The Village

As we all know, few things can be more boring than pictures of, and endless stories about, someone else’s summer vacation, so I had resolved to spare you the gushing superlatives to which vacationing travelers are often prone. That said,… if this installment gets too windy, you know which icon to hit.

 



 


Vourliotes is a 600 yr. old Village that oozes the kind of authentic Old World Charm for which even the Greeks have become nostalgic.  The European tourists who come to Samos, usually stay along the coast and come up here for day trips. Most of them drive, but the Germans, Austrians, and the Dutch, like to hoof it up, still wet from the beach. Samians who’ve relocated to Athens, or expat Greeks who’ve moved to Australia or the U.S. for employment, like to come back here to visit the old folks, and recharge their cultural batteries. Americans are rare.

 

The village is pretty much a self contained unit, with a little over 400 year-round residents, most of whom do not own cars and rarely leave. There is a bus down the mountain once a week, and a man with a truck that brings fish up the mountain a couple times a week. Yesterday I saw a truck full of live caged chickens. You can buy local olive oil, wine, honey etc. packaged in generic or recycled containers that was made by someone’s uncle, brother, or cousin. There is a doctor’s office on the town square that’s only open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings; and there are lots of churches, tavernas, restaurants, cafés, and mini markets. The bakery is fifty steps from our house, and you can smell it in the morning. The baker opens at 8:00 A.M., and closes about mid-day. Most of his inventory is gone by 8:30.  Everything is within easy walking distance of everything.  Fruit trees, grapevines, and flowers sprout from cracks in the masonry walls and courtyard pavers.  If you express interest in someone’s fruit tree but show some shyness about picking it, they will bring it to you.  The people are extremely open and good natured.


Our Street, 3/20/2011

Tourism, agriculture, building repair, and service jobs, account for the most of the industry here. Shops that do not cater directly to the tourists are closed for a couple of hours during the mid-day, and the streets are all but empty till the sun starts to go back down. Most people do not eat their evening meal until well after dark.  Foot traffic in the streets is heaviest between dusk till dark, but it doesn’t really begin to fall off till about 9 or 10 at night. Crime is rare and many people leave their doors open until they go to bed.