Stories from Mykonos, Part Three | The official website of Andrew J. Peters

The last installment of essays and photos from my trip…

Cycladic Torpor

We get lazier as the week progresses. The first few days were excursions on ATVs, shopping in town, and late nights out at the clubs. Now we arrange morning meet-up times to get the free hotel breakfast before 10:30, and we order lunch by the pool.

We are loud, unmannered Americans, and the European guests glare at us from their chaise lounges. Until we are upstaged by the arrival of the Australians.

Delos

We take a ferry to Delos, an archeological site. Everyone has their vouchers, courtesy of the Germans. They made arrangements with their local travel agent, and they have timetables and tour information loaded on their smartphones.

Delos was an important religious and trading center from the ninth century BCE to the first century CE. Apollo, the Sun God, was born here. We visit his birthplace, which was once a lake, but it was dredged by French archaeologists because of malaria. The area is now a boggy pine forest, but there is still a towering palm tree that the ancient Greeks planted to commemorate Apollo’s birth.

We walk through the city streets guided by Joanna, a diminutive tour guide with a voice that carries. She shows us the House of Dionysus. There is a mosaic in the atrium pool depicting the god returning from the Far East, saddled on a lion.

Lions are a common motif throughout the ruins. They’re in tile patterns on walls, and there are famous marble lion statues warding Apollo’s birthplace. There were no city walls or military defenses for Delos. It was sacked by Greeks in 88 CE as part of a revolt against the Romans.

There is an amphitheater that seated 5,000, and a plumbing system that brought water to all parts of town. Delos was a multicultural community, and tolerant of many religions. Egyptians built temples here, and Delos was the site of the first synagogue on Greek soil. Today, there’s a snack bar that serves fresh squeezed orange juice, but not much anything else.

Everyone wants to browse the gift shop, but the woman who runs it is on vacation so the shop is closed. In the middle of tourist season? We are surprised and a little bit ticked off.

This is the principal difference between Europeans and Americans. To Europeans, working is something you do between vacations. To us, vacations are what you do between working.