I am always intrigued by connections--some call them coincidences--that demonstrate the small world that we live in on this vast globe.  In this blog we have conveyed some of the many we have seen over the years.  Here is the latest.

In September I acquired an excellent web site:  www.Visit-Ancient-Greece.com   This has not been publicized or promoted because I am having some programming problems with it.  Then today I discovered my home city of Portland, Oregon, USA is hosting a major exhibition called "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece".

This year everyone I know that is connected with Paros are re-doubling their efforts to attract visitors. Friends are posting more photos to Facebook, those who came earlier in the season are writing about the complete lack of difficulty during their visit and everyone is holding the line on price increases. 

One villa owner has started a campaign for fellow owners to offer their villas at cost to acquaintances in the off season. See  Paros, Still a Greek Paradise

Others who I don't know are helping Greece on the grander scale. Former President Bill Clinton recently visited Athens to speak to a group of prominent Greek-Americans who are establishing a fund to promote foreign investments in Greece.

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post.  We have been quite involved over the past three months in travelling and more recently moving into a full size house in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland.

On Paros our reports are that life there continues as normal; little effected by the political turmoil in Athens.  In fact with all the election activity, it is likely there will be few, if any, strikes over the next few months.  Private villa rentals on Paros are up substantially over last year.  In fact high season is almost sold out.  Contact me immediately if you want a villa for early July and soon for June or September.

Everyone I know in the Greece tourism business is going the extra mile to make 2012 a good year--even the international Tourism Daily News in publishing this press release:

(actual screen shot—click to enlarge)

There is good news there as well.  Volotea, the new low-cost carrier that will focus on mid-sized cities, has chosen Venice as its first operating base starting this spring.  They have announced the following schedule:

- Thessaloniki: Tuesdays, Saturdays, starting 2 June
- Corfu: Wednesdays, Sundays, starting 24 June
- Heraklion: Tuesdays, Saturdays, starting 17 July
- Kos: Mondays, Fridays, starting 16 July
- Mykonos: Mondays, Wednesdays, starting 25 June
- Rhodes: Thursdays, Sundays, starting 15 July
- Santorini: Wednesdays, Saturdays, starting 18 July

Buon giorno, Italilanos

This week the village lost one of its attractive fishing boats.  We were not there to see it but Oona Giesen of Aliki Yoga Studio posted a lot of photos on Facebook.  I think you can access them through her page at Oona Giesen 

Evidently this is an example of European Union bureaucrats’ solution to Aegean over fishing.  They buy out the fishing rights of the older, smaller boats so that only the newer, bigger “factory” boats are left.  They are much easier to control and tax, of course.

I just wrote an article about this same thing happening with local pig festivals on my Czech Mates blog:  Losing the Charm of Pig Slaughter 

We have seen many changes in Aliki and Paros since we first arrived in the year 2000. Some are natural progress, a few have been improvements, many have been misguided expenditures of public money; not everyone can agree on which have been which.  I thing everyone agrees that a loss of quaintness is occurring; yet those who visit the island for the first time in 2012 will still find it quaint and attractive and will want to return.  What do you think?

The international newspaper is not linking Paros with the economy or finances but another claim to fame – art.  The article is about Konstantin Kakanias who splits his time between Los Angeles and Greece.  He is currently on Paros collaborating with Monique Mailloux of Yria Ceramic Studio.  See the article and photos at Still Life with Chickens

Here are a few items that I should have reported on earlier.

The archaeological excavations on Despotiko off the south coast of Antiparos produced major finds this summer.

While uncovering a wall of an archaic building they discovered half of a “kouros” that matches the other half found in 2005.  They found a head in 2010 that may belong to the same statue.  All of which are of excellent quality and are of a style used on Paros in the 500’s BC..

It is possible to arrange boat tours of Despotiko and adjacent Tsimintiri where other large ruins have been unearthed.  That is on our list of things to do this September.

Another positive achievement for 2011 is flat taxi and limo rates between the Athens airport and central Athens.  In the past this was a major sore point as many taxi drivers took advantage of unaware visitors.  So now you are aware of the following:

Fare for Taxis

DAY TIME FLAT FARE (05:00-24:00)

€35 AIRPORT TO ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING

€35 ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING TO AIRPORT

NIGHT TIME FLAT FARE (00:00-05:00)

€50 AIRPORT TO ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING

€50 ATHENS CITY CENTRE INNER RING TO AIRPORT

1. The flat fare price depends on the time of arrival to the destination.
2. The flat fare includes all applicable surcharges (V.A.T., meter start, luggage, toll fee, and airport charge).

The fare to Piraeus is not fixed but under normal conditions it is officially indicated as €47 Day time and €72 night.  You still have to be aware of attempts at over charging or taking slow routes.  The best defence is to agree a rate in advance.

Finally be on the look out for Greece wines at your local importer.  Prior to the economic crisis 90% of Greece wines were consumed within Greece.  Read why I think this best.  But now sales are down by about 40% so winemakers have an incentive to export.  Undeniably the quality of the better Greece wines has increased over the last decade and are able to compete with the best from France, Oregon and other wine countries.  So help a Greek; drink a glass of wine from Greece.

Its slow going but Karin and I are getting better at assembling videos.  Here’s one of the brush fire near Aliki on 13 July 2011.

For the last couple years we have been advising travellers to ignore the news from Athens.  The trouble spots can easily be avoided and once you get to the islands everything is peaceful and quiet.

This advice was reinforced yesterday.  The news headlines and travel advisories were full of details of the national strike of the major unions including all government employees.  So imagine our surprise went we went into Parikia to find everything open including the government offices and even the post office.  Banking business was normal and there were ferries coming and going as well as Olympic flights.

Evidently the only direct effect on the islands was ferries leaving the major port of Piraeus and some flights arriving and leaving the Athens airport.  We are guessing that the island people, including government workers and union members, realize the damage that demonstrations and strikes are doing to their livelihoods and do not want anything to do with it.

So, again my advice is go ahead and plan your trip to Greece--without a visit to Syntagma Square—and only pay attention to your own flights and ferries.  Ignore the alarmist press.

Well for once a celestial event took place at sociable hours!  Every July and August here on Paros we are treated to a fine meteor shower—shooting stars.  But the best time for viewing is in the early morning before dawn—not my time of day.

But last night the Eclipse of the Moon started here at 9:50 P.M. and reached 100% about 10:20 P.M.  There were a few wispy clouds but all in all a good show.

The first photo is about 75% into the eclipse.

The second is just before full eclipse. 

The third is at 100%.  If you zoom in you can see the lunar landscape a bit.

The last is about 50% out of the eclipse and obviously too much light for a photo.

Finally summer has arrived on Paros as we have no rain or even heavy clouds in our forecast.

Also today brings the prospect of more flights to Greece from all over the world.  Hellenic Imperial Airways has announced that starting June 24 they will be flying between New York and Athens four times per week—followed by other countries later this year.  To quote from their press release:

“In phase 1, Hellenic Imperial Airways will be connecting Greece with non-stop scheduled flights to and from USA (New York), Syria (Damascus), Romania (Bucharest), U.A.E (Dubai), Morocco (Casablanca), Saudi Arabia (Jeddah), United Kingdom (London), Switzerland (Geneva), Canada (Toronto- Montreal) and France (Lyon, Marseille).
In phase 2, aiming to be implemented towards the end of 2011 Hellenic Imperial Airways aims to expend its network of scheduled flights to the Far East and Australia.”

I did not find these flights in a fare search yet but they claim the rates will be competitive but more importantly to me they say:

“their planes have 217 seats in the same space that Olympic Airways formerly fit 263”

Hellenic Imperial Airways has been operating as a charter airline for over 4 years and their international flights use pilots and planes from the former Olympic Airways.

Here's to the lazy, hazy days of summer. 

When he was mayor of Paros I was impressed with what Yannis Ragoussis was able to accomplish in comparison to the previous mayor.  Now I am impressed with what he hopes to accomplish for the long range future of Greece government.  Read previous reports here and here

While Prime Minister Papandreou is active in saving the country in the short run Interior Minister Ragoussis is working on modernizing the entire government structure.  We see a lot more Turkish byzantine bureaucracy than the Greeks will ever admit to.

This is from the Athens News Agency report:

He stressed that human resources - the civil servants themselves - will
be the main focus in this drive for a reformed state, which would be
free of pockets of corruption and mismanagement.

Ragoussis said that the effort would require great political will and a
willingness to ignore political cost, given the attitudes that dominate
within the two main parties and high-ranking trade unionists concerning
the civil service and broader public sector.

One of the pillars on which the new, reformed public administration
will be based was the decision announced by the prime minister a few
days earlier to convert the status of civil servants to that of
'employees of state', breaking down the barriers between each ministry
and introducing evaluation mechanism for ministry staff.

Ragoussis noted that the more important change this introduced was not
the power to fire employees but a process of evaluation that would
reveal who was unfit to be in the civil service'. He expressed the
opinion that the simple knowledge that they would be evaluated would
prompt employees to "do their best" so that the majority would not fail
such an evaluation.

"One of the major problems of the Greek state is that there is no such
evaluation system for many years now, therefore no one ensures or has
any incentive to perform better".

It is very unusual to see such blunt language indicating that pockets of corruption and mismanagement still exist as well as resistance within is own party for reform.

Although he is a member of a Socialist government we can only wish Ragoussis well in bringing Greece that much closer to modern governance.

The photo in my first post about him is only a few years old yet he looks much older in the photo above.

Greetings to all my Chinese readers out there.  Ha, do I have any?  Let me know.

Anyway, I have been watching with interest over the past couple years as Greece and China have cozied up to each other business wise.  This was given a boost when Greece elected the President of Socialist International as Prime Minister (George Papandreou).  Now Greece has created excellent karma in China by greatly aiding the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya.

I have also been reading that tourism from China is mushrooming all over the world, yet we see very few Asians on Paros.  Maybe that will improve this year because Air China announced in February that on May 11 they will begin “direct” (by way of Munich) flights to Athens from Beijing.

Hmm, it will be interesting to see how many Chinese are interested in the birth place of Western civilization.

For a change in stylistic pace I quote from a recent press release:

“Paros Hospitality located on the Greek island of Paros announces a new study abroad program featuring one week visiting the major Greece sites such as Delphi and the Athens Acropolis plus one week of educational workshops on Paros.

Michael Shepherd, Program Manager, said, “Our experience will enhance your experience to create a custom itinerary to suit your interests as well as attract students to the Greek island lifestyle of sun, sea and sport.”

The hallmarks of the program are 100% flexibility and affordable cost. The mainland itinerary with Athens as the hub is customized to suit the curriculum needs of the college. The more popular offerings on Paros include: Photography, Scuba, Sailing, Painting: Oil, Watercolor or Acrylic, Horseback Riding (in the sea) and Greek cooking.

Paros has a great wealth of experienced instructors and activities so that the program can be customized to suit the particular group. Interspersed with the fun events are guided tours of ancient and historical sites so that students personally engage with the birthplace of western civilization.

Shepherd emphasized that the entire two week package of learning, reflection and fun with accommodation, meals and transportation, excluding air fare to Greece, can be budgeted at well under 1,500 Euro per student with faculty included at no additional cost. The teacher makes the decisions; Paros Hospitality handles all logistics.

An interested college instructor only needs to provide a brief outline of places to visit and subjects to be covered. Then Paros Hospitality responds with an estimated budget. From that point we jointly fine tune the personalized Greece odyssey.  Read More

For background on Michael Shepherd and Paros Hospitality see: www.ParosParadise.com/about.htm

For more information about Greece and the Greek islands see: www.ParosParadise.com     “

Last week I read in the news that exports from Greece were up this year compared to last year.  Yesterday there was a news item that may help explain that.

Two young American men were stopped at the Athens airport with unusual souvenirs of their visit to Mykonos.  They had purchased six human skulls to use as Halloween decorations.  They had seen the skulls on display in a shop and purchased them for 25 Euro each.

So perhaps the resourceful Greeks have found a new way to boost their economy.  The traditional custom here is to disinter bones from graves after a few years, bless them and store them in a vault known as an ossuary.  So what happens when the ossuary gets full?

Editor’s note:  We are sure most Greeks as well as the Orthodox Church and the Greece government treat all human remains with the utmost respect.

Pyramid of Skulls by Paul Cezanne
c. 1901 Private collection; Venturi no. 753

deTraci Regula in her Greece Travel Blog reports:

“A new report on the benefits of extra-virgin olive oil shows a surprising result - olive oil actually changes the way human genes work, reducing the risk of heart disease.”

Read more on her blog which also contains links to more about olive oil and the Mediterranean diet.

The Athens News Agency reported on Friday that for the first 6 months of 2010 the Greek government reduced their annual budget deficit by 39.7%.  That’s right nearly 40% less deficit than in 2009.

In other words, since revenues are up and expenses are down, Greece only spent 12.10 billion Euro more than they had coming in versus 20.05 billion Euro for the same period last year.

Everyone here is very curious about what will happen as the tourism season ends in September.  Uncertainty is always bad for business and we have a very uncertain future on the Greek islands at this time.  Stay tuned.

I just realised that I have not taken many photos this summer.  We are not doing or seeing anything that is different, I am afraid.

This is a different view of Club Med 2 that visits Aliki about three times per year.