Ithaca Greece. Summer happenings on the Greek island of Ithaca, Ithaki 2005
 
 
 
 
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Around the Villages 2005

Revisit Summer Lodown 2004 ..Revisit Summer Lodown 2003

summer lodownwho's herearound the villagesithaki general  
Ithaca Summer Fun
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Coffee and postcards
postcards of the gods
food for thought
   
working for the man
power up
 
Eleni the cat enjoys the quiet of a powerless afternoon and the flower decoration of her owner, Olympia
God day afternoon without revma (electricity)
   
strolling
 
 
thinking of food and strolling
 
   
Aah - Aphales
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Tue 24 May - What is there to do on an afternoon without electricity. So what, the washing is stuck half cycle and only half the dinner is cooked. Better stock up on candles. Could be out an hour or 4 days. Without the restaurant fridges running, you could hear ants scratching themselves in the streets. In most other places around the world, nerves would tighten around the jugular of a business community without a generator, but not on Ithaki. The island is accustomed to being powerless. Oh well. It's a good time to rearrange the furniture, tidy up loose ends, arrange flowers, drink and be merry. For awhile it appeared there would be candle lit dinners on the menu at bay restaurants around the villages, but before everyone got the opportunity to put up their feet and give in to the flow (or in this case, lack of flow) the power was back on and it was business as usual.
Was hoping to capture an Aphales sunset. No luck. Flat battery. Bugger.
   
Thu 26 May - Left - The Palm pot plants come out of winter hybernation at Spavento in Kioni. Sounds easy enough. Yiorgos asks Demetri "Are you ready?" Demetri nods 'Yes" and gets on the back of Yiorgos' moped. Demetris' 2 left feet couldn't find the pedals so Yiorgos lifts Demetris legs into position like a caring mother for its' child until Demetri was comfy. Yiorgos, with one hand on the handle bars and the other around Demetris back so he wouldn't fall on his bum when he excelerated, heads off to get the
 
Above - Ithaki locals, Pagona Andriantou, Vivika Raftopoulou and Maria Lomvatou get together at Lotus Cafe in Stavros for a chat and a drink on a rainy evening.
 
trailer that awaits them just outside Kioni. About 10 minutes later they return, This time, Demetri driving and Yiorgos on the back. Samson (Yiorgos) and his Delilah (Demetri) pulled the trailer, which they would fill with the pot plants, behind the small moped. At first look it appeared that they had tied the trailer to the moped. That looked bizarre in itself given the size of the moped in comparison to the size of the trailer. On closer examination however, Yiorgos was the human tow bar pulling the load. Once back at Spavento, the two proceeded to fill the trailer with the Palms. Run upstairs, grab a big and heavy pot, run down stairs, put the big, heavy pot into the trailer. Up down, up down, up down. 9 or 10 times. Once the trailer was loaded and Samson and Delilah didn't break their necks on the narrow stairwell leading to the roof top of Spavento where the Palms spent their winter on Ithaca, the human tow bar and his sidekick, Samson and Delilah, Tarzan and Jane, maybe Cheech and Chong, proceeded to pull the trailer 40 plus meters down to the bay side where the Palms would take a proud posie amongst Spavento tables and chairs so that you can enjoy your coffee and cake amongst oxygen giving greenery, bayside Kioni..
 
Penelope Restaurant, Frikes
 
Right - Stathis (Steve), music man, takes orders after another storm induced powercut. After some rain fell, the bad weather all cleared again in no time. For now...
   
   

An interesting day in a very boring sort of way. The weather was muggy and quite warm all day, not really overcast, but no real sunshine either, and the streets were quiet in all the villages, not a soul around. Late afternoon when storm clouds started heading towards Ithaca from the mainland, all believed it would be a quiet night also, but with a sudden downpour, topped off with another power failure, quite suddenly there were people everywhere. Another hour of anguish for the restaurant owners, wondering how they would feed the hordes without power. Luckily for them and for the those coming in out of the storm, the power issue resolved with everyone getting happy again over a few beers and some good Ithacan cooked fare.

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Sat 12 May - Above - Rien Post , Ithakis local Tattooist gets a second job. He's painting Lefki walls. Anyone who has walked edge to edge of Lefki will know just how many walls there are and that this village is quite expansive. Rien should have some biceps to show after this.
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Sun 29 May - Above - Nikos and Xanthi from The Gods Gift Shop in Frikes/ Bike Rental are nearing the birth of their first child. We caught up with them discussing the tradition of naming the child after the parent. This is a much adhered to tradition, thus so many Yiorgos, Nikos, Dimitris etc.
 
   
Vathy
Yesterdays' weather didn't quite make up its' mind which way to go, but the mild temps had Ithaki and its' tourists out and about across the island. The evening was warm and the bays were calm and some big yachts reflected colourfully in the glassy waters.
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