The Greek Islands: Mykonos, Icaria, Chios

«Wild & Stormy Icaria»

«Icaria turned out to be a whole different story. However the island is almost next to Mykonos it has a different climate and is therefore very foresty and has a lot of variety in the landscape. We could pick the food of the ground, and picked herbs like sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, a camomille variety, malve, and vegetables like wild carrot for our dishes. But it is not only the climate that makes Icaria special. It is also the course of history that gave Icaria a special identity.»

«Icarian people did not had it easy in the course of history due to famines, the wars in the 1940s and constant piracy and Turkish occupation. These circumstances made them also innovative, brave and authentic. For example they destroyed their ports to protect themselves against pirates. Consequently this made them one of the best boat engineers in the Cyclades, because they needed to develop special trics to come on shore.»

«In 1912 they also had their own revolution against the Turkish and declared independence for five months. These months they also had their own flag, national anthem, own stemps etc. However, they were occupied by Turkey again while the rest of Greece became a united country. During the Greek civil war (1946-1949) the exiled communists were send to the island which gave Icaria the nickname ‘the Red rock”.»

«Anthony J. Papalas wrote an interesting book about the history of the island titled, «Rebels and Radicals». And somehow you can feel this identity when you wonder around the island. An island that for a long time did not have a lot of connections with the outside world, except for some trade with the neighbouring islands. In the 1970s the Greek government started to invest in the island to boost touristy industry. And however summer can be busy, Icaria remained under the radar of many tourists.»

«Icarian communities»

«The night we arrived it was rainy and stormy. We found a beach recommended by an Icarian we found through couchsurfing. Camping life started here, so we discovered that we had only a few tent pins and that our old tent was not waterproof. The tent got blown away almost two times, until we found an old building we could hide under. The next day was full of sunshine so we could dry our stuff and call our first contact: Lefteris from couchsurfing.»

«Lefteris responded that we were welcome to stay at his house. We were very lucky to meet him and his girlfriend Irini and not only because we were save from story nights. After cycling some pretty challenging mountain Lefteris picked us up to bring us to a music jam session at his friends house. We arrived in a beautiful little cottage house. Niko the owner transformed four old walls into a cousy house filled with soul.»

«We were lucky to arrive that weekend because there were several fiestas before the Greek fasting period of 40 days. Friends gather together make delicious food, bring their own wine and their music instruments for some cousy evenings. We were offered some great food, wine and company. Thereby the music jam sessions with typical Greek instruments was amazing to experience.»

«The night after we visited the second house where many people gathered and the table was filled with fava, the meat of their own pig, bulgur salads, rice, roasted bread, potatoes and of course local strong red wines. These fiesta gatherings were really amazing and we met many great people. We could stay three nights at Lefteris place. He showed us the area and Irini showed us her little soap factory. Which can be read here. We said goodbye and started our cycling journey around the island.»

«We camped at some amazing places. Also at the famous Seychelles beach with water so blue, you have to wear sunglasses. However at this beach we endured a very stormy night again where Sara was afraid we would get caught between the sea and the rocks. However everything turned out to be fine and we woke up at one of the most beautiful beaches of the islands.»

«During camping we built campfires and cook our vegetables with rice and bouillon: a delicious meal. We have breakfast with three different kind of fruits and oats. We need to stay healthy for the mountains we have to climb.»

«When we ask people to fill up our water we often get many treats. In ten days we cycled form north Icaria to south, to north again to pick up the forgotten phone at the post office and to south again where our ferry would leave. In the south we discovered the amazing hot springs: for free, nobody there, where you can chill in a hot bath in the sea.»

«Near Agios Kerykos, the capital we met the 76-year old Helene in a dark street. A lonely lady who speaks English fluently because she lived and married in America for a while. She could not walk well but that did not keep her from giving us a tour and telling about her growing up on the island. A tough time. According to Helen the second world war was not such a bad period compared to the Greek civil war. And also the conservative climate and strict education made it hard for her, especially because she was an orphan. Her bad marriage with the American tha did not want to have children with an orthodox christian woman did not made it a lot easier afterwards.»

«She was so happy to meet us that she insisted to treat us ” the best pizza in Icaria”. We exchanged phone numbers and the next day we met Helene at restaurant Feloti. Where she told us she is a joker. She wants to make jokes all the time, but at night she cries in her bed she says. Being strucked by all kind of diseases like artritos. We enjoyed her stories so much and are very happy to meet this chatty and lively old lady in the dark streets of Icaria.»

«In two days we managed to go from south to north to pick up our phone. It started to rain pretty bad and the way was longer than we imagined. However we did manage to see the Icarian carnaval parade in Evdilos. We contacted Yannis, a friend of Lefteris who saved us and took us on our last night to another fiesta with again great food, wine and people. A perfect goodbye to this special island. We could spend the night at a french guy we met a the party and after some nice breakfast we left for our way back to the other side of the island where we would leave by ferry to our third island: Chios.»