This is the fifth installment of Edmonds resident Nathaniel Brown’s recent travels to Greece. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here.

Athens, or rather the port of Piraeus, is the gate to the Cyclades, the islands to the south of the mainland.  Some you can fly to, many can only be reached by ferry, but somehow arriving by water seems a more appropriate way to visit these rugged, sea-girt islands rising, cliff-sided, from Homer’s “paths of the sea”.  Happily, the Aegean ferry system operates like a bus system, with the ferries following routes of multiple stops on a demanding schedule.  You hop off and on, and ferry travel is easy and convenient. (For full routes, schedules and prices, go to Ferryhopper: Your Ferry Travel Companion | Book Ferry Tickets.)

My first stop  was Mykonos, to visit the wonderful guide I had when touring Delos last year – Delos is just a short ferry ride from the Old Port. We had a superb dinner at a restaurant in the Old Town called M-Eating, and spent most of the time talking training when I discovered that Antonis is a marathon runner! After dinner he told me it was the first time he’d dined with a client, a huge compliment.

That was my treat, and the next evening Antonis returned the compliment.  I don’t know if I’ll ever go to Mykonos again – it is vastly crowded – but I’ll certainly look up Antonis if I do, if he’s not off running a marathon!

Beware though – Mykonos Old Town is The Party Town; I was wakened at all hours of the night, and could still hear voices at 5 a.m.!

   Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,

…that when I waked
I cried to dream again.”

(With apologies to Shakespeare)

Three nights, then off to Ios by ferry.

Ios

Ios will remain as a glowing experience in my memory, and is a place to which I must return, even if I go nowhere else in Greece.

The first reason was the Liostasi Hotel, perched on the hillside over the tiny harbor. The warmest welcome, the most wonderful dining, the most personable and interesting staff (staff maketh the hotel!), great rooms (mine had a balcony). I have never stayed in a place harder to leave.

I made friends – I do not think that is too strong a word – with several people. One was the lovely woman who seemed to fill the role of Head Waiter, and who was a fountainhead of information about the food (all locally sourced), the island and life in general. A truly wonderful person.  The other was the genius behind the bar, who knows more about mixed drinks and the various forms of alcoholic beverages than anyone I have ever met – widely traveled, experienced and interested – (surely one of the finest qualities anyone can have). As I was one of the first guests of the season, there were still few guests, so evenings talking to these two were rich and unhurried. I am so grateful for the experience.

From an historical/archaeological perspective, one of the main attractions of Ios is Skarkos hill, which is the site of “an important early Cycladic settlement [3500 BC to 2500 BC, just at the earliest date for the bronze age]. when the site was abandoned possibly due to an earthquake] in an exceptionally good state of preservation (two-storey buildings, four-metre-high walls), and an overlying later middle/early late Bronze Age cemetery (mid-2nd millennium BC).“  (Wikipedia) The village is thought to have been home to some 200-300 people, a not inconsiderable population for the period.

To reach Skarkos, I took the local taxi. (The taxi deserves mention: Arrival on the island, all the excursions and departure were all the same driver, an absolutely delightful and friendly man I looked forward to seeing!) The ride is a short one, 1.7 km according to Google. Down a winding, serpentine road almost to the harbor, then up a narrow road which turns into a dirt and stone alley, up which the taxi will not go, lacking four-wheel drive. You walk the last bit, past a threatening dog and a few lonely houses, and then you reach the wonderfully curated official site of Skarkos.

As was becoming typical, I was the only person on the site, other than the man who charges you the five-Euro entry fee, and the equally typical friend whose purpose remains unclear, but whose duty always involves sitting in the shade with some coffee, in deep conversation with the ticket taker.

The ruins are astonishingly preserved, though the traditional want of anything to hold onto makes getting up the succeeding terraces difficult for anyone with walking issues. But once there…

The trick, as always is to go slowly, sit, breathe the air and populate the village in your mind, envision people visiting each other, perhaps for a soft evening’s cup of wine, children playing, perhaps some music somewhere, a fire, smells of cooking…  If you can’t do these things, you miss the real meaning of archaeology: real people, gone now for 45 centuries, lived and flourished here for a thousand years.

I was to call the taxi driver when I had seen the site and he would come back and collect me, but all I could get was that the number on his card could not be reached, probably a mix-up with my server and international numbers. So, in the event, I walked back, not far – 1.8 km – but all uphill! 

The next day, I took a steep and longish walk up to Chora, the main town of the island, brought me to the Archaeological Museum – small, but wonderful to see after you have visited Skarkos. The finds are all local or from Skarkos.

The walk back to the hotel, now that I wasn’t gasping for air, proved almost as interesting as the museum.  At some point in the Mycenaean period, roughly 1600-1100 BC, the site of Chora was fortified. Fortification continued even later, with the result that it is difficult for the non-scholar to guess when a given wall might have been constructed, but beside the Chora road there are numerous bits of the old walls still in situ.

Ios is a hilly island. I took the taxi down to the harbor to visit Mosenta, an Aladdin’s cave of a shop selling locally hand-produced, natural products, filled my rucksack with olive oil bottles and honey jars and hiked back up to the hotel. Thirteen minutes, quoth Google! 650 meters!

Ah, but 400 vertical feet in those 650 meters, all on ramps or uneven steps with no railings – this is universal in Greece – and 45 minutes later, having missed the cutoff path to the hotel, I found myself all the way up in Chora again, only to have to retrace my previous day’s steps back down to the Liostasi, happy with the expedition, but very ready for the amazingly wonderful lemonade the bar produces – crushed ice, mint, a touch of ginger. I have to add that this drink is just as heavenly without the trek up from the harbor, and dangerous with some rum added.

Next — Part 6:  Homer’s Tomb

Nathaniel Brown taught and coached cross-country running and skiing for 16 years before joining the US Biathlon Team as wax technician, switching to the US Cross-Country team in 1989. He was the first American to take over technical services for a foreign team (Slovenia) and worked also for Germany and Sweden. He coached at three Olympics and 14 World Championships, edited Nordic Update for nine years and Cross-Country Skier for two. He has written three books on skiing and training; the latest was The Complete Guide to Cross-Country Ski Preparation (Mountaineers Books) which has gone through two editions and a Russian translation. He owned and operated Nordic UltraTune, an international freelance ski tuning service, until retirement.