The widespread use of blue paint emanates from an ancient belief that the colour has the power to keep evil away. It is believed that the radiation of the colour composes a sort of invisible shield, which prevents the approach of bad spirits.
“It takes a lifetime for someone to discover Greece, but it only takes an instant to fall in love with her” – Henry Miller
Next morning without essentials we took a walk to the nearest supermarket which was rather like climbing Mount Everest, to purchase tea bags. Back at the room – no electricity so no cup of tea.
At least the sun was shining.
After climbing Mount Everest for a second time we took the local bus into the town to purchase more essentials. Tee shirts, swimming gear and a dress for Kim, luckily all over in thirty minutes or so.
As we stopped for breakfast, a cup of tea and a Greek cheese pie I read about some of the legends of the island of Skiathos.
Before I get to that however, I return to the matter of tea. Based on official statistics one third of all visitors to the island are from the UK where we drink lots of tea so, you would think wouldn’t you, that the island cafés and restaurants would be aware of this and have it on their menus. Not so, you can get all sorts of rubbish teas – camomile, green, mint and then almost every variety of fruit in the World but black tea is curiously missing. We had the foresight to bring our own tea bags so we just paid for a cup of hot water each.
Back to the legends now…
Every Greek Island has its own ancient Diety, they are shared out among them in a sort of, appropriate for Greece, democratic process Skiathos has Dionysus, the god of wine and pleasure, which once again is quite appropriate for what is mostly a Summer party island for young people.
These folk don’t seem to be having a lot of fun. Maybe they have lost their luggage as well, they don’t look happy…
But now I come to Saints and as some of you will know I do like an unlikely Saint story.
According to legend, one night in 1650 a monk called Symeon, who led a disciplined and ascetic life was intrigued to see a twinkling light in the forest. Upon approaching it, the light receded, only to reappear and disappear again several times so that he was unable to see exactly what it was.
Intrigued by this he stuck around to investigate and after fasting and meditating for several days (fasting always helps it seems) he finally saw that it was a small icon of the Virgin Mary swaying away in the top of a tall pine tree. As they do.
Convinced that he had witnessed a miracle he rushed back to report the incident to the priest in his village. The next day, the excited villagers followed Symeon back to where the mysterious light had been shining. Legend has it that the light grew brighter and brighter, the closer the people got.
When they all saw the icon hanging from the tree a young priest climbed up to retrieve it, placing it in the chapel where Symeon served. It would later be placed in the Three Hierarches church of Skiathos town for safe keeping.
Here it is…
The Holy Monastery of Evangelistria was built in honour of this miraculous event, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary as the island’s patron Saint and protector.
Once every year the icon is removed from the Cathedral in Skiathos and paraded through the streets and taken on a ten mile pilgrimage to the monastery.
It was possible to take a bus to visit the monastery but with the sun shining, the temperature rising and without suitable holiday attire we chose instead to return to the hotel for lunch.
There is another legend/story about the The Holy Monastery of Evangelistria which concerns the flag of Greece. Leading Greek fighters of the 1821 Revolution against Ottoman rule in the Greek War of Independence met at the monastery in Skiathos to discuss tactics and over a glass of ouzo or two designed, adopted and raised the flag as a symbol of Greek nationalism.
Originally it was blue with a white diagonal cross which was symbolic of the Christian faith but the cross has now been moved to the upper left corner to make way for the horizontal stripes. Being a seafaring nation, the blue of the flag represents the colour of the sea. White is the colour of freedom, which is something that is very important to the Greeks after years of enslavement under foreign domination. The nine stripes of the flag each symbolise a syllable in the Greek motto of freedom – E-LEY-THE-RI-A-I-THA-NA-TOS, which translates literally into ‘Freedom or Death’.
After lunch we simply let the day slip away as we sat on the terrace in our underwear. The electricity supply was restored late afternoon and we occasionally checked our phones for any updates on the missing luggage. It came through late in the evening. The bags would be arriving in Skiathos the following day but it would take the airport another day to sort it all out and deliver them to us but as recompense compensation was now increased to £250 per suitcase.
“There is always a flip side to a dud penny” – John Corden
Kim made plans for a second day of shopping and I wasn’t going to get away with just thirty minutes this time that was for certain.. Oh Joy.
Other Unlikely Saint Stories…
St Edmund, the Patron Saint of Pandemics
Saint James and Santiago de Compostella
The Feast of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck
Santa Eulalia and the Thirteen Tortures
The hardest crusts always fall to the toothless” – Cypriot proverb
Last year we went to Portugal with holiday company TUI and they inconvenienced us by making several changes to the flight schedules which resulted in the loss of a complete day of the trip. We said that we would never go on holiday with TUI again.
Six months later we broke that vow and booked a holiday to the Greek island of Skiathos in the TUI January sale. A noisy fun island which attracts young high spirited people in high Summer but we gambled that it would be less frantic in early May.
After breezing through the check in and the security processes we settled in to wait for the call to the departure desk. Once on board we waited in eager anticipation for the pilot to confirm take off. Suddenly there was a crackle of intercom and the introduction from the pilot and then some unwelcome news.
It was raining in Skiathos, the short runway, which is apparently notoriously difficult, was wet and the plane was too heavy to land safely. The TUI solution was to offload half of the suitcases from the hold and promise that they would follow on tomorrow. I had some medication in my bag ( a couple of epi-pens in case of an allergy emergency) and was allowed off the plane to retrieve them so grabbed a few items that I thought might be useful such as phone chargers and sun lotion and returned to my seat in the certain knowledge that mine was one of the one hundred. We hoped that Kim’s might still be on board.
Half way into the flight more news and an apology and a caveat to the earlier promise, this time the pilot said that they would do all they could to get our luggage to us as soon as possible and later still this was watered down again to the company hopes to get our bags to us some time next week.
This has happened to us before when we flew to Reykjavik with British Airways and Kim’s luggage went missing for five days so our optimism was beginning to sink to our boots.
The aircraft landed at Alexandros Papadiamantis Airport, named after one of the most famous writers in all of Greece who was born and lived on the island of Skiathos. Later in the week I visited his house, a museum now and purchased a translation of one of his short story novels.
At the baggage reclaim we optimistically watched the conveyor belt complete about five full cycles, maybe six, maybe seven, and a forlorn pink suitcase go round at least four times, when it slowly began to dawn on us that the bag probably wasn’t going to come through the little hole in the wall where the luggage came from. I had a last look through the heavy plastic flaps to see if maybe it had fallen off the belt before coming through but it was hopeless. We had to concede the inevitability of our predicament that we were completely without luggage except for my epi-pens and the phone chargers.
It was nine o’clock in the evening, the supermarkets were shut so we were forced to take a taxi (I hate taking taxis) and ask the driver to find us somewhere where we might be able to purchase essentials. He took us to a mini-market where Kim concentrated on shampoo, deodorant and soap and I looked for a couple of bottles of wine. We continued to the hotel in stunned silence.
At the Agnadi hotel and studios there was happily something to smile about, the location was excellent, the rooms were very good in that very simple Greek style and after we had settled in (quite a short process of course with no luggage to unpack) we returned to the hotel bar and small restaurant and enjoyed a really rather fine Greek meal. We looked forward to a confirmation e-mail that the luggage would be delivered the following day. I confess that I didn’t go to bed in an especially optimistic mood.
Sometime during the night I received an e-mail apologising for the problem with the luggage and explaining that due to logistical issues the bags wouldn’t be arriving today after all. Apparently they were being taken from East Midlands airport to Birmingham. I wasn’t especially surprised about that I have to say. It thanked me for my understanding and patience which I thought was rather presumptuous because I was neither. It was a no-reply email so I was unable to tell them that. On the positive side it offered financial compensation 0f £50 for each bag on production of receipts for essential items. As far as I was concerned everything in my bag was essential so £50 wasn’t going to adequately cover it.
My heart sank for a moment but it lifted immediately when I opened the door of the room and I was rewarded with a most wonderful view.
Posted in backpacking, Beaches, Estonia, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, Literature, Postcards, Travel
Tagged Agnadi Hotel Skiathos, Culture, Cyclades, Life, Lost Luggage, Skiathos, Sporades Islands Greece, TUI, World Heritage
The island of Rhodes is one of the most interesting and has been inhabited for six thousand years and due to its geographical position on the major Mediterranean Sea trade routes is situated at a natural crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and this has given the city and the island many different identities, cultures, architectures, and languages over its long and varied history.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Beaches, Cathedrals, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Knights of St John, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Dodecanese Islands, Holidays, Knights of St John, Lindos, Photography, rhodes, Travel
A bus ride to Piraeus is a truly unique experience.
The roads were busy but the driver of the blue Solaris flexibus seemed totally oblivious to other vehicles as he charged along at high speed, switching lanes, clattering over tram lines and tossing the passengers about like the Saturday night lottery balls on hard unyielding plastic seats. Luggage flew out of the overhead racks and passengers not gripping on tightly were thrown from their seats. Suitcases were scattered along the floor and little children were thrown into the air.
Posted in Athens, back packing, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Food, Greek Bus Ride, Life, Motoring, Photography, piraeus, Travel, UNESCO Greece, World Heritage Site
Ouzo is an anise-flavoured liquor produced from grape must (the remnants of wine-making) and it can only be made in Greece and Cyprus . No other beverage is as uniquely Greek or as closely linked to a culture as ouzo is to Greece. Greeks drink the most ouzo and ouzeries serve it alongside appetisers called meze. Often drunk on its own or gently diluted, ouzo has a very strong anise flavour that takes some getting used to.
The ‘Boss Bar’ really had been an excellent place, the staff were attentive and friendly, the food was good, the beer was cold and the prices were reasonable. It has taken me a while to get to the point of this story but there was always complimentary ouzo to finish the evening (except when there was complimentary melon which quite frankly wasn’t so good) but the place had my fullest recommendation.
Posted in Athens, backpacking, Beaches, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Greek Food, Greek islands, Life, Ouzo, Photography, Santorini, Travel
Philoxenia consists of three basic elements:
Posted in Arts and Crafts, backpacking, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Greece UNESCO, Homer's Inn, Hospitality, Ios, Life, Travel
After taking the bus into Naxos town we walked to the top of the town to find the Venetian Cathedral tour that was highly recommended in the Island hopping guidebook. We waited around in the courtyard outside the Cathedral and not a lot seemed to be happening and we wondered if we were going to be disappointed.
Eventually an old lady in an extravagant floral blouse and with a worn out old dog for a companion ghosted in from a secret door in an adjacent room and enquired if we were there for the tour and we told her that yes we were.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, backpacking, Beaches, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, History, Hotels, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Greece UNESCO, History, Holidays, Life, Museums, Naxos, Naxos Cathedral Tour, Photography, Travel
As we walked around the town and couldn’t help noticing that there were three distinctive smells. Proctor and Gamble Tide detergent (no longer popular in the United Kingdom) which clung like velcro to the fresh linen hanging on the washing lines outside the houses, then incense, leaking out under the doors of the churches and finally the divine aroma of fresh moussaka and other Greek specialities being prepared for lunchtime in the tavernas and the bars.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, backpacking, Beaches, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Cyclades, Greece UNESCO, Greek Ferries, Holidays, Life, Milos, Photography, Travel
Whilst these string of Cycladic islands are all the same they are all completely different at the same time and Livadi had a unique quality that set it aside from other places we have visited.
Serifos is not a popular holiday destination for overseas visitors and a bit like Amorgos (in my opinion) a place that the Greek people have sensibly kept back for themselves because close to Athens it is convenient to reach and it doesn’t suffer from the excesses of, say, Santorini or Mykonos.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, backpacking, Beaches, Europe, Food, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Blue Star Ferry, Culture, Cyclades, Greece UNESCO, Life, Livadi, Photography, serifos, Trave
Have Bag, Will Travel 