Wine tasting at Ampelos

Since it hasn't rained for a long time on Samos, some villages on the island are faced with the
fact that their wells will run out of water. Some springs already deliver no more water.

But not so in the village of Ampelos! Located on the north coast, high above the sea in the middle of green vineyards. As I came to know yesterday in the afternoon, still lots of liquid are coming out there from this well in the upper part of Ampelos!

This young guy found out the secret! During the happy hour, instead of water, the flowing liquid is the new wine. (as you can see from the lable on the bottle! Double-click on the foto to get a bigger image!)

And of course, the guy enjoys trinking it.

Well, if this story isn't true, at least it is well told!

Panijiri at Ydroussa, August 28th 2007

First I went to the chapel Ag. Ioannis, where the sermon took place. This chapel you can find below Ydroussa surrounded by vineyards. It was already almost dark when I arrived. Many people gathering around outside the small chapel listening to the singing and words of the priest.
Then I went up to the village of Ydroussa. There, they have two places (platia) where the action was going on.

Both platia are seperated by the church. Up to 10 pm I was almost alone on the platia where I decided to stay first except the musicians, tuning their instruments and setting up equipment. At about 10:15 pm, from all sides people came into the platia. Within twenty minutes or so the place was full. Music on both places started at about 10:30 in the night.

A special half hour show was given by a sexy looking colorful female singer, dressed in black, and a bouzouki player dressed in white.

15 packages with 12 bottles of champaign each (or whatever liquid is in there) were rushed out of the taverna and built up in front of the musicians in the platia. In a hurry, all bottles were opened by the waitors to honour the singer!

It looks like too much of bouzouki playing makes a bit tired!



Accompanied by the full moon, I had a great time walking around the two platia and enjoying the music and dances.

Prices: 7 Euros for chicken and potatoes, 5 Euros for 0,5 Liter of Samaina sec, 2 Euros for Coca Cola, 1 Euro for a small bottle of water. What I didn't like so much was, that they were asking 5 Euros for a greek salad!

At about 1:30 in the night I felt it was time to go back to Pythagorio. Had a nice trip back on my motor scooter, almost no traffic on the road along the north coast, very mild temperatures, little wind and the light of the full moon made almost everything clearly visible.
Stopped at Tsabou beach and had a nice swim in the sea.
This night, I didnt encounter a police control.

At 4 o'clock in the morning I was back in Pythagorio, the night still being unbelievably warm . . .