Evening Excursion to Alonissos
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Advertising exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Ingrid Pintgen and opening night piano recital by David Lane
Originally planned for Monday evening, the 23rd, an excursion on The Glass Bottom Boat “Sporades Queen I” to the neighbouring island of Alonissos was postponed until Thursday, the 26th, due to high winds. Of course, on Monday I was still staying in Damouhari on The Pelion. The reason for the excursion was to attend the opening night of an exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Ingrid Pintgen, a Dutch lady and piano recital by David Lane who is English, at The Alonissos (Pirate) Museum in Patitiri. The lovely Sophie who owns the accommodation where I am staying here on Skopelos, asked me if I would like to go with her and Stasi, a lady from Poland who has been living here for four years and works for Sophie. As the cost for the boat trip was only 10 Euro, I decided it would be a great opportunity to see something of Alonissos and also, it would make a change from the usual things one does when visiting the Greek Islands.
In perfect weather, we set off from Skopelos town, where cafes and restaurants, mulberry and plane trees line the harbour. Departure 1830 hours, arriving at Patitiri just 35 minutes later. Not a particularly charming settlement and I can only assume, that following the 1965 earthquake in which the island suffered heavy damage, new housing was hastily constructed with very little thought being given to character or image. The one exception being The Alonissos (Pirate) Museum, founded in 2000 by Kostas and Angela Mavrikis, it is the largest privately owned museum on any Greek island. A four-storey building displaying the cultural inheritance of the island, the museum also focuses on weapons and objects used in the early days by the pirates of the Aegean Sea.
With a cup of wine in hand, there was plenty of time to look at all the museum exhibits and to view Ingrid’s exhibition of paintings and ceramics, before David’s piano recital began. With limited seating on the balcony where he played, many of us chose to sit out in the Cafe on the balcony above and look down on what was happening below, the only drawback to this being, when he played quieter pieces, it was a little difficult to hear. I kept company with Michael who lives on Skopelos and a relative of his – Amy, a delightful 17 year old who travelled alone for the first time to spend two weeks on Skopelos. The magic of a red moon rising up from the Aegean Sea as we sat there on the balcony – a perfect compliment to the evening. I promised to email Amy my photographs of this as she had never seen anything like it before.
With 30 minutes to spare before returning to Skopelos at 2230 hours, I joined Ingrid, David and his wife Penny and a few others for a beer at a harbour front cafe then returned to my same seat on the top deck of the boat, meeting up once again with Sophie and Stasi. With a warm wind blowing, our journey back to Skopelos allowed time for quiet reflection on what had been, a pleasant diversion.
In need of a good walk (walkers will understand how it becomes an addiction) yesterday I set off to find the old back road to Stafilos beach, some four kilometres from Skopelos town. A little overcast and a light breeze made for perfect walking conditions as a soldiered on along the dirt road with olive groves all around me and no distractions. Passed two small churches and strange looking sheep, I believe sheep herds on the island belong to a distinctive group called a “Skopelos Sheep” breed.
The beach itself I would rate average. Typically infested with sunbeds and umbrellas costing 7 Euro for two persons, after a dip in the sea, I found a comfortable log to sit on in the sun for half an hour, before a second dip and my return to Skopelos town. Fortunately, for me it was more about the walk than finding a nice beach – if I want the beach, I have it directly across the road from my apartment and there is also the swimming pool here which I have still to check out. Maybe sometime later after I have relocated to my Studio room. The weather today – well, it must have been made in heaven!