{"id":2599,"date":"2017-09-28T05:22:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/?p=2599"},"modified":"2017-09-29T14:22:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T20:22:08","slug":"39-steps-to-getting-lost-in-skopelos-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/39-steps-to-getting-lost-in-skopelos-town\/","title":{"rendered":"39 Steps To Getting Lost in Skopelos Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s raining this morning in sunny Skopelos, and the sea is the roughest I’ve seen since I landed here a week ago. Sofia reckons\u00a0it’s Maria, who hasn’t hit the UK yet, but\u00a0seems to be\u00a0well on her way to Europe. \u00a0I thought I’d use the name she has given this house\u00a0to describe a lovely morning I had doing one of the things I\u00a0do\u00a0best, getting lost in a town that is smaller than Gramercy Park.<\/p>\n

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  1. \"\"<\/a>Buy a map. <\/em>\u00a0That’s right, buy a map of Skopelos and good luck\u00a0trying to find\u00a0any\u00a0house on it.<\/li>\n
  2. Remember landmarks.<\/em> Wait, is that the church that’s next to the well that’s on the way to my house or is it one that looks exactly like that one.<\/li>\n
  3. Remember which way to go from those landmarks.<\/em> \u00a0How am I supposed to do that? There are so many.<\/li>\n
  4. Just keep walking up.<\/em> I did that, and then eventually\u00a0I had to walk down.<\/li>\n
  5. Look for the bougainvillea.\u00a0<\/em>Maybe this works in June or July.<\/li>\n
  6. Just keep walking up.<\/em> I did that already, it didn’t work.<\/li>\n
  7. Follow the signs on the walls. \u00a0<\/em>That worked! \u00a0Yeah, but now how do\u00a0I get back?<\/li>\n
  8. It’s next to the white house.<\/em> \u00a0Ha, now you’re just screwing with me.<\/li>\n
  9. You can see my neighbor’s ugly brown balcony from the harbor. <\/em>\u00a0Yeah, but I can’t see it up here.<\/li>\n
  10. Ask for “Sofia Czecha.”<\/em> \u00a0This would work too,\u00a0except don’t ask a\u00a0cute old lady\u00a0unless your Greek is really good.<\/li>\n
  11. There’s a monastery right in town, you can’t miss it.<\/em> Wanna bet?<\/li>\n
  12. See that building? It’s just behind that.<\/em> \u00a0I know I said “Yes”, but I really didn’t see the building.<\/li>\n
  13. Go past the nameingreekiwillneverremember until you get to anothernameingreekidefinitelywontremember then do something something when you see Ayios Someone.<\/em>\u00a0Yeah, I didn’t even try that one.<\/li>\n
  14. There is probably a sign to where you want to go.<\/em> \u00a0But I want to go everywhere.<\/li>\n
  15. Just keep walking up.<\/em> \u00a0That didn’t work in town, what makes you think that’s going to work in the woods.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I really could go on with 24 more, but I think you get the gist. \u00a0When I was in Athens, I asked my friend Zeta (who may want to consider a new career in\u00a0cartography), to draw me a map from her house to the tram station. \u00a0It was like\u00a03 blocks from her house and dead\u00a0simple, but any time we either walked or drove from there I was yapping away and not paying attention. \u00a0Of course I’m going to keep this map forever, took a picture of it too and was going to post it but was worried how easy it would be for undesirables\u00a0across the interwebs to find her house! \u00a0I think I really need to learn some conversational Greek (not just food and curses!) so I don’t instantly forget things like street names, landmarks and directions.<\/p>\n

    So this day of getting lost was a particularly nice day, I was up early, the weather was wonderful and I had a good 6 hours before I had to start work. \u00a0Skopelos, ancient Peparithos, is a very interesting island historically. There\u00a0is evidence of\u00a0neolithic and bronze age settlements, which I still get\u00a0a little too excited about\u2014there are Mycenanean tombs here in the middle of the island and no one knows how to get there\u2014and there is evidence of continuous occupation and settlements through early Greek and Roman periods as well. There are only a handful of sites that are organized for visiting, one of them is the\u00a0Asclepieion of Peparithos, the ancient medical center which is right along\u00a0the harbor and dates to around 4th C BC, but other than an information placard there’s not much there and you can’t enter and walk around the scant ruins. \u00a0I figured I’d just take a walk around the bay, and go for a nice hike. \u00a0I looked at my cheap map with pictures and thought I might be able to get lost just enough to find that Minoan palace!<\/p>\n