SAMOS-MEDIA

A visit to Ormos Marathókampos

2011-12-21T16:18:00.020+01:00

Actually, it's about several visits I payed to the quiet village and especially the picturesque and peaceful harbour of Ormos Marathókampos in the south of the island over the years.

I searched my hard discs for all my digital photos of this place and found photos dating from 2004 up until 2011.

A selection of these photos I combined with videos I recorded 2010 and 2011!

So here it is, hope you will enjoy the video:
"A visit to Ormos Marathókampos":

Harbour of Pythagorio, now & then

2011-10-14T21:39:00.021+02:00

Pythagorio harbour promenade, the area between Iliad Bar, Dolichi and Captains Bar, then (2002) and now (2010 & 2011)
What happened to the tall trees?

Pythagorio in autumn 2002

In 2002, as a visitor of "Dolichi", you had almost no view from the balcony through the trees on the harbour!
(all three photos © 2002 peter molz)

These were really nice, tall trees! Please take notice of that big tree on the site of Iliad Bar too!

Pythagorio in 2010

The balcony of Dolichi is clearly visible, the trees are small.

Pythagorio in spring 2011

Dolichi is closed down, no business there!

Ferry Nissos Mykonos / Karlovasi

2011-09-27T21:57:00.003+02:00

The large ferry "Nissos Mykonos", serving the route between Piraeus and Vathy/Samos, filmed during stop-overs in the harbour of Karlovasi on the north coast, June 2011.

The arrivals and departures of ferries always fascinate me. Whenever possible, I like to watch them when I am on Samos island.

Musical encounters @ "Thanasis' Sister"

2011-09-08T15:04:00.007+02:00

Way back in May I always had a nice time going to that place called "Thanasis" Sister" in the harbour of Pythagorion.
Here are some impressions of May 13th, 2011, the first day with live music for the season 2011 in that kafenion-ouzeri.

Also the first day for guitarist Alexis on the island for the season 2011.
We had a great day, lots of good things to eat and drink, and Alexis - after playing for many many hours - almost fell asleep at the end of the night while playing guitar.

Musicians (during daytime): Alexis Pappos (guitar, vocals), Vangelis (Tsouras) plus Maria Loulourgas on vocals.
Musicians (at night): Yannis Loulourgas (bouzouki, vocals), Alexis Pappos (guitar) and Makis Karavasilis (bouzouki, vocals).

The very best Samian Fairytales!

2011-08-22T22:20:00.023+02:00

Some of the bar owners of Samos have finally discovered the internet and social media platforms and now are trying to promote their businesses via those so-called social media. Nothing wrong about that!

But some do a bit too much. And try to send tailormade fairytales to the internet community/social media platforms.
Unfortunately - I have to say this because I like Pythagorion and the port a lot - one prominent example is the "Corner Bar" in Pythagorion!

With "interviews" posted on YouTube by "seomaster" and "reports" on blogs they want to create some sort of virtual reality. Sort of: "Dreams are my reality"! Which has very little in common with the reality in the port of Pythagorion!

Watch this video by "seomaster" on YouTube: "Top Bars in Samos? | Corner-Bar in Pythagorion | An Unbiased Interview from Samos tourists"

and don't be surprised that the identical content (!) you will find again here, published again by "seomaster" under the title: Why worldwide travellers choose Pythagorion in Samos as the top destination?" Lol!

Maybe you will notice the same like I do:
Music is from Romania, the interior of the bar looks like it could be anywhere in Spain, South France, Italy, Turkey, the couple is from Norway, the interviewer talks in english .....

Are you sure, that place is in Greece? Why?
Due to what fact? Any hints there?

What is left here of Greece and greek culture in a bar in the port of Pythagorio?
I say: nothing!
Can you identify anything greek at all? Please check by watching this video again!

Maybe you start to think about the reason why you wanted to go for holidays to Greece?
Is it true, because you feel at home in all those places, that look all perfectly alike all over the international tourism sphere?

Want to know more of this new marketing genius located in the Corner Bar??
• 7/17/2014 - Why international travelers pick Pythagorion in Samos as the very best desired destination? Particular interview at Corner Bar
The identical text you will find in a different blog here

My opinion:
1.) the greek feeling & the greek heritage of the port of Pythagorion have been massively and effectively destroyed by these types of bars along the waterfront. Maybe the atmosphere was o.k. 20-30 years ago. But is is a tragedy nowadays!
2.) The bars all look the same. If you are slightly drunk, you cannot tell anymore one from the other ....
3.) Over the years of tourism in Pythagorion, many of the original trees in the harbour in front of the houses have been cut off or were felled to enable the spreading of this monocultures of streamlined cocktail and beer consumption temples.
4.) the young norwegian couple has been abused for a pure commercial!

You will find mostly scandinavian or dutch tourists there! Almost no greek people sitting there. Greek Alpha or Mythos beer? Come on, you are in Greece-for-tourists! You better ask for the higher priced Heineken or Amstel beer in bottles to fully enjoy your evening in Greece!

Local people avoid these bars in the port! Why?

btw: if you are looking for the "best supermarket on Samos island", any guess where it is? The genius "seomaster" found it out again! In Pythagorion of course! And posted a video about it on YouTube! Lol!

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supplement 13.09.2011
The marketing hero with a thousand faces has struck again!
"Where is Samos" & "SamosExclusive", videos on YouTube consuming a lot of lifetime of viewers, promising a lot (e.g. "Almost all Top Places to check out and Activities to Make") without offering anything but hot steam! (Vaporware!)

Hot summer nights: dancing on the square of Kokkari

2011-08-08T14:49:00.006+02:00

Since some weeks, the singer/guitarist and entertainer Dimos Kassapidis plays every sunday night on the square of Kokkari. The tourists there seem to like the kind of music and the square is filled with dancers in the night.

Videos from several YouTube users have been uploaded:

these ones are from hot July 2011:

this one, taken by me, is dating back to the more relaxed June 2011:

From the first night on, the bar and tavern owners stood there with incredulous amazement in their faces, not believing what was going on there. Something they had not experienced for many many years in Kokkari, as they said.

Here is the link to the website of Dimos Kassapidis

Stella's cypriot restaurant in Balos

2011-08-04T14:09:00.011+02:00

I have been to Balos bay and the long beach in the south of Samos with the tremendous view to Mount Kerkis many many times.
Always another reason to come to Balos is to visit one of the nice taverns, e.g. Akrogiali, Esperos and Stella there!

The tavern "Stella" I visited this May and June several times! This special place that offers cypriot food too! It is run by the family Antoniou. The photo below shows Stella and her husband Nikos.

If you come down the road to Balos, you need to turn to the right at the sea front. Signs will guide you on your way.

Stella's place is not located on the road along the beach front like all the other taverns, but a little bit behind, it takes a short walk on a footpath to get to the "secret place", the house in a garden with old olive trees.

The son, Kyriakos, who takes care of the business, besides greek is fluently speaking english and german. Lots of good tasting things from organic farming and from the big ofen in the garden are on the menu! "Lecker, lecker", as we germans say!

Connecting Ikaria to Samos via flights

2011-08-02T10:25:00.004+02:00

The company "sky express" from Crete offers a fast connection for travellers wishing to hop from Samos to Ikaria or vice versa. The flight will take only 15 minutes, this service is offered e.g. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 12:30 from Samos (high season 2011). Airplanes are 19-30 seat British Aerospace Jetstreams.

Beautiful Spring on Samos!

2011-07-26T18:48:00.014+02:00

Samos in May, what a joy! Everywhere it's green and beautiful! The grasses are high and still green. Flowers are blooming in many colours, like here on the castle hill in Pythagorion.

A combination of several videoclips - mainly with focus on red Poppys - that I took in (early) May 2011 on the east aegean island of Samos in Greece.
Music performed by musicians from Samos: Jiannis Loulourgas (bouzouki, vocals) and Kostas Mitsos (guitar) from the village of Pythagorion.

Want to be there, between olive trees in a meadow covered with Poppys? Try this one here:

Flowers blooming in many colours close to the Logothétis castle in Pythagorion:

Blue sky, white clouds, yellow flowering broom (Sparta), everywhere beautiful green landscape .... , middle of May 2011. This year, vegetation was almost three weeks behind "normal schedule" due to cool weather in April and first half of May.

Red poppies on the side of the road leading to the monastery Timiou Stavrou, May 2011.

Landscape below Vourliotes on the north coast, end of May 2011.

When the broom (Sparta) starts to bloom, the landscape turns yellow on Samos:

Samos Young Artists Festival

2011-07-18T15:19:00.003+02:00

The Samos Young Artists Festival 2011 will take place in the Ancient Theatre of Pythagorion from August 9th to August 14th.
The concerts will start daily at 8 pm. Tickets are available at the box office for 5 Euros (1000 seats available).

As stated furthermore on the website of the festival:

It offers highly gifted young musicians an opportunity to perform. The annual festival week takes place on the Greek island of Samos as part of the Ireon Music Festival in August.
The picturesque Greek island of Samos, with its beauty, its geographic location between Orient and Occident and its changeful history, creates the perfect backdrop for the Samos Young Artists Festival.

It is the intention of the Festival's initiators to bring young artists and an interested concert audience to the island, and for this special place to become the focal point of interest each year.

The musicians, who are chosen in cooperation with various notable international institutions and festivals, demonstrate their talent in the ancient theater of the picturesque port city Pythagorion. For five nights they play a distinguished chamber music program, which they choose themselves.

The festival was founded on the private initiative of a German-Greek family in 2010. The concerts are financed exclusively through private contributions and are actively supported by local organizations and institutions, especially by the cultural association and the mayor of Pythagorion.

Rain storm hitting Kokkari

2011-07-18T01:32:00.004+02:00

On May 27th, 2011, I happened to be in the area of Kokkari on the north coast of Samos island, and spent some time in Cavos Café-Bar, enjoying Uli's german cake with coffee, when a rain storm came to the harbour in late afternoon.
The most dramatic scenes I couldn't take, because first I had to rescue my equipment from the incredible masses of water pouring down.

Evening atmosphere over Pagondas

2011-07-10T19:59:00.006+02:00

Evening atmosphere over the village of Pagondas in the south of Samos.
June 2011 .

A short visit to the Potami valley

2011-07-08T16:12:00.006+02:00

Hot Greece and bare aegean islands without any trees?
Well, not on Samos island!

You want to find out yourself?
There a quite few places on the island where a brook is running under shady trees.
For example: pay a visit to the incredibly green, shady and cool Potami valley with the Potami brook and several cascades/small waterfalls, not far away from the city of Karlóvasi on the north coast of the island.

Walking on the footpath along the brook gives you almost the feeling like you're walking in some type of dschungle!
Whenever I go there, I am always fascinated by the brook running between these strangely formed trees.

Musicians on Samos island: Sarandou, Voularinos & Liapis

2011-07-07T14:34:00.004+02:00

Vasilis Sarandou (violin, vocals), Manolis Voularinos (guitar, vocals) and Aristodimos Liapis (bouzouki, vocals) playing in a tavern in Ag. Konstantinos.
East aegean island of Samos, Greece, June 13th, 2011.

In the season 2011 they play every Wednesday night in tavern "Thalassa" in Kokkari, every Friday night in a tavern in Ag. Konstantinos (where the road from Manolates comes down).

Musicians meeting on Whit Monday 2011 in Ag. Konstantinos on the north coast. Singer/guitarist Thrasos from Karlovasi sings the song "Tzivaeri".

Jiannis Loulourgas: luthier, musician & teacher

2011-07-03T12:04:00.004+02:00

A video about the greek luthier, singer and bouzouki player Jiannis Loulourgas from Pythagorion. He is talking about his shop "Pythagorios", his "Samos Bouzouki School", and demonstrates different greek stringed instruments like Bouzouki, Baglamas and Tsouras.

In the season 2011 he plays together with guitarist Alexis Papos in a place run by his family called "Thanasis' Sister" in the harbour of Pythagorion. Several songs are included in the video, recorded "live" in May 2011, capturing the atmosphere of this charming place on the harbour promenade, just a couple of meters away from the waters of the aegean sea and anchoring sailing boats.

Kalimera Kokkari!

2011-06-29T21:14:00.010+02:00

A peaceful and silent atmosphere on a beautiful early morning around summer solstice in the harbour of Kokkari on the north coast of the island.

The sun was rising fast und half an hour later it looked like that:

Silence / A visit to Varsamos beach and Kallithea

2011-06-26T01:54:00.007+02:00

Middle of June we made a tour from noisy Pythagorion to the calm and silent west of Samos island, going down to the coast to visit Varsamos beach.
Nobody else but us was there, the tavern there seems to be closed.

On the way back, a spontaneous stopover in a small tavern in Kallithea around sunset - to record a song video - developed into a gathering with local people and singing a couple of songs together.
Many thanks to the men and women of Kallithea involved in the "party" for the Ouzo and Souma!

"Silence"

Sing along in Kallithea:

30 seconds Samos 2011

2011-05-26T10:37:00.008+02:00

I have published a series of short video clips called "30 seconds Samos" or "30 seconds Spring on Samos" on YouTube. These are/were taken in May 2011.

The idea is to give you a short break and lookaround at different points on the island of Samos, almost giving you the impression you yourself stopped on your way and were there yourself.

Interested? Here you can find them!

Two examples of these video clips:

Virtual milling yields presentations out of the cloud!

2011-04-14T12:26:00.036+02:00

Automatically generated presentations, offered by several companies, will soon flood the internet, especially the so-called social platforms!

We - as the industrious ants - deliver the content: photos, videos, audio files and text can be uploaded to the companies servers and are processed somewhere "in the cloud" in the internet to yield professionally looking presentations.

While this technology will mainly be interesting for advertising business (searching the internet platforms for free photos and videos and "creating" theme-specific hundreds to thousands of videos automatically over night!), those who have taken themselves some party or holiday photos can easily generate those professionally looking presentations and put them online.

Some basic services are offered free of charge. With these free of charge offers they try to suck you into their system. "Anfixen", make you dependant upon ..., as we in Germany say.

But - guess what - if you want quality, more control over the "creative" process, and videos longer than one minute, you have to pay! O.k., if you like your friends (or the rest of the world), you will be willing to spend 3-5 dollars to use the system and generate and down- or upload a high quality (HQ) or high definition (HD) presentation in full length. Not too bad, if you do it only 3-4 times per year, or?

One of these companies offering "virtual photo and video milling" is Stupeflix, which is boosted by YouTube.
I tried the cost-free version (this is why Stupeflix is shown all the time on the video), played around a bit with some of my Samos photos and added some text, resulting in a 1.12 minute long video with 270p resolution.

One thing is sure: it will be raining presentations like cats and dogs from these "clouds" in the near future.
At first glance they look impressive! The way of showing the content will be (or will become) more fascinating/important than the content itself! It looks sexy, that's why they ask you to pay for it! Sex sells! ;-)

But after you've seen a couple of these automatically produced "cloud products", all processed in the same manner, it might happen that you will be bored to death.

A pretty sad example for such a boring type of automatically generated presentation are imo the TripAdvisorTripWow presentations, which flood YouTube in these days (approx. 18.500 "videos" as per today!). I would rename them "TripYawn"!
A recent example dealing with the island of Samos you can find here!
The problem, as I see it, is: even if your photos/videos are good, the way they are going to be presented by these "virtual mills", the machine generated "milling" processes involved, will destroy individuality and end up in uniformity.
Process dominates content!

Are you ready to invest some content and a little money to become an honorable member of the Society for Virtual Milling (SFVM)? Bring along with you some time, when clouds are dark because servers are overloaded.
------------------------------------------------------------
Or like today, April 21st, 2011, Stupeflix is down already for hours because cloud servers at Amazon are experiencing big problems! (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) outage)
See here, here and here
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April 25, 2011
Amazon EC2 outage: summary and lessons learned

Samos 2011: exploring the island!

2011-02-03T13:42:00.020+01:00

In 2010 I spent quite some time on the island of Samos taking photos of parts of the island, where most of the tourist will not go to. So here is my new photo-presentation, 23 minutes long, mainly about the natural beauty of this east aegean island and about the local people celebrating their panigiria.

The music that accompanies this presentation I recorded in the village of Leka on July 16th, 2010. There I happened to come to in the evening without knowing in advance of the event in this night. So I decided to stay there. And to have another late night trip on the motor scooter back to Pythagorio!

Four local musicians forming one of the best groups of Samos were playing there on the village square during this event organized by the voluntary fire brigade. I had met these musicians before on other occasions, e.g. in August 2008 in Kallithea (panigyri) and Kastaneá (charity event).

The musicians are:
Mavrikis, Kyriakos: main vocals, guitar, bouzouki
Liapis, Giorgos: laouto, bouzouki, vocals
Sarantou, Vasilis: violin, vocals
Mytilinos, Giannis: keyboards, vocals

I added some copyright watermarks to my presentation. ;-) Despite that, I hope you will like the photos and the music from the beautiful island of Samos in Greece.

The presentation is intended to be non-commercial. No embedding allowed on websites with primarily commercial focus!

Samos Bouzouki School / Yannis Loulourgas

2011-01-28T12:27:00.008+01:00

Tired of wasting too much life time on the beach?
Having the wish to come to lovely island of Samos to spend a different type of vacation, an active holiday?

Are you interested in music, in understanding greek music, and would you like to learn how to play bouzouki ....

... or how to build a greek instrument, e.g. a baglamas?

In addition, experience parts of Samos you never knew or heard of?

The instrument maker, bouzouki player and singer Yannis Loulourgas in the village of Pythagorion has started his "Samos Bouzouki School". With many years of experience as a singer/bouzouki player and instrument maker, he offers first hand knowledge!

"Samos Bouzouki School offers two workshops: ‘Build Your Own Instrument’ and ‘Learn To Play Greek Music'. Depending on your choice, in one week you will learn the process of how to build an instrument or you will learn to understand and play Greek music."

"Meeting people who can convey peace and quietness from within is rare … and can only be achieved when what you do, it isn’t a job, it’s a passion…
Born in Pythagoreio there is only one word that can describe the way Yiannis Loulourgas views life: Music!"

If you want to know what type of music Yannis Loulourgas plays, here is an example with songs from his CD "Rebetika Tragoudia":

Changing for better?

2011-01-25T19:49:00.006+01:00

A comparison of two photos taken of Ano Vathy from the road going down to Samos town. Click on the photos for larger size!

Ano Vathy in May 2004:

Ano Vathy in October 2008:

The long white front without any windows of this new house spoils every photo taken of picturesque Ano Vathy from the west!
With regards to size, in my opinion this building is like a "tank" in comparison to the old buildings.

Here are 4 photos of Samos town and Ano Vathy, taken in lovely May of 2004, with an IXUS 430, a 4 Megapixel camera:

Halcyon Hills: reality check on planned building site

2011-01-18T20:36:00.011+01:00

Warning: footage and pictures taken are no computer simulations! You are confronted with reality!

These are some phrases from advertisings over the last 2-3 years for the 'Halcyon Hills' project on the island of Samos:

".....It's rare to find a developer who has taken so much research and consideration into account before embarking on a project. .....
.... The complex is scheduled for completion two years from the commencement of building works. Completion is estimated to be in the first quarter of 2011.
....Construction will start in early 2009, and completion is scheduled for 2011."

Well, alright, lots of announcements and really nice virtual reality videos and pictures ....
Since I didn't have the time in 2009 to visit the area on the south-east coast of Samos, I called several people o Samos and asked them: "did they start the building activities there?" Answer: we didn't hear or read anything, so most probably they didn't start.

So what about a reality check visiting the area? In spring, summer and autumn 2010 I went to the area in the south-east of Samos on a motor scooter to see what was the status of the project on the site planned for the 'Halcyon Hills" resort, between Klima Bay and Akra Merziki.
I couldn't detect any building activities on the planned site!

What I already knew from visits there many years ago and what I found again on these several visits in 2010 was a beautiful and calm, almost silent natural area between Klima bay and Akra Merziki/Mertziki, where normally almost no tourist will go to because only really bad dirt roads lead there. The place looks like a big lake with the high mountains rising above the coast of Asia Minor giving it a perfect frame.

On the narrow shores (large pebbles) in this area you will find the remainders of boats, inflatable dinghies and life jackets of illegal migrants who crossed the strait between Turkey and Samos trying to enter the European Union.

Here are some video sequences I took over there:

So, if you like Samos, the beautiful natural landscapes of this island and the sounds of nature, e.g. waves rolling on the shores of remote small pebbly beaches, you better go there before the british consortium will start the project. Because when they will start, the building activities will change irreversibly and forever this peaceful and calm area, the silence will be gone for sure! The size of the project is like implanting a completely new village in the remote south-east of Samos!

If you don't know about the 'Halcyon Hills' project, look for the site of Barrasford and Bird, e.g. this one. They think and are convinced:
"Samos has a blossoming tourism market but is in need of a truly luxurious five star development to satisfy the demand of the high-end traveller."

Reality check: due to several factors, tourism steadily - and in total significantly - declined on Samos island over recent years. While there is no doubt that almost nobody likes this situation and everybody wants tourism to rise again, so far, I haven't met anyone on the island who would agree or is convinced, that Samos needs a "truly luxurious five star development" for "high-end travellers".

Btw., thinking of a building project at all over there, why not build a much smaller "5 star" (lol!) monastery there, without a marina, where (rich) people can spend some time contemplating in silence trying to get rid of their circling thoughts on how to increase profit and what others (or they themselves?) really need? ;-) ;-)

If I needed you

2010-12-21T23:30:00.008+01:00

The Avlakia Session on Samos island in Greece, part 2.

The dutch musicians Ad Vanderveen & Kersten de Ligny and greek musician Dimos Kassapidis performing together, playing & singing the beautiful song " If I needed you".

This song was written and originally performed by american singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

Recorded 10 meters away from the lovely blue waters of the aegean sea in the small village of Avlakia on the north coast of the island of Samos, Greece, July 2010.
The outro part of the video was taken on a remote beach below Kallithea in the west of Samos island.
Link to part 1 of the Avlakia session: "Cloud of Unknowing"

Forests gone: Kakoperato / Samos 2010

2010-12-14T00:33:00.015+01:00

In August 2010 a fire broke out in the Kakoperato region on the greek east aegean island of Samos and - driven by heavy winds - raged through the Kakoperato region east of the Kerkis mountain range, starting 150 meters south of the monastery Panagias Kakoperato and burning its way through a valley destroying a unique natural green forest region with lots of tall trees.

In addition, about 300 beehives were lost in that area due to the wildfire.

After the fire could cross the top of the mountains at the southern end of the valley, it went down the southern slopes of the mountains until it reached the outskirts of the tourist resort Votsalakia near the seaside.
Thanks to combined efforts by many firefighters, the fire could be stopped and none of the village houses was destroyed.

In October 2010 I visited the area, it looked almost like indian summer over there with the brown leaves/needles on the (dead?) trees.

The remote Kakoperato area - far away from the beaches - might not be known to most of the tourists coming to Samos for a beach holiday. But to all those tourists who came early or late in the season to experience and enjoy the beautiful landscapes away from the beaches it is a big loss!
And it is a big loss for the beekeepers too!

While it will be green again pretty soon on the grounds - fern already is present again - it will take quite some time (approx. 80-100 years) until new trees will have grown to the same size again there.

Many trees gone here ....

some remaining here:

What was the cause of this fire? Maybe another lesson to be learned! The fire originated in an area not far away from the monastery Kakoperato where many beehives are located:

With regards to my generation and the next one the result obtained is obvious: another forest area gone on Samos island!

Other greek aegean islands don't face this kind of problem anymore in the hot summer month with strong winds - mainly July and August - because these islands are bare and/or there are no more forests remaining.

Already in August I had a post in my blog about the Kakoperato region.
Kosmadiki posted 2008 a video about the Kakoperato canyon on YouTube.

More consultants than tourists coming to Samos? ;-)

2010-12-02T12:44:00.066+01:00

Good gracious, hopefully not!

Maybe better name the change: "from ego to eco"! :-)

But ....

What do you do when you don't know what to do?
In a situation like the one described by Carl von Clausewitz: "Nothing is more difficult than withdrawing from an untenable position".

The island of Samos faces a steady decline in tourists coming to the island over the last years. On top of that, in 2010 5,8 percent less travellers as compared to the season 2009 came with international flights to the Island.

This might be interpreted as an indication that the administration - due to whatever reason - has neglected the development of skills to handle the requirements of nowadays tourism management.

Now, as the administration responsible for this situation too, what you're going to do?
Well, you might find yourself forced into hiring consultants from other islands and/or foreign countries who will design a "strategic concept" for the next 5-10 years.
This seems to be part of the Xenophilia idea of the greek people I think! ;-)

Because consultants are expected to take an independant position and focus on tourism from a perspective other than from within the island to clearly see things the administration didn't want to notice or didn't want to be confronted with!
Well, after all, some Samians might say: all of a sudden tourism went down!

One thing we have to keep in mind though, well, what could we do, if we would find ourselves on the border of the European Union, as far as possible away from Athens, in a political situation that cuts us off from almost all resources and travel connections coming from the near Asia Minor coast and that would help Samos to become a cheaper destiny. Why do most of the goods have to be shipped via Athens or Thessaloniki to Samos? What about e.g. direct flights from Izmir or other turkish destinations to Samos or Ikaria island?
current situation here!

Isn't it strange? As a tourist, you can buy organized (daily) excursions by ship from Samos to the holy island of Patmos or to ancient Ephesus in Turkey. But try to do this while you are on Samos with excursions to Ikaria and Fourni, the two other destinations covered by the prefecture of Samos. And btw., Ikaria has an airport since quite a couple of years!

In this situation, for sure, the Samians need the best consultants, e.g. "The World Centre of Excellence for Destinations" (CED) in Canada.

First the prefecture called for Euroxenia from Rhodos, then - in addition - the prefecture last year in November teamed up with CED and their SMED process!
See here:
Agreement with CED, middle of November 2009
Report presented to Samos by CED, November 2010
and
Agreement with Euroxenia

If you study these announcements thoroughly, you will notice that they are filled with a collection of Buzzword Bingo words I know well enough from presentations of american consultants. Enthusiasm bubbles created by speech foam.
But lets be serious: announcements are one thing and what will be achieved - despite these types of announcements - within a reasonable time frame is another thing.

I try to do my best to use some of these well known "buzzwords" to create a bubble of excellence. Let's see what I can do, I tried hard, what about this one here:
Process to foster "Real World Measurements for Excellence in Xenophilia Performance" (RWMEXP) to excel in total Philoxenia. Lol!

The Canadair planes CL-215 help(ed) Samos a lot in fighting many forest fires during the summer seasons. So let's hope, that - with regards to tourism matters - the SMED process by the canadian based CED will indeed allow Samos to "walk upright" again. And let it not be another set of costly crutches offered to the aching administration.

Sort of a short insight in the SMED process can be found in the presentation of Manolis Psarros

And, as someone who likes good photos, I can only beg the prefecture: please send a good photo to CED to present the island of Samos as destination on CEDs website. The actual photo that I can see (Dec 3rd-8th, 2010) showing Samos-town and the gulf of Samos is imho the worst photo of all current SMED destinations presented and imho doesn't serve the island of Samos as a really beautiful touristic destination ......

..... with friendly and original local people, like, for example, some of the musicians I met on Samos .....

and lots of good things to eat and drink!

Btw., maybe this is another reason, why consultants (and investors) like to come to Samos! ;-)

But, what about the (N)Ikarians? As I see it, due to their painful experience over quite a few years, they gave a damn ;-) on what the prefecture administration in Samos-town on Samos island is/was not doing for them.

And now, indeed, in a way, Ikarians can be proud, because during the last years, Ikaria was successful in positioning itself as a unique destination and especially in attracting lots of young people as visitors to the island!
If you travel on a ferry during the summer season from Piraeus to Samos, it might appear that Ikaria acts like an age filter for international tourism: almost all who are below the age of thirtyfive will leave the ship in Ikaria, most of those aged 45 or more will stay and proceed to Samos.

I come to the island of Samos by plane via direct charter flights from Frankfurt, many, many times since 1999. And of course, I'm way beyond 45! :-)

-----------

With regards to tourism in that region, e.g. from Greece via Samos to Turkey, there is an interesting report with personal impressions, travelling from Samos, Greece, to Kusadasi, Turkey (by canadian Duke_schewe on Tripadvisor):

I must admit Turkey has never been high on my places to visit for whatever preconceived notions I held and after our experiences in Egypt we were a bit trepidatious about another sojourn into a Muslim country. I have been absolutely blown away by this country on so many fronts - the people are amazing, it is unbelievably clean and there are so many diverse things to see. ......
So what'd we do....landed in Kusadasi from the Greek Island of Samos. Considering that no one in Greece seems to have any information on getting to Turkey, I was beginning to wonder if there were any boat services to this country. It turns out there's plenty, but just don't ask anyone from Greece to help you....there is NO love lost between these countries and apparently the newfound popularity of Turkey has hurt Greek tourism so everyone in Greece seems to be ensuring they are not contributing to that statistic. We were immediately struck with the incredible cleanliness everywhere...

full report here!

Pappa beach in Ireon

2010-11-27T17:07:00.009+01:00

Pappa beach is a small beach located a couple of hundred meters south of the village of Ireon. Almost every time I come to Samos in the high summer season, I spent some time there and drink a beer or two in the tavern on the beach. Meeting friendly people over there, like Costas, lively Maria and charming Venetia!

A very good panoramic impression of this beach, taken from a different perspective, was published by Patrick Vincent Meier in 2009.

Some more impressions are shown in this video from visits in July 2010:

Samos, a rising holiday destination?

2010-11-25T22:30:00.011+01:00

According to an online voting organized during the "Philoxenia 2010" exhibition in Thessaloniki, Samos is/was the rising coastal holiday destination 2010 and among the five most popular tourist destinations in Greece for a seaside holiday.

Here is the table with the result of the voting

The number of voters who took part in this online voting were not revealed.

Here is the link to the website of the Philoxenia Expo 2010 meeting/exhibition, which ended on November 21st.

According to the list of exhibitors, the prefecture of Samos took part in Pavillon 10 with Stand 17.

You can congratulate Michalis Toanoglu of Euroxenia, who is in charge for tourism development at the prefecture of Samos, on his facebook site

Unfortunately, there was another real world trend in 2010: while island destinations like Rhodos and Santorini had a significant plus in numbers of visitors over the whole tourist season, the number of passengers who arrived by plane on the island of Samos decreased by approx. 6 percent in 2010 as compared to 2009. Here Samos is another leader, but this time with the highest decrease in 2010 with regards to tourists coming by plane!

Could it be the case, that people really like the beautiful and green island of Samos a lot and carry the lovely island in their hearts, but don't want to spend (more) money for a holiday there?

In the realm of Damselflies on Samos

2010-11-24T01:19:00.018+01:00

In the shady valleys, along brooks on Samos (e.g. Potami, Amfilissos, Imvrasos ...) most probably you will find the beautiful bluegreen or brown metallic-shimmering damselflies (beautiful demoiselle, Calopterix virgo).

Come and observe them "on location" during your holiday stay on the east aegean island of Samos in Greece!

Approaching Samos by airplane

2010-11-11T01:56:00.011+01:00

Sitting in a charter flight coming from Germany, flying over the south coast of Samos near Pythagorio on a beautiful early morning (7:34 am) in October. View towards the west along the coastline to the village of Ireon, the central southern part of the island and the islet of Samiopoula.
The high mountains of the Kerkis massive are in the background, in the right upper half of the photo, above the winglet of the airplane.

Here are more photos:

7 o'clock in the morning, high above the aegean sea on our way to Samos:

Flying along the northwest coast looking down on the Seitani coast, the massive range of Kerkis mountains and the archipelago of Fourni in the background (7:30 am)

Crossing the island, view again to the west (7:31 am):

After crossing the complete island, flying further southwards over the aegean sea, almost reaching the island of Agathonisi, then turning around and flying northbound, here we are now again over Samos, flying almost directly over Ireon. The high mountain in the background on the upper right side of the photo is Cape Mykale on the turkish coast:

A few seconds away from touching the runway (7:42 am)

Balos beach, part 2

2010-11-02T01:51:00.000+01:00

Here is the long version of the video about my visits to Balos beach in October.

Balos beach October 2010

2010-10-27T15:27:00.028+02:00

As last year, together with the musician Dimos, I payed several visits to the south coast ending up on Balos beach. Especially during the days from October 4th to October 11, there was almost perfect weather for taking photographs.

If you have never been there, come with us, take a seat in the Sam Giggle Street View Car ;-), Dimos is the driver!
We're leaving the road between Koumeika and Ormos Marathókampos and within 2,5 minutes we drive down the hill on the "highway to Balos" to reach the beach:

Balos beach beginning of October,
perfect weather for taking photos and swimming in the warm sea:

Balos beach, middle of October:

The huge Kerkis mountain range hidden by clouds:

Let's see how the waves are rolling ashore:

Balos beach in the evening:

On October 16th, we were lucky to find Stellas cypriot restaurant still to be open. We were the only guests there and had a really good time with the son of Stella, who speaks fluently german. Besides a special and very tasty cypriot salad, I liked the grilled Halloumi cheese (Greek: χαλούμι), chicken in lemon sauce and hot peppermint tee.

Leaving the beach, the sea and Balos again, going up the road to Koumeika! You have two choices here:

Leaving Balos in the early afternoon:

Or leaving Balos in the late afternoon!
Everything seemed to be prepared, we had cleaned the car windows thoroughly. When we started driving, the mp3 player first delivered only one channel and then only noise! We stopped, turned around and started anew. While turning around, one of the blossoming trees shed a lot of stuff over the car and the front window. O.k., we let it be like that.

That's My World Tuesday

Wet experience on Samos!

2010-10-21T00:57:00.006+02:00

These two photos show the harbour front of Pythagorion on Saturday morning, October 16th, 2010, before the heavy thunderstorm came. Already during the night it had been raining.
Later on this Saturday, after 11:15 am, I experienced for the first time a thunderstorm with almost torrential rainfalls on Samos while driving in a car on the road between Pythagorion and Vathy (Samos-town).

Leaving Samos-town:

Entering Pythagorion:

In Pythagorion we stopped on the main road whilst the rainfall was getting stronger and stronger. Until the main road looked like a river! Even hail came down for a short time at approx. 01:30 pm.

Here you can see how it looked like after the rain stopped:

For people living on Samos this might be nothing new, because they already experienced it in the wintertime many times.
But for me it was quite a new Samos experience!

Samos worldwide!

2010-09-09T14:14:00.010+02:00

Some of my Samos videos/presentations on YouTube have reached quite a respectable number of views since they were launched:

15.700 views for Samos 2007, greek & green
17.500 views for "Samos 2007, greek & green" (10 min)
19.140 views for Samos/Greece 2008 presentation "greek & green"
22.900 views for Samos 2009, a fascinating experience!

And the winner is:

25.300 views for "Rebetika Tragoudia / Rebetika (Rebetic) Songs"
A video about the music of Jiannis Loulourgas, a luthier, singer and bouzouki player from Pythagorio on Samos island.

Sort of a rising star is the video about the visit of the mega-yacht "Al Mirqab" in Pythagorio (2.900 views since it was published on June 19th, 2010:

On the Vimeo platform I have established a channel called "Experience Samos" with many videos and presentations of Samos.

The strait of Samos / Mycale Strait / Στενό της Μυκάλης

2010-08-29T21:30:00.022+02:00

The strait of Samos or Mycale Strait (in greek: Stenó Sámou, in turkish: Dar Bogaz). Where Greece with the island of Samos is at its closest distance to Turkey in the aegean sea!

Along the south-eastern coast line of Samos, there are several bays. Three of them are easily accessible via asphalt roads. Besides the well known Psili Ammos Bay with fine sandy beach and several taverns and the picturesque bay of Posidonio, a less known place is Klima bay with a nice beach and two taverns (watch video below too!).

The Samos strait near Psili Ammos:

The Samos strait near Klima:

The Samos strait near Posidonio:

Only bad and dusty (or muddy after rain) dirt roads lead through the area between Psili Ammos and Klima on the south-east coast of Samos. Driving along there is rather adventureous, and it always feels like looking down on a lake, with the high mountains of the turkish coast on the opposite side.

Photos of the Metziki area (Akra Metziki):

The western end of the strait of Samos. The small island (with a lighthouse) belongs to Turkey and is opposite of Psili Ammos beach.

Sunset trip on Friday evening, captain Jiannis from Pythagorio with his boat Agia Irini is on his way through the strait of Samos heading towards a nice night with lots of eating, drinking and dancing in a fish tavern in Posidonio.

Some videoclips I took this year in the south-east of Samos:

Well, how narrow is this channel between Europe (Greece) and Asia Minor (Turkey) at its closest distance?

I’ve done some searches in the internet and obtained differing data. A range from 1,2 kilometers to approx. 2 kilometers is offered for the closest distance!

meandertravel says:
The island Samos lies in the heart of Central Aegean, 1200 meters from the shore of Asia Minor.

Many people with german websites just copy the text from the german Wikipedia site, which states 1,3 km. The english version of Wikipedia interestingly allows 1,6 kilometers for the closest distance!

As does the EUROPÄISCHES SEGEL-INFORMATIONSSYSTEM which states 1,68 kilometer! (in german):
„Die Straße ist an der engsten Stelle 0,9 nm (=1,68km) breit und 2,99 nm (=5,64km) lang.“

The World Cruising Wiki says:
The Mycale channel, which is 1 nM wide, separates the two countries, ...

Partsafas K. Stillianos, head of the Samos port authority, is cited to have said:
“Samos is very close to Turkey. This is why we deal with so many illegal immigrants. At its closest point in the Samos Strait, Greece and Turkey have just 0.6 nautical miles between them,” ....

Samosin.gr site says:
„To the East of Samos is Turkey and Asia Minor, from which Samos is separated by the “Eptastadio” channel, (called Dar Bogaz in Turkish) whish is only 1650 meters wide at its narrowest point.“

I even found a statement saying this:
„In fact, Samos is only 2km from Turkey at its closest point, but to be honest, as far as I could see, Samos could be 2km of the coast of France for all the Turkish influence in evidence!“

Nowadays, Google helps us to find out ourselves what is the closest distance between Samos and the turkish coast.
And I remembered the sunset trip to Posidonio with captain Jiannis from Pythagorio where he always shows people in his boat this point on the south-east coast of Samos.

So, I marked two points on Google Earth in the area of the Samos strait which I think could represent the closest distance between the two countries Greece and Turkey.

The coordinates are:

For Samos:
37°42'17.15"N
27° 1'47.01"E

Decimal degrees notation: 37.704764 27.029725

For Turkey:
37°41'23.04"N
27° 1'51.98"E

Decimal degrees notation: 37.689733 27.031106

With these data I went to two different websites to calculate the distance.

rechneronline.de/geo-koordinaten
I obtained 1676 meters !

with geo-tools/distance-calculator
I obtained 1675 meters.

Well, that perfectly fits the data given on that sailing site (1,68 kilometers)!

Maybe others regard the smaller distance between those two islets/rocks in the sea (the oval one in front of the turkish mainland belonging to Turkey, and the other, rectangular one, just in front of Psili Ammos beach on Samos belonging to Greece) as the shortest distance between Greece and Turkey and use this distance.
I'm refering here to the closest distance between the mainland of Turkey and the shores of Samos.

Kako Perato region

2010-08-04T23:22:00.001+02:00

Well, the dense green with many trees in this view to the south-east might be gone now for many years!

The remote area of Kako Perato, a beautiful part of Samos between Kastanea, Kosmadei and the eastern slopes of the Kerkis mountain range, suffered extremely from the devastating fire this week.

View to the north:

As I heard from friends, not much is left of the former beautiful green over there.
Fortunately, the outlet of the canyon towards the sea, the area of the beautiful Megalo Seitani beach, and the villages threatened by the fire, Marathokampos, Kastanea, Kosmadei and Votsalakia, were not hurt by the fire.

For those who haven't been to the area of Kako Perato, in my gallery "Along the abyss to the cave in Kako Perato canyon" are some photos I took in 2007 on my way along the footpath leading to this cave.

In addition, I highly recommend to pay a visit to the well presented website of Rainer Kastl, samos-wandern (hiking on Samos) to accompany him on his tour 24 through this area.

The following photos I took in June of the year 2005:

Hiking, starting from the monument on this saddle in the mountains above Marathokampos, in the direction of Kerkis mountain:

In the light of the setting sun on the dirt road leading through the Kako Perato area towards Kosmadei:

MyWorld Tuesday

Firefighting with helicopters on Samos island in Greece. July 2010

2010-07-29T15:36:00.013+02:00

The months of July and August with high temperatures, dried-out nature and strong Meltemi winds are potentially dangerous with regards to fires on Samos island with its many forests and vegetation.

This year there have been fires already , e.g. the one of July 21st. Then, 4 helicopters and 6 planes were involved in the firefighting from the air helping many firefighters on the ground doing their job.

And just now, July 29th 2010, official and voluntary firefighters are struggling again against the long firefront of a big fire between the hills above Kokkari on the north coast and Mytilinii and Mavratzei in the centre of the island.

Here are some videos I took last week on the day after the fire of Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 :

Firefighting on Samos island in Greece. Helicopter coming down to the sea in the gulf of Samos near Malagari opposite the capital Samos-town to refill with seawater.

In the hills on the north coast close to Samos-town, above the road leading to the rubbish damp: helicopters are still flying and dropping water to control the area.

While it can be a life threatening experience to those whose properties or lives are on the risk and for those who fight the fires, it is always a pity too that more green spots will disappear from the map of Samos for quite some years. So, tourists planning to come to Samos should be aware that
- a lot of efforts have been undertaken to improve the firefighting considerably over the last ten years, especially on Samos island.
- the tourist resorts near or on the beaches in most cases are not endangered.

But looking at all those photos and pictures of forest fires on this beautiful island should bring immediately to each tourists mind too the responsibility to behave in a way to prevent any possible cause for a fire on Samos.

Driving along country roads on Samos

2010-07-29T11:21:00.003+02:00

Driving on the road on Samos island can be a lot of fun, especially in spring, when the countryside is full of blooming flowers and bushes. Here are three examples from end of May 2010:

a.) Going downhill from Ambelos to Ag. Konstantinos on the north coast (Parts 1 & 2 of 4):

The village of Ambelos high on the north coast of Samos and the road leading up there have already inspired many others to take videos. Here are two examples produced by samian "Youtubers":

Video of LowerdNJuiced: Road from Ambelos village down to main street Samos island Greece October 2008

Video of Nick Tsoulontino from February/March 2010: national samographic-Ambelos village and its Waterfalls:

b.) Driving along the road on the north coast of Samos in the Svala/Kampos region (part 1 of 2)

c.) On the road from Balos to Pirgos in the south of Samos (parts 1 & 4 of 4)

The other parts you can find easily in my videochannel on YouTube

The Avlakia session: Cloud of Unknowing

2010-07-17T10:16:00.007+02:00

The dutch musicians Ad Vanderveen & Kersten de Ligny and greek musician Dimos Kassapidis performing together, playing the song " Cloud of Unknowing".
Recorded "live", 10 meters away from the lovely blue waters of the aegean sea, in the small village of Avlakia on the north coast of the island of Samos, Greece, July 2010.

Despite wind jammer used, some wind noises due to strong Meltemi winds blowing.

http://www.advanderveen.com
http://www.myspace.com/kerstendeligny
http://www.dimosol1.blogspot.com

Ad Vanderveen and Kersten de Ligny visiting Samos

2010-07-12T01:22:00.008+02:00

The two dutch professional musicians Ad Vanderveen and Kersten de Ligny came to Samos for the third time for a holiday. They fell in love with the island and became friends with the greek musician Dimos Kassapidis. Dimos came to know the music of Ad some years ago via dutch visitors on Samos island and is playing some of the songs composed by Ad.

Ad and Kersten have recorded several CDs and you can find videoclips of them on YouTube and Vimeo, e.g. this one:

This year, I met them on Samos for the first time during last week when they were playing at the Hotel "Doryssa Seaside Resort" together with Dimos.

Two days ago, on Friday night, they gave a concert with two sets in the restaurant "Archontóspito" on the square in Kontakeika. Unfortunately, a cool Meltemi wind was blowing strong. But nevertheless, all tables were occupied. And the greek audience liked the music.

Besides Ad and Kersten, a young local greek singer was playing, the first set alone, then later in the night accompanied by two fellow musicians:

On Saturday we did some recording of a more or less spontaneous jam session in Avlakia on the north coast. Ad, Kersten and Dimos performed several songs, e.g. "This fleeting life", "Cloud of unknowing" and "If I needed you".
To get a first impression, please watch the following videoclip:

I will post some more material in a while.

30 seconds Samos

2010-06-23T11:08:00.003+02:00

I have started a small series on YouTube called: "30 seconds Samos".
As examples, here are two clips:

Some more clips will follow, siga, siga!

Unter dem Titel "30 seconds Samos" habe ich eine kleine Reihe bei YouTube gestartet. Die Videoclips sind hier zu finden.
Es werden noch einige dazukommen, siga, siga!

The mega yacht "Al Mirqab" coming to Pythagorio

2010-06-20T13:11:00.003+02:00

One of the largest private motor yachts in the world, the 133 meter long mega yacht "Al Mirqab" - owned by the emir of Qatar - came to Pythagorio for a short visit (approx. 4 hours) in the evening on Monday, June 14th, 2010.

I had heard about this event a day in advance. But when the yacht finally approached Pythagorio early in the evening (coming along all the south coast of Samos from Votsalakia), I just came out of the bathroom after having taken a shower. So, with the towel wrapped around me, I stood on the balcony and filmed the yacht "Al Mirqab" slowly gliding towards Pythagorio.
Then I decided to drive on top of the hill above Pythagorio to take some footage from there.

Most of the photos included in the video by kind permission of Sofoklis Arelis who went down to the harbour to take shots from a closer distance.
Music by Lothar Kosse, a german guitarist and singer.

Kalimera! Welcome to Pythagorio!

2010-05-25T22:14:00.003+02:00

Some of my personal impressions from 8 days in May 2010 in the lovely village of Pythagorio on Samos island in Greece.
Take your time for an approx. 20 minutes long experience.

Special thanks to my friend Jiannis Loulourgas!

Kalimera! Welcome to Pythagorio! from Peter Molz on Vimeo.

Samos waves music!

2010-05-13T18:21:00.007+02:00

The greek singer, guitar player and entertainer Dimos Kassapidis last year (2009) performed several songs on different beaches on Samos island. Here are some of the videoclips from Balos beach in the south and Mikró Seitáni beach in the northwest of the island :

Invitation to visit Samos island in 2010!

2010-05-03T21:22:00.001+02:00

The season 2010 is starting, already some charter flights from the Netherlands came and the first charter flights from Germany are coming today to Samos!

Last year I asked my friend, the musician Dimos Kassapidis, to help me to record sort of a promotional videoclip for Samos island. Dimos is a singer who has been playing on Samos during the summer season for many years already and who knows the island and most of its landscapes, beaches and good taverns very well.

We went to almost empty Balos beach on a beautiful sunny and warm day in October and had lots of fun swimming and sunbathing and exploring some hidden coves. Later in the afternoon we did the recording for this clip.

Dimos is sending his invitation message in three languages to the internet world !
I do hope that you will like the videoclip with scenes from Balos beach, accompanied by the sound of the waves and the music of Dimos ...

Visit Dimos on his myspace site

More information and photos about Balos beach you can find here:

Special promotion for Samos as holiday destination

2010-04-19T17:48:00.006+02:00

O.k., it looks like a lot of fun!
But, do young people of Samos think about what impression they leave on tourists who intend to come to Samos for a holiday, when they post videos like these on YouTube? Many people are now searching the internet for information on their vacation destinations, and when looking in YouTube or googling for "Samos", they might get this first hand information about the island! ;-)

Is this sort of abuse of nature and new roads (financed by the EU) mainly found in the Marathókampos area?

fireworks and shells for easter celebration 2007

Pasxa 2009 Marathokampos SAMOS ( GREECE )

MARATHOKAMPOS SAMOS PASXA 2010-THE CHAMPIONS-PROFHTHS HLIAS

5-MARATHOKAMPOS SAMOS ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗΣ ΗΛΙΑΣ ΠΑΣΧΑ 2010

ae86 samos

TOYOTA COROLLA AE86 DRFTING SAMOS!!!

Greece on the ITB 2010 in Berlin

2010-03-20T12:33:00.009+01:00

The ITB in Berlin, this year lasting from March 10th to 14th, is the worlds largest tourism and travel trade show.
11.127 exhibitors from 187 countries all over the world in 25 halls and approx. 180.000 visitors during the 5 days.

Some photographic impressions of the stand of Greece in hall 2.2. on the ITB 2010 in Berlin, Germany.

The stand of the prefectures of Lesbos and Chios, offering some nice red wine from Limnos.

Late Sunday afternoon, nobody anymore on the stand of Mykonos. Sunny islands inside the hall, while it is snowing heavily outside in Berlin!

If you wonder why there are no photos of the stand of the prefecture Samos-Ikaria-Fourni ......, well to my great disappointment I have to say that this year they didn't show up, they had no stand on the ITB. As I learned "...due to technical reasons". Let's hope that until next year those problems will be solved.

Nevertheless, most of the other greek exhibitors/prefectures from last year were there again with their stands. So, no need to worry! Though my impression was, that on the public days there were signifcant less visitors on the greek stand as compared to last year.

If you intend to come to Greece this year and you are the typical young and smart tourist (from this year on - according to new marketing strategy - you will be called "guest" instead), don't forget to take your Laptop to the beach then !
No more home computing, beach computing in Greece will become trendy;-)

Interview with Pavlos Geroulanos, Minister of Culture and Tourism of Greece on the ITB 2010 Berlin by Reuters.

More photographic impressions from stands of other countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Spain in other halls of the ITB 2010 in Berlin I will publish within the next weeks in a special set on flickr.

Some videos can be found in my video channel on YouTube:

Stories of Ireon at night (part 2) / MyWorld

2009-11-07T00:19:00.032+01:00

Part 2: the good and delicious food

Over the years I came to know a couple of taverns on Samos I really like to go to and spend some time there with friends. The musician Dimos first took me to this place in Ireon two or three years ago. Since then I like to go there again everytime I'm on Samos: the fish tavern "Captain Miltos"! Fresh grilled fish at its best!
And I especially like the sword fish fillet and the calamari, together with the rosé wine!

Imho it's not a spectacular tavern, rather a place at a dark corner which many tourists won't even take notice of when passing by.

This year I was lucky to be there twice, here are some of my photographic memories of the visits to this tavern:

"Our" swordfish fillets on the grill. "Lecker" as we germans say!

Well this here is our table, my "farewell to Samos table" on that evening on October 12th, filled with many delicious things.
Dimos ordered all of these via cellular phone when we were on our "race" from Balos beach to Ireon:

Swordfish fillet

Squid (Calamari, Kalamares)

Greek Salad (χωριάτικη σαλάτα)

Fried Eggplants (Melitzanes, Aubergines)

Rosé wine

Swordfish portion for two people (on that other visit):

After we had finished our meal, captain Miltos showed us what he fished out of the sea, e.g. a big tuna fish, weighing approx. 20 kg. And a swordfish.
Not so easy for him to hold up this big tuna fish for a while to allow me to take a good photo! (Maybe that's why he doesn't smile here anymore!)

Of course, Dimos wanted to act as a fisherman too, so here he poses in his Superman outfit ;-):

All good things come to an end, so they say ... it's time to say goodbye: The "Blue(s) Brothers" ;-), Captain Miltos together with Dimos.

I get the blues ;-) Bye till next year!

We enter the car and hurry back to Pythagorio. Dimos has only little time left to be in time for starting his music show in a hotel. And I walk slowly - and a bit tipsy I must confess - down the main street of Pythagorio and then up a side street to my studio to take a rest to get rid of some alcohol.
2 hours relaxing time and a warm shower before I will head down to the harbour. At 10:30 p.m. I will meet with Mike in the harbour in another nice place, Manolis' ouzeri called "Karafaki". For some special photographers conversation enhanced by greek "Mythos"! :-)

MyWorld Tuesday

Stories of Ireon at night (part 1)

2009-11-06T18:47:00.002+01:00

Part 1: the drinkable ingredients

Well, more bottles of samian wine ..... , Dryoussa, Psilés Korfés, Golden Samena, Samaina sec, Fokianos, ....
..... and some hard drinks. Don't forget to try the local Souma and Ouzo! ;-)
And more stories to be told ....

You ask, where is this place? The full story will be revealed in part 2 together with photos of the delicious food there! :-)
You wanna guess? Here is some hint!

Curious about the wines of Samos? If you are interested in these wines, either dry or sweet, red, rosé or white, and where you can get them in your country, please pay a visit to the website of the Union of Vinicultural Cooperatives of Samos (EOSS).
Of course, in many taverns, you will find that local wines are served too as house wines.

Here a short excursion to the history of samian wines can be found .

Cats of Kontakeika

2009-11-02T21:05:00.007+01:00

Four out of nine cats which I met in Kontakeika while staying on the platia for a couple of hours!

New friends for old cars

2009-11-02T14:14:00.009+01:00

Holidays on Samos? Looking for a photo of a car wreck? Well, no problem, Samos is rich in old car wrecks!
A wealth of these rotten and forgotten vehicles can be found along the roads, partially hidden in forests or stuck in fields, and in the gardens around the houses. Since many many years!

The photo above is from the year 2006, this was my favorite car wreck. But it had been removed already the next year I came back to this place.

Old and rusty too: the following two photos were taken end of June 2006.

(interested in photos documenting the later stages of this vehicle after a new colour had been applied? Look here (HDR) and here.
A shot in b&w from 2009 is depicted here!)

Lately, Rainer Kastl has started a Samos vehicle/car wreck collection using latest technology. He has taken a lot of photos in October 2009 and positioned the vehicle wrecks he found according to their GPS data on a map of Samos! Now they are so easy to find, nobody can miss them anymore!

He collected 44 vehicle wrecks within his two weeks stay on Samos. And, in time, more and more examples will be added as points of interest to this map of vehicle wrecks on Samos. Isn't it astonishing, what you can do with modern technologies?

Here is the link to the vehicle/car wreck map.

I could contribute quite a few more, but I don't have GPS data.

A visit to the area of the big forest fire

2009-10-21T22:06:00.003+02:00

In July 2000, a several day lasting big forest fire eliminated at least 30 percent of the forests on Samos. The area around the village of Pirgos and north of Pirgos up to the top of Karvounis suffered especially. That was a big tragedy for the natural beauty of Samos and a life threatening experience for some owners of land and house properties.

After that fire at lot of initiatives were started to fight future forest fires on Samos. But sadly enough, this large area with beautiful forests in the center and south of Samos was gone. And everyone knew that it would take about 50 - 100 years before there will be real forests again.

During a Jeep tour through the Ambelos mountains in the center of Samos, from Pandroso up to the white chapel Profitis Ilias on top of Karvounis, I was interested to see how things might have changed in the meantime.

In many places, lots of fresh and incredibly green young trees can be seen, most of the newly grown trees (bushes) are approx. 1 to 1,5 meters high.

Here are some photos that show the situation in October 2009.

Some other areas still look devastated, like nothing has changed at all since July/August 2000.

Somewhere on the dirt road leading up to Profitis Ilias: The view to the west towards Kerkis mountain and the bare islands of Fourni

On top of Karvounis mountain (1153 meter high)

View to the northeast from top of Karvounis

The chapel Profitis Ilias on top of Karvounis :

A paradise lost soon? Balos beach in autumn.

2009-10-16T11:47:00.026+02:00

Below the village of Koumeika in the south of the island of Samos, a road leads down to Balos beach. Since last winter, the upper half of this road has been completely renewed, an asphalt road (feels almost like a highway now) leads very comfortably down to lovely Balos bay in a couple of minutes.
On the second photo, the view goes down on the old road with many serpentines. The new broad road leads straight along the slope of the hill on the other side of the valley. The small island in the background is Samiopoula.
On the third photo (taken already in 2007) the old road can be seen on the left hand side, the lower part of the new road - which had been finished already then - on the right hand side .

A bit of nostalgia in the next two photos, those were the days when I went down on the old road to Balos beach.
Btw., this old road is still there!

I have visited Balos beach many times during the last years, but only in 2008 I discovered the special light of October in Balos. So I wanted to go back to Balos beach this year again.
Together with the singer/guitarist Dimos, I visited this beach three times between October 7th and 12th, 2009 und we were fortunate to enjoy the beach whilst having the most beautiful warm autumn weather on Samos.

"Arriving in Balos was like entering a secret, peaceful world - far from the madding crowds!" somebody wrote in "tripadvisor" about his stay there. That is exactly how it has been there until now.
I am not quite sure what effect this new road will have on this remote and cosy place, since it seems that sort of "highway" was build to enable large busses full of tourists to go down to Balos beach now. Sure, the times they are a-changin'! So, maybe another piece of paradise on Samos might get lost pretty soon.

Well, before the remote and calm atmosphere might disappear, let me take you on a journey down to this magic place on Samos! Here are some of my impressions, mostly from autumn 2008 and October 2009: fantastic views to Mount Kerkis, a long beach with a mixture of sand and pebbles, cristal clear waters, lots of sunshine almost all day long till the sun sets dramatically behind Mount Kerkis or Ikaria island (depending on season) with glowing evening horizons.

Several houses, a few apartment buildings, two hotels and four (small) taverns are build on the road leading along the long beach.

And, further to the east, behind the main bay, some small rocky bays/coves can be explored.

Dimos sent me some photos he took after climbing up on top of the cliff.

In October, a perfect place for those who seek the calm and want to stay away from the hectic world. On Sunday, October 11th 2009, there was almost no wind, a perfect day for relaxing, swimming in the warm sea, sunbathing, playing music and recording some music video.

"Caveman" Dimos with his guitar, as depicted above, "live from Balos beach": you can listen to him singing the song: "If I needed you" with the waves rolling on Balos beach in the background. The second song we were singing together, it is the famous "California Dreaming". We recorded these songs in that sort of cave shown in the first photo of this photostory.

The tavern "Esperos" at the eastern end of the beach, where I have been several times over the recent years, already was closed when I came to Balos beach this year. The space, where tables and chairs usually are standing to invite the hungry & thirsty beach visitors, from now on during the winter season is used for apparently other purposes!

If you want to get an idea of how the view is from inside of "Esperos" out on the beach, e.g. in September, please look here !

The tavern "Akrogiali" on the corner, where the road down from Koumeika meets the seafront, was still open, over noon and in the late afternoon after 6:30 pm (both photos are from October 2008).

And the tavern in the middle of the beach "I Paralia" (photo from 2008) was still open too, but they only served drinks: there I got my greek coffee with the glas of water, as you can clearly see in a photo further above!

Stella's cypriot restaurant we didn't visit, so I can't say if this place was still open (photo is from October 2008).

An almost magic atmosphere can be encountered, when the sun sets slowly and floods Balos beach with golden light.

The little chapel Agia Pelagia next to the taverna "Esperos"

Scenes along the road parallel to the beach

Last minutes of sunlight on the beach

Balos beach already is in the shade, but high up on the slopes of the mountain Spatharei glows in the light of the setting sun.

Sunset in September 2008

If you head westwards along the waterfront and leave Balos bay at the very western end, by passing a rocky segment, you will discover another beach. I haven't been to this beach but this beach can be seen in Google Earth and here.

And, for those who like to eat fresh seafood, it might be a good idea to move on a bit further southeast to the next bay, Pefkos, to pay a visit to the Ouzeri "Bella Vista" on Pefkos beach. For me, there is no other comparable place on Samos to watch the sunset and the glowing horizon behind the huge dark Kerkis mountain while enjoying some excellent seafood and wine in good company.
This place finished its season 2009 on Sunday, October 11th. They told us they will be open again next year from May 1st on. We were lucky enough to be there on the last night with this fantastic evening sky. And, by chance, met some locals coming from Pythagorio too.

Additional information (October 23rd, 2009):
I would like to direct your attention to websites relating to that area in the south of Samos:

An initiative by Patrick Humphreys called "Amfilissos, River Area of Cultural Inheritance and Ecology" that proposes a plan for a possible development and revitalisation of the area between Neochori, Skoureika, Koumeika and Balos.

A blog called "Mpalos (Balos)" in greek language. Giving lots of information on (greek) music, island life and showing beautiful photos of Samos.

Additional information: (November 1st, 2009)
More than 10 years ago, Franz Nahrada from Austria (Globally Integrated Village Environment (GIVE) Lab, Vienna) proposed a project for the same area: Neohori-Project.

Additional information: (November 2nd, 2009)
Rainer Kastl has done a very good job and has posted more than 20 hiking tours on his website "Samos-Wandern" (in german) using a combination of GPS data and his photos.
His latest addition (tour 22) is a tour in the area between Balos beach and Psili Ammos beach/Peri.

Up the hill to Kontakeika!

2009-07-28T19:28:00.008+02:00

Most of the tourists coming to Samos like the coast, the easy life on the beaches, and the leisure time in the harbours or in the squares of the villages. A few others like to be as far away as possible from the „normal“ tourist streams and want to stay in remote places in the mountains.

But there is something „in-between“. Halfway in-between! Some clever business men have also discovered this „in-between“ sphere and use it as advertising & promotional phrase to sell real estate.

Above the north coast of Samos, there are several well known villages and touristic destinations like Vourliotes, Manolates and Ambelos overlooking the aegean sea with tremendeous views. Stavrinides too, but this is already a bit too high up the hill, and more for individualists.
And then, further to the west ... ?
Wait, before we reach Karlóvasi on the coastal road, isn’t there a road leading up to another village? Well, yes, it’s called Kontakeika!

Kontakeika? "Where on Samos is Kontakeika (Kondakeika)?" most tourists will ask! Either they have never heard this name, don’t know how to pronounce it, have never been there or most probably will confuse it with Skoureika, Koumaradei, Koumeika or Kondeika. But maybe some of them - by walking, or in their cars/jeeps - already have passed through this village on the way to Petaloudes or to Ydroussa.

Well, what about a stop there, getting out of the car and paying a visit to this place?
With a couple of photos I will try to convince you that it might be really worthwhile to do so! (click on the photos to enlarge them!) A place, flooded with sun almost all day, in a beautiful hilly landscape surrounded by lots of gardens and vineyards. With a breathtaking panoramic view to the west to the Kerkis mountain range and down to the coast and the town of Karlóvasi. Those spectacular sunsets and colourful evening skies need to be experienced!
The picturesque small platia is a nice play to make a stop over! And in addition, as a teaser: since the end of 2007, there is a very good restaurant, open all year!

Here is a comparison: in the first photo, this small square of Kontakeika is shown in October 2008; and in the second photo as I came to know it end of August 2007.

The massive church is looking almost like a fortress!

And for those, who want a bit of excitment up in even higher places: a dirt road leads from Kontakeika all the way up to the range of Ambelos mountains and then again down to either Stavrinides or Vourliotes. It will be a fascinating adventure, but it is necessary to have a four-wheel drive and the detailed „Road Editions“ map of Samos. And please don’t smoke or drop empty bottles on the ground, we all want those beautiful forests with lots of green trees up there to remain as they are!

Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been?
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear

(I talk to the wind, King Crimson)

Port of Pythagorion

2009-07-14T12:20:00.002+02:00

Two short videos that were taken in the middle of July 2007, almost exactly two years ago.

First one shows the port on a sunny day with quite a good breeze. I heard that the bar "Varka" is not anymore existing.

Port of Pythagorion from Peter Molz on Vimeo.

The second one is about captain Jiannis: he knows, he is a tourist attraction when he is on his boat Agia Irini. You can see him in the harbour after he comes back with his boat from the daily tourist trips, usually after 5:30 pm. Then the anchored boat is his stage and he "performs" free of charge. And he enjoys very much being in the center of "his show". With the additional two young goats on the boat, who wouldn't stop there to take a look and a picture!

A visit to the Seϊtáni coast on Samos island

2009-06-16T14:11:00.005+02:00

An excursion to the breathtaking beauty of the northwest coast of Samos island in Greece.

Walking under dark pine trees or silvergreen olive trees on that stoney and dusty footpath that leads up and down along the coast to the remote Seϊtáni beaches with their crystal-clear waters.

Spending the afternoon on the beautiful Mikró Seϊtáni Beach, listening to the sound of the wind and the waves. And to the message Dimos wants to offer you!

The Seϊtáni coast with the two main beaches "Megálo Seϊtáni" and "Mikró Seϊtáni" is an example for parts of Samos island, where most of the normal tourists will never go to, because it is not organized and easy to get there.

Don't forget to bring along with you good shoes, enough drinking water and fresh fruits.
No taverns over there! ;-)

A visit to Mikró Seϊtáni beach / Samos, Greece from Peter Molz on Vimeo.

An extended version, approx. 20 minutes long, with more footage from the walk along the footpath, I have posted on Vimeo too! So take your time, maybe on a rainy weekend!
All along the footpath to Mikró Seϊtáni beach

Music is in the air!

2009-06-07T01:31:00.005+02:00

Here I present two videos of musicans I know very well for many years now. Completely different music styles and ways of living, but they all add to make Samos a nice place to remember after the holidays are over!

Dimos singing at Pefkos beach

How to bring a performance after hours to an end? Well, here you can see how:
Jiannis Loulourgas und Jiannis Karavasilis "live" at restaurant Poseidon in Pythagorio.

Experience Samos 2009

2009-06-07T01:26:00.002+02:00

This years tourism season started almost 1 month ago. During the past years many tourists from all over Europe came back to Samos again and again every year.
But Samos needs newcomers too, young tourists, who will come alone, together as couples or in groups for the first time to the island of Samos to spend their holidays there. And who will like what they experience on Samos and maybe even fall in love with the island too, like so many others already did in the past.

To give them some good ideas of what to expect, here is my presentation "Samos 2009, a unique experience" that I designed for the young ones :-) It is sort of a high speed random walk all over Samos island.

Samos 2009, a fascinating experience from vimeo-minstrel on Vimeo.

Samos, a green emerald in the blue aegean sea, is located just a few kilometers away from the coast of Asia Minor. It is loaded with natural beauties and archeological sites and - in contrast to many other greek islands - Samos is gifted with large water reservoirs, partly due to forests and high mountains.
In addition, Samos is famous e.g. for its wines and the mathematician/philosopher Pythagoras, who was born on Samos and lived there for many years.

Many different kinds of landscapes can be experienced on this island, e.g. large forests, deep valleys and canyons, herbs with incredible smells, unbelievable fresh and crystal clear water springs, brooks, cascades and even small waterfalls (e.g. in Potami & Imvrasos vallley and near Ampelos village).
High mountains reaching up to 1150 meters (Karvounis, Ambelos) and 1443 meters (Vigla, Kerkis). With many caves and ancient quarries.

Lots of beautiful beaches all around the coasts of this island. Mostly with small pebbles, but some of them, especially in the south, are fine sanded, named psili ammos.

And many small villages, not only along the coast line. The more you get away from the coast, the more you will find the natural and rural life on Samos. Don't forget to visit one of the many panijiria during the summer season, the celebrations of the patron saints of the respective churches or chapels.

Samos has different wines. Not only the famous sweet wine! Besides the red, white and rosé Samos wines and the local Ouzo, try the Souma of Samos (in other places in Greece this spirit - containing about 40 % alcohol - is called Tsipouro!)

Come to beautiful Samos in 2009 for holidays!

All photos were taken by me between 2005 and 2008.

The music that accompanies the presentation is sung and played by various groups/musicians living on Samos and Ikaria. Several of them I know personally.

Music starts with two lively Nisiotika songs. Singers are Evi Morphou and Kyriakos Mavrikis.
Then follows an example for the energetic dance "Ikariotikos", played on violin by Leonidas Tsantiris. This dance "Ikariotikos" is unique and the music is very often heard on the panijiria on Samos too!
This is followed by calm and soulfull Rembetika-Songs, sung by Jiannis Loulourgas and his daugther Maria.
Near the end, there are 2 live recordings I made in taverns in Pythagorio, the musicians Makis & Jiannis Karavasilis accompany Jiannis Loulourgas.

Please note: as far as I know, CD's of these musicians are only available on the islands. Please support the local musicians and their music by visiting their live appearances and buying their CDs when you will visit the three islands Samos, Ikaria and Fourni!

Samos Photos

2009-05-24T14:24:00.003+02:00

Those of my Samos photos that are for sale as digital foto files you can find at "Alamy", the web’s largest stock photography site.
Samos photos of Peter Molz

Looking back: Samos 2004

2009-05-22T11:27:00.008+02:00

Personal memories of Samos 2004. A collage of photos taken on Samos in 2004 with my first digital camera, a 4-Megapixel Canon IXUS 430. Looking back, a small but very good digital camera for a start! A solid metal housing, after all these years almost no scratches on the surface! Built for eternity?
And lovely small jpg-files on the hard disc of the computer. Nowadays I'm used to 15 MB files for one RAW photo of my Nikon D700.

But, nowadays, who would buy a 4 Megapixel camera? The 4 megapixel photos are still much more than is needed for HD (1280 x 720 pixel). O.k., if you want to zoom in to some extent, you might need 6 Megapixel photos. On the other hand, the video mode with 320x240 Pixels and 15 fps was pretty limited then, nowadays this is much better with HD becoming a standard rapidly!

This was a unique feeling then, because it was my first time on Samos during the month of May. There I was, middle of May and I was fascinated by the green and blossoming environment and by taking my first really colourful photos with the new digital camera.

I'm preparing a presentation with many of those 2004 photos, but this will take a couple more rainy days in Germany. ;-)

Kallithéa

2009-05-15T00:44:00.007+02:00

Kallithéa is a small village in the west of Samos, settled on the slopes of mount Kerkis at an altitude of approx. 300 meters. Most tourists will pass by on the road to Agios Isidoros/Valsamos beach or Drakei, unfortunately without paying a visit to this place. The name Kallithéa means: "beautiful view". And indeed you will have a spectacular view across the aegean sea to the island of Ikaria. And along the road several benches are inviting you to sit down and enjoy the breathtaking sunsets.

If you want, explore the beautiful areas above and below Kallithéa: starting in front of the graveyard, follow the dirt road up the mountain, pass the chapel Ag. Paraskevi under big platane trees. Follow the dirt road till the end, then walk up the steep trail through shady forests to the lovely chapel "Panagia Makrini" inside a cave. I promise, this will be a unique experience during your stay on Samos! Or, starting a little bit outside the village to the south, follow the dirt road that will lead you down to the sea, visit Charalampos chapel and relax on Katsouni beach.

I hav been there already several times. Last year I spent some time there in August and October and took a couple of photos. During the day, the small square and the narrow streets look empty, almost deserted. For sure, only tourists will walk around in the heat of the early afternoon!
And cats are strolling around. Old men are sitting in the shade of huge trees in front of the one and only tavern in the small square.

But during that one hot night in the middle of August, the whole place is more than crowded with hundreds of people who come from all over the world back to Kallithea in summer to celebrate and enjoy the panijiri. The whole square is packed with tables and chairs where people sit, drink and eat, A group of 4-5 musicians plays live music and people start to dance from about midnight as long as they can until the light of the morning dawns.

Wanna take part (visually) in that hot night in the square of Kallithea? At least, for a couple of seconds, you can do that on the internet:

Hot August summer nights on Samos island in Greece: panijiri in Kallithea from vimeo-minstrel on Vimeo.

Interested in the west of Samos island? More photos can be found in my collection "Through the west of Samos between Paleochóri and Drakéi"

Samos videos and presentations in high quality

2009-03-10T20:35:00.008+01:00

Some time ago I came across the video platform "Vimeo" in the internet.
Since I had - and still have - almost no influence on the quality of my media that I want to publish on YouTube, I decided to open an account at Vimeo.The quality is very good.
The link to my new channel:
"Experience Samos!"

I have already rendered some of my presentations in HD (720p) quality and published them on this channel.
Since the video files now have large sizes, anything between one hundred and several hundreds of megabytes, I recommend to start the download of the stream and wait until at least two thirds of the stream have been downloaded before starting to watch the video. Of course, it all depends on the speed of your internet access and your computer.

On the Vimeo site, there is another channel on Samos with several contributions named "Samos Island" by a user called "PolykratisP" which I recommend too.

Souma, Souma

2009-01-26T21:55:00.024+01:00

If there is something, people on Samos are looking forward to after the end of the summer season, it is of course the calmness that comes back to the island. But there are other things too: e.g., the fresh mushrooms after the first rain falls and the distillation of Souma, using the pomace from the pressing of the grapes! Always a good opportunity to gather with friends and celebrate with eating, drinking and music!

The drink Souma is made purely out of pomace through a straight-forward distillation process. Sometimes people like to add herbs to the cauldron to add flavour to the taste of the Souma.

The production of homebrewn Souma/tsipouro is allowed in Greece with the only restriction being that the cauldrons used must be licensed. The making of Souma/Tsipouro usually doesn't start before end of October.

In October 2008 I had the opportunity to watch this distillation procedure in a pot still in Stavrinides. Stavrinides is a small village surrounded by vineyards and forests, high above the north coast, located next to the village of Ambelos.

The apparatus used for the distillation was - compared to many other pot stills on the island - relatively new, almost high-tech. But they have such a beautifull copper cauldron there (Cauldron = Kasáni = Brennkessel)! All the process steps, from chopping the wood needed for the fire in the oven under the cauldron, the filling, assembly, dissasembly and cleaning of the apparatus to the measuring of the alcohol content of the Souma flowing out of a tube in the condenser tank are depicted in the presentation "Souma distillation on Samos":

To see the full resolution, click on the player window and the YouTube site will open. Please watch in high quality mode!

Music is performed by musicians from Samos and was recorded live in Pythagorio. The first song is about "Fouma, Fouma", not Souma, Souma! ;-)

The other side

2008-11-16T15:15:00.011+01:00

Samos-town has a lot of different faces. This sommer I happened to come the second time to an area most people wouldn't want to know. 50 meters away from the harbour boulevard Themistokli Sophouli. The ruin of the hotel resides directly on the boulevard.

There is a house in Samos-town,
best place to view the setting sun,
it's been a ruin for many a year,
when are they going to pull it down?

Drive-In café on Platia Pythagoras in Samos-town

2008-11-16T13:07:00.005+01:00

Seen in October 2008: looks like a market in Samos-Town for the sale of motorcycles and motorscooters. But it isn't!
After most of the tourists have gone, there is room enough for all those fancy vehicles on the Platia Pythagoras again. Quite a challenge, the "real art" is to place your vehicle in a such way that nobody can overlook it!

To me it seems that Samians don't want to walk too much, they need instant access to the cafés on Platia Pythagoras and their scene. Not more than a couple of meters walk and then they want to sit down, take their mobile phones and "communicate". The café Iraion is one of the noisiest places I know on the island! ;-)

Impressions: end of season 2008 on Samos

2008-10-22T22:16:00.023+02:00

October 2008, the summer season 2008 is almost past and gone, no doubt about it. But sunny and warm October often has many nice days to offer and here are some impressions of places on Samos I went to between 9th and 14th of October:

a.) Kokkari on the north coast:
Not so much going on here anymore on the west beach!

The north wind brings waves inside the harbour. Wave meets "Wave"!

b.) Balos beach on the south coast:

c.) Samos-town. Everyday's life is going on without tourists. Café Ireon on platía Pythagoras filled with people.

d.) Ireon looks like everybody went home already:

e.) Almost empty Tsabou beach with beautiful water colours on the north coast near Avlákia:

f.) On the square (platía) in Léka:

g.) On the narrow road between Léka and Tsourlei:

h.) Taverna and houses in the small settlement of Tsourlei. We were the only people to be seen over there.

i.) Mikró Seitáni beach in the north-west of Samos. Sea was warm, but waves were a bit high and very strong on this day.

j.) On the square (platía) in Kontakéika. Late afternoon and evening atmosphere. View along the north coast line to the west over Karlovasi.

k.) Nighttime on the 10th of October in the port of Pythagorio. Some taverns and bars are already closed. Almost no people in the port and empty seats everywhere in the open taverns and bars around 11 p.m.

Some young people put a grill in front of "Karafaki", and begin to grill octopus and squid to overcome the boring situation.

Having fun in the vineyards near Pirgos

2008-10-22T14:13:00.013+02:00

On October 13th, I accompanied the musician Dimos to the village of Pirgos to pay a visit to Dimos' friend Kostas. We met Kostas and his brother working in their vineyard east of Pirgos where they were collecting grapes.
So, for some time we joined them and had lots of fun, the sky was blue and the sun was still hot, we enjoyed the beautiful weather in the middle of October on Samos!

Here Kostas is selecting grapes:

Dimos learning how to cut the grapes:

Take care, the grapes of Samos can drive you mad and turn you into a follower of Dionysos.

That's us with a variety of different grapes:

We left Pirgos with lots of grapes and took the road to Karlóvasi, then passing Léka and Tsourlei on our way to the Seϊtáni coast in the northwest of the island. Last possibility for me during this years' stay on Samos to swim in the waters of Mikró Seϊtáni beach.

Live music in the harbour of Pythagorio

2008-09-29T21:06:00.014+02:00

If you are staying in lovely Pythagorio and want to listen to live greek music, it might not be that easy to find a place to do so in the harbour! Most of the tavernas belong to the so called "comfort zone", that means you will get easy listening music or 50th to 70th music according to the age of the mostly grey-haired tourists visiting the island.

In July and August there is live rock music and greek songs in "Varka". After 1 o'clock in the night, the bouzouki club "Amadeus" offers live and loud music played by a band of 5 musicians till early in the morning.
The restaurants Faros and Poseidon on Remataki beach offer live greek music on 3 days a week (Wednesday, Friday & Saturday) to enhance digestion and enable loud speaking at the table.
But if you really want to listen to acoustic greek music in a more traditional way, you better go to places like "Karafaki" or "Notos".

Here are some photos from these two locations.
In "Karafaki", musicians play in changing formations on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, mostly as a group of two or three.

In "Notos", Jiannis Loulourgas together with a guitarist plays once a week, usually on Wednesday nights.

Here is one music example: Jiannis Loulourgas performing solo at "Karafaki" on a rare occasion. The photos used for this presentation show him playing (together with Jiannis Karavasilis on guitar) at "Notos":

Vintage of grapes still continues on Samos

2008-09-26T15:38:00.003+02:00

The vintage of grapes still continues on Samos. Near Karlovasi, a man is showing proudly his sweet grapes. There is a wine press where people go to and process and press their grapes for private use.