Last weekend was one of the warmest of this winter. The days were sunny and the Greeks found the opportunity to travel around enjoying the beauty of the area around the capital.

For me it was what I needed in order to help my mind relax after a long busy period at my work. Actually it was a free weekend that I searched to find in order to fill my batteries. It was also time to leave my MG run speeding at the high way.

I took the decision for the trip enjoying my coffee Saturday midday at the Starbucks cafe at the center of Athens . Talking with Yiota I dropped the idea of a visit to Chalkida and it has been accepted almost immediately from my aunt.

The island Evia is the second largest in Greece after Crete , has played an important role in Greek History from earliest prehistory to the present day. Its importance is chiefly due to its geographical position and geomorphology. It is 175 kilometers long and faces the Greek mainland along the whole length of its eastern seaboard.

A main highway and ferryboats from several terminals connect this island, of great natural beauty and scenic variety, to the mainland.

Evia is brisk with tourist traffic, but there are still many peaceful and unspoilt villages. There are large fertile valleys, sandy beaches, organised bathing facilities, secluded coves and wooded mountainsides, ideal for climbing.

Evripos channel is a natural channel between Evia island and the Greek mainland, while the city of Chalkida is developed on both sides. Many legends exist, trying to justify the almost unique tide phenomenon in this channel. Some researchers stayed on the illusion of explaining it while some others, unable to explain it, stayed admiring its magnificence.

The water-flow in Evripos channel is changing direction about every 6 hours, a rare physical phenomenon, triggering the imagination and the curiosity of humans since the prehistoric times, searching for mythological, astronomical, physical and philosophical explanations.

Greeks when talk about Chalkida they use to call this town as the " Town with the Crazy Waters ". All this up and down of the waters attracts many visitors who come from many places of Greece to see this phenomenon.

The place where the old bridge is built, is the narrowest point of the channel, and the water current can reach the speed of 15km (9 miles) per hour! It is really interesting to watch the reversion of flow direction that happens about every 6 hours. The exact time of reversion is determined by the position of the moon.

Evia was believed to have originally formed part of the mainland, and to have been separated from it by an earthquake. This is fairly probable, because it lies in the neighbourhood of a fault line , and both Thucydides and Strabo write that the northern part of the island had been shaken at different periods. Its northern extremity is separated from the Thessalian coast by a strait, which at one point is not more than 130 feet (40 metres) wide.

In the neighbourhood of Chalcis, both to the north and the south, the bays are so confined as to make plausible the story of Agamemnon 's fleet having been detained there by contrary winds. At Chalcis itself, where the strait is narrowest, it is called the Euripus. The extraordinary changes of tide which take place in this passage have been a subject of note since classical times.

At one moment the current runs like a river in one direction, and shortly afterwards with equal velocity in the other. A bridge was first constructed here in the twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian War ( 410 BC ).

The name Euripus was corrupted during the Middle Ages into Evripo and Egripo , and in this latter form transferred to the whole island. Later the Venetians, when they occupied the district, altered it to Negroponte , referring to the bridge which connected it with the mainland.

The Evripos Channel in Chalkida is surely Evia's most noteworthy sight and boasts a 2500-year pedigree as a tourist attractio, thanks to the odd combination of land and currents, which make the tide change eight times a day.

Since the building of the first bridge over the 30-meter wide narrows in the 5 th century BC, people have wondered over the phenomenon. Aristotle is reputed to have thrown himself into the sea in exasperation at his inability to explain it. Signs of antiquity are not very evident in the modern city and archeology fans should head to the Archeological Museum, which houses finds from all over the island.

Chalkida is the favorite place of those enjoying seafood. The town is famed for its grilled octopus as well as for the varieties of shells and fishes, enjoyed better with a good quantity of ouzo.

We chose a beautiful tavern (tsipouradiko) with plenty of different plates of seafood and I order also tiganopsomo, a special fried cheese bread that you can find only in Evia. We drunk ouzo and soon we started having a wide smile at our faces. The sun the maridakia fishes and the ouzo made the miracle to us.

That is what I believe that make Greeks to live a long life. The Mediterranean mentality... We have the sun the sea the good wine and the smell of ouzo. We are happy persons and we enjoy life as much as we can.

I have to admit something. I don't work to be rich. I don't need it. I just want to be happy and I am happy living in Greece . Moments like this, a simple dinner in a small tavern in Chalkida is more that enough to make me feel well and happy.

We finished with our dinner and we traveled a little bit to have our coffee in a small town close to Chalkis, New Artaki. This town has founded after the arrival of the Greek refugees of Asia Minor, in 1925. N. Artaki and N. Lampsakos are the names of the homonymous cities in Marmaras , from where the new people of Evia came from.

We discovered something new, a windmill (Milos) this time. It is a traditional windmill that somebody offered to the N. Artaki's citizens in memory of his mother. It is something that makes the place prettier.The construction of the beach and the small harbour for the fish boats has not finished yet but it has been already an amazing seaside area.