After visiting the sites of Brauron, Marathon, and Rhamnous, we headed towards Skyros. The drive was pretty long and uncomfortable, and my GOODNESS are the roads scary! Greece has the worst record for traffic fatalities for all of Europe and I can definitely see why. The roads are extremely narrow and winding and no one drives in their lane. Cars will fly past you and come within a few feet of hitting the oncoming traffic. Motorbikes will wind between you and the cars next to you, and also the oncoming traffic. The speed limit here really is non existent but in some places is marked 70km/hr, and 120km/hr on the highways. After a few hours we arrived at the ferry, a ride across the Aegean Sea for an hour and a half to the small island of Skyros. Arriving in Skyros we found a tour guide named Maria who was so in love with her native island that she wished to give us a free tour on our free day the following day for free. The little town of Skyros is absolutely adorable. Very narrow, winding roads find their way up to the top of a huge bluff where Theseus was said to be thrown off to his death. Unfortunately, I didn't get many good pictures of the bluff but I suggest googling Skyros because it was amazing. I did buy a book of postcards so I do have photos.
We spent the night and a big group of us went out for the night. All the coffee shops turn into bars, it was awesome! I did a lot of dancing and then headed back for a good sleep. The next morning I actually missed the first part of the optional tour because I did not have an alarm set and woke up a bit too late. Luckily, they came back at lunch time and I joined in. We visited the archaeological site of Palamari which was in the process of being dug out. It was super cool to see and it was situated right on the edge of the island with an absolutely spectacular view! I loved seeing the site, there was so much left there. We only spent a small amount of time there and then we came back to the hotel. I walked with two girls up the bluff and down the other side. The view from the top was breathtaking! Unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time we got up there, so we continued down the other side and to the beach where more people from our group were waiting. On the walk, I found a gorgeous stone, it was quartz crystals infused into an orange rock. I just had to pick it up because it was just lying in the middle of the road! We stayed at the beach for quite some time, taking in the view of it all. The beach was absolutely littered with all sorts of different coloured stones and rocks, all polished from the sea. I am talking about dump trucks full of little stones at the edge of the tide. The walk back took about 20 minutes but it was so free and amazing. There are sheep and goats everywhere on Skyros, all over the bluffs. They baa'd at us through our entire walk, it was so cute!
We spent one more night on Skyros and left at 6:20am the following morning for the town of Kalambaka, the site of the huge rock pinnacles and monasteries of Meteora.
We spent the night and a big group of us went out for the night. All the coffee shops turn into bars, it was awesome! I did a lot of dancing and then headed back for a good sleep. The next morning I actually missed the first part of the optional tour because I did not have an alarm set and woke up a bit too late. Luckily, they came back at lunch time and I joined in. We visited the archaeological site of Palamari which was in the process of being dug out. It was super cool to see and it was situated right on the edge of the island with an absolutely spectacular view! I loved seeing the site, there was so much left there. We only spent a small amount of time there and then we came back to the hotel. I walked with two girls up the bluff and down the other side. The view from the top was breathtaking! Unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time we got up there, so we continued down the other side and to the beach where more people from our group were waiting. On the walk, I found a gorgeous stone, it was quartz crystals infused into an orange rock. I just had to pick it up because it was just lying in the middle of the road! We stayed at the beach for quite some time, taking in the view of it all. The beach was absolutely littered with all sorts of different coloured stones and rocks, all polished from the sea. I am talking about dump trucks full of little stones at the edge of the tide. The walk back took about 20 minutes but it was so free and amazing. There are sheep and goats everywhere on Skyros, all over the bluffs. They baa'd at us through our entire walk, it was so cute!
We spent one more night on Skyros and left at 6:20am the following morning for the town of Kalambaka, the site of the huge rock pinnacles and monasteries of Meteora.
Some remains of Palamari:
At the edge of Palamari, the view of the bay:
Sitting at the beach with some ouzo and cherry juice!
The view of the bluff looking up from the beach: (the other side is just amazing, hundreds of teeny little houses just covering it!)
The view from the top of the bluff, looking down towards the beach:
The view on top of the bluff, looking inland at the houses that are just everywhere:
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