27th June 2006
I went down to the jetty the next day and re purchased my boat tickets to Delos. I went over to the captain and asked if he was going to Delos today and to my delight he said yes and I boarded his ship, the Orca. It was a beautiful day, and the trip took about forty minutes, we sailed around to the other side of the Island, past many rocky outcrops and finally came into the little cove on the tiny island of Delos.
The island was truly deserted, and I raced off into the site almost immediately encountering the famous Lions of Delos. I took heaps of pictures and went into the small archaeological museum there. I decided to explore the island as fully as possible in the short time I had there and climbed to its highest point, Mt. Kytheros. The climb up Mt. Kytheros was almost more than I could manage. Unlike Mt Parnassos, this mountain did not have a nice easy way up. I had to climb up the same way the ancient people did. As I climbed, I passed ancient temples built on the slopes and about half way up I climbed out on a ledge and I could see the beautiful blue of the Aegean and its islands and the little bay where I had come to this island. When I reached the top, which came to a steep pinnacle, almost like a mountain drawn by a child, I stopped right on the point and held out my arms. It was very windy, and I almost felt as though I could take off and fly and if I fell no one would know.
I took another way back down the mountain, via the building with the famous dolphin mosaic in it, it was very beautiful. I also passed an archaeological team who were digging in the area of the temple of Aphrodite, I smiled and thought I can’t wait to do that. I also went in search of the Egyptian temple to Isis, which was quite a walk, and I didn’t have much time left before the boat came to pick me up. I persisted and found the strange red brick building. I sat and looked at it is marvelling on how different it was from the temple of Isis on the Island of Philae in Egypt that I had visited with Ramez, which now seemed like an eternity ago as I sat alone on this remote island in the middle of the Aegean Sea.
I made it down to the boat and as I watched the little island of Delos fade away into the distance, I marvelled at the fact that I had even managed to get myself there. When I looked at it in the travel book and said to Mum, “I’ll get myself to Delos from Mykonos”, I never actually believed I would do it. The trip back was quite rough, and one lady even passed out from sea sickness, I laughed as I’m as solid as a rock, back, forward, side to side, doesn’t worry me at all. There were times when waves washed completely over the deck and the boat went up and down and plunged into the ocean. Everyone was getting wet, so they decided to go inside the cabin, I was the last to go inside. I was enjoying the power of the ocean.
When we got to shore, I hurriedly went back to my hotel, again up the steep road from the town and when I got there the clerk at the desk said, “You’re not going anywhere”, I laughed at him thinking he were joking, but alas he wasn’t. The rough seas meant all the boats leaving Mykonos were cancelled! I couldn’t help but think the little boats to Delos are still running, why aren’t the big ships? Panic set in as I wondered what was going to happen, I sat in the lobby while the clerk tried to get me some answers, answers he couldn’t give me. I asked him when I would be able to leave and the best, he could give me was “When the wind stops”. In hindsight it reminds me of the “On the sea” comment I had gotten when I asked the crew member on the Blue Star Ithaki where we were, and it amused me.
However, it did not amuse me at the time, I was supposed to be heading to Santorini now! What was worse was if this happened tomorrow, I would miss my transfer to Crete and the rest of my trip would be a write off. I called Mum and Dad and Mum said she would call Meridian tours to see if she could get some answers and some woman rang me back at the hotel and told me exactly what the clerk had already told me. Useless, I thought to myself. I also rang Covermore my travel insurance company to see where I stood if my boat was cancelled the next day and they said they would only pay for my trip back to London. Fat load of good they were, they wouldn’t even reimburse me till I got back. God, whatever you do fellow travellers, don’t bother with travel insurance, it’s just a waste of money. They just take you four hundred or so bucks and leave you for dead. Needless to say, that didn’t help me either