Samos (part 2)

Did we mention fun in part 1 of this update? Oh yes, there was plenty of that.

The Samos people clearly have a sense of humour or perhaps the Beastie Boys VW badge craze arrived here late:

We doubt this would pass any emissions' tests either.

Have you ever seen a banner adorning a town council building that decries government policy? Well, you have now:

The local street art is good as well, plenty of drawings on the roads and pavements:

including one that made us feel quite at home:

Wildlife? Well, Graham kindly tried to rescue this mantis that was getting a little squashed on the road. It repaid his kindness with a nice bite:

Most of the locals were way friendlier than that. In fact the sense of humour extended to taverna signs near the beach:

Talking of beaches:

There are lots of them, many are very quiet and all are beautiful.  The tourism is not in the style of mainland Spain with its huge high rise ugly hotels and "Brit-bars" serving fry up breakfasts and fish and chips. Thank heavens for that. It retains a very local feel and is all the better for it. Did we mention lovely beaches and views? Just in case you feel that you are missing out:

There are a few drawbacks - like a third world water infrastructure with the pipes running in the open alongside the road after appearing from places like this:

Graham and Pat were without mains water for several days which is nothing unusual so they all have big storage tanks. A while ago, the local official had told people that he didn't have the 12K Euros he needed to replace the pump that feeds water to the village so they were without for many days. I wonder if the Troika realise just how the cuts are impacting the life of the normal hardworking locals, not just the previously overpaid and "over-benefitted" government workers.

The enterprise of the local delivery guys was impressive. Here is fruit:

and G and P told us that there used to be a similar vendor selling plastic chairs from a van. Now that, is specialisation.

A final thought - being buried is a serious business:

an incredibly tidy and well tended graveyard with amazingly detailed monuments in a local village. If you have a little less money, you still are remembered but in a communal building:

The Mediterranean lifestyle and diet clearly works well. The number of graves for people who had lived well into their 90s was amazing:

Perhaps we should move here - actually we are too late, our lifestyle has been too bad for too long.

A Samos summary - great place, amazing culture and thanks to our "local guides" Graham and Pat a most relaxing and enjoyable week. Even the flight back didn't disturb that feeling, neither did the long wait for the bus to the car park at Heathrow. See how chilled we were!