In my mind’s eye, I have always seen Greece as whitewashed houses trimmed in bright blue, clinging to craggy shorelines in the light of a blindingly bright sun. Gorgeous, of course. But what I found when I finally went is that Greece is exactly as I imagined it — and yet much, much better.
We met Helios, a 115-foot Falcon motoryacht, in Poros, a tiny island in the Saronic Gulf that’s just a stone’s throw from the mainland. The waterfront there was studded with charming shops, and the hills as we passed through the channel to the sea were thick with pines. This island is believed to have been inhabited since the Bronze Age, and I was sorry not to have more time to explore. But we were on our way to the nearby island of Hydra.
Hydra also lies in the Saronic Islands. No cars, trucks or motorized vehicles (except garbage trucks!) are allowed here. The lovely town is wrapped around the harbor, so it’s easy to travel by foot, bike or donkey. Every drop of water that the island needs is imported (ironic, considering hydra means water), and despite its super chic ambience, it has a rugged, spare sort of beauty. Once a great shipping center, it was known as “Little England,” though of course both the food and the weather are much better.
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We continued on to Syros (above), which is the administrative center of the Cyclades and an island that’s less visited by international vacationers, though many Greek tourists vacation here. Perhaps that’s why I immediately loved it — it had a bustling commercial center along the waterfront and a shy beauty that didn’t clobber me over the head like its postcard pretty neighbors. Behind the street that runs along the natural port of Ermopouli, though, we walked streets paved in stone and marble past ancient churches and up through the hillside neighborhood of Vaporia, which is studded with neoclassical captains’ houses overlooking a stunning sea vista. In the evening we strolled through the ancient hilltop streets of Anos Syros and stumbled upon a traditional taverna, empty except for the owner and a bouzouki player strumming rebetiko songs. Michael Skoulikidis, CEO of charter company Atalanta Golden Yachts and our host aboard Helios, explained that rebetiko is a form of folk music that focuses on the travails of working people — and in Greece’s current climate of austerity it is experiencing a real revival in popularity.
