Day 1, Landing in Skyros

It is not straight forward to get to Skyros; the island has a domestic airport with 40 min flights from Athens only 3-4 times per week with Olympic airways, and 50 min flights from Thessaloniki with Sky Express twice a week. Ferries from Kymi, a port in Euboea, 3 hours north of Athens sail daily to Skyros, a 90-minute journey. That’s it. No connections to other local ports or airports, except an occasional charter flight from Europe in the summer.

I met up in Athens with my two grown daughters, following a pledge we have made years back; to visit a new Greek island every summer- there are so many on our list- Greece has over 200 inhabited islands- we will never run out of destinations. This summer we chose Skyros.

Our twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 landed in this tiny airport, some 40 passengers, and we walked on the tarmac, the blazing sun welcoming us. No rush, we were taking photos, and chatting with other passengers about the experience ahead. By the time we got our luggage and met Anastasis from Martina’s car rental, the airport was locked for the day. 3 fellow passengers were stranded. “Don’t worry”, Anastasis advised them, “the taxi will come back to get you”

We gave them our cell number, in case it did not, and welcomed them to call on us for a ride if needed. But as it invariably happens in Greece, things work out- 6 miles down the deserted road we crossed a taxi hastily coming up their way.

Stay tuned for what follows...