Η Σύρος στους Times του Λονδίνου

Η Σύρος πρωταγωνιστεί σε ένα εκτενές αφιέρωμα της βρετανικής ημερήσιας εφημερίδας "The Times" με τίτλο "Discover Syros, the secret Greek island" στο περιεχόμενο του οποίου γίνεται αναλυτική παρουσίαση των όμορφων "μυστικών" της πρωτεύουσας των Κυκλάδων. 

Ένα νησί που δεν θυμίζει το παραδοσιακό νησιώτικο τοπίο, αλλά ξεχωρίζει για τη μοναδική αρχιτεκτονική και πολιτιστική κουλτούρα του κερδίζοντας από την πρωτη στιγμή τον επισκέπτη τυγχάνει μίας αξιοσημείωτης προβολής εκτός συνόρων... 

Το πλήρες κείμενο του αφιερώματος

From our first sight of Syros, it was clear we weren’t in Mamma Mia!territory. Yes, it’s a beautiful, sunny Greek island. But as the ferry sailed into port at Ermoupoli there was no sign of the simple blue-and-white buildings of the stereotypical fishing harbour. Instead, we were greeted by the elegant pastel architecture of a stylish capital city, with neo-classical mansions and marbled streets climbing the hill behind the waterfront. My my, how could we resist it?

The city’s somewhat faded beauty, such as the old shipyard to one side of the harbour, is a product of the island’s prosperous industrial past. Ermoupoli was built by refugees from the 1821 Greek revolution against Turkish rule. They named it Hermoupoulis after Hermes, the god of commerce, and, in the early decades of the independent nation, Ermoupoli was at the cutting edge of Greece’s commercial, naval and intellectual life. More important to trade than Piraeus, the port of Athens, Syros earned itself the name Manchester of Greece. Today Syros is still the beating heart of the popular Cyclades group of islands. Yet remarkably it remains relatively undiscovered by British and foreign tourists, who flock to more fashionable neighbouring islands such as Mykonos. That is our loss. We have been missing out on one of the most authentically Greek yet sophisticatedly European islands the Aegean has to offer.

When I first visited the Cyclades, 35 years ago, an ageing British beach bum told us backpacking students that each winter “the Greeks let all the air out of these islands and tow them away into storage”. Not on Syros they don’t; as the economic and administrative hub of the Cyclades, it remains a buoyant living and working island all year round, with a beautiful cosmopolitan capital city whose seafront district, where the old mansions meet the waves, richly deserves the overworked moniker “Little Venice”.

As a consequence, Syros boasts not only the obligatory sandy beaches, but also some of the best restaurants, culture and architecture anywhere in Greece — and not at international tourist prices.

One reason why Syros is not quite on the tourist map is the lack of an international airport for direct flights. You can fly to Mykonos and hop next door to Syros by ferry. We took the truly scenic route: fly into Athens, taxi across the city to the port of Piraeus, then cruise across the tranquil sea for three and a half hours on a new Blue Star ferry. Our holiday started on the boat, with the addedBONUS of a weekend stopover in Athens on the way home.

The ferry took us to the centre of Ermoupoli, the place that most sets a trip to Syros apart from your average island holiday. As a symbol of wealth and prowess the city’s old merchants and industrialists paved its streets not withGOLD but with imported marble. Most of the industry has gone now, but the air of grandeur remains. Many Ermoupoli landmarks, such as the magnificent city hall and Miaoulis Square of the Apollon Theatre, sometimes likened to La Scala in Milan, were designed by 19th-century German and Italian architects in a neo-classical style — sort of Greek classicism meets Renaissance romanticism.

You stroll (and sometimes slide) along those impressively shiny marble streets amid the evening crowds of locals and Greek tourists, stopping over ice cream, drinks or loukoumi (the island’s famous sweet, “Greek delight”) to admire the elegant surroundings in shades that Mrs Hume thought must have inspired Farrow & Ball, the posh paint-makers back home.

A city is more than stone buildings, of course, and the people of Ermoupoli are as warm as the weather. Despite Greece’s economic problems, which have taken their toll on tourism here, the local people remain a solid, spirited and welcoming community, especially to visitors with hardCASH.

Above Ermoupoli, stretching up the hill, stands the older city of Anos Syros — Upper Syros. This is the original settlement, built high into the hillside as a fortress to protect its people against raids by pirate slavers, and watched over by the cathedral church of St George. Unusually among Greek islands, historical Frankish influence made Anos Syros a Roman Catholic rather than Greek Orthodox citadel, and Syros today is peaceably divided 60-40 between Orthodox and Roman communities.

Both churches are proud of the co-existence that led the Roman Catholics to seek special dispensation from the Pope to celebrate Easter at the same time as their Greek Orthodox neighbours. Today’s friendlier visitors to Anos Syros still have to park outside the city gates and walk through the narrow stone streets. It is a mere 895 steps to the top of the town.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, in the heat of the day, Anos Syros seemed as deserted as if Anosther slave raid were in progress. However, it breaksFREE and comes alive in the evening, a maze of craft shops, restaurants and bars. Many of these celebrate Markos Vamvakaris, the locally born bouzouki-playing legend of rebetiko — folk music described to us as “the Greek blues” — whose rebellious songs of passion and drugs were banned by Greece’s fascist dictator in the 1930s, but which are now lauded across Greece.

If you can tear yourselves away from the streets of Ermoupoli and Anos Syros, a quick car tour of Syros reveals an island where the contrasts are made starker by being so closely packed together in its 32 square miles. In short order you can go from the city boulevards to the beaches, from the hilly walking country of the north with its powerful scent of wild purple thyme to the fertile heartlands where villages sleep while crops are watered by the desalination plant that has made modern Greek civilisation possible.

Driving around the coastal road south of Ermoupoli revealed one golden beach after Another for us to explore — some wild with trees, some organised with bars and sunbeds, some in sheltered coves, some with surf-curling winds. But all came with a clear sparkling sea. In the far north there are beaches thought to have been pirate enclaves, accessible only by boat. The wind there was too strong on the day of our planned boat trip, so we made do with cold drinks and calamari on the beach farther south at Agathopes.

We were staying at the resort of Azolimnos, a short drive or cheap taxi ride down the east coast from the city, in the friendly family-run seaside hotel of Faros Resort, where they bring you poolside drinks and snacks without being asked and where there are views of nearby islands from the bedroom balconies. If you want to stay in Ermoupoli, there are handsome mansion hotels there, but our base in a seaside village close enough to enjoy the city on a daily basis gave us the best of both worlds.

Across the island we ate in restaurants that showed Syros is far more than a standard beach holiday. These are eateries aimed not at foreign visitors seeking the dreaded “international cuisine”, but for Greeks who not only live and work here all year round, but also make up most holiday visitors.

There is plenty of good souvlaki and moussaka on offer, and neighbourhood bars and cafés to enjoy an iced coffee or Alfa beer with the locals and without frills. However, there is much more besides. In Ermoupoli we sat by the harbour eating seafood outside restaurants such as Peri Tinos, or wandered into town to the tree-shaded street of Klonos and Kyparissou StefAnosu, crowded with outdoor tables of popular restaurants from the buzzing Stin Ithaki tou Ai at one end to the bargain Aeriko at the other.

At Allou Yialou restaurant at Kini Beach, we watched the sun set over the sea and ate an extraordinary eight-course menu that would take Anosther article to do justice to, but included sea greens with lemon and ginger dressing, royal herring roe mousse, and fresh squid grilled with feta, capers and ouzo sauce. At the stylish Archontariki Thalassa in the beach resort of Finikas, Anosther impressive meal featured veal and figs, local San Michalis cheese, and Santa Deux dessert wine, served by a magisterial mâitre d’ who told us that “Greece is about sun, song, culture and food. But mostly food.” Not a broken plate or bottle of retsina in sight.

What is different and attractively “authentic” about Syros was highlighted by our day trip to neighbouring Mykonos. A pretty island that is now a packed and pricy magnet for international tourism, Mykonos is a strange mix, where a shop selling hand-painted religious icons rubs shoulders with a bar advertising obscenely named cocktails on its outside wall. We left the island to the party crowd before sunset, happy to get back “home” to Syros and a quiet evening drink in the rooftop bar ofA MANSION HOTEL in the smart Vaporia district, listening to the bells of St Nicholas church rather than disco beats.

Syros is striving to attract more foreign visitors to fill the gap left by hard-up Greek tourists. We should accept the invitation, for our sake as much as theirs. The island is a secret of the Aegean that has been hiding in plain sight for far too long.

See Athens and the island

Our trip to Syros provided the excuse for a stopover in classical but cool Athens. I had not been to the Greek capital since the 1970s, when it seemed a dirty old town with a magnificent, if slightly mouldering, ancient cherry — the Parthenon — on top. The ancient jewels of Athens are still there, of course, now preserved and displayed better than ever.

Atop the Acropolis, the Parthenon remains the pinnacle of any trip. Our guide took us from the heat of the ancient stones to the airy new museum, putting all the art and architecture in the context of the historic struggles for democracy and civilisation versus savagery that have echoes today. Then, equally importantly, we enjoyed a Sunday lunch of lamb and local wine at the Attikos Greek House restaurant, boasting views of the Acropolis.

There is much more to discover in Athens, old and new. We strolled around the recently opened gardens of Aristotle’s Lyceum, along the paths where the great philosopher walked some 2,350 years ago. Even better for me was our trip to the site of Simon the shoemaker’s workshop, on the edge of the ancient agora or forum, where Socrates is said to have taught the youth of Athens to question everything before he was put to death for corrupting them with such heretical notions. However, you don’t have to be a history buff to enjoy modern Athens, a bustling city of Parisian-style cafés, parks, squares, chic shops and vibrant nightlife. Like many sprawling cities, most of the unmissable areas are concentrated in the compact heart. So a smart central hotel such as the St George Lycabettus, on the slope of that historic hill, was the ideal place to stay. There is a funicular to take you up Lycabettus for a view over the city, occasional smog permitting. However, we took the soft option of the lift to the hotel’s open-roofed restaurant. We ended our trip sitting at a table under the stars, looking across at the Parthenon illuminated by spectacular modern lighting — a view not even the gods on Mount Olympus could have commanded.