Blogs from North Aegean, Greece, Europe
Day 124-126 Mamma Mia! its Skopelos!
Published: September 11th 2011Europe » Greece » North Aegean » Skopelos
September 5th 2011
After our island hopping, we arrived back to the mainland at Rafina, just north of Athens and drove firstly to Marathon and then on to Volos. In the tradition of checking out film locations we decided to make a quick divert to the island of Skopelos, one of the Sporades islands made famous by the filming of Mamma Mia. We left the Bongo in a campsite (there are no campsites on the island and car ferries are few) and headed off on the hydrofoil, which was fast but scary especially when it went round tight corners. We were met at the port by a lovely Greek lady called Evelina, who offered us a room in her house. I was suspicious but had no need to be, the room was lovely and the house right in the ... read more
July 20th 2011
It's Cat & Pau's last day on the island. At 22:00 in the evening they'll catch a boat to Athens and then the next day the plane to Brussels. We (Despina & Yannis) leave a few days later but it feels as the end of our trip as well. We'll spend the rest of our days with our parents whom we don't see often because of the distance (Athens-Brussels). So today's blog post will be our last one. We spent our last day more or less in the same relaxed way as the previous days. Swim a lot. Nice food... On our way to the port we were all wearing the t-shirts that Cat designed, illustrating two couples on motorbikes. We had a beer at the port of Mytilene, made some draft plans for future trips ... read more
Day 15 - Sigri - Skala Eressos
Published: July 20th 2011Europe » Greece » North Aegean » Lesbos » Lesvos
July 19th 2011
Today's trip in the west of the island is a 'must' each time, we visit Lesvos. It's the volcanic part of the island. No trees, just bushes. Imagine landscapes like the ones in old western movies with rocky mountains and valleys. Totally different from yesterday's 'green' part. We visited the museum of Natural History of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos. We received a short presentation by a young woman (probably foreign student) and had a good look at the exhibited fossils of trees, leaves, insects, mammals... You can't help but thinking how futile a man's life is compared to these fossiles found many million years ago. We headed afterwards to a monastery on the top of a mountain called Moni Agiou Ioannou Theologou to take some pictures of the magnificent scenery. The monk, after telling Yannis ... read more
July 18th 2011
We planned again a long trip for today, going to the south part of the island. The 'green' one with forests of pine trees and olive trees. We passed from Kalloni. The town were I did most of my obligatory military service 13 years ago. What a 'fucking' waste of time it was. And what hard it was on my self-esteem back then. Anyway I'll raise a glass of champagne when the Greek military army will become fully professional and obligatory service for Greek young men will be terminated. First stop was at Karini, the 'Platanos' of Theofilos. Theofilos is one of the great Greek painters that lived a very poor but honest life by painting just for a plate of food. 'Platanos' is a small cave within the trunk of a big tree where he ... read more
Day 13 - Skoutaros - Anaxos - Molyvos
Published: July 20th 2011Europe » Greece » North Aegean » Lesbos
July 17th 2011
Despina's parents prepared a nice barbeque for us. We ate as much as we could and had a siesta. In the evening we went for a swim at Anaxos beach until the sun was down. After that we went to see a movie at the open air theatre of Molyvos. The film was an old classic comedy by the Monty Pythons called 'The Meaning of Life' which I had not seen for a long time. We had to vote between this one and an American blockbuster 'Hangover II' playing earlier. As a little snake, I did everything I could to influence discretly the ladies to vote for the 'Brits' and succeeded. I never had the chance to see one of Monty Python's masterpieces on a big screen and it took me only a few minutes to ... read more
July 16th 2011
We went for a swim at Kagia rocky beach near Sykamia. The route from Molyvos to Sykamia is one of my favourites. The landscape is great but it's the turns, going up & going down, the visibility, the quality of the road in most parts that makes this route a unique driving experience for motorcyclists. A route that I 'rediscover' each time I come back to the island as memorising things is not one of my strengths. Some people asked us before leaving why we do this trip with motorbikes? We could easily fit in a car the four of us, it's cheaper and safer... A car has it's advantages and we often use it to travel but it's not the same. It's all about the driving and the freedom it provides I think. Imagine that ... read more
Day 11 - Anaxos beach - Petra - Molyvos
Published: July 16th 2011Europe » Greece » North Aegean » PetraJuly 15th 2011
First full day of our 'third' and last part of our trip. Lesvos. Rest of the guys don't like the fact that I'm 'slicing' the trip in parts. Anyway first thing we did was going to Anaxos beach, 5 km from the village. The weather is warm, the sea cold (as I like it) and a nice breeze. I took my 'goggles' (I'm not sure they are called like that, the glasses swimmers wear to swim). It's an accessory I can't do without. Without fins I can. And the thing I was waiting for two years begins. I swim and swim and swim. Dive a bit, look at some small fishes passing by, collect some shells and swim more. Some people like running, some do sports, I like to swim in the sea. Hearing the rhythmic ... read more
June 16th 2011
Wednesday 15th June, 2011 An easier day was the plan. We went down to breakfast at nine fifteen and had the usual. Back to the room then we slowly got ready and left about 1030. We walked to the next village of Votsalakia and headed straight for a bar to have a quick drink of beer and a coke. Then on to the beach. We sunbathed and read until three o'clock and had a lunch of Greek salad, pork Souvlaki and pork chop in the same beach cafe we had drunk earlier. At five o'clock we went back to the hotel. The walk to Votsalakia is about three kilometres but other than that an easy day. Much later we took a walk along the harbour wall and took at closer look at the boats tied up ... read more
June 14th 2011
Monday 13th June 2011 cont'd 5.30 pm We had decided to hire a car for a day to see a few places around the island and made enquiries at the hotel reception. We had said that we would like the car for one day tomorrow - Tuesday. It turned out that we could have the car from now if we wanted until tomorrow evening as it would cost no extra. We said yes. The hire car was from Mirto and turned up a short while later. The forms were filled in and a quick tour of the controls and that was us. Because we had the car now we hopped in for a quick drive and headed West to the corner of the Island and got as far as Paleochoria. The main road skirted the coast ... read more
June 13th 2011
Sunday 12th June, 2011 We had a breakfast as part of the room rate and went down at nine fifteen. It was the usual continental style meal. We wanted a look around Vathi before we moved on so arranged with the lady to look after our bags, which she said we could keep in the room. We went back up to the room and quickly packed our stuff and left the big bags in the room. We wandered out into the world and the Nissos Mykonos was still there from last night. We headed towards the bus station to try and find times for buses, which we did but because today was Sunday we weren't able to get a bus in the direction we wanted. We could have got a bus to Kalovasi at 1400 which ... read more
