THE POSTCARD RACE- ROUND 5 WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to Szu and Alexis of New York City, they are the winners of Round 5 of "The Postcard Race"! Alexis reported receiving her postcard on Monday, July 27th.

This means that so far the Greek round winners have been from the United States! There are only two contestants in the United States. I guess this proves that people from the USA are real winners? OR Could it be that they have a far superior postal system? Does the USA have better political relations with Greece than Canada and is this reflected in preferential postal service?

Will the home town team ever win a round, or is Vancouver, being SO far away, never going to receive a postcard first, wait that does not explain the LA winner. maybe you will do better with the South American Rounds Vancouver.

HMMM we will continue to explore all these questions as The Postcard Race continues; Round six will be sent, again from Amorgos, August 15th. Good Luck everyone.

Meanwhile news is still coming in of people receiving the Round 4 postcards. Thanks for your updates we appreciate all your receipt acknowledgements. We are now certain that the Tholaria box is operational.

So we will be searching for the perfect thing to send to NYC, way to go Szu and Alexis and postal workers of NYC!!!

The Postcard Race Round #5

July in Greece

“The Santorini Island Round”

There are claims that, Santorini was Atlantis, the legendary continent that plunged to the bottom of the sea while at its zenith. A volcanic eruption 3600 years ago, more powerful than any other ever recorded, is proven, to have interrupted a very prosperous civilization on Santorini.

Santorini is what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, that destroyed the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island and lead to the creation of the current geographical caldera of spectacular physical beauty.

The name Santorini was given by the Latin empire in the 13^th century and is a reference to St Irene. Before then it was know as Kalliste: “the most beautiful one” OR Strongyle “the circular one” The spiral symbol common on Santorini is a reminder of the island’s volcanic history.

The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions the planet has ever seen. It occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete, 110 km to the south, from the resulting gigantic tsunami.

Archeological excavations begun in 1967 at a site called Akrotiri reveal a wealthy, thriving, bronze age civilization. Remains of dual pipe systems suggest hot and cold running water and are the oldest such utilities ever discovered. The source of the hot water was probably geothermic, given their proximity to the volcano.

Archeological excavations begun in 1967 at a site called Akrotiri reveal a wealthy, thriving, bronze age civilization. Wall paintings or frescoes found have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash.

Archeological excavations begun in 1967 at a site called Akrotiri found wall paintings that have retained their original colour well, preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The paintings depict everyday life and lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in classical Greek décor.

A small wine industry flourishes on the island based on the indigenous grape “Assyriko”, a very old vine adapted to the well-drained volcanic soil and its chemistry. White wines from the island are extremely dry with a strong citrus scent and a slightly sulfurous flavour.

A 2006 documentary from filmmaker Simcha Jaacobovici called “The Exodus Decoded” suggests that the eruption of the Santorini volcano caused all the biblical plagues described against Egypt. Rather than crossing the Red Sea, a marshy area in northern Egypt known as the “Reed Sea” would have been alternately drained and flooded by tsunamis after the eruption and could have been crossed during the Exodus.

It is easy to see why Santorini was added to the list of possible locations for the fabled city of Atlantis. Some archeological, seismological and vucanological evidence regarding Crete, Santorini and the description of Atlantis from Plato links the myth of Atlantis to Santorini.

In April 2007, a cruise ship carrying 1586 people struck a volcanic reef and sank resulting in the loss of 2 passengers. The wreck of the MS Sea Diamond rests precariously on an undersea ledge and still contains 200 tons of fuel oil, a threat to the environment. Plans are being made to salvage the ship and prevent a fuel leak.

Adventures with Patty and Katie

On Saturday night, June 11, Yvonne and I bought a couple of Mythos and awaited the Small Cyclades Boat on the Aigiali pier hoping Patty and Katie would arrive. Patty had emailed saying it would either be Saturday or Monday, but happily there they where. Yuli had prepared the downstairs beds and we were ready for visitors! Conveniently, we spotted Yorgos' truck in town so we put all the bags and some groceries in the back for him to take home and went right to Limani for dinner.

Patty had covered a lot of ground since we had last seen her, we heard about travels with their intrepid family; some hilarious stores about not shopping for carpets, not paying for the napkins and meeting a goat herder who had learned many languages by simply sitting in the shade.

It was straight to the beach in the morning, (though Patty had taken a midnight dip). Patty's beach towel, (a souvenir from her para sailing in Fethiye, Turkey) should have been our first clue that it was going to be a week of extreme sports. She actually had jumped off a cliff in Turkey to sail down to a beach.

Katie took the week's fashion award for her black bikini, pink cover up with matching nails, headscarf and black flip flops. (Katie even hiked up to Tholaria in those flip flops). She completed her ensemble with the purchase of BIG Pink an inflatable raft, that served as a bed on land and a raft on the sea. An amazing deal at 3 euros.

I have been jealous of the blow up whales, sea turtles and dragons I have seen in the sea of late; so finally I got my turn on BIG Pink, unfortunately, during a hand off at sea, the wind took BIG Pink and she danced away out into the big blue. Patty immediately set out after her and we watched in awe as she gained on BIG Pink and was an arm's length away when the wind once again took BIG Pink out to sea. Patty continued pursuit until BIG Pink was blown onto naked beach, way over the next point from us, and retrieved by someone there. But the wind taketh away and the wind giveth, the next day while on our morning swim Yvonne and I spotted something caught in the rocks and rescued Penta, a fine replacement for BIG Pink, that thankfully also accessorized well with Katie's outfit. Ulie told us that once on a walk she'd forgotten her hat, "I wish I had brought a hat" she said and moments later the wind carried one right to her.

A schedule was made so we would be sure to fit in all the fun things we wanted to do. Katie thought the schedule should be posted to avoid the constant re-working, forgetting and talking about it and going off on ones own, BUT even without posting, we picked up our rental car one evening and headed up to Langada for a meal at Nikos Taverna. Amongst other things, we ate a most delicious savory pie made from the greek version of a pumpkin. The pumpkins were stored in nets hanging from the trees. I would really like to duplicate that recipe.

The next morning we were off on our road trip with the monastery being our first stop. The extraordinary Monastery of Hozoviotissa (pride of Amorgos) is built on a steep cliff, visible only from the sea. Legend tells that during the Iconoclastic period, a woman from Chotziva, Palestine placed an icon of the Virgin Mary in a boat that arrived in Amorgos. The inhabitants decided to build the Monastery high on the rock where the iron "chisel" of the master builder was found, a sign from the Virgin Mary. We climbed the many steps and Yvonne and I even dawned our Turkish scarves, made to look like skirts, in order to be allowed to enter. The architecture is amazing, the monastery only has one wall and the cliff rock forms the back wall, 40 metres wide, only fives metres deep and has eight floors. Construction began in 1008 and over the centuries it has housed large, self-sufficient communities of monks who in hard times supported some of the islands people.

After the monastery, we had a much deserved swim at Ayia Anna and later went back to Mourou Beach (Patty's favorite) where we all had a very long swim and, unlike or last visit, Yvonne and I entered the caves and felt the sea's heartbeat and saw the otherworldly cave light. We also swam around the point through what had been described to us as tunnel but was really a striking keyhole rock. As we swam back to shore, fancy divers were doing impressive triple axles off the high cliffs. Our road trip concluded with a stop at the grocery store to stock up on supplies.

In the days that followed; we moved base camp to some shadier locations, (since the wind made erecting umbrellas impossible), found the excellent store that Patty had visited before in Tholaria where we all bought more than one necklace, pondered the cloud that stayed right over Langada through wind from all directions, discussed the village ducks, played many games of scrabble and ate quite a few chocolate croissants and spinach pies from the bakery.

Patty had always wanted to walk from Aigiali to the monastery along the mountain trail and I had been eyeing that footpath from below myself, so we woke up very early Saturday morning and set out. Our first stop was the bakery where we mixed with the customers grabbing their snack after being up all night and then headed up the mountain. The view from up there is spectacular, we travelled along the sometimes crumbling ancient footpath hearing the sound of goat bells, walking past some ye olde villages and the rock drawings of Asfodilitis, following the periodic signs, the cairns and the helpful, strategically placed red dots. We had heard from various sources that the walk would take from 1.5 to 5 hours, so we were uncertain what to expect. After about four hours we ran into some French hikers coming in the other direction. They estimated that we were about 2 hours from the monastery, after another 40 minutes we came upon a British couple estimating the monastery at 3 hours away. An Australian couple, a half hour later, confirmed just 3 hours more and mostly down hill. By this point it was getting hot, nearing noon, and we had little faith in hikers who began their walks so late in the day. So Patty spotted a dirt road that took us way down to the highway, where a couple, from Athens, picked us up and delivered us to Chora for our rendezvous with Katie and Yvonne, who practically trumped our six hour walk with their morning trauma of having to stand on the bus all the way to Chora. We recuperated with many beverages.

And so the morning came when Patty and Katie were to leave, once again Yorgos serendipitously appeared and offered a ride to the bus. They were leaving from Katapola on their way to Santorini, so we said our goodbyes. Yvonne and I commiserated how nice it had been to share the place that we love so much with friends and wished that other friends were coming. It was late afternoon and we were just about to begin our scrabble game when lo and behold Patty and Katie appeared again bearing all their luggage, having waited all day for a ferry that was cancelled because of the wind. The wind brought our friends back.

They enjoyed another final swim and then Patty delighted in beating us at a last game of scrabble. Off they went on the BIG Blue Star from Aigiali pier the next morning.

Thanks for the great visit Katie and Patty, we love our mugs and our Cosmo beauty tips and maybe I will join facebook.

www.flickr.com

Settling in for the Summer

Our visiting friends left us this morning, so now it is time to update our blog and keep you informed about our Greek Life, (which we still love by the way). The "season" seems to have finally started with the beach really filling up: people playing the beach racket ball game next to the small children digging in the sand and riding the waves on the plastic blow up toys. This all does make the beach glass collecting harder BUT I persevere.

On our return from Santorini, we set up base camp, (pictured above). We usually spend 4-5 hours there with intermittent swims , glass collection, reading, watching the waves, the village ducks, the boats and the passers by. We usually do the morning shift, dismantling base camp and returning home by 2PM allowing us to miss most of the afternoon hubbub.

Today our little farm is "quiet", no neighbours on either side, but the crickets are fairly constant, along with the bird that has become for me the sound of Greece: whowoohoot -whowoohoot-whowoohoot (who is that bird?), the waves in the distance rolling the rocks together sounding like billiard balls hitting each other, and the welcome wind which sometimes howls setting the wind chime off and keeping us happily cooler. Like Altar, our dog , we have come to recognize the sound of particular vehicles coming home especially the funny, little truck that Ulie and Yorgos have. Today , being Tuesday it is Gyros take out day so we will be getting our 2 Euro dinner, usually two each, from the restaurant window in town and doing some grocery shopping, tomorrow we will probably do laundry. So as you can see life is pretty exciting here!

But last week we had some excellent adventures with Katie and Patty, along with fun, surprises and some pretty amazing scrabble games. Please stay tuned for the next posting.......

www.flickr.com

The Postcard Race: Round 5: The Santorini Island Round

Thanks to Patty Moore, our guest mailer, who dropped the Round 5 postcards in post boxes around Amorgos. Here you see her dropping postcards in the Tholaria post box, Yorgos told me the box in Tholaria was just for decoration, but I do not believe him, surely the Hellenic Post Office would not allow a box with their logo to be simply an artifact for decoration without pick up services? So we are trying it again.

There was a very unfortunate incident on the walk down the beach to mail the round 5 handicap entries in Aigiali, a strong wind was blowing from the south and suddenly a great gust came up and snatched the top postcard right out of my hand and sent it sailing out to sea. No rescue was possible.

It will be some kind of miracle if Joan and Anita from Hamilton, Ontario receive a Round 5 postcard.

Round 5 is the Santorini Island Round. The first person to notify us (by telling us on the blog or emailing yvonne or rachel) that you have received the postcard and to relate the "salient snippet from Santorini" on the back will win "something mailed to you from another country!" So watch for your postcard that will look something like the ones below.

Prizes for the Round 3 and 4 winners were mailed from Amorgos' Main Post Office. We have not yet heard if they have arrived. Please let us know when the packages arrive.

Good Luck everyone!

A Vacation from our Vacation: A trip to Santorini

Hurray the internet has come back to us and we are once again on-line! here is a post written on July 2nd.

On Sunday, June 28, we took a trip to Santorini for a few days. Yvonne was researching places to stay on this other Cyclades Island a few hours from here and found that renters unanimously raised their rates July 1, so we just thought, “ Why not go now?” We really felt that we should see at least one other place in Greece and the ferry schedule worked for Santorini.

The very cute, old style Small Cyclades Ferry left from Katapola at 9AM, Ullie ordered us a taxi for 8am (that phoned back and said he was coming at 7:30) and off we went. The on time, cab driver had an evil eye surrounded by a horseshoe hanging from his mirror so we felt very confident on the windy road. (Though I did wish I had a rabbit’s foot to give him). The ferry took three and a half hours to arrive at the port of Athenios, where we boarded a bus to Fira and there caught another bus to our final destination Oia (pronounced eeah).

There are claims that, Santorini was Atlantis, the legendary continent that plunged to the bottom of the sea while it was at its zenith. A volcanic eruption 3600 years ago, more powerful than any other ever recorded, is proven, to have interrupted a very prosperous civilization and gives the island a strange geography. Oia, like the capital of Fira, is built on the top of what they call the “caldera” the edge of the volcano and cliffs tumble straight down from the towns to the sea; where there used to be no sea (before the eruption). Oia is brilliant, white and gorgeous, “like being in a postcard’ someone said. We walked the pedestrian walkway, lined with upscale shops and galleries and churches and squares and located our accommodation. It was about two in the afternoon and hot and BRIGHT! We found some shade at Poka (pronounced ROKA) a traditional Greek ouzeri, where we lunched on delicious appetizers: calamari, tomato fritters (Santorini specialty), zucchini pie, potato salad and a few bottles of water.

The main event in Oia, is the sunset. Tourists are bused from all over the island, and people come from far and wide to witness and photograph its beauty. This most excellent tourist attraction happens EVERY NIGHT! (This time of year it happens about 8:45). Everyone gathers at the western tip of town, each nook, cranny and balcony filled with cameras and watchers hoping to get the great shot. There is a lot of talk about “the best place to see the sunset”. Even though we were still in the early part of the season the pedestrian walkways and the “good spots” were all jam-packed. For some reason we found the whole pilgrimage to the sunset amusing BUT nonetheless we found a great place to combine sunset viewing with a couple of drinks and it was SPECTACULAR as you can see from our fantastic shots!

The next day we hopped on the tourist trail and took an organized boat tour to the Volcano Island, (Nea Kameni), we climbed all around the black, loose, lava rubble in the heat to look inside the craters, along with many other boat loads of people doing the same thing. I marveled at our guide (in her forties) a very fun, local Santorinian who flies up and down that volcano twice daily and explains things in seven languages. The volcano is mostly dormant now, but modern eruptions 1925, 1939, 1950 have been watched and photographed by residents of the caldera towns of Santorini. You can still feel the heat from the main crater as you walk the path and I am sure in August it could make your shoes smolder. After that crazy tourist attraction, the boat pulled over at volcano island’s sulphur hot springs (I would call them luke warm springs) for a much-needed swim. It was fun to meet and chat with some other travellers, the Cuban Americans, the Australian honeymooners, the guys from Chicago having a commitment ceremony and all in all it was a fun day.

We had already booked our table, (of course where we could see the sunset) at Kyprida for our 15-appetizer meal for two. (Please see a photograph of each course on Flickr). But before going there we had time to visit the maritime museum, (extensive displays of knots and their uses), see some of our new, shopkeeper friends and do a little shopping.

At Kyprida, over organic, wine made on the island we talked to our waitress, daughter of the owner. They lived in a small village on the island. She said that from October to March, Oia is a ghost town, she often walks through the town in the winter months and only meets cats and dogs who reside all year and the odd Japanese photographer, who come to take pictures of, guess what ? the sunset (when it is really puts on its best shows). All the shopkeepers come from Athens arriving at around Easter and leaving in October. They bring some beautiful art, clothing and jewelry from mostly Greek designers and artists.

There was a show in one of the galleries (where our new Mexican friend worked) of a fantastic Greek sculptor Apostol, who made fanciful things in glass and metal our favorites were the bull in the china cabinet and the fiddling octopus. His website is www.apostolart.com

Though we never got to the archaeological dig, or the beach with black sand or countless other places we could have gone on Santorini, I became fascinated with the frescos that have been found from ye olde, ancient times on the island. There are many reproductions in the galleries.

The frescoes are very beautiful and colourful and depict regular life on the island. (Not like the more common frescoes that portray religious scenes). The most famous one, that is kind of the symbol for Santorini is of a fisherman with two full lines of fish one in either hand. The frescoes were found in regular dwellings as well as public buildings. There is a charming one of children boxing and of birds and dolphins and boats and boating and antelopes…watch for one coming to you soon since Round 5 of “The Postcard Race” is the Santorini Round.

We left Oia, Tuesday morning busing to the boat but this time catching the fast ferry (It really is a FAST ferry) back to Katapala in one hour instead of three. Meanwhile Amorgos had greatly enhanced the bus schedule so we were home in time for a late afternoon swim and our traditional Tuesday 2-euro each gyro dinner. We were VERY glad to be home and once again HAPPY that we had chosen to spend the summer on kind of sleepy Amorgos.

Since our tip we have seen an increase in the number of people in town and somewhat regular early morning power outages. We have set-up “beach base camp” at stonewall on the beach with chairs and an umbrella and are settling in for a lovely relaxing summer. Our Internet connection is gone for the time being and we realize how dependant we are on it and what a constant source of entertainment it is, never mind letting us communicate with friends. Just when we were going to learn the rules of backgammon. In Greece there is three ways to play and though we both used to play that was a long time ago and we need to re learn the rules.

What things cost:

Early morning cab to Katapala - 23E

Ferry to Santorini (Small Cyclades Line) - 23E for 2

Bus to Oia - 3.40E each

Ferry to Amorgos (Sea Jets Line) - 64E for 2

Lunch at Poka (with tip) - 42E

Dinner at Kyprida (with tip) - 84E

Renting a car on Amorgos for a day before July 1 - 25E

Chocolate croissants in Aigiali – 2 for 3E bottom of the hill 2 for 2E top of the hill