Friday, April 13, 2012

Samos

We are currently staying on the first floor of a hotel overlooking the harbour of the main town of Samos, Vathi. The view is picture-perfect. And just as well, because the ferry trip over was a shocker. Milton had taken a travel tablet 20 minutes before departure but still felt rather ill. Judith, who generally travels well, didn't (travel well). It was very rough indeed.

The remainder of that day we recovered, settled in and oriented ourselves. The next day it rained for most of the day so we didn't do much, but day three saw us renting a car and driving around the island. The weather was great and it was a pleasant day with magnificent scenery and views. Unfortunately, apart from driving on the right hand side of the road, the roads around Samos are hilly with many curves and bends - and extremely narrow. Milton's usually faultless (!?) driving was put to the test - a test he finally failed when the car's passenger rear view mirror brushed a parked car! (fortunately no real damage). It was a good day in all, but at the end of it both of us were a bit stressed from the difficult driving conditions.

We rented a small, five speed manual volkswagen. However, the roads are so narrow, hilly and windy that we virtually never used fifth gear. So, back to the wreckers' yard. If you ever want to buy a second-hand, manual gearbox for highway driving, get one from a car only driven on Samos - fifth gear has almost never been used.

On our tour around the island we visited a beautiful village called Pythagorio, which unsurprisingly is the area where Pythagoras was born and spent his early years. Intriguingly, though, it appears that it is a moot point as to whether Pythagorus actually developed the theories (the Pythagorean theorem) attributed to him. I won't go into detail, but his mathematical theories could have arguably been developed by his colleagues, disciples in the following centuries, or the Babylonians and Indians!

Firstly the house of the Virgin Mary and now the theories of Pythagorus!!! This is just too much. I might need to have a high pot in use!

We have done a lot of walking around the main town of Samos and its harbour. It is truly a beautiful spot and very photogenic. Many of the houses have fruit trees front and back, including lemons, oranges, loquats, figs, olives and grapevines. As it is spring, the wonderful smell of orange blossom greets you around many a corner. As do the ubiquitous neighborhood cats.

One thing we had forgotten, though, is that there are no restrictions on smoking, so people can (and most of the population do) smoke in restaurants, cafes, bars and most public places. This makes it very challenging for non-smoking Australians who don't like to smell cigarette smoke when they are eating (or doing anything else really). There is a room for non smokers in our hotel, but it has ashtrays in it (WTF !!? again!)

We visited the archeology museum today. It has a great many artifacts, some of great value and significance, but at heart it is a provincial museum and fairly basic. One interesting fact we learned was that ancient Greek aristocrats traced their origins back to Gods and semi-divine heroes. Not like Australians who trace theirs back to criminals - although it must be remembered that the Gods did some pretty nasty and immoral things in their time too.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We take the ferry back to Turkey late in the afternoon. We are both hoping that this trip will not be as rough as the one over...

3 comments:

Kristen said...

Looks beautiful Longs. Enjoying your posts.

Kristen said...

Looks beautiful Longs. Enjoying your posts.

Kristen said...

Looks beautiful. Enjoying your posts.