39 Steps To Getting Lost in Skopelos Town

It’s raining this morning in sunny Skopelos, and the sea is the roughest I’ve seen since I landed here a week ago. Sofia reckons it’s Maria, who hasn’t hit the UK yet, but seems to be well on her way to Europe.  I thought I’d use the name she has given this house to describe a lovely morning I had doing one of the things I do best, getting lost in a town that is smaller than Gramercy Park.

1. Buy a map.  That’s right, buy a map of Skopelos and good luck trying to find any house on it.
2. Remember landmarks. Wait, is that the church that’s next to the well that’s on the way to my house or is it one that looks exactly like that one.
3. Remember which way to go from those landmarks.  How am I supposed to do that? There are so many.
4. Just keep walking up. I did that, and then eventually I had to walk down.
5. Look for the bougainvillea. Maybe this works in June or July.
6. Just keep walking up. I did that already, it didn’t work.
7. Follow the signs on the walls.  That worked!  Yeah, but now how do I get back?
8. It’s next to the white house.  Ha, now you’re just screwing with me.
9. You can see my neighbor’s ugly brown balcony from the harbor.  Yeah, but I can’t see it up here.
10. Ask for “Sofia Czecha.”  This would work too, except don’t ask a cute old lady unless your Greek is really good.
11. There’s a monastery right in town, you can’t miss it. Wanna bet?
12. See that building? It’s just behind that.  I know I said “Yes”, but I really didn’t see the building.
13. Go past the nameingreekiwillneverremember until you get to anothernameingreekidefinitelywontremember then do something something when you see Ayios Someone. Yeah, I didn’t even try that one.
14. There is probably a sign to where you want to go.  But I want to go everywhere.
15. Just keep walking up.  That didn’t work in town, what makes you think that’s going to work in the woods.

I really could go on with 24 more, but I think you get the gist.  When I was in Athens, I asked my friend Zeta (who may want to consider a new career in cartography), to draw me a map from her house to the tram station.  It was like 3 blocks from her house and dead simple, but any time we either walked or drove from there I was yapping away and not paying attention.  Of course I’m going to keep this map forever, took a picture of it too and was going to post it but was worried how easy it would be for undesirables across the interwebs to find her house!  I think I really need to learn some conversational Greek (not just food and curses!) so I don’t instantly forget things like street names, landmarks and directions.
So this day of getting lost was a particularly nice day, I was up early, the weather was wonderful and I had a good 6 hours before I had to start work.  Skopelos, ancient Peparithos, is a very interesting island historically. There is evidence of neolithic and bronze age settlements, which I still get a little too excited about—there are Mycenanean tombs here in the middle of the island and no one knows how to get there—and there is evidence of continuous occupation and settlements through early Greek and Roman periods as well. There are only a handful of sites that are organized for visiting, one of them is the Asclepieion of Peparithos, the ancient medical center which is right along the harbor and dates to around 4th C BC, but other than an information placard there’s not much there and you can’t enter and walk around the scant ruins.  I figured I’d just take a walk around the bay, and go for a nice hike.  I looked at my cheap map with pictures and thought I might be able to get lost just enough to find that Minoan palace!

Getting lost in the top of the town

So many lovely archways

How does anyone know where they live?

Keeping the cats from pissing on doorways

View walking away from town

Now for a little hike along far end of the bay

Lovely tree covered stone path

I love these kinds of paths

There was not another soul around

Starting the climb up.

Wonder if the Minoan palace is this way.

Sweet little church in the trees

Just a bit of autumn colors

I like the little church in the background behind this trees branches

There we go!

First clearing with a view across the bay

A sign! I'll go there.

That's an awful lot of churches and monasteries. And they're all in the same direction. No sign for Minoan palace though.

I think this is a path up to one of that long list of monasteries.

This one!

Nope, wrong path.

But I did get to see this beauty!

And this!

And ultimately got here.

Glad I had my telephoto lens! The rock formation on the right is a bit anthropomorphic. I thought it looked a woman dressed in traditional Skopelian clothes.

My neighbor told me the next day there's a legend that a woman lost her son to the sea and sat on the right of that spot waiting for him to return and eventually died there.

Heading back to town

Entrance to a house on the bay

Nice little taverna on the water

Jazz bar, I'm pretty sure that's a picture of Miles Davis in there. They seem to be obsessed with Miles Davis here.

View from the taverna

Traditional old olive oil mill

Most successful local products from Skopelos include olive oil, plums, goat cheese and honey

Some of my favorite things

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