Serifos Hiking Adventures - The Road to Hora

The Greek Orthodox church at the topmost peak of Hora.

The first and most popular hike on the island is the one to Hora itself.

Accesing the town from Livandi port, one can take the once-and-hour bus (1.5 euro, ten minutes) or hop a mule. Human power, however, offers a cheap and leisurely opportunity to explore. I bought a 2 euro box of sour cherry juice from the portside grocery for hydration comfort.

This is not the tidy road to the Acropolis. It’s raw and intimate. A series of shortcuts behind private residences, churchyards and schools makes short work of the road of main road.

A significant element of the journey: watching one’s step over the long stone staircases. The height and distance of the next step can be tough to judge in the wrinkling heat. One must dodge mule poo, too.

Locals are quick with a greeting. Ya-sas is the formal catch all phrase everyone has time for. Service people or folks who feel they will see you frequently may return your Ya-sas for Ya-sou, which is your permission to greet them with Ya-sou in the future.

Tourists say Kali-meh-ra to everyone before noon like it is going out of style, but locals will probably only give you a Kali-meh-ra If you are the first person they see in the morning.

Opportunities to get distracted along the way include a folklore musueum, an open air theater where plays are performed in the summer months, and a grand orange and ocean colored church.

Once up the stairs to Hora proper, keeping to the red trail markers is essential. Finding a specific location in the maze is frustrating. It took three people two hours to help me locate my digs after dark here my first night.

Even dayside, very patch of whitewashed homes, stone hovels, cactus plants, and stray cats appears identical. There are stairs to nowhere planted in alleys and corners. Most of the time, the way in is the way out.

The spacious village square has restaurants and gift shops open in the summer months. The commercial center lies just down the stairs.

The two vertigo inspiring things to see in Hora just up the street from here: the ruins of a castle turret from the times when Venetians ruled the island and the tippy topping Aghios Georgios.