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

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. ;-)

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"

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.

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 other side

Samos-town has a lot of different faces. This sommer I happened to come the second time to an area most people wouldn't want to know. 50 meters away from the harbour boulevard Themistokli Sophouli. The ruin of the hotel resides directly on the boulevard.








There is a house in Samos-town,
best place to view the setting sun,
it's been a ruin for many a year,
when are they going to pull it down?

Drive-In café on Platia Pythagoras in Samos-town

Seen in October 2008: looks like a market in Samos-Town for the sale of motorcycles and motorscooters. But it isn't!
After most of the tourists have gone, there is room enough for all those fancy vehicles on the Platia Pythagoras again. Quite a challenge, the "real art" is to place your vehicle in a such way that nobody can overlook it!


To me it seems that Samians don't want to walk too much, they need instant access to the cafés on Platia Pythagoras and their scene. Not more than a couple of meters walk and then they want to sit down, take their mobile phones and "communicate". The café Iraion is one of the noisiest places I know on the island! ;-)