Walk to Ano Vathy + Visiting Pythagorio

We had a walk in mind for this morning, but we also wanted to visit Pythagorio, a village on the other side of the island. It was therefore an early start to try and tick off both.

The walk started at 7 a.m. as we sidled across the hillside, trying not to lose too much elevation. The starting point for the downloaded loop walk was at the end of the bay, back behind the bus stop. We managed to get there without ending up at sea level first, which was good.

The route then began climbing, following a road. We quickly faced a choice: left onto a cobbled walking track, or right onto a much smaller road. Right looked right—even though Google Maps said it was a dead end. Our downloaded route suggested Google wasn’t fully informed. The road did indeed dead end, kind of; it turned into a bush-surrounded hiking trail that climbed steeply up a gully. The combination of steepness and thoughts of ticks had us turning back to take the left fork instead.

That way also went steadily up, but not as steeply. The problem for me, the “trusted navigator,” was that it wasn’t heading in the direction we needed. It would eventually, but it would be a longer distance. Sarah had been keener on this option, so I was quietly hoping she might feel partly responsible if things turned out badly.

Things weren’t looking great when the nice cobbled track ended and a main road continued. It had some traffic moving above 50 km/h, though not a lot. We carried on anyway. I was wearing my hazard-orange shirt, so at least the drivers would see us. I could see on the map that further along we could turn onto a side road and loop around to connect with the top of the steep gully trail. At least we’d end up in the same place. The lack of sun was in our favour—it was just rising, and we were mostly in shade.

It took longer than the direct route, but we did eventually connect up. The side road was actually a pleasant walk with no traffic. From there we finally began heading down towards the “features” marked on our map. In hindsight, it would have been much simpler to walk up to them from below! But hey—I’ll take a loop over an out-and-back option any day.

The first feature we arrived at was an outdoor amphitheatre. I had expected something old and historic, but instead it was new, with blue colouring and lots of marble. We’d done very little research on the area—just saw features marked, noted them on the map, and went to check them out. That’s pretty much been our holiday M.O. for the last few months. We often look up the details afterwards, once we’ve been there or when we’re back at base. No spoilers! 😉

The amphitheatre also had a nearby restaurant, though it wasn’t open. Perhaps the restaurant was there first. I couldn’t find much online to say otherwise. Directly below, however, was an ancient church—obviously old, and currently undergoing restoration. We could see it both from above and below, but workers were inside, so entry wasn’t allowed.

Past the church we found the highlight of the morning: the quaint and beautiful streets of Ano Vathy, the Old Town of Samos. It’s a rabbit-warren maze of narrow lanes weaving between old houses—an enjoyable place to wander. A little lower down, the streets widened slightly, and we came across a tiny red car. It had clearly been driven there, but I’d love to see whoever managed that repeat the feat—it must have been a very tight squeeze in places!

As we descended further, we saw another old church that Sarah had wanted to visit after seeing photos. Its exterior was painted in pretty colours, but it was fenced off for maintenance. Soon after, we noticed a number of houses that also looked damaged and abandoned. We guessed earthquake damage—and were right. In 2020, a major earthquake and tsunami hit this region. Samos Earthquake Wiki The worst-affected area was Izmir, Turkey, but clearly some houses here were damaged too.

We continued down and arrived right at the bus stop we needed—a small victory for my navigation skills this morning. With an hour until the bus, we found a café and ordered coffees. We thought the bus was at 9:30 a.m., but it ended up closer to 10.

The bus was taking us to Pythagorio, named after the famous philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. Interestingly, the bus driver pronounced it completely differently to how we learned in school—more like Pea-tha-horia, with a rolling “r.” Does that mean “Pythagoras” is also pronounced differently to how we normally would say it? We don’t know. 🤔

The maths teacher who reads this blog can correct me if I’m wrong, but what I remember from school is the 3-4-5 triangle principle. You can solve the lengths of a right-angled triangle if you know the other two. Or with formulas I’ve mostly forgotten, other than: one side squared plus the other side squared equals the square of the hypotenuse—the side opposite the right angle. 📐 I’ve probably embarrassed myself with that poor explanation, even though I was actually good at maths at school. Or at least I had a good memory for maths… for short periods! 😂

Anyway, even if I’ve butchered it, maybe I’ll get some marks awarded for effort. Getting back to Pythagoras, he was from Samos, and the town is named after him. There’s even a sculpture dedicated to him, which we were heading to see.

The bus went via the inland, semi-mountainous town of Mytilini and also via Chora. Which as we know is normally the main town or capital on a Greek island. But this village was tiny. It was though the ancient capital. The drive made for interesting views of the island and some impressive navigation from the bus driver, squeezing through impossibly narrow streets and corners—especially when cars were coming the other way. Very, very tight in places. The trees that we had seen when arriving by ferry are a mixture. Pine and olive appeared to be the majority that we saw from the bus.

We arrived in Pythagorio and began another walk, first to a viewpoint along the sea with views of a beach and a castle. We then visited the castle itself, Lykourgos Logothetes. Entry was free, and it also housed a small museum—basic, but interesting enough. Outside was yet another church, with the grand name Church of the Transfiguration of Christ the Saviour in the Castle of Lykourgos Logothetes.

We continued to a narrow lane called Blue Street, but it was overrun with tour groups—the first we’d encountered so far. In such a tiny space, they were maddening. 😡 We got out of there quickly.

Next, we reached the waterfront harbour of Pythagorio, one of the most beautiful harbours we’ve seen. Pretty blue-and-white boats lined the water, with restaurants on the other side of a lovely promenade. We walked the harbour road and out along the pier, where we found the Pythagoras statue.

Our plan had been to swim at the beach here and then find lunch. The water looked inviting, but the beach was crowded with loungers and tourists. Instead, we enjoyed a cold beer at a taverna overlooking the beach. The return buses were at either 1 p.m. or 3:15 p.m., and since it was noon when we sat down, we opted for the earlier one. After our beer, we caught the 1 p.m. bus back to Samos.

Another hot walk back to the apartment (via the bakery), a late lunch, and then a chilled-out afternoon.

Dinner was pizza again, since the frozen box we bought contained two large ones. No more beer, though! A salad and the rest of the roasted sweet potato rounded out the meal. It was a very pleasant meal on the terrace to end our stay in the Greek Islands. We have loved our time here and highly recommend it. In fact Greece has been the country with the most nights spent on this trip. It wasn't planned that way but worked out very well.