Ikaria is one of the few exceptions of the islands of the Aegean sea in Greece. It is lush with rich nature, high mountains, forests, rivers, lakes and of course, amazing beaches.
In the last years it has become popular as a blue zone where people tend to live longer. In our opinion, the most important aspect of Ikarian people is that they live more free and happy lives with the key ingredient being their complete and utter lack of stress and anxiety.
Visiting the island, there is one thing you must do: let go! We know, it’s not easy. It wasn’t easy for us or for most of the people living in the fast and complex rhythms of today. Fortunately the island helps you to that direction, just don’t resist. If you’re a control freak you will either have a hard time here, or find your cure. Ikaria has attracted many people, like us, from all around the world, who came just for a while and forgot to leave.
If we could sum up the community life of Ikaria we would say that it is just back in time, when true personal relationships were the most important thing in peoples’ lives. Solidarity is still strong in the communities and is expressed in action every day. No one in need is left on their own and fund raising events to help locals with serious health problems are a common thing. Of course in order to explore that aspect of the island you need to spend more time here than just a few days and definitely off the touristic season. Once you find yourself here in such a period, everyone will know about you in lightning speed, gossip being the main tool.
We leave for the end of our short presentation of Ikaria, its most important aspect. Her nature! There are not enough words to describe it. Just come and explore it for yourself. Walk on its endless paths through ancient forests, enjoy the waterfalls in its rivers and dive into their lakes. Observe the rich flora and its rare species as the seasons change. Birdwatchers will fry their brains here, especially if you’re here during the migration period. Get a local and go for huge mushroom picking – and then cooking – between November and January. Experience the fierce winds and rough weather that hits the island. And definitely don’t miss the chance to swim on its numerous – hidden and not – beaches.
Useful links for visiting Ikaria
Visit Ikaria www.visitikaria.gr
all information about how to get here, what to see, what to do
The legend
(source: Wikipedia)
Icarus’ father Daedalus, a very talented and remarkable Athenian craftsman, built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull. Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he gave Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, a clew (or ball of string) in order to help Theseus, the enemy of Minos, to survive the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur.
Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Daedalus tried his wings first, but before trying to escape the island, he warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea, but to follow his path of flight. Overcome by the giddiness that flying lent him, Icarus soared into the sky, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which due to the heat melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms, and so Icarus fell into the sea and drowned in the area which today bears his name, the Icarian Sea north of Ikaria island.
The featured image on the top of this page is Bruegel‘s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (ca. 1558), famous for relegating the fall to a scarcely noticed event in the background.
