A mini-break in Skyros

Due to a useless internet connection (amongst other things), this update to the blog comes now that we are back in the UK!  I did however promise a couple of lovely ladies that I would update it with our time on the island of Skyros, so here goes.
Skyros is another island in the Sporades island group and a 6 hr ferry ride from Alonissos (via Evia).  Everyone had told us how lovely it was but completely different from Alonissos in both size and landscape so in Sept we decided to have a holiday within a holiday and booked a few days on the island.  The northern end of the island is well populated and very green whilst the south is almost completely barren with a large Naval base and housing the memorial and grave of Rupert Brookes. 
The ferry trip was lovely, if uneventful, with beautiful weather all the way.  The wind did pick up as we approached Skyros (it is known for being a windy island) and as the sun went down we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Sunset from the Skyros ferry

We soon found ourselves stepping off the ferry into the port of Linaria which was tiny!  A couple of tourist shops, a couple of hotels and 4 tavernas...that was it. It was very pretty though and our hotel was bang on the waterfront so we checked in and looked forward to a cup of tea.  We soon had a re-think on that score as Skyros appears to be stuck in a time warp!  The coffee and tea making facilities were a small jug that you balanced on a gas camping stove and as we couldn't actually find any way of lighting it we gave up on the tea idea and after a wash and brush up, went out for dinner.

Linaria port - view from our balcony

Anyone for tea?

 The following morning we hopped on THE bus (yes there appears to be one bus for the whole island) to Skyros town and then walked to the beach at Molos where we were spending the next 3 days.  Hot and sweaty after a walk that was slightly further than first thought, we arrived at our accommodation....or apparently not!  We had the booking printed out which we gave to the owners of the Panormos hotel but were met with shaking of heads and blank looks.  There was a lot of gesticulation and mutterings to each other before the lady (Zoe) suddenly said, ah....Kathy!  At which point we were herded across the car park and down another driveway to a slightly less salubrious set of apartments, up some steps and into our? room. This will always remain a mystery as these weren't the studios we booked but hey...that's Greece for you!
That afternoon we started looking for a hire car but to no avail.  Apparently there would usually be plenty of cheap cars for rent at this time of year but this year Skyros was still full!  We gave up for the evening and walked, or rather hiked, from Molos into Skyros town where we found a myriad of alleyways with all manner of shops, bars and tavernas.  We found a lovely bar playing decent rock music and decided to stay there for the night before weaving our way back home, downhill all the way...:)

Skyros town from Molos

Covered Skyros town street

The following morning we were back on the hire car trail and went next door to see if Zoe could find anything for us where we had failed.  We were offered coffee and biscuits while we waiting for her husband to ring around and hey presto, he finally found a car that had literally just become available and was delivered to us within 10 mins!!  So, armed with a map and a car we set off to explore the island.  First stop was Atsista, a beautiful bay on the west of the island.  It had one beachside taverna and a rather lovely looking hotel and was picture postcard pretty.

 

 

View towards Atsitsa

 

Atsista bay

Atsista hotel

Next it was across the island to Kalamitsa....a huge pebbly beach that curved for miles.  As we were both rather hot and sticky after the drive, we spent a happy hour having a dip in the clear blue sea and drying out again on the beach before heading towards the south of the island.

Toasting on Kalamitsa beach

Endless beach at Kalamitsa

 This is where the drive turned into a less pleasurable experience!  Skyros has lots and lots of pine trees, many of which grow right up to, and lean into, the road.  This meant that the more pine trees there were, the narrower the road got as no-one seems to trim these things back!  At one point the road had been narrowed to practically a single lane when to my horror a large 4x4 came round the corner.  I stopped in my tracks and tried to reverse to a slightly wider part of the road but soon had a re think when my right rear wheel dropped into the unseen ditch at the side of the road!  I frantically shook my head at the driver of the other car and pulled forward again.  Luckily he was obviously a local and inched his truck into the trees on the other side and managed to wriggle around me....phew!

Photogenic Skyrian goat

Pine trees from Kalamitsa

As we drove on, the landscape changed and got more and more barren.  As we climbed higher, the road turned into a dirt road and the drop at the side got bigger and bigger with no barriers or netting to stop you falling 200ft if you missed the edge.....it was at this point that I discovered I have a major fear of falling of cliffs!!  My heart was hammering, I was sweating and shaking and was sure I was either going to cry or be sick or both....but with some encouraging words from my husband I managed to keep driving over the crest of the hill and make it down to the flatter region on the other side. 

Road from hell to southern Skyros!

Barren southern Skyros

Once there, we drove a couple of miles to find the olive grove where the WW2 poet, Rupert Brookes, is buried.

The Soldier - poem

Rupert Brookes grave

From there we headed back to the north and across to Agios Petras to a taverna that had been recommended to us by some friends back on Alonissos.  By this time it was 3.30 in the afternoon and we were both very hungry.  The taverna was actually rather busy for that time of day considering it is in the middle of nowhere and with only one poor waiter we thought we might be in for a bit of a wait.  Happily he was very efficient, fetched our wine straight away and then apologised for the wait when the food came (which actually wasn't that long).  I had said we were hungry but we had ordered the Syrian goat with spaghetti and Imam to start so that would have been fine....however, when he brought the food there was also a plate of Skyrian cheese and local sausages too and when we asked for the bill it was accompanied by a fruit platter of grapes, honeydew melon and water melon.....all this for about £15, crisis, what crisis!!!
We handed the car back the following day having first checked out the church hewn into the rock at Girismata just up the road from Molos and then had a leisurely day at the beach. 

Inside Molos church

Molos church hewn in pumice stone

For our final evening we caught the bus into Skyros town and spent a couple of hours exploring the back streets of the Hora all the way to the castle at the top.  We found our way back down and sought out a place to eat.  We stumbled on the cheapest taverna/ouzerie ever with a menu of over 20 ouzo's and Tsipouro's which Paul felt he just had to sample! He was also convinced that this must be the place to eat as Tom Conti was on the table behind us...or perhaps not!

View from top of Skyros town

Tom Conti ???

Kastro of Skyros town

So after a final meal of Octopus salad, courgette fritters, fresh fish and prawns washed down with 2 different types of ouzo and half a litre of wine for 20 euro's, it was back to Molos and then back to Linaria the following morning for the ferry back to Alonissos. All in all a lovely way to spend a few days exploring a new island....that's another one ticked!

Festivities and broken bones

Well August came and went in a flurry of Italian and Greek holiday makers who rented every car and scooter on the island!  It was interesting trying to get anywhere on the roads and we had to be on our toes to get a sunbed on our favourite beaches!  Having said that it created a wonderful lively atmosphere on the island and I think the taverna owners were all very happy people having expected the worst due to the current problems with the economy.

The biggest festival of the year was held on Aug 15 and celebrated the Assumption of Mary.  Those of you who read the blog last year will know there is a procession with a re-enactment of a wedding with favours and ouzo passed amongst the crowd before an evening of dancing, free flowing wine and goat spaghetti so soak it all up.  It always makes for a good evening and this was no exception.  I think the dog in the picture below sums up how we all felt the next day !!

phew!

The bride and groom

A couple of weeks later it was a friends birthday and she asked if we would make the drinks for her cocktail party.  We decided on Champagne cocktails, Mojito's and Cosmopolitans and ended up spending a couple of hours constantly making drinks for everyone except ourselves!  We did make up for it once everyone had left :) This was followed a week later by a day on a boat with food and wine to celebrate in style.


Sleeping beauties (Karen & Julie)

Castaways....where'd the boat go??

We have had a couple of breakages on the island in the form of our landlord Kostas cracking a bone in his ankle during a heavy tackle playing football (yes in 90 degrees plus....don't ask!) and our friend Lesley breaking several bones in her foot having missed the smallest step on a flight of stairs leaving a bar and going over on her ankle....inevitable for someone I suppose :) Kostas could be seen daily on his moped, crutch balanced on the handlebars going about whatever he does during the day despite having been told to rest!  The day after his pot came off, Lesley acquired hers so they ended up playing crutch tag!! 

We've also had a mini holiday within a holiday and have visited the island of Skyros.....more about than in the next post.

Hot, hot, hot!

Well my only excuse for not updating our goings on is that it's been too hot to think!  We've had some lovely days and nights out including a pool party at Pete and Jill's house which was fabulous apart from the two wasps who decided to sting me....!

Pete & Jills pad

That day was followed by the postponed 1st Alonissos Dance Festival.  It had been due to be a four day affair with over a dozen different dance groups from all over Greece in attendance...unfortunately it coincided with the date for the referendum and being Greece they have some very strange voting rules, the main one being that you can only vote from the place where you live!!  As this would have meant none of the dancers etc could take part in the vote, the festival was cancelled.

 

Now that the festival was re-arranged we were treated to some very different dances from 7 dance troupes from around the country.....there was everything from the traditional dances with pretty costumes and hanky waving to war dances from the Pondos region in the Black Sea.  It was spread over 2 days and a good time was had by all, especially the dancers who frequented the bars dancing until the early hours....ie 6am!!! They all agreed they'd had such a great time they would be back for more next year.


We then had a couple of weeks with the usual music nights and a rather large turn out for an ouzo meze evening of 28 people.....I'm not sure the taverna knew what hit it! This coincided with the island name day but due to the current financial situation in Greece it was rather a subdued affair....the procession took place as usual on the Saturday but there was no music or dancing on the Sunday .... we managed to make up for it in our own way by getting through approx. 100 mini bottles of tsipouro (not just us you understand!).

Alonissos has got Talent ran into it's second year with plenty of musicianship on show along with poetry readings and sketches.....all ably assisted by a donation bar and a barman with a rather heavy hand! 

Stelios and Chester

The next main event for the island is the Greek Saints day, Aghia Paraskevi which takes place on August 15th....that should be a night to remember with free flowing wine, food and dancing after procession through the old village.....in the meantime it's more sun, sun, sun with the odd quiz night thrown in!!

Boat trips, bouzouki and low flying octopus!!

So, summer is most definitely upon us, the beaches are busy, the tavernas have queues at the door (if they had doors that is!), the buses are running and the sun is shining.  Contrary to popular belief and told by the BBC and the tabloid press, the whole of Greece has not ground to a halt.  Unfortunately there have been cancellations at a few of the hotels and guest houses by those lily livered individuals who obviously take everything they read as gospel...but hey never mind, they can stick to Spain.

It was my birthday mid June and I had a lovely evening out with some friends.  Paul bought me a gorgeous ring that I had spotted in a rather fancy jewellers in the Old Village and an equally lovely handbag that I had spotted in a boutique next door to our apartment.  He takes hints very well does my man! 


My birthday presents from Paul

Birthday with friends

The next couple of weeks passed by with plenty of visits to the further away beaches courtesy of Karen who had lent us the car.  However this week the activity picked up a pace.  Tuesday we were invited on a boat trip which was intended to visit the island of Skantzoura about 2 hours away.  The requisite permits had been granted by the Port Police but just as we had set off from the harbour, the captain received a call on the radio saying he no longer had permission to visit and any attempt to do so would result in a hefty fine!  There appeared to be no explanation when we asked the captain why they had changed their minds, although he did have a mini rant in greek of which the only word I picked up was 'Malaka' (W****** in English!!)
Everyone was slightly disappointed but we still ended up having a lovely day. There was a fully stocked cool box with soft drinks, beer and wine which somehow I ended up being in charge of....can't think how that happened!  Captain Dimitri took us to some lovely bays and then announced we were going looking for sea urchins for lunch!  He dutifully took us to another lovely swim stop and then the hunt was on.  He put on his gloves, fetched his net and came back with loads of urchins.

The sea urchin haul

 As he was swimming back around the boat, something flew through the air and landed on and around Karen's leg....she didn't bat an eyelid, even though what he had just thrown was an octopus!!!  She unravelled it from her ankle and there were various shrieks from the younger members of the group!  Once we'd all taken some photo's it was agreed that the best place for it was back in the ocean, so it  got thrown back in and made it's feeling known about it's mini excursion by puffing lots of black ink as it went back to deeper water.

Karen and her new friend!

The octopuses viewpoint!

 

Most of us tucked into the sea urchins once they had been prepared ...... really creamy and gorgeous fresh from the sea. A couple of us even tried Fusca (I think) which looked like an oyster except it was bright yellow.

Sea Urchins for lunch!

Captain Dimitri preparing the urchins

Greek oysters!

The afternoon passed by with plenty of wine, more swimming and plenty of chatter and laughter. We got back to shore around 5pm and I went for a little lie down......and woke up at 8.30..hey ho!

The following evening was Music Night and we were treated to some guitar by Chester, bouzouki by Pete, ukulele from Anthony and even an organ played by Nigel.  Unfortunately the wine flowed far too well and we ended up drinking a litre of wine each before being invited back to Lesley's house for a night cap...mistake.  A couple of whiskys later I was holding Paul up to get back to the apartment.  This was easier said than done as his legs didn't appear to belong to the rest of him and there were some rather precipitous steps to navigate!  We made it back safely, in the end and staggered off to bed.  We did make a couple of attempts to get up the next morning....I eventually made it at 11.30 and Paul at 1pm!  It didn't last long though and I think he was back in bed by 3.....we have now spent the last couple of days drying out before we do it all again on Tuesday :)

From far left, Anthony, Chester, Pete & Nigel at the back

Seeing stars!

It's been a fun but fairly uneventful few weeks with the odd exception.  It was Paul's birthday a couple of weeks ago and we had a lovely day at Leftos Yialos starting the day with a bottle of bubbly and ending it in a similar fashion with champagne cocktails on the roof terrace with Karen and a couple of her friends, Maggie and Keith. We then had the best meal of the summer so far at the Ostria taverna.

A couple of days later we awoke to the sounds of drilling. On further investigation a couple of workmen were busy attempting to fill in a pothole that had appeared due to some heavy rain.  They had obviously drilled somewhere they shouldn't as the first pothole was now joined by another hole that was spewing water from the mains pipe!!! Several hours ensued of the men trying to bail out the hole with plastic bottles and a couple of old chaps looking on and giving their suggestions at various intervals :)  One of the old guys decided to join in and started digging with a pick axe whilst the two workmen had a cigarette and looked on....it was definitely a case of "how many men does it take to....."

Men at work

Later that week we had an unexpected request from a friend who needed to return to the UK for a week due to a family bereavement.  She has a lovely dog, Ed, who needed looking after while she was away and would we consider doing so at her house.  We were more than happy to say yes and doubly so when various friends said 'ooh, lucky things' when we mentioned it.  As it turns out the villa sits on the hillside at Steni Vala overlooking the ocean and is absolutely gorgeous so this is where we have been ensconced for the past week....eating apricots straight from the tree and getting all over tans on the roof terrace or the little beach below the house (which we discovered was the local nudist beach on our first visit... so, when in Rome :))   It's not going to be easy going back to the studio in Patitiri after the peace and quiet of Steni Vala!

The villa from the beach

view from the lower terrace

View from the master bedroom



Ed

Now to the reasons for the title of the post.....I've seen stars 3 times in the past week. The first time was when I managed, god knows how, to bash my forehead on the sink in the bathroom.  The second was at the villa when I forgot to stayed stooped coming up the stairs and stood up under the windows that open inwards....crack, right on top of my head :( The third time was actually rather beautiful.  We were sat on the terrace with a glass of wine, watching the geckos that come out when it gets dark, when I suddenly spotted a shooting star flashing across the sky.....it was such an amazing sight it brought a tear to my eye.  A great way to end the day.

The Alonissos Challenge 2015

This is an annual event and this year saw the 10th anniversary. Paul was registered for the 15k walk and I got roped in to direct traffic and runners/walkers in the middle of the road at the Votsi junction so the alarm was set for 6.30am, hence the early exit from the previous evenings festivities. The 30k runners started their challenge at 8am and were followed by everyone else at 8.30.  The weather stayed fine and dry which was a relief as last year I ended up looking like a drowned rat and my trousers apparently were completely see through!
The winner of the 30k finished in around 1hr, which considering the terrain which was road, dirt tracks and stone/shingle paths including flights of steps, was rather amazing!  We later discovered that he had kayaked from the mainland, a distance of approx. 25 miles, that morning. He than ran the marathon and kayaked back to the mainland.....Iron Man or what!!

Turn right at the second cactus on the right and down over the wall!!

 

Paul came a very creditable 5th place in his first challenge managing 15k in 2hrs and 37 mins.  As he'd stopped to have a chat at my station for a few mins and didn't set off particularly quickly he was surprised to then be overtaking most of the field up the hills and vows to "go for it" next time!!

 

Ed the dog with some of the walkers

Paul receiving his medal

A flotilla of Doctors

We were lounging on a sunbed by the pool at the Yalis hotel when we started seeing lots of little boats coming across the water towards the port.  They all stopped for a while to let the stragglers catch up and once they were all together, they set off in a nice straight line heading towards Patitiri.  There were about 30 boats and we were rather confused at first as to what was going on.  We came to the conclusion it was the arrival of the infamous Doctors that we'd been hearing about for the past few days.  Apparently every year a group of top doctors in their field go to the smaller greek islands for an 'open house' appointment system to check on the health of the residents ....and this year, Alonissos was the lucky island.  All the appointments were quickly booked and by the queues at the medical centre and the gym, they were kept rather busy.  The pay off for this was arrival by boat to music, coloured flares and general speeches etc to welcome them.  Saturday night then saw a meal for 200 (although there were only 50 doctors!!) on the waterfront of Patitiri followed by dancing by the local group and two expats. This went on long into the night as musicians then played and other dances took place.  Unfortunately a lot of us left rather earlier than we would have liked to as the following morning the Alonissos Challenge was due to take place with 10k & 15k walks and a 30k run.