Here I present two videos of musicans I know very well for many years now. Completely different music styles and ways of living, but they all add to make Samos a nice place to remember after the holidays are over!
Dimos singing at Pefkos beach
How to bring a performance after hours to an end? Well, here you can see how:
Jiannis Loulourgas und Jiannis Karavasilis "live" at restaurant Poseidon in Pythagorio.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Experience Samos 2009
This years tourism season started almost 1 month ago. During the past years many tourists from all over Europe came back to Samos again and again every year.
But Samos needs newcomers too, young tourists, who will come alone, together as couples or in groups for the first time to the island of Samos to spend their holidays there. And who will like what they experience on Samos and maybe even fall in love with the island too, like so many others already did in the past.
To give them some good ideas of what to expect, here is my presentation "Samos 2009, a unique experience" that I designed for the young ones :-) It is sort of a high speed random walk all over Samos island.
In addition, Samos is famous e.g. for its wines and the mathematician/philosopher Pythagoras, who was born on Samos and lived there for many years.
Many different kinds of landscapes can be experienced on this island, e.g. large forests, deep valleys and canyons, herbs with incredible smells, unbelievable fresh and crystal clear water springs, brooks, cascades and even small waterfalls (e.g. in Potami & Imvrasos vallley and near Ampelos village).
High mountains reaching up to 1150 meters (Karvounis, Ambelos) and 1443 meters (Vigla, Kerkis). With many caves and ancient quarries.
Lots of beautiful beaches all around the coasts of this island. Mostly with small pebbles, but some of them, especially in the south, are fine sanded, named psili ammos.
And many small villages, not only along the coast line. The more you get away from the coast, the more you will find the natural and rural life on Samos. Don't forget to visit one of the many panijiria during the summer season, the celebrations of the patron saints of the respective churches or chapels.
Samos has different wines. Not only the famous sweet wine! Besides the red, white and rosé Samos wines and the local Ouzo, try the Souma of Samos (in other places in Greece this spirit - containing about 40 % alcohol - is called Tsipouro!)
Come to beautiful Samos in 2009 for holidays!
All photos were taken by me between 2005 and 2008.
The music that accompanies the presentation is sung and played by various groups/musicians living on Samos and Ikaria. Several of them I know personally.
Music starts with two lively Nisiotika songs. Singers are Evi Morphou and Kyriakos Mavrikis.
Then follows an example for the energetic dance "Ikariotikos", played on violin by Leonidas Tsantiris. This dance "Ikariotikos" is unique and the music is very often heard on the panijiria on Samos too!
This is followed by calm and soulfull Rembetika-Songs, sung by Jiannis Loulourgas and his daugther Maria.
Near the end, there are 2 live recordings I made in taverns in Pythagorio, the musicians Makis & Jiannis Karavasilis accompany Jiannis Loulourgas.
Please note: as far as I know, CD's of these musicians are only available on the islands. Please support the local musicians and their music by visiting their live appearances and buying their CDs when you will visit the three islands Samos, Ikaria and Fourni!
But Samos needs newcomers too, young tourists, who will come alone, together as couples or in groups for the first time to the island of Samos to spend their holidays there. And who will like what they experience on Samos and maybe even fall in love with the island too, like so many others already did in the past.
To give them some good ideas of what to expect, here is my presentation "Samos 2009, a unique experience" that I designed for the young ones :-) It is sort of a high speed random walk all over Samos island.
Samos 2009, a fascinating experience from vimeo-minstrel on Vimeo.
Samos, a green emerald in the blue aegean sea, is located just a few kilometers away from the coast of Asia Minor. It is loaded with natural beauties and archeological sites and - in contrast to many other greek islands - Samos is gifted with large water reservoirs, partly due to forests and high mountains.In addition, Samos is famous e.g. for its wines and the mathematician/philosopher Pythagoras, who was born on Samos and lived there for many years.
Many different kinds of landscapes can be experienced on this island, e.g. large forests, deep valleys and canyons, herbs with incredible smells, unbelievable fresh and crystal clear water springs, brooks, cascades and even small waterfalls (e.g. in Potami & Imvrasos vallley and near Ampelos village).
High mountains reaching up to 1150 meters (Karvounis, Ambelos) and 1443 meters (Vigla, Kerkis). With many caves and ancient quarries.
Lots of beautiful beaches all around the coasts of this island. Mostly with small pebbles, but some of them, especially in the south, are fine sanded, named psili ammos.
And many small villages, not only along the coast line. The more you get away from the coast, the more you will find the natural and rural life on Samos. Don't forget to visit one of the many panijiria during the summer season, the celebrations of the patron saints of the respective churches or chapels.
Samos has different wines. Not only the famous sweet wine! Besides the red, white and rosé Samos wines and the local Ouzo, try the Souma of Samos (in other places in Greece this spirit - containing about 40 % alcohol - is called Tsipouro!)
Come to beautiful Samos in 2009 for holidays!
All photos were taken by me between 2005 and 2008.
The music that accompanies the presentation is sung and played by various groups/musicians living on Samos and Ikaria. Several of them I know personally.
Music starts with two lively Nisiotika songs. Singers are Evi Morphou and Kyriakos Mavrikis.
Then follows an example for the energetic dance "Ikariotikos", played on violin by Leonidas Tsantiris. This dance "Ikariotikos" is unique and the music is very often heard on the panijiria on Samos too!
This is followed by calm and soulfull Rembetika-Songs, sung by Jiannis Loulourgas and his daugther Maria.
Near the end, there are 2 live recordings I made in taverns in Pythagorio, the musicians Makis & Jiannis Karavasilis accompany Jiannis Loulourgas.
Please note: as far as I know, CD's of these musicians are only available on the islands. Please support the local musicians and their music by visiting their live appearances and buying their CDs when you will visit the three islands Samos, Ikaria and Fourni!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Samos Photos
Those of my Samos photos that are for sale as digital foto files you can find at "Alamy", the web’s largest stock photography site.
Samos photos of Peter Molz
Samos photos of Peter Molz
Friday, May 22, 2009
Looking back: Samos 2004
Personal memories of Samos 2004. A collage of photos taken on Samos in 2004 with my first digital camera, a 4-Megapixel Canon IXUS 430. Looking back, a small but very good digital camera for a start! A solid metal housing, after all these years almost no scratches on the surface! Built for eternity?
And lovely small jpg-files on the hard disc of the computer. Nowadays I'm used to 15 MB files for one RAW photo of my Nikon D700.
But, nowadays, who would buy a 4 Megapixel camera? The 4 megapixel photos are still much more than is needed for HD (1280 x 720 pixel). O.k., if you want to zoom in to some extent, you might need 6 Megapixel photos. On the other hand, the video mode with 320x240 Pixels and 15 fps was pretty limited then, nowadays this is much better with HD becoming a standard rapidly!
This was a unique feeling then, because it was my first time on Samos during the month of May. There I was, middle of May and I was fascinated by the green and blossoming environment and by taking my first really colourful photos with the new digital camera.
I'm preparing a presentation with many of those 2004 photos, but this will take a couple more rainy days in Germany. ;-)
Friday, May 15, 2009
Kallithéa
Kallithéa is a small village in the west of Samos, settled on the slopes of mount Kerkis at an altitude of approx. 300 meters. Most tourists will pass by on the road to Agios Isidoros/Valsamos beach or Drakei, unfortunately without paying a visit to this place. The name Kallithéa means: "beautiful view". And indeed you will have a spectacular view across the aegean sea to the island of Ikaria. And along the road several benches are inviting you to sit down and enjoy the breathtaking sunsets.
If you want, explore the beautiful areas above and below Kallithéa: starting in front of the graveyard, follow the dirt road up the mountain, pass the chapel Ag. Paraskevi under big platane trees. Follow the dirt road till the end, then walk up the steep trail through shady forests to the lovely chapel "Panagia Makrini" inside a cave. I promise, this will be a unique experience during your stay on Samos! Or, starting a little bit outside the village to the south, follow the dirt road that will lead you down to the sea, visit Charalampos chapel and relax on Katsouni beach.
I hav been there already several times. Last year I spent some time there in August and October and took a couple of photos. During the day, the small square and the narrow streets look empty, almost deserted. For sure, only tourists will walk around in the heat of the early afternoon!
And cats are strolling around. Old men are sitting in the shade of huge trees in front of the one and only tavern in the small square.
But during that one hot night in the middle of August, the whole place is more than crowded with hundreds of people who come from all over the world back to Kallithea in summer to celebrate and enjoy the panijiri. The whole square is packed with tables and chairs where people sit, drink and eat, A group of 4-5 musicians plays live music and people start to dance from about midnight as long as they can until the light of the morning dawns.
Wanna take part (visually) in that hot night in the square of Kallithea? At least, for a couple of seconds, you can do that on the internet:
Hot August summer nights on Samos island in Greece: panijiri in Kallithea from vimeo-minstrel on Vimeo.
Interested in the west of Samos island? More photos can be found in my collection "Through the west of Samos between Paleochóri and Drakéi"
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Samos videos and presentations in high quality
Some time ago I came across the video platform "Vimeo" in the internet.
Since I had - and still have - almost no influence on the quality of my media that I want to publish on YouTube, I decided to open an account at Vimeo.The quality is very good.
The link to my new channel:
"Experience Samos!"
I have already rendered some of my presentations in HD (720p) quality and published them on this channel.
Since the video files now have large sizes, anything between one hundred and several hundreds of megabytes, I recommend to start the download of the stream and wait until at least two thirds of the stream have been downloaded before starting to watch the video. Of course, it all depends on the speed of your internet access and your computer.
On the Vimeo site, there is another channel on Samos with several contributions named "Samos Island" by a user called "PolykratisP" which I recommend too.
Since I had - and still have - almost no influence on the quality of my media that I want to publish on YouTube, I decided to open an account at Vimeo.The quality is very good.
The link to my new channel:
"Experience Samos!"
I have already rendered some of my presentations in HD (720p) quality and published them on this channel.
Since the video files now have large sizes, anything between one hundred and several hundreds of megabytes, I recommend to start the download of the stream and wait until at least two thirds of the stream have been downloaded before starting to watch the video. Of course, it all depends on the speed of your internet access and your computer.
On the Vimeo site, there is another channel on Samos with several contributions named "Samos Island" by a user called "PolykratisP" which I recommend too.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Souma, Souma
If there is something, people on Samos are looking forward to after the end of the summer season, it is of course the calmness that comes back to the island. But there are other things too: e.g., the fresh mushrooms after the first rain falls and the distillation of Souma, using the pomace from the pressing of the grapes! Always a good opportunity to gather with friends and celebrate with eating, drinking and music!
The drink Souma is made purely out of pomace through a straight-forward distillation process. Sometimes people like to add herbs to the cauldron to add flavour to the taste of the Souma.
The production of homebrewn Souma/tsipouro is allowed in Greece with the only restriction being that the cauldrons used must be licensed. The making of Souma/Tsipouro usually doesn't start before end of October.
In October 2008 I had the opportunity to watch this distillation procedure in a pot still in Stavrinides. Stavrinides is a small village surrounded by vineyards and forests, high above the north coast, located next to the village of Ambelos.
The apparatus used for the distillation was - compared to many other pot stills on the island - relatively new, almost high-tech. But they have such a beautifull copper cauldron there (Cauldron = Kasáni = Brennkessel)! All the process steps, from chopping the wood needed for the fire in the oven under the cauldron, the filling, assembly, dissasembly and cleaning of the apparatus to the measuring of the alcohol content of the Souma flowing out of a tube in the condenser tank are depicted in the presentation "Souma distillation on Samos":
To see the full resolution, click on the player window and the YouTube site will open. Please watch in high quality mode!
Music is performed by musicians from Samos and was recorded live in Pythagorio. The first song is about "Fouma, Fouma", not Souma, Souma! ;-)
The drink Souma is made purely out of pomace through a straight-forward distillation process. Sometimes people like to add herbs to the cauldron to add flavour to the taste of the Souma.
The production of homebrewn Souma/tsipouro is allowed in Greece with the only restriction being that the cauldrons used must be licensed. The making of Souma/Tsipouro usually doesn't start before end of October.
In October 2008 I had the opportunity to watch this distillation procedure in a pot still in Stavrinides. Stavrinides is a small village surrounded by vineyards and forests, high above the north coast, located next to the village of Ambelos.
The apparatus used for the distillation was - compared to many other pot stills on the island - relatively new, almost high-tech. But they have such a beautifull copper cauldron there (Cauldron = Kasáni = Brennkessel)! All the process steps, from chopping the wood needed for the fire in the oven under the cauldron, the filling, assembly, dissasembly and cleaning of the apparatus to the measuring of the alcohol content of the Souma flowing out of a tube in the condenser tank are depicted in the presentation "Souma distillation on Samos":
To see the full resolution, click on the player window and the YouTube site will open. Please watch in high quality mode!
Music is performed by musicians from Samos and was recorded live in Pythagorio. The first song is about "Fouma, Fouma", not Souma, Souma! ;-)
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