Today was......

Brandon and I are quickly realizing how quiet a place Naxos is. If you want a fun night out, this is not the place for you. However Naxos has the nicest beaches we've seen, and the water is probably the prettiest here. Beautiful turquoise and blue of all shades... Brandon has said many times now that Naxos is his favorite place so far.

Yesterday we didn't wander far from the hotel, and spent the day swimming, tanning, and walking up and down the beach. Because of that, I didn't really get any pictures except for our food and the sunset. 

Here is our breakfast! We have finally gotten some eggs to go with our toast! The cookies were a sweet treat from the owners, who haven’t been in Naxos until yesterday, so they stopped by to say hello and drop these off. The apricots are from Grandpa. He doesn’t speak any English, but when Marianna was helping me with laundry, he stopped me before I went out and gave me a bowl full of them! They were delicious, and they certainly didn’t last long!

Our lunch! Just a grilled cheese sandwich with some kind of meat we can’t read, tomatoes, and olives. We want to be sure to have variety in our meals!

Our dinner was one of the fanciest we’ve made. We bought a small bag of cheese tortellini, and cooked up some “spaghetti” sauce (it’s pretty much just cooked tomato), and sprinkled in a little feta. I guess it doesn't sound so fancy now that I have it in black and white, but usually all we have is Greek Salad and sandwiches. I’m so glad we bought the noodles!

The sunset was absolutely beautiful. I ran off to the beach while Brandon stayed at the apartment and watched the noodles, and I got to sit for 15 minutes in the sand, take pictures, and watch the sun set. It’s kind of nice getting off on my own for a few minutes once and awhile. Even though Brandon is the one person I could spend all my time with (good thing too, because I’m sorta stuck with him!), I felt refreshed tossing my own thoughts and feelings into the receding waves. I’m also very proud of this picture because it’s the most accurate sunset I’ve taken! All the others have been too purple, or blue, or orange. I probably took about 50 to get the settings right….

 

Today Brandon and I actually set our alarm clock to wake up! We wanted to visit some sites and drive around before it got too warm (it’s warmed up nicely). I thought we would visit 4 or so sites, but we only got to see two, and one was really just a drive-by… We did see some WONDERFUL beaches, though! We walked around a little bit, and it was really just fun driving around and seeing all these beaches.

Here is a sailboat going out… to do something. Every time a sailboat is in view, Brandon takes a thousand pictures, and we drive around, see the same boat from the a different angle, and Brandon wants to take a thousand more pictures. He really likes the sailboats. This one is particularly pretty because it’s all white, and the sea is so BLUE and CLEAR!

Here is the tower of Oskelou Kastraki. I think it’s been converted into a house, so we just drove by it and snapped a picture…. it’s not even a good one because there are power lines and tanks etc. everywhere.

Here we are at the sea! There were lots of large rocks in this area, so we had fun climbing around them. The water is still perfect!

It's so pretty and turquoise!

We made it to our second archaeological site, the temple of Dionysus. He and Demeter were greatly worshipped on the island of Naxos. That might be why he was hanging around when Ariadne was crying from her abandonment. On this site there have been four temples, each one sort of adding/altering the last, and also getting bigger each time. The last temple has been restored, and you see me standing next to one of the massive columns.

Here is a picture of what the final temple looked like.

This is a column that the archaeological team fashioned, so we can understand how the top of the column was designed. Pieces of the scroll work and the collar-looking-thing holding it up have been found on the site, so it’s nice to know this is accurate decoration. The column itself is not what the temple’s finished columns would have looked like.

 

There was a tiny museum on the site of Dionysus’ Temple, and it was full of ritual pottery, temple fragments, inscriptions, and history…. but they wouldn’t let me take any pictures! It’s been a good five hours since we’ve been there, and I am still thoroughly ruffled by this. I would have been content with pictures of just the signs…. the pieces were interesting but it was the plaques of information that was the most awe-inspiring (to me).

As soon as we read everything we could, I dashed out to the car and wrote down a few of the best tid bits I could remember….

There was a roman general, Antonious, who claimed to be the “New Dionysus” and both he and the mythical Dionysus were worshipped at the temple. His statue is in the Archaeological Museum in Naxos City, and I was able to get a picture of him there, thankfully.

It’s hard to tell, but this is a really big statue. At least 3x as wide as a normal man.

 

Also, the temple was converted into a Christian basilica by the Venetians… big surprise there. But I don’t think they necessarily changed the building too much, just it’s function.

Most other information I will just have to get from textbooks and online. It was pretty cool, so I hope you enjoyed it too!

Tomorrow Brandon and I are either going to tour the island some more, or visit castles and cathedrals back in Naxos City.  We’ll see. There is just so much to see on this little island!

Until again!