Date: May 23
Partners for the day: Jackie (text) Neha (images)
Site(s): Paros
Museum(s):
Principal Buildings/Monuments: Asklepieion
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 9:30 AM to ca. 10:45 AM [ __1.25__ hours]
Weather: Sunny, warm, and beautiful
We did not have too much work today since it is a Monday and therefore most museums were closed. In the morning, we took a walking tour of the town of Pàros. Not much of the ruins remain since the town has been built up to cater to beach-going tourists, but amid the many white washed walls, we came across a Frankish castle from AD 1260 that was built of reused marble. Originally, in its place, was a temple to Demeter. Also occupying the temple site is the church, Ayios Konstandínos. The building itself is decorated with various motifs, including Byzantine marble relief and a cross made out of Turkish tiles. We also visited the meager ruins of an Asklepieion and a small, restored building that was once part of a Pytheion. On our way back from the Asklepieion we stopped by the Panayía Ekatontapilianí, a cathedral with buildings dating to 326 AD. It is composed to three separate churches, the largest and oldest being Ayios Nikolaos, which dates to the time of Justinian.
The cathedral marked the end of our work for the day. We enjoyed some refreshing drinks and shopping by the beach before getting our luggage and preparing to for our boat to Mykonos at 1 PM. Unfortunately, our boat, the Flying Cat 4, must have suffered “a hairball” (Laura’s words) on its way over to Páros since it was 20 minutes late. We arrived in Mykonos around 3 PM, and after finding a hotel, we were free to roam around town for the rest of the day.
The islands of Greece are very different from the mainland. In the one sense, they represent Modern Greece to the outsiders; people imagine sandy beaches, crystal clear water, and small white-washed houses with blue shutters. To tourists, Greece is synonymous with “island getaway.” As Abby said today, on someone’s first trip to Greece, you should take them to the island of Santorini. The romantic and aesthetic beauty of these islands is immeasurable, and the Greeks have matched that natural beauty with an equally appealing lifestyle. Island visitors imagine a simple life on the islands with few people, small, privately run shops, and Greek natives who really possess a love for life. There is no traffic, no deadlines, no smog, and no high-rise buildings, just a quaint idea of “island life” and “island time.”
What most people fail to realize is that an island is also a business. The demand for the quaint, simple island life is supplied by the thousands of Greeks who inhabit the islands and maintain its appeal. Every couple of years, perhaps even after every season, they must repaint the white walls trim back flowering vines; everything must appear as if it were on postcard. But vision is not the only sense that is stimulated. Some men spend all day walking donkeys up and down the nearly 900 steps of the cliffs of Santorini so that tourists can feel (and smell) an animal beneath them as they ride. Restaurants play mood-setting music, which I would swear was timed to the sunset. And the accuracy of the islanders’ English is startling.
The tourism business in Santorini was far worse than we had imagined; it was as if the island had undergone a complete transformation from a beautiful, natural haven, to a bustling, noisy theme park. Thus, we were relieved to find that Páros still possessed some of its natural charm and had not fallen prey to all the vices tourism. The fewer people, quieter restaurants, and warmer smiles were a welcome. But what made Páros really stand out from Santorini were the clotheslines, flower pots, and children’s toys lining the streets: all signs that people actually lived on the island. Páros is a town of people and not simply tourism. Tourists to the island are not closed off in their little playpens with specially chosen toys but instead, are allowed to traverse the streets and see real Greek life. Walking around the town, I saw Greeks enjoying their afternoon coffee in a coffee shop that was next to a small store selling bathing suits and sarongs, which was across the street from house where an old Greek woman in black was sweeping the front steps. Visitors are not isolated, but incorporated, and that allows for a more real, honest, island experience.