Karpathos - Olympos

It was time to move to Olympos, in the north of Karpathos. We still had our small rental car and we managed we managed to squeeze us, our bags plus the bike into it. Don't tell the rental company!

We didn't know what to expect at Olympos. We had heard that people still wore traditional clothes and that the village was spectacularly located, however we had also heard that tourists pour in here by the busloads. Would it be great? Would it be awful? We had booked a week here so we were about to find out.

With the bike forks wedged between us, we wound our way up the long, twisty road that runs up to the north of the island. As we neared the village we turned a corner and there it was! The village was perched precariously on the top of a steep hill with pastel-coloured houses running higgledy-piggledy down the sides. It was spectacular!

And it was even better later in sunshine!

We parked the car and carried our bags into the village to find our accommodation. Ladies in traditional clothes sat outside shops selling things to tourists. They all said hello and some called to us to come and look at their wares. Nobody hassled us though. We found our great apartment (it was really a house) and, over the next week, got to know the village and its people a lot better.

In a nutshell, our stay here was incredible! We got talking to someone in the mini market on our first day and she told us that some people here had connections with Halki. We met those people and soon we were on first-name basis with many locals.

Olympos is a village stuck in a time warp. Due to the difficult terrain around it, it has been cut off from the more populated southern part of the island for a long time. They didn't get electricity in Olympos until the1980's. To go anywhere distant, locals had to walk or ride a donkey to the closest port, an hour or two away, then they had to catch a boat to where they wanted to go. A sealed road was only built from Pigadia to Olympos about 10 years ago. This isolation ensured that traditions were kept alive here as there were few outside influences.

Like on many other Greek islands, some people left here to go to other countries, particularly the US. Many came back after a while though and this means that there's a lot of English spoken which was very helpful to us!

It's hard to judge exactly how strong the traditions are as the daily influx of tourists has changed things. Most people selling scarves, jewellery and trinkets to the tourists tend to wear the traditional dresses.(Only the women wear traditional clothes - the men just wear regular clothes.) Some women change out of them when they close their stores for the day but the older ladies still wear them as their everyday clothes.

We met so many wonderful people here:

Archontoula - We had read about Archontoula in Jen Barclay's book and were keen to meet her. The kafeneio that she runs with her husband fronts a small lane and backs onto a larger one. To enter from the larger lane, you open a small door, climb the steps and enter the cafe from behind the counter!

Archontoula was such a character. Around 80 years old, she was very sharp with a real spark. Her bright eyes didn't miss a trick and she loved to have a joke, often at my expense. After the first day or so, she  started mimicking my laugh. One day we were sitting at a taverna when suddenly this weird, cackling laugh that she did came pealing across the square. Archontoula had seen me and announced herself this way. After a while my name seemed to be "hahaha"!

I wish I had filmed this the right way up!

When I asked to take this photo, Archontoula was a little concerned as it was a hot day and she had removed the heavy black dress that goes over the top of this white one. She wears traditional clothes all the time.

Sadly, she didn't speak much English, so communication was through a few simple words or through her husband who could speak better English but, at 83 years old, Phillippas was fairly deaf. I'd love to be able to communicate with her properly.

John and Phillippas outside the kafeneio which butts up against a gorgeous little church.

Philippas and Archontoula took over the kafeneio from Phillippas' father in 1962 and it had been open every day since! 

We would often just hang out at the kafeneio, talking to people who went past, or sitting happily in silence with these wonderful people. In the daytime John would have coffee. In the evening we would often have a drink. Drinks are usually served with some sort of food and we had all sorts of homemade goodies here - olives from Avlona (the next village), salads, pickled vegetables, fresh cucumbers and, one night, amazing chick-pea stew. We felt so privileged to experience this quintessential part of Greek life and will always be grateful to Archontoula and Phillippas for sharing their kafeneio with us.

Foula - Foula was around our age and was really great. She and her mother ran a shop selling things to tourists. Foula wore traditional clothes during the day when she was working then changed out of them afterwards. Foula's shop was also a bit of a hangout. We would go there and talk and meet new people.

Sofia, Foula's mum, moved to the US when she was young but her husband died when he was 43. I don't think she has ever got over it. She was lovely to talk to.

Maria is Sofia's daughter and Foula's sister. She lives in the US but spends a fair bit of time in Olympos and Rhodes. Luckily for us she was in Olympos when we were there and was staying in a house opposite the kafeneio so we saw her a lot. She was a wonderful woman and we got on really well with her. She told us really interesting stories about the history and people of Olympos.

There was also Alexandrina who ran the sole mini market. She was so sweet. We were sitting at Foula's shop one day when she walked past so we got a photo of everyone! From left to right: Sofia, me, Foula, Alexandrina and Maria.

Not everyone we met was a woman though! Nikos was a restaurant owner who lived in the US for many years. He returned to the village, married a local lady (rumour has it she was chosen by his parents) and has been running the restaurant ever since. His grandfather was a photographer so, during covid, he dug out all his father's negatives and now has a great display of historical photos on the walls.

Nikos told us a great story. He was beside the sea one day when people started yelling that there was a huge octopus in the water. Without thinking, he jumped in and grabbed it, as only a Greek would do! Unfortunately for Nikos, the huge octopus fought back. Tentacles went in his mouth and ears and suckers stuck to him. It wrapped itself around him and he couldn't come up for air. It almost drowned him but he eventually got it and himself out of the water. He was covered in ink but he did it!

The priest, Pappa Yiannis, was another welcoming guy. He usually hung out in the main square with the village men.

There was also Poppy who worked in one of the restaurants and gave me a lift to the ferry on our last day. I was thrilled when she pulled up at one of the gorgeous little churches on our way out of the village. It was her family's church and she invited me to join her. I watched as she lit candles, refilled oil in the tea-candle holder and lit incense. The inside of the church was filled with bunches of flowers and flowering basil. 

We met a lovely German lady one day who has been coming here since the 1980's. She remembers when every family had their own oven and when she walked around the village the smell of baking bread would be everywhere. There are many old ovens around the village still. Only a few are being used today.

The village is so pretty. It's full of whitewashed and pastel-coloured houses, narrow lanes and spectacular views are everywhere.

I heard there were about 70 churches in the village. This one was built in 1889 and is right next to the kafenio. Archontoula keeps the candles lit in here.

Apparently this was one of the oldest churches in Karpathos. It was perched on a small hill overlooking the village. It's supposed to be 2,000 years old. It certainly looked ancient but I think it's a little younger than that.

There was no door or windows but someone was keeping the church clean and was leaving candles. There were patches of plaster still on the walls that had very old painted patterns on them. How lovely that an atmospheric old church like this was still being used!

Looking a lot fresher was this gorgeous church built in 1720.

Equally old paintings decorated wooden panels inside. On top of those were very modern, vibrantly-coloured textile panels!

The main church in the centre of the village was really large and also had really old paintings lining the walls and ceilings.

I had a blast wandering around the village. Many places had distinctive carved doors and gates.

The houses are unique. Traditionally, the main part of the house is one large room which houses the beds and a living area. The beds are the main feature. The framework is all hand-carved and colourful embroidery decorates the room. Plates line the walls as decoration when they're not being used. The parents would sleep on one level and the children on another level. In front of the beds was the living area. Our house had a room set up downstairs to show us what it was like. We saw others too but they weren't as pristine as this one, which was kept behind a locked glass door.

We saw a few of these rooms but, just in case we had any doubt of their authenticity, a ruined building just a few doors down from us had the same bed setup rotting away inside. It even had a plate on a rack on the wall and other plates were scattered across the floor.

Four pegs stuck out of the wall opposite and a rusty mug still hung from one. It was like the inhabitants just got up and left one day.

The kitchens were usually a separate room attached to the main house.

The house we stayed in was built into the hill. Dehumidifiers ran all the time but we could see the plaster flaking off inside from the rising damp. Goats above us knocked rocks onto our roof and into the gap between the wall and the cliff. At some stage people must have to shovel the rocks out or the windows will get covered - or smashed!

Many places had unique balconies with hand-painted images on them.

The village has over 80 old windmills. Some are in ruins, some are renovated and most are somewhere in-between, They're so picturesque!

One restaurant had tables beneath the windmill. It was a great place to watch the sunset - on a day that's not too windy!

Some of the windmills still have their original workings inside. The wheels and cogs are all made from wood! This one has probably been restored.

I had to step over a dead goat to get inside this one! All its parts seemed to still be there but they were just quietly rotting away.

There are oodles of cats in this village and the occasional goat....

Despite the tourists, life goes on as usual in the village. One day we saw this man loading donkeys with building blocks to take to a house in the village. Every path in the village has steps and the lanes are narrow so no vehicles can go inside. Donkeys are a good way of carrying bulky items in.

He had to load up in the busy car park. Luckily for the donkeys, the bricks weren't heavy.

There are many long-time visitors to this island and we can see why. We met this woman who had a map of the island tattooed on her arm!

During the day the main laneway was lined with tourist shops. The women would sit outside sewing beads onto scarves but I'm not sure how much of the stock was actually even Greek, let alone made in Olympos.

We had read that Olympos also used to have weaving looms outside many houses but I was sad to learn there are no more weavers in the village. The last one died recently.

Some of the ladies here made tiny traditional costumes and put them on Barbie dolls!

We did some great rides and walks from here. John got this pic of his bike, a gorgeous gate and donkeys at Avlona, the next village.

This is such a mountainous island to cycle on!

One day I dropped John off past Avlona and he rode back through agricultural areas with vast views in places.

I then walked from Avlona down to Vroukounta, a ruined ancient city. The start of the track was covered with fig trees. Cool!

The views were amazing.

My maps app showed something called "Shields Tomb" just off the track. I couldn't work the name out - it didn't seem possible that there would have been someone called Shield and I couldn't see why a shield would have a tomb. I investigated and the answer was immediately revealed. Three large shields were carved into the stone tomb.

The old city of Vroukounta was abandoned in the 7th or 8th century because the inhabitants were being attacked by Saracen pirates. The people moved inland to the current site of Olympos,

There were cool tombs carved into rocks.

Stone walls were built with precisely cut stones.

Ancient stone steps could still be seen carved into the cliffs.

There were so many stone walls, but I couldn't work out where the houses were as these all seemed to be the size of yards, not houses.

At the end of the peninsula was a gorgeous church bell. 

When I got back I found out that I didn't see the famous church in a cave which was directly underneath the bell. Archontoula took great delight in rubbing this in! I was really disappointed that I missed it as it took me 3.5 hours to do that walk, including looking at things. The lack of info we have is disappointing. Usually our Lonely Planet books are all we need, but there is nowhere near enough info in the one we have.

Another walk went to the top of a nearby mountain - Profitas Ilias. There is actually more than one mountain here with the same name. It's very confusing! Even though it was a long, steep climb, it was a cooler day and the views on the way up were amazing.

Looking up, I could see clouds ahead. Looking down, I could see Olympos far below me.

The clouds rolled over the top of a saddle. I only caught glimpses of the peak ahead of me. I had the option of turning off the summit track here so I did.

The walk down was lovely as wild sage was everywhere. 

I wanted to walk to a nearby beach so John thought he'd ride his bike. It turned out to be a lot steeper than we realised!

We left John's bike at the end of the road and scrambled down to the beach. We couldn't ask for a more picturesque bike rack!

The geology here was really cool with bands of stone striped through the shale. This church was built into a cave.

I had a swim then we had to return back up the hill. John pushed his bike more than he rode it!

We had to return our rental car to Pigadia and this took a bit of planning as public transport is infrequent. First we drove the car back to Pigadia .We then hopped on the ferry to the port of Diafani. We were back on Blue Star Chios once again. The Blue Star line takes the larger cars and trucks and it was fascinating watching how the truck transport works. At one port a semi-trailer drives into the ferry, unhooks the trailer and drives out again. At the destination post, an empty truck drives into the ferry, hooks up the trailer, and drives out with it.

Diafani was a lovely beachside town. It was a bit like Olympos but much smaller. One or two women wore traditional costumes. It had a fountain that depicted traditional agricultural activities. I loved this panel that shows how they used to swim cows the 100 metres across to Saria island, off the tip of Karpathos, where they would use them to plough paddocks. We saw old photos of this being done too.

I had a swim at the lovely beach here. We ate lunch then caught the bus back to Olympos.

John finds some spectacular locations to practice karate!

The town was still buzzing with the news that Tom Hanks had visited the month before. Foula and Papa Yiannis managed to get their photo taken with Tom and his wife. 

An article in a Greek newspaper about this is pretty funny. If you want to read it, you can find it here.

Sometimes it's the little things that we love the most. We were sitting at Nikos' restaurant one night and an old man walked up to the door. He had a stick over his shoulder and a bag was tied to the stick, just like you see in old pictures. Nikos came out, took the bag from the stick and the old man went on his way with just his stick. He had delivered the special wheat that is used to make the rusk breads here. 

Life here is the same as anywhere else though in some ways. We learned about family feuds, people who don't get on and people's disappointments with life or other people. In our discussions, a number of women were in tears! As much as living in a small village seems so wonderful on the outside, I guess it's not all perfect on the inside.

We both find it weird that Olympos is on the same island as all the other places in Karpathos that we wrote about in our last blog post. Olympos felt like a totally different world to the rest of the island. It seemed to me that Olympos is an island to itself only it had been isolated by mountains, not by the sea.

We were so sad to leave. Foula's sister lives on Halki and we had offered to take some things to her. On our last afternoon we went to pick up the goodies. Not only did we leave with a huge bag for her sister but we each received a bracelet and some chocolate and we ate watermelon with the family. There were many hugs goodbye. On our last night we said goodbye to Archontoula and she cried! On our way out the next morning we quickly said goodbye again and she handed me a bag she had ready. It contained some large rusk breads for our journey. Everyone is so kind and caring.

What a truly unique and magical place this was. It goes down as a highlight in all our travels.

Heather and John