Grecian Blues

Image: Patriotic Blues

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I’ve had a long, happy association with the colour blue. From my teen years when I actually looked halfway decent in a pair of blue denim jeans – to the blue t-shirts I still like to wear, the colour blue continues to feature prominently in my wardrobe.

One of the things I’ve been doing on Ikaria and to a lesser extent on the mainland is taking photographs of interesting settings which feature the colour blue. Greece has pretty much laid claim to a particular hue of the colour blue you see on the national flag. The colour is literally everywhere. On buses, door and window frames, and prominent in Greek architecture. For some reason or other, I seem to have noticed the colour a lot more during this trip than on previous visits.

The name I have given to this collection of images – some of which you can see here – is Grecian Blues.

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Image: Recycled Blues

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The colour seems to be especially popular on prefabricated window shutters and door frames, but I have also seen it used to highlight features on churches, fences, packaging materials and more. I’ve not seen such a wide use of one particular colour anywhere else in the world, although I’ve got no doubts examples exist. The Greeks though seem to have adopted blue as the national colour, if such a thing seems possible.

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Image: Church Blues

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Etymology and definitions: The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, which in turn comes from Old French bleu, bleve, blöe, which are themselves of Germanic origin. [Source: Wikipedia... ]

Speaking of etymology, it would seem that Australians are the only nation that refer to red-haired men by the nickname, ‘Bluey’ or ‘Blue’. I’m not sure if there is a definitive answer for why we do this, but I did find one possible explanation online:

The term stems from the Victorian Goldfields in the 1860s. A large number of Irish folk immigrated to try their luck. A fair number of these folk were red headed men who quickly gained a reputation for their fondness of liquor, and fighting. So much so that on the occasion of a red headed Irishman passing by, the comment was often passed, "there goes a blue", i.e. a potential fight. This of course was stretched to "bluey" and also explains why women with red hair are not called ‘Blue’. [Source: Answer Bag… ]

Which only raises another question – why are fights or arguments referred to as ‘blues’? But let’s leave that one for another day, before I become completely sidetracked.

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Image: Graffiti Blues

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Some common connotations and associations for the color blue: ice, water, sky, sadness, winter, royalty, boys, cold, calm, magic, trueness, conservatism (universally), liberalism (in the USA), and capitalism.

Okay, getting all fetishistic about the colour blue might seem like a strange thing to be doing, given all the other options I have available to me, but I have become quite taken with the colour and its many uses and applications in Greece and on the island. Originally, I was only going to use one shade or hue of blue, but were just too many options and alternatives to that, so I have taken photographs of a wide range of objects and scenery. Even garden water pipes!

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Image: Gardeners Blues

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In the English language, blue may refer to the feeling of sadness [as in], "He was feeling blue". This is because blue was related to rain, or storms, and in Greek mythology, the god Zeus would make rain when he was sad (crying), and a storm when he was angry. Kyanos was a name used in Ancient Greek to refer to dark blue tile (in English it means blue-green or cyan). The phrase "feeling blue" is linked also to a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships. If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port. [Source: Wikepedia… ]

Ancient Greek apparently lacked a word for blue and Homer called the colour of the sea "wine dark", except that – as noted above – the word kyanos (cyan) was used for dark blue enamel. Blue is commonly used in the Western hemisphere to symbolize the male gender in contrast to pink which is used for females. And I’m sure most, if not all readers will be aware of the musical genre commonly referred to as the blues.

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Image: Parking Blues

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Back in 2009, Britain's Daily Telegraph in an article titled, Blue light 'makes you happy', reported on a study which showed that: "Despite the colour's gloomy connotations, exposure to blue light can increase confidence and boost happiness levels..."

The article goes on to say, "Researchers exposed a group of volunteers to a range of colours and lights. They found that blue and green made male subjects feel happier, while blue, purple and orange did the same for women." Also, "Blue and red improved confidence levels among men, while blue and purple were best in this respect for women…"

Interestingly, once I started on the project, I was amazed at just how widely used the colour was. Even garbage bags come in the colour.

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Image: Yamaha Blues

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Alternative therapies have their own take on the colour blue. In metaphysics blue is the color of truth, serenity and harmony, and helps to soothe the mind. According to the Crystal Links website: "It is good for cooling, calming, reconstructing and protecting." It is also good for "...raising frequency," whatever that means.

Holistically, "Blue is associated with the throat chakra, which deals with willpower and communication." The Holistic Online site also adds that "Blue is a calming color, good for curing insomnia. It can be used for throat problems, asthma, stress, and migraine, and it is good for improving verbal skills."

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Image: Bedroom Blues

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Shades of blue

Among the 52 types of blue listed on Wikipedia’s List of Colors page are Azure, Baby blue, Bleu de France, Bondi blue, Brandeis blue, Carolina blue, Ceil, Cerulean, Cobalt blue, Deep sky blue, Egyptian blue, Electric blue, Glaucous Han blue, Iceberg, Indigo, Majorelle Blue, Maya blue, Midnight blue, Palatinate blue, Periwinkle, Prussian blue, Sapphire, Sky blue, Steel blue, Teal and Ultramarine.

Oh, and then of course there is just plain, Blue.

Read more about the color blue here… (go on, you know you want to).

Yes, friends, it may be labouring the point, but there are a lot more images like these in my portfolio. If you are interested in checking them out head on over to my Flickr page and take a look. Or click here to launch a slideshow of all the images in my Flickr gallery.

Seasons Greetings to All

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Here I am, sitting on a Greek island, about to complete my sixth month of travel and it seems like a good time to pause and reflect. I must say life has been very good to me these past six months and I have little or nothing to complain about. At 62, I am in pretty good health and fit enough to spend the best part of a day wandering the halls and galleries of the world’s major museums and most exciting cities.

I hope I have inspired some of my regular readers to plan for the own travels, whether they take place in six months or six years. I hope too, that my journeys have encouraged you to be a bit more adventurous, open-minded, and prepared to undertake trips that you might once have considered too difficult for whatever reasons.

Wherever you are, and whatever you do, I hope you and yours are well and happy, and making the most of life, love, and good friends.

Thanks for dropping by, and here’s to a great Christmas, and a Healthy, Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Love and Best Wishes to you all,

Jim Lesses

Find joy in everything you do,
Follow love, and let love follow you.
Let go, and remember to forgive,
Give thanks, and love the life you live.
~ Jim Lesses (Love The Life You Live)

Airport Taxes Be D@md!

Image: Air France A320 coming into land

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I’ve just finished booking a ten night stay in Paris, France. All my bookings were done online, and I’m happy to say the whole process was relatively quick and trouble free. But having booked a return ticket from Athens, Greece to Paris, with Air France I still feel a need to vent my spleen.

The actual cost of the flight is just €52.00euros (US$71.00). Return!

This is a bargain if ever I saw one so I have no complaints here. However. Once airport taxes and fees are added to the cost of the ticket, the price jumps to €171.64 (US$235.00)!

Don’t bother, I already have the answer – that amounts to an additional €118.64 (US$162.00) in various taxes and extra fees. Yes, that’s well over double the actual cost of the airline fee. Here’s a breakdown of those extras courtesy of Air France:

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Image: Air France Taxes and Surcharges screenshot

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If you are having trouble reading the screen shot, here are the itemized extras (in Euros):

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I’m not blaming Air France for all these ‘Taxes and Surcharges’. The figures include taxes and fees levied by Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport as well as those by Paris’s Charles De Gaulle airport, and I have no way of knowing who gets what when the spoils are divided up between them. But the fact remains, that a cheap €52.00 euro return ticket has more than doubled due to corporate and government greed that happily continues to milk travelers for as much as they can get.

I’m not happy. Not happy at all.

What on earth is a Solidarity Tax? I don’t care if it is only one euro – I want to know what it is, and who gets it. And how does an Airport Fee differ from the Passenger terminal facility charge and the Airport development tax? And what is the Passenger service charge international anyway?

And what about those ridiculous figures? A French airport tax of 4.11? Couldn’t they round the eleven cents down to 10, and the 10.13 cent Passenger service charge international up to 15? Imagine how many croissants the could buy with all those extra millions of 1 cents collected. Yes, I am being sarcastic.

This is patently ridiculous. Imagine how much cheaper air travel would be all over the world if taxes like these were done away with. Ok, that’s expecting too much. Halved, then. Imagine how much cheaper air travel would be all over the world if taxes like these were halved.

Surely someone, somewhere has done the sums on this. Surely, people would travel more if the costs were cheaper. As a case in point, take myself. I would love to visit several other countries in Europe, particularly Italy and Spain and even some of the northern European countries, but simply can’t afford to. I certainly can’t afford to fly to them anyway. So instead of visiting several countries I am only visiting France (apart from Greece where I am currently located).

Sure, if I was visiting three or four additional countries, I would spend fewer days in each destination, but if more people could afford to fly to more countries, one would expect the extra visitor numbers would more than make up for any drop in the length of each visit.

I don’t expect all air travel costs would be reduced by two-thirds if all these extra fees were eliminated, but my one example does shows how cheap air travel could be, if they were.

Kampos, Ikaria

Image: Ikaria’s Atheras range in late afternoon light

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As I write this, wild winds are roaring across the top of Ikaria’s mountainous Atheras range. The bolder-strewn, bare hills of the Atheras range divide the northern side of the island from the generally, calmer, southern side. Today however, the winds are whipping up stinging dust, tearing at clothes hanging on washing lines, pummeling trees and potted plants, people and animals, and making flight all but impossible for even the largest of local birdlife.

The evening ferry will almost certainly be cancelled due to the rough seas and wind-lashed waves (see Who Pays The Ferryman?), and who knows what sort of damage is being dished out on the terraces and family gardens that cover the valleys and hillsides. Ikaria is entering olive picking season, and I have visions of millions of ripening black olives being shaken to the ground from olive groves across the island. As long as the winds and gathering clouds don’t bring heavy downpours of rain, I suppose the locals will be happy. The last thing the island needs is another devastating storm to add to the damage caused by the recent thunderstorms that have wreaked havoc on this and other Aegean islands (see The (Greek) Gods Are Angry).

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Image: Recent storms damaged this bridge near Rahes, Ikaria

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I’ve been hanging out at Kampos*, once the site of the ancient city of Oenoe. Along with Therma (see Therma, Ikaria), Oenoe has a history that goes back to around 750 B.C. Echoes of this history can be seen in the church of Agia Irini (St. Irene), parts of which date to the 11th century.

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Image: Night image of the church of Agia Irini at Kampos, Ikaria
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Image: Remnants of building columns and other structures in Kampos, Ikaria

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Near the church, the visitor will also find the remains of the ancient Oenoe temple (often referred to as a palati , or palace). The church and temple are thought to date back to the sixth century A.D. Today, Agia Irini is still used for regular church activities including weddings, baptisms, and memorial services.

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Image: Remains of the Oenoe temple wall at Kampos, Ikaria

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Image: This temple seating faces the wall shown in the previous image

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But what happened to the original marble and stone with which the temple was constructed, I hear you ask. Well, dear reader, it was used by enterprising villagers to build their own homes and barns, and even to build new churches. The image below shows an old stone house on the valley floor near the old temple. The rectangular blocks of white marble that have been used in the house’s construction were almost certainly taken from the temple of Oenoe and other ancient structures.

As outrageous as this may seem, it would have made perfect sense for villagers to use the nearest source of building materials for their own purposes. One suspects they would have reasoned that since the old temple was no longer being used, they might as well utilize the stone and marble slabs for themselves. Bear in mind, we are taking about an era when everything was done by hand, and when the only mode of ‘transport’ would have been the humble, long-suffering donkey. Like I say, it made sense to cart temple marble and stone the short half a mile or so to your new home, rather than have to extract the stone far from your chosen site and move it laboriously a few pieces at a time.

Image: White marble slabs from ancient structures recycled into ‘new’ homes in Kampos, Ikaria

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New discoveries of structures dating back to the days of the Athenian League and the Byzantine era, are still being made in Kampos. Some years ago, local villagers raised money to build a community centre less than a hundred yards from the Agia Irene church. During the excavation process, workers uncovered sections of walls and other early building remains, which have now been incorporated into the new centre.

Over hundreds of years, dirt, silt, mud and other debris has been washed from the hills of the Atheras range down onto the valley floor, covering a treasure trove of ancient sites. In fact the recent storms alluded to above have probably added hundreds of tons of new dirt and debris to previous layers. The remnants of Oenoe may never be uncovered again, which means we will never discover the full extent of its boundaries, the size of its buildings, or the uses to which they were put, and maybe that just the way it should be.

Let the earth keep its secrets, and let the living get on with the daily cycle of love, labour and life.

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*A note about the spelling of Ikarian place names. It occurs to me that authors writing about Ikaria, are in desperate need an Elements of Style guide, since no two authors seem to be able to agree on the same spelling for many of the locations on the island. Even the spelling of ‘Ikaria’ is subject to variation, often being Anglicized to Icaria.

Those readers wishing to do further research or look online for more information about the island, are sure to find numerous discrepancies when it comes to the spelling of Ikarian place names. As always, I try to stick as close to the Greek spelling as possible, or adopt the spelling used in English language Greek publications. Hence, I prefer to use the letter ‘k’ instead of ‘c’, since the letter ‘c’ does not occur in the Greek alphabet.

Therma, Ikaria

Image: Therma, Ikaria

I don’t know a lot about hot springs and their healing properties, but people have been travelling to the small seaside town of Therma on the Greek island of Ikaria for centuries to immerse themselves in the hot, healing waters of radioactive springs, which many bathers claim have cured – or at least, eased the pain of – arthritis and other rheumatic aches and pains; made infertile women, fertile, and helped lessen the impact of a variety of other long-standing medical problems.

For the past two weeks I have been staying with my niece at Therma, where she is managing six rooms for an assortment of elderly Greek visitors who have come to bathe in one of several purpose built hydrotherapy centres in the town.

While here, I have also been reading the Anthony J. Papalas book, Ancient Icaria*. I will review the book in a later entry, but it has been fascinating to learn something about the history of the island, including the little village of Therma.

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Image: A flight of stairs that would test even Rocky Balboa!

Looking at this place, nestled as it is in a small, steep valley, with its whitewashed homes and multi-storied hotels; narrow winding streets, twisting stairs, confined walkways, and ever-present village cats: looking at all this, it is hard to imagine the village has a history stretching back to the 5th Century, BC, and beyond.

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Image: Modern hydrotherapy centre, Therma, Ikaria

According to the Papalas book, there was a time when Therma was the island’s second city – the ancient city of Oenoe (now Kampos) being the first, or largest. Both ‘cities’ have now been reduced to large villages, and several towns – Agios Kirikos, Evthilos, Karavostamo, and Armenistis amongst others – have all overtaken Therma in terms of their size. However, Therma continues to draw thousands of visitors each year to her radioactive springs, and can rightly claim to have had the last laugh on many of the larger towns and villages on Ikaria.

This is because the peak season for visitors across the rest of the island is concentrated around the months of July and August, whereas Therma’s season can begin as early as May and continues through until the end of October, thus ensuring that villagers, café and restaurant owners, hotel operators and their numerous suppliers are able to earn a living servicing the needs of the elderly and infirm long after the tourists and summer visitors have left other parts of the island.

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Image: Derelict hydrotherapy centre, Therma, Ikaria

Having said that, without the hot springs, there is little reason to think that Therma would have attracted much attention from anyone in the last two hundred years, let alone the past two thousand. The small valley floor, and the steep hills surrounding the valley are not easily cultivated. The villagers who have managed to eke out a living by working the land have had to carve small, narrow terraces out of the surrounding rock and dirt to grow what few vegetables they could. In addition, they have planted extensive groves of olive trees, which seem to thrive on the precipitous slopes. Meanwhile, the ever present goats which many families still tend in Ikaria, are perfectly suited to the island’s rocky landscape.

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Image: Early morning sun lights up homes clinging to the hills of Therma, Ikaria

With the summer rush well and truly over, it has been a real pleasure to spend some time in this ancient village, winding down from the hustle and bustle of New York City and my travels through southern America. I spent a couple of hours here in 2008, when my brother-in-law Ilia, was still in the early stages of building his three story Helion (Sun) Studios. It has been a long, slow process – everything on Ikaria seems to involve a long, slow process – and he is still not finished fitting out all nine rooms. However, one more winter should see everything finally completed in time for next year’s season of health seekers and sun worshipers.

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Image: Helion (Sun) Studios, Therma, Ikaria

*A note about spelling: Anthony J. Papalas uses the anglicized lowercase ‘c’ in Icaria. However, since the letter ‘c’ does not occur in the Greek alphabet, throughout this blog I have chosen to keep the Greek spelling for the island – hence, Ikaria.

The [Greek] Gods Are Angry

Image: Therma, Ikaria - pretty as a picture postcard - before the storm

Lightening dissects the sky, thunder rips the air, and sheets of water fall from the clouds, pulling a rain soaked curtain down over the hills surrounding the small village of Therma, Ikaria.

Waterfalls pour from terracotta tiles, rooftops fill with pools of water, and rivers form to wash the streets clean of autumn leaves, cat shite, plastic bags and bottles, goat droppings, loose garbage, and a summer’s worth of dirt, pebbles and powdered dust.

It is impossible to know whether the whole island is experiencing this, or just the northern side. Last night, I woke at 2.30AM, and noticed the sky illuminate with brief flashes of light. Looking out from my balcony, I could see stars and scattered clouds along our side of the island, but clearly, some other part of the southern Aegean was being washed clean of its accumulated summer detritus.

Today, it is our turn.

Mind you, it has been threatening to do this for days. The air has been heavy with humidity and dark, brooding clouds. These occasionally unleash short, violent downpours, but nothing as sustained as today’s drenching.

Looking out through the rain spattered glass of my balcony doors I can see half a dozen elderly men and women wrapped in dressing gowns. They are taking advantage of a brief lull in the storm to make their way back to their hotels and rented rooms, following their allotted session at one of Therma’s hydrotherapy centres.

They couldn’t have timed their return better.

… Image: Villagers watch flood waters surge below overpass

Five or ten minutes later, my attention is drawn to excited shouts and noise from the street below. I open the balcony doors and look down onto a group of twenty or so people milling around on the small overpass below my room.

Rain water has been steadily making its way down the high hillsides. First in trickles and rivulets; then gathering strength in streams and watercourses until finally, a large mass of accumulated water has finally reached the foot of the valley where the village is located. This water is now coursing through the centre of the village along a large culvert that does double duty as a road and parking area throughout the summer. With the rain, the culvert has reverted to its status as an open drain funnelling water into the Aegean Sea.

I quickly pull on a pair of boots and head down to the street, camera in hand.

… Image: In ‘clear and present danger’ these cars are at the mercy of surging flood water

Standing on the overpass with other visitors and locals, I see two cars in ‘clear and present danger’. It appears at least half a dozen cars were left parked in the culvert overnight, and now some are at serious risk of being swept into the sea by the onrush of water.

The culvert is covered from one side to the other with a fast-flowing river of dirty water the colour of chocolate. Floating and sliding, rolling and swirling, and bobbing along on this sea of brown are old car tyres, tree branches, plastic crates and bottles and large slabs of concrete that lined the culvert somewhere further up its length.

Some of the concrete slabs get jammed up against and underneath, the two cars caught in the flood. Rather than bump and push the cars further down the culvert, the slabs seem to be anchoring the cars in place, although both vehicles must have sustained some damage from the constant buffeting they get from passing debris.

… Image: Flooding water gouges away at the shale supporting this car

Meanwhile, a hundred yards further down the culvert, other car owners and café and restaurant operators have not been so ‘fortunate’. One or two cafés at street level are in danger of being flooded, and one car in particular is in imminent danger of sinking into the shale twenty or thirty feet from the Aegean’s beckoning waters. The car is perched precariously over a deep gash in the shale which continues to deepen by the minute as the torrent of water gouges its way towards the shoreline.

… Image: The normally clear Aegean waters at Therma covered with scum and debris

In complete contrast to the mess on land, the sea is perversely flat and calm – presumably due to an offshore breeze. Sadly, the usual crystal clear turquoise waters of the Aegean are discoloured with mud and other waste.

By midday, the storm seems to have run its course, or maybe it has simply moved offshore to drench the nearby islands of Fourni, Chios, and Samos. Eventually, the flood of water down the culvert slows to a safe negotiable flow, and the owners of the two cars up by the overpass are able to free them from the accumulated rubbish that has wedged underneath their chassis and amazingly, drive them to higher ground.

Even the car sitting perilously on the disappearing shale is pulled to a safer location.

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Image: With water still around his ankles this café owner starts the clean up process

Café and restaurant owners begin hosing the mud and debris off their forecourts, and retrieving overturned plants, tables and signage.

Visitors and locals start rehearsing their ‘tales of the flood’ stories, and blog writers rush back to their computers – grateful to have something new to write about.

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Image: Once the flood water recedes, cars are again parked in the culvert!
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Image: This village cat is clearly not happy with the situation

Image: Storm clouds dump tonnes of water on the Aegean island of Chios

Addendum: October, 19th, 210. I wrote the above piece three nights ago. Last night another storm swept through the northeast Aegean Sea with even more force than the one described above, causing even more severe damage. Where the small white car in the image above is sitting, there is now a massive trench at least three feet deep, several yards across, and even greater in length. On the nearby island of Chios, one person lost his life when he was trapped in his car in flood waters.

Since there are only the most basic of drainage systems on many islands, storm water has nowhere to go but down hills and mountains sides, gathering force, pace, and strength until it reaches the valley floors. If there is no clear route to the sea, massive damage can and does result.

Who Pays The Ferryman?

Image: Newly built and extended Evthilos harbor

There is something very reassuring about watching the arrival of the daily ferry from Piraeus. Depending on the direction of the wind, you can often hear – and even feel – the steady pulse of its motors long before it appears around the headland that obscures the ferry’s approach into Evthilos harbour (one of two ferry stops on the Aegean island of Ikaria).

This feeling of reassurance, and the sense of security the ferry engenders has to do with the dependence islanders have on this vital link to mainland Greece. Not just because it is the most efficient and cost effective way of transporting large numbers of people between Athens and Ikaria (and the other islands along its route), but also because of the other benefits the ferry brings.

Greek island ferries don’t just transport people, they carry all the daily essentials that modern societies take for granted. From fresh fruit and vegetables, to all manner of groceries; from building materials and feed for livestock to white goods and computer systems. All these and much more depend on a vast ferry system to reach their destinations on far flung islands across the Aegean, the Cyclades, Dodecanese, Saronic and Ionian islands, and other regions.

Some three dozen companies, large and small, provided thousands of ferry sailings each month. Not only are all the major Greek islands and dozens of smaller islands serviced by these companies, but some ferries will even get you as far as Venice, Italy; Port Said, Egypt; Haifa, Israel; Limassol, Cyprus; and Bodrum, Marmaris and other ports along the Turkish coast.

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Image: Loading ramp of the Blue Star Line’s Ithaki about to berth in Mykonos

The main ferry servicing Ikaria is the Nissos Mykonos, a 28 knot vessel capable of carrying 1,900 passengers and up to 418 vehicles. The seven hour journey to Evthilos also includes stops at the islands of Syros and Mykonos. From Evthilos the ferry continues around to Agios Kyrikos, the capital of Ikaria, and from there on to the island of Samos before making a night trip back to Piraeus. Travellers who like a bit of luxury on their overnight journeys can relax and sleep in one of 31 cabins provided for the purpose.

Built in Greece in 2005, the Nissos Mykonos is a far cry from the old ferries that Greece was known for 20 or 30 years ago. Owned and operated by Hellenic Seaways, this award winning vessel, like many other modern ferries provides passengers with a level of comfort, speed and regular itineraries that comes as a something of a shock to those of us who sailed on the old rust buckets that masqueraded as Greek ferries in the past. The Nissos Mykonos, even provides free WiFi for the plugged in traveler to make use of on long voyages.

Gone too, are the days when passengers and baggage had to be off-loaded from the decks of ferries into pitching rowing boats, for the final hundred yard ‘splash and dash’ to the safety of the harbor-side. Now ferries moor inside fine harbors, and reverse up against wharves which allow passengers and vehicles to pour off (and on) them quickly, efficiently, and safely.

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Image: The EKO 1 fuel transporter in Evthilos harbor. Note the No Smoking sign on superstructure

Some types of vehicles seem to be absent from the decks of the Nissos Mykonos, and presumably similar vessels. These are fuel laden trucks and trailers that clearly pose a major hazard on the pitching decks of an island bound ferry. To prevent this type of accident, small, specially designed ships visit the islands on a regular basis to off-load fuel into trucks which carry their precious (and dangerous) loads to service stations across each island.

While Ikaria is reachable via a regular ferry service, the island is also large enough – and busy enough – to have its own airport. Those visitors not wishing to spend seven or eight hours on a ferry, can fly between Athens and the island in a couple of hours or so. But for me, one of the joys of travel, is the pleasure I get from journeying on waterborne craft of any size (see previous entries: Up A Lazy River…, and Brooklyn Hidden Harbor Tour…).

One of the best online sites to begin your research on Greek ferries is Matt Barrett’s Athens Guide, where you will find a wealth of information about ferry services, and a mass of information about Athens and other parts of Greece.

Friday Photo #14: Storage Containers

Click image to view full size

I discovered these large storage containers gathering dust in the basement of an abandoned stone house on the Greek island of Ikaria during my extended stay there in 2008.

I have no idea how old they are, but they are almost certainly 60-70 years old if not even up to 100 years old. They were – and still are – traditionally used to store olive oil, or the whole olives themselves. They might also be used to store home made wine, potatoes, or other long lasting vegetables or grains, which would serve to keep the household in provisions throughout the long winters.

Today, modern containers made from plastic are substituting for these large clay pots, which can be a metre or more (3 feet) high. As durable as the plastic may be, it will never be as aesthetically pleasing to look at, nor will it last as long.

Photographer: Jim Lesses, Ikaria, May 2008

Friday Photo #11: The Longing

Click image to view full size

One of my favourite images from my stay on the Greek island of Ikaria, over the summer of 2008. There are no prizes for guessing what this group of teenage girls are looking at, as they prepare to take part in a summer dance festival on Saturday, June 14, 2008, in the Ikarian village of Rahes.

I have uploaded several videos of performances from this festival to YouTube, including the one embedded below in which you catch glimpses of these same girls performing during the evening.

The film is a compilation of many of the dances performed that night. The festival took place on the village basketball court, under lights that attracted hundreds of moths and other airborne insects which fell constantly onto the heads of the audience below. This probably explains why only half the lights were turned on during the performances. Unfortunately, this also made it extremely difficult to get good, well lit footage of the dances.

The music you hear throughout the film is the traditional Ikarian dance known as the Ikariotiko. The music is performed here on a Tsampouna, an instrument made out of goat skin, which has obvious links to the Scottish bagpipe and the gaida. The player is probably Eva Kratsa from the Aegean Island of Mikonos. That’s her in the last frame of the video just before the final credits.

A full, unedited film of the Ikariotiko dance that ended the festival can also be found on YouTube under the name, This Island Life: Rahes Festival Ikariotiko.

Photograph: The Longing, by Jim Lesses

Location: Rahes, Ikaria, June 2008

Spring Has Sprung, Down Under

~ It is one of those quirks of nature that while the northern hemisphere enjoys summer, the southern hemisphere rugs up for winter. And so it is, that the first days of September herald the start of spring in Australia, while Europe and North America start moving into autumn (or fall, as our American cousins like to say).

And so it is too, that the more the months, weeks, and days tick inexorably by, the more I seem to have travel on my mind. Especially now that spring is in the air.

I am still not much nearer to finalising my travel plans for next year. Maybe it’s because I’m a Libran! Or maybe it’s because I’ve never been good at making quick or snap decisions that have the potential for major impact on my life. Personally, I hate to blame my procrastination and constant vacillating on a star sign. That’s too easy, and quite frankly a cop out. Still, all these things are plaguing my thoughts today as I look at the calendar and tick off the days in the lead up to April 2010.

One of the downsides of being a solo traveller, is that you have no-one to share the planning and decision making process with. Sure, you can discuss and mull over the various options available to you with family and friends, but there’s only so much you can expect from those closest to you.

Putting myself in their shoes, I think I would soon tire of the constant discussions revolving around which destination to visit first.

“Yes, Jim,” I can feel them thinking, “It’s all very well us sitting around planning your holiday with you, but while you are lazing on the sandy beaches of some Greek island, sipping coffee on the Champs-Élysées, or spending weeks driving the byways of America, we are going to be stuck here in dear old Adelaide!”

So, ultimately, you have to make all the decisions on your own.

As April draws nearer, I will start to solidify some of the ideas rolling around in my head. On any given day they can and do change constantly, but currently my thinking is thus: fly directly to Athens, Greece, and spend the first month or so on Ikaria (see Friday Photo #7: My Island Home, Ikaria, Greece). Then travel overland to one of several possible destinations (Italy, France, Spain or England). Since I am currently learning a smattering of Spanish (see Spanish is The Loving Tongue), it makes sense to visit Spain in order to reinforce the Spanish I’ve already learnt and to hopefully learn even more.

However, early next year I will also undertake a French for Fun and Travel class at the adult learning school where I am currently taking the Spanish class, so it would also make sense to spend some time in France.

At any point I can always return to Greece, which could serve as my European base. My aim is to spend most of the northern spring and summer in Europe, and then travel to America later in the year for a stay in New York, before driving south to Arizona to visit a cousin in Tucson. I will either return to Australia from there, or return to Europe.

As you can see, I have much to decide, and a thousand decisions to make before I book my flight, and for a Libran, a thousand decisions is about 999 decisions too many!

Spring Flowers image courtesy of Rikx Flickr Photostream

Friday Photo #7: My Island Home, Ikaria, Greece

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This stunning view along the south coast of the north-east Aegean island of Ikaria was taken late in the afternoon from the terrace of my sisters house at Partheni. The beach in the foreground is Kampos Beach, and the cluster of homes in the middle distance are part of the port town of Evthilos. The village on the hillside in the far distance is Karavostamo.

Imagine waking up to this view every morning! Or maybe sitting on the terrace at the end of a long hot summer day, with a Greek coffee, or home made wine in hand, and watching the ever changing colours as the sun slowly sets in the west.

If there is a heaven out there somewhere, this would be one of my ideal visions of it.

Photograph: My Island Home, by Jim Lesses

Location: Ikaria, Greece, April 2008.