cancun top this any day. We did swim in the Aegean Sea for the first time (kind of cold for Oct 7). It was pretty easy to float--pretty salty.


We ended up at this beautiful restaurant for dinner with live flowers hanging all over the ceiling. We celebrated Kevin Birrell's 51st birthday...they even played Happy Birthday for him over the speaker system. Here we all are again at this gorgeous restaurant. L-R: Barry & Sarah Jenkins, Steph & Jared, Kevin & Carolyn Birrell, Caren & Lynn Wootton, and Sue & Blaine Hales.

We left the next morning for a one day stop in Paros - one of the most popular European hotspots. Since we came off season, everything was much quieter. Paros is also known for its beautiful white Parian marble - used to sculpt the famous Venus de Milo found in Paris.

We also stopped and went scuba diving here. The Aegean Sea was pretty bare, not a lot of fish or seaweed, coral, etc. We did go through a pretty cool sea cave. The top of it was above sea level, and we were able to breathe on top of the water. There were also stalactites coming from the top of the cave. It kind of reminded me of our own Timpanogos Cave in American Fork Canyon. We spent the evening in Paros, where Steph ate a delicious ice cream waffle with the Jenkins. Then back to the boat for bed and a short sail in the morning to Santorini or Thera or Thira..the Greeks have lots of names for the same islands. We can't wait!

Our visit in Athens included seeing the Temple of the Olympian Zeus and the Arch of Hadrian. Just standing up looking at these 55 feet pillars and the Arch which is 60 feet high by 45 feet wide made you wonder how did they do it without cranes or modern tools. The Arch and temple were only minutes from our hotel and you can see the Acropolis through the arch.



Our visit would not have been complete without visiting the claimed Center of the Earth in Delphi. It is an ancient and modern city built high in the mountains. More hiking as the entire ancient city literally spans the mountain. This is where the famous Delphic Oracle was and where people came to speak to her to get direction. It also housed the Temple of Apollo-seen in the background behind our group and hosted the Pythian Games, the precursor to the Olympic Games.

My favorites have been the Theatres. The ancient Theatre of Delphi was built in the 4th century B.C. and seated 5,000 people. Incredible that so many theatres made it through the centuries. Sue Hales and I decided to do a little theatrical acting of our own. :)

After our visit to Delphi, we headed back to Athens - a 3 hour bus ride. We spent our last day at the National Archaeological Museum. This museum is incredible. It is considered one of the great museums of the world. It houses finds from 6800 B.C. to the Neolithic times through the famous Cycladic and Mycanean--and even Egyptian art. Most of the findings are from the 500-300 B.C. times. The statues were amazing. The Greeks loved the human body, particularly the male body. Think of the athletes and Gods from that time. We were not allowed to pose with the statues...but we did take several photos.

Greece and the Greek Islands

We're back!! What a great 3 weeks of sun, sailing, and sightseeing. We had a blast! We started our trip on Sept. 28, 2008 and flew to Paris then Athens. We'll have to go back to Paris since we only saw the inside of the airport.

We traveled with 4 other couples...who joined us throughout the week in Athens before taking off on a 60 foot sailboat for 2 weeks to the islands.

Of course our first stop in Greece was the Acropolis of Athens, home of the famous Parthenon. It is even more magnificent in person. Below is a picture of us in front of the Erechtheum, though the statues are replicas and found in the museum, it is still incredible. And you can't forget the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus...most famous in modern days for Yani Live at the Acropolis. Look familiar? We toured several ruins including ancient angoras and plakas. Since Acropolis means high city - the "Sacred Rock", and there are Acropolis' all over Greece, we were introduced to stair climbing--the first of several hundred--no, make that thousands before our trip came to an end. Not mention the subways in Athens. We skipped the escalators and ran the stairs.


Maybe we worked off a little bit of Baklava :)