A Greek Summer – Mykonos day 2 | alison richards

Day 2 was the real reason I was on Mykonos - a trip to the sacred island of Delos. Actually, no, the REAL reason I was on Mykonos at all was that when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Christopher Pike books. In particular, a book called The Immortal, was one of my favourites. It was about a girl who went to Mykonos, discovered that she was a reincarnation of a Greek goddess and she was in a battle through time with a reincarnation of her old enemy. I always hoped that maybe it was true... Anyway, it made Mykonos and Delos seem like very interesting places! Plus, I do like a bit of culture and history.

So off to Delos I went. The boat ride there was possibly the worst I've had in my life. The waves were huge, the wind was relentless and I thought my number was up several times. But we finally made it to the island, a little queasy but still in one piece. Even from the first views, Delos was fascinating, so many ruins everywhere! I started off in the theatre district, as I was most interested in seeing the ancient mosaics, columns and sculptures.

Early morning hotel room view. I would have liked to sit outside with a cuppa but the wind was just constantly hammering the island. You can also see all the white caps on the waves – it’s windy out there!

The view over the ruins out to the choppy sea

Considering this site is so old (various buildings date back to 600-500BC) and the weather is so harsh, I was really surprised that so much was still standing!

The next stop for me was the top of Mount Kynthos. This is apparently the birthplace of Apollo and is the tallest point on Delos. It was so, so windy up there though, I had to really concentrate on not being blown off. I didn't really stay there long because of this, but there was an amazing view over both the island and the other islands in the Cyclades nearby, including Mykonos and Naxos.

I kept on through the theatre district, then I popped into the museum, where all the more delicate relics lived. Honestly, considering it was all done so long ago, some of the relics had the most incredible detail, it was just amazing.

I'd spent so much time over one side of the island that I only had another two hours or so to have a look at the other side. Due to the weather, the last boat wasn't leaving at 4:30 as I'd planned but had moved to 3:30. So I had to cover ground a bit quicker. Admittedly, this section was not as interesting, so I definitely did it in the right order, but there were some gems still to be seen!

This little fella and his brother were playing among the ruins.

I had a souvlaki for dinner, then had a wander around as night was falling - the sunsets in Greece were always so nice.