Nea Styra

My mother on her way to Nea Styra.

My mother was born in Athens but her parents came from a small village on the island of Evia, called Styra. She used to spend every summer in Styra whilst she was at school and then later when she was in medical school. Much later, she bought a house in Kouvelles, a village near Styra and we, my mother, sister and I used to spend the summers there. Later, when I met Ken he would come too. When my mother died, Ken and I continued going there. About twenty years ago we sold the house and we had not been back there since. This summer however, we decided to re-visit.

We took took the ferry from the small port of Agia Marina, which you can see in the distance as the ferry leaves the port. It takes 45 minutes to reach Nea Styra, the sister village of Styra, which was built much later, hence the name, New Styra. The ferry takes 45 minutes and it costs 6 euros - we could not believe it. 

It's a route we know well, with quite a few uninhabited islands

except for this one which has a building on the highest point

zooming in.

We had company for the whole 45 minutes





Once we arrived, it took us two minutes to walk to our hotel

The view from our hotel window.

Same view at dusk.

The centre of the village and where our hotel was situated 

We left our stuff in our room and started exploring immediately, wanting to see old sights and what had changed. 

We started walking east, towards Kefala, which is at the end of the village

Nothing much has changed.  Everything seemed to be the same as 20 years ago and this was confirmed over and over during the week we stayed there.

Same view as above, at dusk - I love the subtle changes

It's a very pleasant walk. In July and August the place gets very busy, mainly with Greek (Athenian predominantly) tourists, but in the end of September everything was very quiet

Styra is all about the sea - to look at, to swim in, to basically enjoy.

Kefala in the distance. During our first day we made this walk twice, once mid-day when we arrived and then again in the evening as we wanted to explore an old favourite taverna.

These black mountains intrigue me

Magic!

The main church

 We stayed in Nea Styra for a week and then took the ferry back to Agia Marina and then continued to Athens.