Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

With these photos of the panijiri at chapel Panagia Makrini in a cave high above Kallithea in the west of Samos, Mike and I would like to wish all the people on Samos, all the friends of the island of Samos and all of our friends a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Light a candle and bring warmth to the hearts of all people!

Hope many of you from all over the world will visit (again) Samos in 2008.

Christmas presents

Are you still looking for some christmas presents?
How about.............
a Vespa???
or.......... a Ford Escort???
Maybe you need a complete household???
Ok ok, i admit it, the panoramic view to Kokkari is shitty and disturbing. I am sorry, next time i will shoot the crap as a close-up to avoid the shitty panoramic. But i think the washing machine there looks pretty good.......

If you have any wishes for christmas, just let me know, i point it out where to find your christmas present.
Oh Samos, what a lovely place to be,
where christmas presents are for free......

Greek curiosities part 1 / LIDL

There are so many strange things happening every month to me, so i decided to write down the funny stories. Here is the first one:
Going for shopping with me love it happened to me:
My love Conny wants to stopp at Lidl. Like always, she is filling the basket and i have the fun to empty my wallet.
After shopping i am checking the bill.... and there it is......shock..... ΣΤΟΛΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤ !!!!!

There is a stolen "Christ" on my bill as you can see at the photo below.
My love has stolen the "christ"? And therefore i have to pay 2.99 for the kilo??? What the heck did Conny do in LIDL??? Or, is it a christmas joke?
Fear is coming up and i think of cops coming to LIDL, arresting me because i have kidnapped Christ.... what a mess.... ( i have big imagination sometimes :0 )
So, lets check the basket whats in there..... hmmm....eggs........dipers.......kitchen paper.........
and than i found it..... Conny baught a traditional german christmas cake called "Christstollen"!!!

Propably not knowing what it is... the company translated "Christstollen" to "stolen christ" and write it in greek alphabet.

Here we are:
ΣΤΟΛΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤ
( very delicious )

Samos for sale! / Fence me in!

Driving around on Samos island, I noticed almost everywhere the signs "poleitai" - for sale, in most cases with telefon numbers on it! Seems everbody wants to sell their grounds or old and/or dilapidated houses and leave the island?!





Another thing that struck my attention: fences! Seems to be one of the fastest growing markets on Samos: buy some property and shelter your territory immediately by building a big fence around it! And of course, typical for Samians, your neighbor will start to build some fence too, at least as impressive as yours!
Maybe the revival of a good tradition on Samos? Because already Polykratos built some very impressive walls around the ancient town of Samos.

Avlakia

In this hot summer 2007 on Samos, I paid many, many visits to the north coast of Samos. And several times I stopped in the small village of Avlakia. This place is not so much recognised by tourists who come to Samos. Most tourists and locals are passing this village at high speed on their way on the main road along the north coast.
You really need to slow down, stop your vehicle and walk down the stairs that lead to the sea to discover the beauties of this place.
Avlakia is located west of Kokkari, between Tsamadou and Tsa(m)bou beach.
O.K., here is my presentation of this picturesque small village and its surroundings. Most of the 91 fotos used for this presentation were taken in the time range from July to October 2007. Hope you will enjoy it.
Then maybe next time you come to Samos, you might want to stop for a visit or even stay in Avlakia, swim in the sea or spend some time in a taverna!

If you want to see the full size (540x438 pixel), please go to:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1387701kwYdyY5E


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Samos, greek and green

Here is a version of my presentation "Samos 2007, greek and green",
thanks to the video platform "veoh" in relatively good online quality (Mike gave me the advice to try this one!)
The 87 fotos used for this presentation I took during several stays on the island in the years 2004 to 2006.
Music is played "live" by a good friend of mine, the bouzouki player and singer Yannis Loulourgas from Pithagorio. I met Yannis in his shop in Pithagorio, then a musical instruments workshop solely, on the second day of my very first visit to Samos way back in 1999.
The music you hear comes from a performance of him together with some of his friends and music collegues from the island at the ancient theatre of Pithagorio, I think this was 3 years ago.

If you want to see the full size (540x438 pixel), please go to:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1337966RTsBdwMa


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Leaving on a jet plane / cheese or chicken

Everything comes to an end, so did my stay on Samos for this year.
This summer I really missed the typical blue aegean sky most of the time during my stay on Samos, only on a few days we had it. Most of the time it was hot and hazy with south or east winds. Beginning of September was nice, I already reported on this. But that didn't last for very long.
The last morning in Pithagorio on Samos, a beautiful morning! After a cool weekend in mid October with several rain showers finally the sky was clear again. Perfect for shooting landscape photos. And I had to leave Samos!


Almost 11 o'clock on monday morning, here I stand on the platform looking back on Samos before entering the door of the aircraft.




German reality had me within half an hour when I realized, that the service on the LTU flight back to Frankfurt had been "right-sized" to Air Berlin standards as it seems (LTU belongs to Air Berlin now).
A quick change back to "Guten Appetit" after a long time of "Kali Orexi" on Samos. The announcement "After we have reached our cruising altitude, we will serve you a sandwich. You have the choice between cheese or chicken" came almost as a shock. In comparison to last years flights with LTU, what a mediocre breakfast!
I ordered the cheese variation of this sandwich and - according to the label on the box - this is what I got: "Sandwich Landbrot Gouda".


Faced with such a splendid meal I couldn't resist and took a photo of that well contained and quality asured small piece of bread with cheese before I ingested it with the help of tea and orange juice.


I tried to talk about this with a highly sun-tanned elderly woman sitting next to me. She replied dry and cool: "for me such a sandwich is enough! If you have the impression that the quality of service has gone down over the years when flying to Samos, why don't you try a different island next time! Hmmm....

For the next 7 or 8 month, I hope that Mike will put some photos of Samos during fall, winter and early spring on this blog from time to time.