June 5th
Leisurely exploration of Skopelos town with Julie and Kat in the morning, including climbing up to the views by the castle. Of course we had to take them to Platanos to have some souvlaki for lunch, though I’m calling Uncle on eating any more souvlaki on this trip. In the afternoon we metup with Heather Parsons for drinks, a Brit expat who has adopted the island and its walking trails. She’s the author of a book called Skopelos Walks and she actively maintains the trails on the island with the help of volunteers through workaway.com. I had reached out to her through Facebook and enjoyed meeting her and a French graduate student who was working with her for 2 weeks. Her website is www.skopelos-walks.com and she offers guided walks on the island for visitors.
We invited them to join us up at Anatoli for mezedes, drinks and music. There weren’t many people there that night and we didn’t arrive for our “reserved” table until 10pm just like I saw all the Greeks do earlier in the week! Nonetheless we enjoyed the music, the ambience and walking home at midnight under the full moon.
If we stayed in one place for an extended period of time, I think it would not be hard to meet people and have a social life in a new place.
June 6th
Island exploration day with another rental car so Julie and Kat could see more of Skopelos. We covered a lot of ground this day – a monastery, a village, three beaches and a famous church. Our first stop was the Monastery Evanglistria which is no longer active and has one “kaloyeri”, an elderly nun who is the caretaker.
We went to the village of Glossa and explored on foot. What a lovely village with views to the west. Their main plateia is up and up through the back of the village. In middle of a hot day, the village was very quiet and doesn’t look to have the level of activity that it sister village enjoys. We had a gourmet meal at Agnanti, a third generation restaurant facing west to the sunset with views of the sea. Well we all ate gourmet food but Kat ate her usual – white bread, cheese and things with sugar.
We swam at Milia Beach and Limnonari.
Of course the highlight of the day for the Dentons was the visit to the Agia Yiannis church followed by a swim at the secluded beach next door. We completely missed this beach when we came the prior week. It’s to the right of the parking area and down the steps to this secluded cove surrounded by mountains. The beach was stony as they all are and the water was refreshing, but not as cold as others we had swam in this trip. The sea was filled with sailboats this day which made us more excited about our next week’s adventure.
June 7th
Kat and Julie took the Sporades Queen excursion to Alonissos. Bill and I did laundry in preparation for the next adventure starting on the 8th. We hiked up the village and came across the church and cemetary where my friend’s mom and yiayia are buried. We went on a hunt to find Mrs. Mahi, a friend from Pensacola, who was spending the summer on the island. We just kept asking at different shops until someone finally walked us to her door. She was surprised and happy to see us and served us ice cream and coffee!
