I set out on a trek this morning, navigating the narrow lanes of the ‘new’ town and found the way to the narrower, steeper lanes of the ‘old’ town!

Which way to go? Default to going uphill!

Ano Syros, or “upper” Syros is a medieval city established by Venetians in the 1100’s, on the hill behind the newer town of Ermoupolis. It was a fortified city on the top of the hill, crowned with Saint George Cathedral, my goal this morning.

I’ve got more climbing to do!

About 45 minutes later I got to the church!

I was so thankful for the sanctuary! It was relatively cool inside the church and I had it to myself to cool down, explore, genuflect before the alter and light a candle to those loved ones who have passed.

View out a window of the Cathedral towards the church on another hill, a true ‘coat of arms’ over a door frame revealed during restorations, the baptistry with a painting of John the Baptist of course!

I had a myriad of options to descend through the village back to the port! I wandered around randomly in the lanes, admiring the architecture.I stopped for a lemonade to rehydrate in the heat and had this great panorama!I finally got back down and gratefully collapsed into the air conditioned room! I got cleaned up and we went out to restock with some groceries and wine for lunch.

The small stores and vendors sell top quality food! No mega department stores, just specialized shops, baker, butcher, green grocer and gelateria!

The wooden sailing ship was heading out of port before……the sun rose in the east. We took a stroll early, before the sun made it too hot to go out!Some early morning bathers emerging from the sea.Modern artwork outside classic Greek port authority buildings.A chance to get some pictures of our lodging. A very narrow doorway opens onto the street, leading you up a few stairs into a hallway with a spiral staircase behind an iron gate. Our room is through the gate and up the spiral stairs. The landing with the small desk has 2 doorways, one to the bedroom and bath, the other to a spacious closet/dressing room with a small refrigerator and coffee maker, The stairs continue to the rooftop, opening to a spacious terrace, half of which is for our room exclusively, overlooking the harbor with the expensive boats!

We took a long siesta in the heat of the day, enjoying the air conditioning in our room. We ventured out as it began to cool slightly in the evening.The city hall in the main town square.One of the buildings displaying the neoclassical architecture the town is known for. Ermoupolis is a fairly new city, settled during the War of Independence in the 1820’s. Syros remained neutral during the war so it was a haven for many Greeks to settle relatively unscathed, especially those that had been successful merchants in the Ottoman Empire. For more pictures and descriptions of the town check out this website; The Mediterranean Traveller.
We climbed some stairs and steep roads to reach this church bathed in lights.And back at the harbor the boats of last night have been replaced with more, some even bigger and more luxurious!

A beautiful dawn over the Aegean Sea.

We had a ferry to catch at 10am so we finished breakfast and our packing, cleaned up the apartment and walked down to the port.Our ferry arrived on time and we boarded for a long ride, almost 9 hours and several stops before our destination on the island of Syros.I lost track of our progress and the ports we stopped at, but there were several green islands with trees……and brown islands with rocks!We finally reached our destination of Ermoupolis, Syros after 8pm. We found our lodging, not too far from the disembarkation point and immediately went up to the rooftop terrace for the view of the megayacht docked right in front!As the sun faded the city lights came on, illuminating the many sailboats docked at the waterfront, including the wooden 3 masted schooner that came in shortly after we arrived.

Dawn over the mountains of Turkey! That’s how close the island of Chios is to Turkey!

After breakfast we walked to the port and collected the car we reserved yesterday for our all day tour of the south of the island.

Our first stop, at the first beach we came to, for coffees and relaxing on the deck over the sand.

Our next stop was a monastery up in the hills.

Looking through the doors of the walled monastery at the unique Greek tiled walkway using contrasting black and brown pebbles. The central church, surrounded by monastic cells built along the outer walls.

We entered the small museum on the right of the church and learned some very sobering history!The museum is the ossuary of the bones of some of the victims of the Massacre of Chios, a pivotal point in the Greek War of Independence of 1821-29. At least 25,000 people were killed by the invading Ottoman Turks, and about twice as many were enslaved, with 10 to 20,000 escaped, over the course of several months in March and April of 1822. On April 2, 1822 the Turks attacked this area and mostly women and children fled to the monastery for protection. The Turks attacked the church and burned it to the ground with all inside. The floor is the only original part of the church and is said to be stained with the blood and flesh of the victims burned alive.

The global outrage at the violence helped the Greek solidify their revolt against the Ottoman Empire, gain foreign allies and turn the tide eventually.We sought out a more peaceful venue after that history lesson!We continued to a more ancient site at Emporio, an archaeological site dating from the 8th century B.C. overlooking the small port. The cultivated fields are mostly orchards of mastic trees, a unique agricultural phenomenon practiced only on the south part of Chios island. We continued south, to the southernmost beach, Vroulidia (or Broulidia, depends on what map you’re looking at I guess).

A steep walk down to this beautiful beach with crystal clear water dissuaded us, especially since there was a rustic bar in the shade up top!

The bar/restaurant had a great sales method, a dumbwaiter cable to retrieve orders from the beach and send the orders down!

From the bar, refreshed with a cold brew, we drove north to the Mastic Museum to learn more about this unique Chios product.

Mastic production has been going on for centuries. The many villages have each cultivated their own varieties of the shrub, but the production methods have remained the same through history.

A close up of a mastic tree in an orchard, if you look closely you can see horizontal cuts on the bark from which the resin oozes to be collected, dried and cleaned with labor intensive methods.

As we turned the car back towards Chios City we passed more of the Medieval era mastic producing villages, driving up into mountains with open pine forests, then back down towards the city and the port. We turned the car back in and wandered into the old city to find a restaurant for a true Greek dinner!Seafood of course! Fried cod (baby cod I think), grilled octopus (one thick tentacle), fried zuchinni and roasted beets!

We were up early this morning, finishing packing and eating leftovers for breakfast before our driver arrived to take us to the ferry port in Çeşme, an hour’s drive away. The ferry will take us across the border into Greece, only a half hour away, to the Greek island of Chios (pronounced Hee-ose).

Finally onboard the ferry, after 2 passport checks and baggage x-rays, we spotted this megayacht docked nearby, with a helicopter on board! I looked it up later, it’s the Cloudbreak, and it’s available for charter!

Disembarking in Chios, the ferry looked bedraggled compared to the megayacht docked back in Turkey!

We made our way through town and found our Airbnb, a penthouse studio apartment with a huge rooftop terrace!

From the terrace we have a view overlooking a church, and looking opposite, a view of town and the mountains in the background.

We partially unpacked, we will be here only 2 nights, then set out to explore the town, Chios City. We headed back to the port and found a car rental agency that we can rent a car from for tomorrow’s exploration further afield, then we wandered into the old part of the city, aiming for the bell tower of a church. We came upon the “Holy Church of Saint George at the Castle of Chios“, a Greek Orthodox church. In the overgrown weedy yard we found cannons with the dates 1687 and 1689 on them!

It was early evening, so we weren’t able to enter the church, but you can see the interior in the above link.

Wandering further into the narrow lanes paved with stone, ancient stone buildings on either side, some in disrepair, some being restored, feeling lost with all the angles askew, we climbed a weedy stone stairway…

…and discovered that we were on top of the city wall! We climbed down and made our way out of the maze to marvel at the stone city walls and the gate we finally found!

The city has expanded beyond these walls of course, but back in medieval times this must have been the sanctuary people fled to in times of attack!

We headed back to our apartment and enjoyed the food that our host provided to us; delicious ripe tomatoes, crusty bread, feta cheese, olive oil, lemonade syrup, lemons, a variety of homemade jams, fresh cream with fruit compote and a whole melon!

We enjoyed our simple meal while we watched the sun set behind the mountains.