Day 10
Day 10 was actually a pretty fun day, though it was so long! We left the ferry for the Athens airport to catch our flight to Samos at 10 AM. The plane was one of those propellor ones, definitely not a commercial plane! I quite enjoyed the flight, the views of all the islands were picturesque. Once we arrived at Samos, we did a brief tour, starting with Samos’ ancient aqueduct. During the tyrant Polycrates’ rule, this aqueduct was built to supply the ancient city with water. It was an excellent defensive measure because usually in wars the first thing the enemy does is cut off the water supply. Since the entrance to the aqueduct was hidden, the water supply to Samos remained safe. The aqueduct also served as a means of escape for the people of Samos if they needed it. Our guide told us the legend of how the Samians dressed their youth in uniform and marched them around the city via the aqueduct to make it appear to the Persians that they had so many soldiers. I thought that was pretty clever! The aqueduct itself is pretty amazing and it was so cool to go into it. At first it was pretty tight, because the entrance is a tiny set of stairs, but it gets bigger as you go deeper in the aqueduct.
On our way to the Archaeological Museum, our guide told us some interesting facts about Samos. Pythagoras, creator of the Pythagorean Theorem among other things, was born here. Samos also had a temple devoted to Hera, which I thought was pretty interesting. I don’t know too much about Hera and her worship, but apparently in ancient times on Samos there was a lot of focus on fertility. Hera was considered the goddess of fertility. Reflecting this, the ancient Samians were very respectful of women and they had a larger role in society. When we got to the museum, we saw many old statues and ruins. I really liked seeing in particular, a giant kouros. A kouros is a statue of a male Greek youth. I think this particular kouros is the largest of its kind in all of Greece. It was huge! After the museum we grabbed lunch and went back to the hotel for a nap. I’m definitely getting accustomed to the Greek way of life! Everything closes at 2 PM and reopens around 5 or 6. It’s very different from America, and sometimes it can be frustrating when you desperately need something but the shop or pharmacy is closed. Anyway, for dinner we headed to a local restaurant to get our last taste of Greek lamb-chops before we head to Turkey! Lamb-chops are one of my favorite Greek dishes =]
