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Ithaca Summer Lodown 2008 |
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These pages are for all the fun, activities, parties, festivals, news and visitors coming to Ithaca in Greece for the Summer of 2008. You'll still find Who's Here, Around The Villages and Ithaki General, but this year they'll all be packed into one. Enjoy the Summer, be it on the island or online. It's bound to be huge! |
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For a short video of a Flotilla 'drive-by' Click here
Fri 2 May - It's ithacagreece.com birthday today, 6 years old (give or take 45 or 6 or 7). Wow! Thanks to you all for making this website such a success. I appreciate it so very much folks! Really, thank you. The days are just wonderful lately, makes me all mushy with Ithaki sentiment. For a video of Ithaki Water Views - Click Here Below - Vathy Bay view.
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Right - Dexa Bay with the gentle waters flushing against the shoreline. Below - Sarakiniko Beach, a peaceful haven. Below Right - We as ithacans may think it's still a little too cold for swimming, but those already here on holiday are diving right in to get the most out of their holiday on the island.
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Thursday 1 May - Welcome to Summer Lodown for 2008, and as you can see from photo left, yacht visitors are wasting no time at all putting on their sea legs and heading our way. Vathy Bay was brimming with yachters from the Netherlands on their water tour around the Ionian. This party group had Vathy rockin' all night. It's not just the seas that have more traffic, but also the roads. While over the winter, you are lucky to pass a car on your way to anywhere, now, you are lucky to not pass a car on the road. The traffic has increased ten fold with every second car being a car hire, some driving on the wrong side of the road.. yep, here we go folks, ready or not. Before the real summer starts, there will be another lull, everyone will worry that no one is going on holiday, as they worry each year, but after the lull, the real explosion begins. This time of year it's just a blip in the radar really. Post Easter enthusiasm. Many mainlanders taking to the islands for a break and early birds here to take in the nature or paint for a week. Still, yachters will come and go from now until October, and Ithaca will come alive with new and old faces over the next few months. We'll have one sunny day after another, long nights in the village squares drinking ouzo and eating calamari, and blissful afternoons spent at the beach daydreaming life away. We'll make new friends and promises, and we'll toy with the idea that living in paradise is something we should really do for our well being, afterall, everyone on Ithaki always looks so happy and alive. There'll be questions such as "which way to Kioni", "where can I get the bus", "could you book me a taxi", "did you live in England? You're english is so good". And who wouldn't be just a little blissful when the alcohol intake starts at lunchtime and continues through to bed time. Summer on Ithaca melts the lines on your face accrued from stress, and mellows your bones to get that Ithaki walk which is slow and loose. Summer on Ithaca makes you smile more, makes you love more, makes you more human, because everything that holds you back from throwing yourself into life is left behind. Have a great summer here with us on Ithaca, whether in person or online, and if you see someone hovering around with a camera in her hand, put me out of my misery. Call me over and let me take your photo so you too can be part of the online community of Ithaca during summer. |
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May Day yesterday saw people out and about enjoying the Public Holiday, and the weather was there to help. Fine and warm all around. Calm seas, blue skies and alot of Kefi (good cheer) in the air. Ithacans may have been a little slow in wiping the sleep from their eyes after winter, but with the influx of visitors, there's no more time to waste. Ready Set Go. |
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Mon 5 May - Below - No this is not Ithaca, it's Plaka in Athens, where vendors and dogs take over the streets again for the upcoming tourist season in the old section of Athens. Plaka is big business any time of the year, but in the summer, it's absolutely booming. Who doesn't want to take a little of Athens and Greece generally, home with them after a holiday. Vendors could sell a pimple off their back. Click here or on photo below for a few more pics and a couple of videos. |
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Wed 7 May - Left - Julian and Corinne are here from Paris France, enjoying the Spring blooms and colours around the island. I caught up with them in Vathy. While Ithacans are still a little water shy, these two have no problems dipping their toes into the blue Ionian, afterall, it's warmer here than France and the sun is shining, so what is there to lose. |
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Thu 8 May - Right - Ithaca has been populated by Americans over the past couple of days while the island participated in the Second Hellospheric Network Workshop - Odysseus on the Sun. To conclude the workshop there was a night of music with Dimodokos. Click here or on photo right for more pics.
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There was a little blip in the weather yesterday with rain and temps falling dramatically, but today it's all sunshine and blue skies again. There are yachts sailing around these Ionian shores and through the Cephalonia Strait, docking at Kioni, Frikes and Vathy. Nature lovers are arriving to walk and paint the landscapes of the island and ex-pats too, are beginning to show their faces in the villages again. Strimmers (Whipper Snippers for the Australians) soar through the morning silence to cut back the long grass which grew without inhibition over the winter months and the engine roar of mopeds is again echoing down the streets of Ithaki. Mid afternoon silence will fall upon Ithaca as locals take up Siesta again over the following months. Yes, summer is almost here. |
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Sat 10 May - Above Left - Sandra and Wayne are on Ithaca from Sydney Australia. This great couple chose Ithaki for their honeymoon and are having a great time taking in the sights, meeting the people and taking lots of photos. Above Right - The Porto (Vathy Cafe and Eatery) gang take to the north. It's a very, very occasion Dimitri, Zaharoula and Vasili get the opportunity to get out on a Friday night, but Porto renovations? I think I heard them say, have given them the opportunity to escape the big city to mingle with the villagers. |
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Right - The annual local festival of Aghios Nikolaos took place this morning at Mavrona where the small church of Ag. Nikolaos and the name sake of Kioni (Column) are located. A small, but significant section of the Venetian Column is tucked safely away underneath the alter. |
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Left - Guiseppi and Gaynor have almost permanently moved themselves to Vathy, and although they're not 100% locals yet, the longer they stay, the harder it gets for them to leave, so who knows, in the future they may very well end up in The People of Ithaca section of this website. |
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For more pics of Ag. Nikolaos, click here or on photograph above right, but be warned, I missed most of it due to misinformation, so you're only getting the aftermass from me. Thankfully George Karantzis has kindly offered some of his photographs to make up for the lack of mine and there is also a 7 + min video for those with broadband. |
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