Skyros, Greece

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Wednesday 16 May 2012

Skyros and the Crisis in Greece


Here Yannis Andricopoulos, co-founder of Skyros, the leading holistic holiday, comments on the current economic crisis in Greece and its effect on Skyros' holidays this summer in Greece. 

Greece is heading towards new elections on the 17th of June, roughly forty days after the last one which produced no government. The new elections are not likely to give the mandate to any single party to form a new government and, like the UK, Greece will end up with a coalition of parties in power. This is quite straightforward.

What is, however, complicated is whether and how this new government would want to re-negotiate partly or totally the bailout agreement reached last February between Greece, on the one hand, and the so-called troika –  the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, on the other. Whatever the outcome, negotiations are likely to take many months before their conclusion.

Many people have been asking us what will happen either before their conclusion or after, particularly if there is no agreement.

To take what many assume is the worst case scenario: negotiations collapse, Greece defaults on its loans and then leaves or is forced to leave the eurozone. The latter can’t, however, be easily assumed as, if Greece decides to stay in the euro, as it certainly will, there’s no way the EU can force her to leave. There’s no legal procedure for it. So, in theory at least, we’re talking about only a possible default which, given first the extreme caution with which all parties need to proceed and, then, the long preparations involved at a time that nobody is really prepared for it, will take months before it’s finalised. 

If you're holidaying with us this summer, what do you need to be careful about during this time? Despite the alarm raised in today’s Daily Mail, we can’t think of anything of importance. Nothing would disturb the airlines schedules or the function of the Greek airports as the unions have decided this year not to interrupt the tourist trade. From then on let us take care of you. This means that even if Greece is hit by a new wave of strikes or even riots, which is very unlikely at least during the summer, you won’t be affected. We’ll take you by private coach to the Metropolitan hotel on the Athens coast, far from any potential trouble spot, and then on to Skyros island where life goes on as it has been for generations. The Skyros ferry, owned by the Skyrians, has never gone on strike.

A Greek default, although likely, is anything but certain as the troika may well choose eventually to make concessions to Greece in order to avert it. If that is to happen, we’re back to ‘normal’ times whatever normal is in our times. If Greece, on the other hand, defaults, the Greeks will celebrate before they try to come to terms with their very, very painful new world.

As mentioned earlier, a Greek default doesn’t imply withdrawal from the eurozone, too. But even if that does happen, you will not be affected. You have paid for an all-inclusive holiday in Atsitsa or an almost all-inclusive one at the Skyros Centre in pounds sterling which means that, whatever currency Greece has at the time, we have the responsibility to meet your requirements. And we’ll meet them. You may, of course, experience some difficulties if cash machines and electronic banking systems ‘freeze up for days’, as The Daily Mail warns its reading public. But this will not affect you if you bring in a couple of hundred euros spending money. If need be, we can offer the facility to provide euros on-site.

Finally, one person asked if there’s any possibility we may have to cancel the holiday. There’s none at all. We’ll not cancel it whatever happens either in Greece or in the world!

So book your Skyros holiday with all confidence. Be sure you’ll have a great time, and, by the way, give the Greeks all the support they need in their most testing times since the war.

Yannis Andricopoulos, Ph.D.

For more information about Skyros' outstanding holidays, see www.skyros.com, email office@skyros.com for your brochure or call +44 (0)1983 865566.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Colourful Capers in Shanklin ...




Writer and journalist, Jo Macaulay visits Skyros offshoot at The Grange by The Sea for a creative course with Theresa Sundt. Read about her experience here ... Theresa will be in Skyros, Greece this summer. 
I felt the need to get a bit of colour into my life so I made my way over to the Grange in Shanklin to join a course on experimenting with the colour of my personality called ‘Playing with Colour’ ... 
Not that I had any idea what the ‘colour of my personality’ was until I got there. Or indeed what it was likely to be. Was it the colours that I like? Was it the colours that suit me? Was it like those make-overs where they tell you whether you’re winter, spring, summer or autumn? It was all a bit up in the air until I got there.
So I was intrigued to find that it was none of the above when I met Theresa Sundt, the course leader. In fact our personality colour is determined by our date of birth it appears. The colours range through the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and then magenta and gold to make nine different hues that our personalities ‘resonate’ to.


And mine, not surprisingly for a lady of my standing, is gold I was told, which cheered me up no end. It seemed to be the best one to be according to what was revealed. “Gold personalities are humanitarian creatures who wish to save the world; their ambition is to serve others,” according to Teresa’s book ‘The Nine Colour Personalities’. Hmmm, well on a good day I suppose…

The next day we mapped out our colours on a circle and worked out those of our nearest and dearest. Then armed with this new knowledge about our personality colours we were encouraged to make works of art using ‘our’ colours and those of our families, and Teresa produced hanks of felting wool in every colour of the rainbow for us to work into felt pictures.

But gold is a bit of a difficult one, what with it being shiny and, well gold, so I had to be content with an orangey yellow. We also worked with the other colours that made up our personalities and mine were magenta and orange apparently. Not colours that I am readily drawn to, but I was happy to give it a go. And my family had indigo, yellow, green and red too so the result was a bit of an explosion in a paint factory.

Laying out our felt layers, then working them together with soapy water and then placing the result on a canvas was great fun. Then we left them to dry and to add glitter to the next day if we wished. Teresa gave individual colour readings and the atmosphere was fun and relaxing.


The following day it was ‘draw your mandala’ day and the picture I produced resembled a golden and magenta flower. I think you’re supposed to use these for meditation purposes.
After the course finished we were treated to slices of home-made quiche and wedges of yummy rocky road with our tea or coffee. Sat on the decking outside the hotel in the sunshine, looking down over the pretty garden, was the perfect end to the weekend of colourful activities.

 
And now I’m off to save the world ...



The Grange offer weekend creative and holistic courses throughout the year. Join them in May for ‘The Art of Touch' 11th-13th, ‘Walk, Tall, Feel Fabulous.’ 18th to 20th, and ‘Yoga with Awareness’ 25th to 27th. More courses are available in June, September, October, November and December.

Alternatively you can join Theresa Sundt in Skyros this Summer for her course 'The Art of Colour,' which will run from 11th August - 21st August.

For more details contact the Skyros team on +44 (0) 1983 865566 e: office@skyros.com or visit the website: www.skyros.com





Friday 4 May 2012

Skyros writing competition - we have a winner!

With plenty of impressive short story entries to judge, Skyros Holidays facilitator and writing competition judge, Crysse Morrison, had her work cut out to decide the competition winners for the Skyros writing competition, in coordination with Writing Magazine...

"Many congratulations to everyone who participated, and thank you for giving me so many evocative glimpses of happiness. The final three were tales that caught my imagination for their strong individual writer’s voice, and the overall winner was the one that stayed with me for its vivid characters and for delightfully encapsulating one of those transcendental moments which we realise, even at the time, as the taste of happiness. 

With so many varied and highly personal interpretations of ‘happiness’, the task of picking out winners was really difficult! Quite a few entries featured illness or death, and dealt with possibilities of happiness despite a dark situation. Others looked at romance and relationships to provide the key. As a general tip, I’d recommend writers to find an apt and memorable title for their story rather than using the theme – it’s harder to make your entry stand out from the pile without one. " Crysse Morrison.

The results are in . . .

1st place – Winner of a Skyros holiday
'Happiness is a wardrobe slowly rising in the air' – Peter Wakefield

2nd & 3rd places – Winners of discounted holidays  
'Happiness' – Charlotte Rennox
'Well done for getting here' – Agnes Priddle

Commended
'Big Splash' – DEB Coxon
'The Happiness of Others' – Susannah Steel
'The Last Drop' - Linda Ibbett
'Innocent Energy' – Mark Whitlock
'The Happiness of the Heart' – Kay Seeley
'Happiness' – Jinny Thomas
'Walking Back to Happiness' – Denise Barnes

A huge congratulations to prizewinner Peter Wakefield, who will be joining Skyros at the Writers' Lab holiday with Crysse Morrison this September.

You can read Peter's winning entry here, at the Friends of Skyros website: http://www.friendsofskyros.com



Did you miss out on entering the competition this time? "Like" us on facebook and be first to know when we are running our next competition: www.facebook.com/skyroshols. Alternatively, if you want to know more about our Writers' Lab in Greece, or if you would like to be added to our newsletter for regular updates, why not drop us a line at office@skyros.com, or visit our website, www.skyros.com