The Art of Recreation

No matter how much one enjoys a holiday there is always an elusive quality that is hard to re-create. We return with photographs, souvenirs, memories, recipes with the intention of one day trying to re capture a moment, a meal or a mood. Photographs can be turned into posters or artwork for a living room, coasters for a dining room table, even a calendar to send out to friends and family. Memories are difficult to share with those who hear of them from a distance - what can seem so precious to those who are close to the memory can become devalued to those who only listen. Souvenirs, if displayed like trophies, can take on the appearance of the commonplace, their significance blending into the background. But recipes...recipes can magically bring to life a whole rainbow of senses and emotions: the vivid blue-green of the sea near the ouzerie where you first tasted the food, the aromas of herbs, fresh tomatoes, crumbly feta cheese and grilling lamb, the sounds of glasses chinking, people laughing, cutlery settling onto emptied plates, the taste of crisp, local wine, chilled to perfection and cancelling out the sharp saltiness of the olives.
Tonight we had an aubergine salad - roasted aubergine peeled then blended with lemon juice, garlic and olive oil - served with rustic bread followed by home baked gammon with the finest of fresh coleslaw and a crisp Greek salad. The aromas and flavours followed one another like close friends rediscovered and for a magical half hour or so we were back in a Greek taverna.

Skiathos: the beaches

Due to the fact that it was either chucking it down with a Wagnerian thunderstorm to match or so hot that we only dared to stick an arm or leg occasionally into the direct sizzle we didn't go the sort of dark brown that usually either comes out of a spray can or belongs to the Caribbean or beaches of Goa. A rich biscuit colour is probably the best description.
To do this we visited just two of the thirty or so official beaches on the island: Kanapitsa and Koukounaries.
Kanapitsa is about 5km from Skiathos town and is (relatively) accessible by bus (fare 1.4 Euros). By relatively I mean that the bus drops you off at Bus Stop 12 on the main road and the beach is signposted down a side road. About a kilometre's walk later there is a steep set of steps leading down to the beach and the Taverna. The beach itself is very narrow - just over a sun lounger's length wide if you get the picture but of very soft sand and with a taverna and cafe just behind it. Sun lounger hire seems to be a steady 8 Euros a day or part of day (for 2 loungers and a shade) so the three hours that we were at Kanapitsa seemed a bit of a rip off. C'est la vie!

A few days later we ventured further afield to Koukounaries, six kilometres further along the coast and a full 1.8 Euros by bus from Skiathos! How does the bus company make any profit? Koukounaries has been justly praised for the quality of its beach and watersport facilities - The Rough Guide to the Greek Islands calls it possibly the best beach in Greece. Anyway it's at the end of the bus route which is handy and, even better, is a mere 100metres or so from the bus stop. There's a wooden walkway along the back of the beach and behind it pine trees which gives the beach a sort of tropical feel in a strange sort of way. The beach, allegedly is about a kilometre long though we weren't in the mood to test the distance - as it was a sizzling hot day we just found the best two loungers we could and took turns at being brave in the heat of the sun. Being September the sea was reasonably warm but nobody warned us about the fish. There are shoals of tiny fish just off shore which nibble at feet, legs anything fleshy which stays still! To recover from the combined attacks of fish and sunshine we found a lovely, cool bit of shelter at a beach side cafe which did a good line in sandwiches, hand cut chips and icy cold Mythos.  We had already been warned to leave plenty of time to get to the bus stop for the return journey - buses get full very quickly and standing up on a Greek bus even for a relatively short journey is equivalent to going on every ride at Alton Towers in quick succession with a raging hangover. Being at the end of the route is an advantage though as the bus seems to fill up more at other 'beach' stops before it starts to empty. By the time we arrived at Bus Stop 3 it was relatively empty and the sun was just beginning to cool down. Just enough time for a shower, a quick change and a glass of water before heading to the Old Port House for Mythos time!

A Visit to the Monastery

I had read about the monastery of Evangelistrias before we left for Skiathos. It dates from the end of the eighteenth century and has the honour of being the first place which flied the Greek flag during the war of independence from Turkey. It also boasts a current population of TWO monks. Not really knowing too much more about it we set off from Skiathos town in the monastery's own mini bus (fare 1 Euro 80) for the short but steep journey.
Many travel guides give directions for the walker to get to Evangelistrias but unless you've a) had intensive SAS training,  b) have masochistic tendencies or c) are a mountain goat I would thoroughly recommend the bus journey. Not only do you get some truly spectacular views of the south and east coasts of the island (and the islands of Skopelos and Alonissos) but you don't have to dive into a convenient ditch at a second's notice when two vehicles going in opposite directions try to squeeze past one another.
The journey took about half an hour and dropped us just outside the main doorway to the monastery. All around were slopes of pine with an occasional clearing of olive or vines. Through a gap in the trees we caught a glimpse of the quiet, natural and totally undeveloped north east coast of the island where some of the better beaches are only approachable from the sea. Of Evangelistrias itself there was very little sign - just a fairly plain, high wall, a path in front of it to the left and at the end a huge gateway.

Once through the gateway the true spectacle of the monastery was revealed. Before us was a courtyard with cages of song birds in them. Three bells hung from a gnarled frame, half hidden by vines and in the distance, to the right was the chapel with the most beautiful of Greek monastic chanting coming from its open windows. A lot of music from two monks I thought before concluding that the chanting was probably a recording (it was). Inside, the chapel gleamed with the reflected light from the many icons around the walls. The intricately carved wooden iconostasis was truly a work of devotion and skill. I can only speculate about how many hundreds of hours it must have taken the woodsmiths to chisel the perfectly executed scrolls and swirls of it. In front of the screen was a large basket containing sprigs of Greek basil. A small donation seemed appropriate for such a memorable souvenir of our visit. After a short walk around the chapel, a visit to the souvenir shop and a tour of the museum we had plenty of time left to just stand in the courtyard with the sun almost overhead listening to the chant and the bird song, watching the caged birds making a nest and wondering if there was really any other place we would rather be at that particular time.

Restaurants To Head For In Skiathos Town

One advantage of Skiathos town being so compact is that you're never more than about 20 metres from a taverna (just as well the way the Greek bikers are. Tavernas are used as sanctuaries from the madness outside as much as for providing food and drink). The first decent one we found was on the Sunday and was at the end of flight after flight of steps next to a quaint chapel called (I think) Agios Nikolas. It is also known as the Shepherds' Chapel. From up there you have absolutely breathtaking views of the town all around you with the distant mountains behind and the Aegean, the islands of Marago, Arkos and Tzougriaki and the Greek mainland in front and to the sides. Our Lunch stop, the Final Step has equally stunning views (and the food's not bad either). Doreen tucked into a fullsome dish of Spaghetti Carbonara which, interestingly had sliced mushrooms in as well as the usual ham(bacon) and cheese. I opted for the Penne with Mozzarella, stringy, elastic and very tasty. Service was efficient and friendly, the food well cooked and presented but the real attraction was the setting with pomegranate and walnut trees just outside and the mingling aromas of seafood, chicken and onions cooking gently in the background. And not a damn motorbike in sight (or ear shot)!

Another great place we stumbled across (almost literally because we'd just come out of the Old Port House, an English bar with large draught Mythos on offer at 1.5 Euros!) was in the backstreets to the west of Papadiamantis. It is called Varthalamis and we knew it would be good as soon as we saw some of the locals eating there. Like a lot of the eateries here it seems to be family run operation with the mother taking charge of the cooking while her son waits on. On our first visit we went a little crazy and ordered starters as well as a main course, always a dangerous thing to do in Greece! Doreen's starter was cheese fritters, five of them, the size of tennis balls! My cheese pie was not the usual dainty triangles of filo warpped cheese and spinach, not even the 2x2x3 slice from a larger pie but a great spiral of sausage shaped pie which filled the plate! Needless to say what I could manage of it was delicious but with mains already ordered, grilled sardines for Doreen, Moussaka for myself, I didn't want to let the side down. The sardines, on the small side admittedly, were nonetheless scrumptious and very more-ish. The moussaka was (thankfully) in a smaller dish than imagined and was again packed with flavour from the aubergine, onion, tomato and mince. It was drier than the moussaka generally served in British Greek restaurants and wasn't swimming in gloopy cheese sauce thank goodness. A complimentary dessert, a sesame seed flavoured moist cake, was a lovely afterthought but ensured that the return to the apartment was by taxi. Yes, walking would have been the healthier option but we were incapable of it by that stage! A second visit a few days later saw us wiser from experience - we steered clear of the starters and just opted for a main course each.

Post Holiday Blues

Sunday 19 September. Been back from Skiathos two days now and it's never stopped raining!!! Hope it doesn't wash my tan off before I can parade it.

Had a lovely time on Skiathos...we even had a thunderstorm and torrential rain on the first day proper just to remind us of Manchester. The rest of the week though - what a scorcher! Approx 11 hours of sunshine a day, temperatures up in the high 20s and at times a bit too hot (it's the English way to complain about the weather no matter how nice it is). The apartment we stayed in, Hotel Elsa, was about a kilometre or so outside the main town located just off the ring road! It is a lovely place, run by Horst, a German (with a sense of humour!) and his Greek wife Elsa (hence the name of the hotel). Except it isn't a hotel in the strictest sense of the word, more of a block of self catering apartments which looked out over the pool and bar area. Everything was covered in grape vines but for some reason which I never found out Horst wasn't allowed to pick the grapes for wine making...it would have been a great USP for the bar if he could. Horst is a Bayern Munich fan and I was expecting quite a bit of grief from him after last season's Champion's League match against them and Rafael's red card (courtesy of Ribery, Roben and company) but Horst was either very diplomatic or he was suffering from short term memory loss and was hoping that I wouldn't bring up the subject of the '99 Final! As our flight from Manchester got into Skiathos in the evening all we did on that first day was have a few drinks with Horst and the other new arrivals before a very warm night in our basic but clean apartment. More to follow on Skiathos when I get the time