Greece on the ITB 2010 in Berlin

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. Admission tickets were 28 Euros per day from Wednesday to Friday (professional visitors) and 14 Euros per day on the public days Saturday and Sunday.

Here are some of my 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 might wonder why there are no photos of the stand of the prefecture Samos-Ikaria-Fourni ......, well to my disappointment I have to say that this year they didn't show up, they had no stand. As I learned "...due to technical reasons".

Nevertheless, most of the other greek exhibitors/prefectures from last year were there again with their stands, as can be seen on the map of exhibitors. So, no need to worry!

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:

Rising Waters in Greece

Not only Samos island is facing problems with the rising water...

Video from 21. February 2010 in Samos town:

Carnival in Mainz

Maybe people on Samos are interested to see what is going on right now in the city in Germany where I live.

The bad news first: we are having a hard winter this year. It is cold, temperatures were below zero centigrade most of the time since the beginning of January! And we had lots of snow, unbelievable amounts of snow! It is still snowing from time to time, streets in the morning today were white again.

Now the good news: Life is extremely colourful (and loud) these days due to the hightime of carnival season! And the city of Mainz is one of the big centers for carnival (we in Mainz call it "Fassenacht") along the river Rhine.

Today, on Rose-Monday, despite the lousy cold temperatures, about fourhundred thousand people came to see and celebrate the parade in the city! The parade started in a quarter of the city called "Neustadt" at 11:11 and came to an end in another part of the city at about 16:30 in the afternoon. The parade itself had a lenght of approx. 7,5 km lasting almost 3 hours with approx. 10.000 active participants including many music groups (3.500 musicians!) and approx. 150 carnival floats.

With a couple of photos I will try to give you an idea of how colurful these days are now. Maybe the snow-white city and the pale skies acted as a perfect background to enhance all those vivid colours!
And we had lots of music everywhere with many marching bands. Not only today, but in the past days too we had many music groups playing live on a stage at Schiller square in the city, with thousands of colourfully dressed fools dancing to the music!!

Rose-Monday in the city of Mainz is a legal holiday, all shops and businesses are closed! Some even dare to say: "Mainz is a never-ending party throughout the year!"

If you want to see more photos, please visit my website about Mainz called: "Mainz-Images" with several reports on the carnival in Mainz!

Grey Heron - Graureiher

This Grey Heron is living at a Lake nearby the Hotel Dorissa Bay, Pythagorion.

Arriving at Samos

Cats of Kontakeika

Four out of nine cats which I met in Kontakeika in October 2009 while staying with friends on the sunny platia for a couple of hours in the afternoon!
They were strolling around and under the tables of the restaurant we were sitting in, awaiting/expecting some share of our delicious dishes!

Greece from a distance: Michalis Tzouganakis in Mainz/Germany

(Der Bericht in deutscher Sprache ist hier zu finden!)

On Sunday, November 15th, the phantastic lute player Michalis Tzouganakis from Crete came to my hometown Mainz to give a concert during his "The Spirit of Crete" tour through Germany and the Netherlands. On his tour, he had been to Duesseldorf and Munich before this gig in Mainz.

I never had heard of him before, didn't know his music, but - after some research in the internet - decided to go to his concert. Tickets were 24 Euro in Mainz. Maybe about 200-250 people showed up for the concert, but quite a few seats remained empty. And, not too many greek people around. Nevertheless, it was a phantastic night!

Michalis is an incredibly fast lute player and an extraordinary singer. He was accompanied by four superb fellow musician.
Kostas Sindridis (keyboards), Theodoros Kouelis (bass) und Grigoris Sindridis (drums/percussion). The lyra- and mandoline player Giorgos Skordalos is a class on its own.

I really was surprised by the very pleasant volume in which he delivered his soulful and expressive songs. I have experienced ear-smashing concerts on Samos when local bands were playing.

In the first half of the concert, Michalis sang more slow and emotional songs. After the break, he opened with one of his most famous songs, "Pali, Pali". And the audience went crazy immediately.

Incredibly fast runs on the fingerboard of the lute will end abruptly, then unexpectedly are continued starting in higher
or the highest layers. In between, over and over again, he throws in some syncopated or offbeat attacks on the lute. His music is very rhythm oriented and often abruptly changing.

Michalis sings and handles his instrument with full body use on stage and very often shakes his black lion's mane (yes, he's a lion, born on the 31st of July!) That he has to work hard and persevering on his lute and himself could well be a life issue.

After the concert I came to know four dedicated fans of him, who travel to follow him and try to participate in most of his concerts.

And whom did I meet - mediated by a really big fan from Leverkusen - very late at night in front of the City Hilton hotel in Mainz? Sitting there with two of his tour companions smoking cigarettes? That was a good opportunity to talk with Michalis in a small group.

Michalis Tsouganakis will appear in one more concert in Germany: on Saturday, November 21st, in Berlin, Jazz-Club Quasimodo, 10:00 pm

I asked him if he had played on Samos already, but he denied. He has been to many islands, but not to Samos. Maybe a good idea to invite him in the summer season to Samos, e.g. during the Samos Wine Festival in Samos-town.

Well, how does his music sounds like? On the internet video platforms (e.g. YouTube or Vimeo) videos from his concerts have already been published by fans.

Here are some examples:

From a Greek TV show:



Michalis Tzouganakis live in Greece:



Concert in Frankfurt in the "Fabrik" in May 2009



Concert in Düsseldorf during his tour through Germany in November 2009



Concert in Mainz during his tour through Germany in November 2009

Michalis Tzouganakis live in Germany 2009 on Vimeo.

Michalis Tzouganakis live in Germany 2009 on Vimeo.

Michalis Tzouganakis live in Germany 2009 on Vimeo.