I am short on quick and easy blog material right now. ( I do have a long list of detailed, informative articles to write.) So I will mention a recent enquiry that we received.
Hi Michael and Karin
I have just been reading your newsletters on the Paros Paradise website about your life out there which sounds amazing. As you are obviously in touch with a lot of people on the island i was wondering if you would be able to help me. I am currently working on a programme for ITV about British Expats living in Greece. We are looking for expats that are perhaps feeling a little homesick and are now thinking about coming home to the UK. With your contacts we thought that perhaps you might know of how we could get the word out that we're looking or even that you might know people in this situation. Any help or suggestions you might have would be really appreciated. I look forwards to hearing from you. Best Wishes Ami
ami.jackson@uhfevermedia.co.uk
Actually, this programme came up at dinner the other night with some of our Brit friends. They mentioned it as a possible way for someone to get a free trip home for a visit. We lamented the negative slant of such shows that we had seen in the past. They tend to highlight all the problems and pass over the joys of living in a foreign culture. We had a good laugh that everyone we know on Paros is too happy to qualify for a TV feature.
These people are all Brits enjoying New Years Day 2006 on our veranda.Life will never be the same again! At the prices quoted--$60 for 3 days--that is no exaggeration.
Read the whole story in this excellent article by deTraci Regula in Greece for Visitors.
Here is one excerpt:
"Stops on the full 14-day version of the cruise include Athens. Mykonos, Paros, Ios, Milos, Amorgos, Naxos, Folegandros, Sifnos and Serifos, a great combination of perky major tourist stops and remote Greek islands. "
This is going to be an exciting development to watch. I am glad I no longer have a pension to keep full.
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In browsing blogs I just discovered an interesting new blog designed to be a middleman between bloggers and those who advertise on blogs. Since the price is FREE, it is worth a trial.
Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think: Blog Whore Net
November 17th is a school holiday in Greece in commemoration of a 1973 event when Greece was ruled by a 3-man military Junta. On that date the military used deadly force to quell a student uprising. The Junta did not last much longer and to this day the national police and military are not allowed to restore order on University campuses in Greece.
In Athens there are speeches at the Poly Technical School gates then a parade to the United States embassy. In years past there has been violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Here on Paros the commemoration takes the form of all school foot races for grades 3 to 6; it was Aliki's turn to host.
On a daily basis it is difficult to know what is really happening between these two counties. More often than not Greece is complaining about Turkish jet fighters infringing on Greek air space. This year opposing jets collided and crashed. Last week the top General of the Turkish armed forces received a hospitable welcome in Athens. I do not even try to decipher the rhetoric over Cypress.
Yet in the tourism business all is well. This is from the Athens News Agency:
From what I have read all these people were treated well in their host countries.In terms of figures, noted Turkish entrepreneur Can Eretem said roughly
50,000 Turkish nationals take yachting holidays in Greece every year,
whereas Petralia said 120,000 Turkish nationals visited the country.
Conversely, 585,000 Greek nationals visited Turkey in 2005, up from 100,000
in 2004.
This week top level government ministers from both countries signed a tourism protocol covering many subjects and agreeing
to make travel of third country tourists between the
two countries easier and to inaugurate new ferry boat links.
Many travelers want to combine visits to Turkey and Greece. To date it has been somewhat complicated. Hopefully this year it will be much easier. The best preserved city of ancient Greece is on Turkish soil. Read a little more about Ephesus on our full service Paros web site.
This announcement is probably premature since I do not yet have my web site navigation structure updated, BUT Karin and I are proud to be associated with the Cooking Workshop presented by our good friends Eddy & Louise Hopman.
I have created a web page that introduces Greek Cooking -- Eddy Style! As well as their fantastic farmhouse location on a Paros hillside. This is just a taste--follow the page links to read what makes Eddy's cooking unique and learn more about natural food and wine on Paros.
One to Five Days of exposing your senses to flowers, fruits, herbs, birds, bees, vegetables, fish, meat . . .
Plus all the sun, sea and sand of our Greek isle
I had been saving this item for next spring when I started giving people details about getting around Athens and Piraeus, the ferry port. But since I am low on posting material I will spoil the surprise for those who have been here before.
There is a new, as of early September, pedestrian overpass between the Piraeus Metro station and the Cyclades ferry quay. Hurrah!
While it will save travellers with luggage from either dodging fast moving traffic or winding through taxis stopped across the crosswalks, the main benefit will be to increase the flow of traffic into and by the port complex. Thus ending some of the traffic jams that cause those arriving by bus and taxi to arrive late.
Now the only thing Piraeus needs, in my opinion, to be a pleasant destination in it's own right is a pedestrian walkway through the port area into the attractive parts of the city such as Mikrolimano and Zea Bay. This is a distance of about 10 blocks that consists of narrow and broken sidewalks with far too many kiosks and other street vendors further blocking the way.
Now that we are back to warm and sunny weather I can confess that we had a bunch of unseasonably cold and stormy days.
I looked through a couple hundred photographs trying to find some summer beach pictures to contrast with these winter ones. No luck. So you will have to take my word for it that our beach takes on a completely different appearance.
Better yet, come visit us in the summer.
Find more and better photos of Paros on our full service Paros web site.
This next photo is part of the same storm. Taken from the beach looking towards Antiparos.
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This post will supplement what we have written before about harvesting olives for oil, including a program for your private label.
Three years ago there was a spread in Greece for Visitors that includes several photos.
Anyway, on Sunday--a delightful day before the current storms hit--we spent 6 hours of physical labor raking trees and hauling olives.
Monday we went with the olives to the local press and spent an interesting two hours waiting our turn to go through the process. Our share of the crop resulted in 3 litres of all natural cold-pressed oil. It must be very premium for the effort that we put out.
The first photo should be captioned: In go the olives
The second shows what comes out of the press.
The third is the finished product ready for the bottle, or more mundanely, the heavy plastic jug.
This post is not meant as a full fledged article on harvesting your own olive oil. I would appreciate questions from anyone who would like to know more.
Our neighbor recently gave us several large--and very juicy--pomegranates. So we have been putting the fruit in everything we can, always the morning cereal.
I was intrigued by this post in the Modern Humanist
Take a look, please, to learn about this ancient fruit.
Between the daily pomegranate and the daily red wine we will be well and truly antioxidized!
For more on Greek food see this page in our full service Paros web site.
