May 22, 2005
May 22 Photos: Peter
A view of Santorini’s new harbor inside the caldera. After catching a nine o’clock bus and braving a harrowing set of switchbacks, we arrived at our ship to Paros (by way of Naxos, Ios, and a few others).
The group gathers at the front of the ship’s airplane seats to prepare for today’s oral presentations on the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi. There was briefly much wailing and grinding of teeth, but only a few people had time to present and the general consensus among them was that the experience wasn’t all that bad.
A view of the island of Naxos as our ship approached to drop off a few passengers. After three hours of small islands and sea, the ongoing contours of the hills and the curve of the shore were very beautiful to look at.
The harbor town of Naxos. Very beautiful and a bit mysterious because we unfortunately won’t have time to go there, several group members expressed regret at not being able to visit.
After another hour or so from Naxos and a total of four hours, we finally arrived at the harbor town of Paros. Much less touristic than Santorini, Paros is still a beautiful island and a great place to visit.
Disembarking the ship. Big ships like this that go from island to island aren’t cruise ships by any means. While they do move a lot of passengers back and forth, many cars and cargo in tractor trailers is taken from island to island as well, perhaps explaining why the ships continue to go from port to port despite the fact that they could easily carry twice as many passengers as they often do.
The first windmill I’ve seen in the islands! While I’ve seen many of these on postcards from the Greek islands, I had been waiting patiently to see one and didn’t come across any on Samos or Santorini. This windmill was likely used to grind meal into flour once upon a time.
Four of the ladies of our group walking down a scenic street in Paros. While not a terribly touristic area, Paros offers many beautiful streets lined with the white buildings that are everyone’s image of a Greek island.
We managed to squeeze into the Archaeological Museum fifteen minutes before it closed and packed a lot of artifacts into a very short amount of time. This archaic gorgon is made of Parian marble and dates from the 6th Century BC.
Caleb was happy to pose with this attractive Geometric vase from the 7th Century BC
Ben carefully examines the dining scene relief from the Archilocheon, a complex dedicated to Archilochos. The scene shows heavy eastern influences, not only in the man pictured dining while reclining but also in the use of footstools and the appearance of the figures.
Katherine smiled gleefully when she came upon this Geometric pot from the 8th Century BC. Beyond its aesthetic and compositional value, this piece also had an interesting decorated handle for Katherine to discuss in her Independent Study paper.
Caleb and Laura look with interest at one of three pieces of the Marmor Parium, or Parian Chronicle. This document is a record of Greek history starting around 1500 BC and charting all of the major events that took place up until around 200 BC. The other two pieces of the chronicle are back at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Ben waves to the paparazzi outside of a small modern interpretation of an ancient theater that we saw just outside the Archaeological Museum. His too-cool entourage looks on with studied ennui.
A number of trees here are covered with these beautiful deep pink flowers, one of the perks of island living.
What Santorini lacked in small boats, yachts, and other ships, Paros definitely has. A large number of vessels of all sizes could be found down by the harbor.
The beautiful, relaxing beach where we all spent our free afternoon swimming and sunbathing. Its beauty is deceptive, however – in the rocks to one end lurked sea urchins waiting to strike the unwary (or uninitiated) with their annoying spikes.