Compare highlights of neighbour islands (according to me)

      

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  Have you ever bought or given one of those series of postcards that are attached to each other. It’s a small packet like a pocket book and it opens like an accordeon. There you have the ‘standard’ monuments and sights and nice views from a place, all in one. My father’s favourites, mine too. You can also find them in many houses in Ikaria. Accordeon series of postcards from Japan, Brazil, USA, Venice and Bilbao, in short, from where ever a cargo ship with Ikarian sailors in it catches port. From these postcards I understood the meaning of the word ‘highlights’ which there’s no exact equivalent for either in French, or in Greek.
So here I’m presenting an accordeon of highlights from three neighbour islands:

Delos, Ikaria and Patmos
(I’ll ignore Mykonos. Mykonos is a state apart. Looking for highlights for Mykonos will lead you to ‘tits’, ‘crowded beaches’, «stone drunk college girls dancing on tables» and it’s the same for Ibiza, Faliraki in Rhodes island and so many similar places -even in the Crimean peninsula recently- so they are not highlights anymore.)
(I’ll also ignore Samos. It’s too big and too close to the continent -Asia. Though I like it (don’t tell that to my Ikarians), it doesn’t feel like an island for me. Except perhaps for mt. Kerkis which rises over the waves of the Aegean (see that photo of mine in Flickr) and it’s so island-ish and superwow. But I’m a hiker, so perhaps my tastes are doubtful and «off-the-beaten-path» -to use the term I found in www.virtualtourist.com )

I’ll start with Delos. I had two photos and I couldn’t choose so I put them both in. I found these two photos in Flickr.

The first one shows a part of the row of the ‘Lions of Delos’ along some sort of monumental boulevard. It’s a wonder that these statues were not stolen from Greece by the Venitians or later by the British. I suppose they appeared too ‘abstract’ for their taste. These lions not just shine in sunlight -they multiply and reflect the sun light -they are light amplifiers and it’s very difficult to take good photographs of. They are ‘highlights’ !

The second one shows something that is supposed to be an ‘altar of Dionyssus’ though it’s obvious it’s not a wine taverna. This is actually the sign at the gate of one of the dozens of whorehouses of Delos ! What could they have written to describe it? «House of the rising….»? Anyway, it’s funny. Because of its strategic position, the temple of Apollo and some major tax deductions, Delos had been the most important port in the eastern Mediterranean for about 300 years from Hellenistic to Roman times. Hence the whorehouses and their marble signs (which can be seen from very far away and the sailors would cheer). However, for obvious reasons there are very few (if any) postcards of the (all mutilated) phalluses of Delos in the souvenir market today. But tourists love to take pictures of them. They are sooo photogenic ! So it’s a ‘highlight’ !

After the proliferate, here’s the ascetic. The next picture is from Ikaria. This is Theoskepasti (Θεοσκέπαστη =roofed by God’s own hands) an old chapel as well as a hermitage. This picture was taken by X.M. the local photographer who I think was the first to make this monument known to the public though his pictures, so by now it decorates the frontpage of the good old www.island-ikaria.com . Natural, human and divine connect and there are some typical Ikarian concepts involved too, such as balance (the rock), poverty (obvious), economy (obvious too), integration and harmony with nature (though it’s by no means small, you can’t see it until you are actually there). So I’d call this a «lowlight» -an Ikarian highlight !

Then it’s Patmos of course! This is the bells of the monastery of St. John (10th cent. AD) from a ‘standard’ postcard. Are you sonic? These bells can be heard from an unbelievably long distance. The secret of it lies in the Russian bronze of which they were made centuries ago. When you hear them in the morning mist covering the Aegean it makes you think of the quest for the Holly Graal, the knights and the monks, the Saracin pirates and the slave virgins, all that which still haunts our imagination (and made St. Spielberg a rich man, among many others). This is a ‘highlight’ !

That’s all folks ! (who was saying that? Buggs Bunny, wasn’t it?)

P.S. I’m so proud ! Did you know? My photo with the sunset in Flickr which I had also tagged ‘Delos’ figured first in the «most interesting photos tagged Delos» in Flickr last week ! It seems that I’ve beaten the phalluses and the lions for a while at least. It’s so funny.

A photo about Delos without the actual island in it ! What does this mean Doctor S.?

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Comments

(7 total)

• greg
• Offline

Porky Pig actually 😉

Saturday February 11, 2006 – 03:06pm (PST)

• simon
• Offline

A doctor writes: Hmmmm…probably a simple unconcious play on words is involved here; Delos has suggested δειλινο and hence sunset, together with δειλος bringing into play those feelings of shyness and withdrawl once more; we have once more stumbled upon the central conflict at work within the Psyche: the brave lion-like public persona (masculine principle)and the shy creature which seeks to withdraw from the light (feminine)(NB these terms have nothing to do with the subject’s actual gender). This does indeed make your Delos «most interesting» and for you there is no need for a real island with its overtly masculine imagery of Lions and Phalluses «shining in the sunlight» as I think you put it. This island you have «beaten» or overcome (i.e. this aspect of your nature is, for now, submissive)- you are pulled instead towards the darkness (feminine/unconcious principle)evident in the sunset photo and by empowering this side of your psyche you have tapped into the collective unconcious so powerfully at work in the flikr site, with the result that your photo «wins» – or I would say is most representative of the collective feeling around «Delos.» More wine please.

Sunday February 12, 2006 – 01:05am (GMT)

• AKK
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you should drown in wine that doctor of yours. Have him have a long sweet death that will last for 100 years…

Sunday February 12, 2006 – 03:16pm (EET)

• vixen
• Offline

((:-biu-:)) Το καινούριο σου avatar είναι σαν εξώφυλλο από CD με νησιώτικα !

Sunday February 12, 2006 – 07:30pm (EET)

• elle
• Offline

-I know… the doctor is trying to make me crazier than I am already.
– Is my avatar really like a CD cover? Would it make you think there is good music inside?

Sunday February 12, 2006 – 12:13pm (PST)

• simon
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I think the music would be very dreamy.

Sunday February 12, 2006 – 10:17pm (GMT)

• elle
• Offline

ρεμβώδης (wow -thanks dictionary)

Monday February 13, 2006 – 12:29pm (PST)

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