My Hammock

Very close to my little hut, there was a hammock. It was not my personal hammock, it was for the free use of people who were staying, for one or two weeks, or for the summer, at our little camp near the sea.

But because the hammock was very close to my hut, I used it a lot.

In the evening, when the crickets were singing in the pines, the Scops Owls began their eternal “doub…doub…doub”. These owls were not all going at the same speed, so you would have two starting together, but one was faster than the other, and the birds phased in and out.

When I was in bed at night, I fell asleep amused by listening to them, and to the crickets that do not stop singing all at once, but one after another, moving slowly towards silence.

There was very little in the shack except for the bed: a clothes rail, a chair, and that's about it. For washing and other needs, there were collective facilities outside.

My neighbour was a yoga instructor.

Beyond the walls, there was, almost forgotten, the eternal blue of the Aegean Sea.

We were, of course, in Greece. On the island of Skyros, among the Sporades Islands. It was in Skyros that the English poet Rupert Brooke died on April 23, 1915. He is buried there, in a public place but away from the tourist trails. The island is home to a landrace of horses – small, as is the norm for islands breeds, and quite rare. During one of my stays in Skyros, a woman in our group was so fascinated by these horses that she moved to Skyros to work with them.

Speaking of nature, a very strong symbol of Skyros for me, and of Greece and the Mediterranean, is Eleonora's falcon. A medium-sized bird of prey, which, unusually, breeds in autumn, in order to feed its young on migratory birds.

The town of Khora, capital of Skyros, is quintessentially Greek with its small white houses and narrow streets; and then you have the port of Linaria where the liner comes from the neighbouring island, Evoia. It is also possible to arrive by plane, but the trip from Athens via Evoia is a classic. Not to be missed: the Faltaits Museum, a place of history, literature and folklore.

And then also you have Atsitsa. A former industrial port – relics of its past remain in the sea near the island – Atsitsa is today known for the Alternative Tourist Centre. Where I stayed on four occasions – as well as a week in Khora, where some courses, for example creative writing courses, take place. We spent the days in trying new things, for example painting or yoga. Afternoons were for siestas or going to the beach – I'm not a person for beaches, I prefer to go swimming, and then get out of the water and back to the café nearby, nicknamed “Marianna’s Sunset Café” or “Le Ktima d'Atsitsa.” 'Ktima' means in this sense 'a place apart' or a refuge. There is good coffee and excellent ice cream here.

It's a simple life, for a little while each year, which of course requires a complicated life to pay for it.

The next time I go to Greece, it is quite possible that it will be mainland Greece, in Thessaloniki, where a few decades ago, I spent six months … but that is another story.

 

Skyros Guide: https://www.greeka.com/sporades/skyros/

Atsitsa: https://www.aroundskyros.com/villages/atsitsa

Scops Owl Call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkGP2OP7wvc

Eleonora's Falcon: https://ebird.org/species/elefal1