By 2004, a lot changed in Athens. A new airport was built, an extended clean and reliable metro network was finished, stadiums popped out the ground and stray dogs were gone out of the blue. Is the Olympics one of the causes of the Economic crisis in Greece? Probably it contributed to it.

The airport and metro lines are still operational and are well maintained. When I visited Ellinikon airport, the old one of Athens, it seemed abandoned but still guarded so getting in was nearly impossible, unfortunately.

The Olympic stadiums seem abandoned too and I did not see anyone around, however, it is still a metro stop (Irini).

While the Greek islands are mainly popular during the summertime they can be a great relaxing getaway during the wintertime. While you’ll have great watermelons, grapes and figs in the summer, in the winter you’ll be able to experience olive cultivation and enjoy fresh citrus fruits and almost no tourism. As a bonus you will enjoy the tranquillity on the island and enjoy the life locals have. The only challenges you’ll have is finding an open restaurant or bar and scheduling your ferry to get in and out on the island as the ferries do not operate daily. The Express Skiathos by Hellenic Seaways is your only chance to get on Skopelos in the wintertime. It does operate from Volos to the other Northern Sporades (Skiathos and Alonissos). Schedule changes in the winter often happen and bad weather could potentially affect your plan. The boat takes about 4 hours to reach Skopelos Town from Volos.

The ferry from Volos to Skopelos:

If you are lucky with the weather during the low season, you may be able to go to the beach. The sea temperature is much lower and it’ll be more challenging to swim in the sea. However, if you’re not afraid of the cold, I highly recommend you to take a visit to your own private beach. We went to Stafylos beach, one of the beaches very close to Skopelos Town and we had it all by ourselves!

As mentioned earlier, you won’t have a lot of choices for food. We found only one restaurant open in the town, one bakery and one gyradiko, a fast food restaurant where you can buy Gyros. If you have your own kitchen you can simply go to one of the local supermarkets or to a giant one like Sklavenitis for cooking supplies.

If you don’t mind driving further, you’ll also have some open restaurants in Glossa Town and one fish restaurant at Elios Beach, named O Vaggelis taverna. We enjoyed at O Vaggelis some fresh fish before sunset.

Skopelos has a lot of monasteries which can be visited, allowing great exercises and great walking opportunities even in the winter. One of my favorite monastries is the monastery of Evangelistra due to its magnificent view of the harbor of Skopelos Town.

Let’s get back to the main purpose of the article… olive cultivation!

Olive cultivation and the process to olive oil is the unique thing you can experience during the wintertime. Most of the locals own a piece of land with olive trees. There are two centralized olive presses on Skopelos island where the locals bring their picked olives. For a small fee, calculated by weighing your yield, you’re allowed to use the industrialized press.

Picking olives by hand:

Our collected olives and an occasional cat visitor at the olive farm:

We ended up with around 50 litres of oil for picking olives for several days. After a simple redox titration performed by the press owner, we were certain our olive oil is extra virgin olive oil.

Would like like to see more about our own olive oil cultivation? Check the video I created below:

Skopelos Town after sunset