Elios – twinned with Brooklyn or what?

After last year’s rainy but radical cook-out on the last Sunday of Karnivali in Elios, this year’s faintly damp version in an unfinished building site near the town school was probably the hippest party anywhere on Skopelos that day. Our photographs, snatched on a powered-down idiotcam as storm clouds gathered overhead, are terrible, but do bear witness to an amusing efflorescence of male cross-dressing on this last day of transgression before Lent (as one observer commented, yes, you can borrow anyone’s dress, but how do you find the high heels in your size? And, moreover, dance in them?).
Complicated dances involved revellers of all ages, genders and dress preferences, and, as we found gatecrashing celebrations there before, Elios knows how to throw the friendliest parties. We also spotted party animals from both Glossa and Skopelos who obviously thought that Elios was the place to head to for a carnival with a bit of stroppy political edge. Most interesting, however, is that after last year’s bonfire of EU figures including Merkel, Schauble, Djisselbloem et al, this year’s victim was one Alexis Tsipras. Sorry about that, Alexi.

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Clean Monday

Bank and government offices are closed on Monday. At the bakeries you can get your special “clean Monday” bread Lagana. It is made only once a year with the start of Greek Orthodox Lent.
The bread is flat and about 45 cm long, with rounded corners.

Sesame seeds are sprinkled on top just before baking. Supermarkets, vegetable/fruit stores and butchers will be open for a while.

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