Travel Primer

Sea ferries to Samos from Athens’ port of Piraeus (daily, stopping first at Karlovassi then Vathy) take anything from 11hrs for the better ones (Hellenic Seaways Lines) to 15hrs+ for the dodgy old ones (GA Ferries Lines’ infamous Romilda and Rodanthi).



Good thing is you can usually get one leaving in the afternoon, get a cabin or sleep on the deck overnight, and arrive fresh and bright (and salty if on the deck) next morning. Prices are around E28 for a deck single or from E45 for a (shared) cabin per person. Depending on the day, ferries stop at some (or all) of the following islands: Syros, Paros, Naxos, Mykonos, Ikaria & Fourni.

Needless to say, this is by far the nicer way to come if you can spare the time.

Alternatively, flights from Athens (with Olympic Airways) come and go four times daily, and at about 45mins flying time are much quicker. The planes are turboprop ATRs with 60-odd places each so availability can be an issue. Prices are around E180 return, which pisses off the people in Samos no end (Olympic having an effective monopoly on the route and charging the moon).

From The UK

If coming from the UK, TUI/Thomson and Excel sell packages direct from the UK to Samos, flying in and out once per week. So you come in on (say) a Wednesday or Thursday and leave one or two weeks later, though meantime you can of course tour around! Tour operators like TUI and Excel usually sell flight plus accommodation packages that come in at decent prices, however you could get the flights only and find accommodation locally (more on this soon).
Prices on these packages as you will know will vary from agency to agency (eg Sunvil ) so do shop around.

I am currently looking into the possibility of a block booking from the UK via an agency which would give better prices – check here again soon. Also please let me know about any good agencies/deals that you dig up, so I can post it here and let everyone know.

Other sources of direct flights are LTU and AirBerlin from Germany and BelAir from Switzerland.

Car Rental

The other thing you will need travelwise in Samos is wheels! Public transport is very slim, and although it is perfectly lovely to stay put in one place and relax, a couple of days of touring will reward you highly.

Unless you plan to come with your wheels on the ferry, you will need to rent, but worry not! As it happens, our landlord Mr Savvas Perrris runs a business renting small cars, open-topped Suzuki 4WDs and scooters from Kokkari (but can deliver anywhere). Savvas is a great guy and entirely dependable.. and also promised us preferential rates. We know this is a big plug, but don’t at feel at all obliged, go elsewhere if cheaper or more convenient, the place is crawling with rentals.

NB This is a blog-style website, so if this is your first visit, start reading from the bottom!

The Distributed Photography Project

Join us in this unprecedented and exciting venture, where we bring together our collective styles and tell the wedding story a thousand ways!

Do you really long to have some grizzled pro wedding photographer lining you up with the aunts for an overflashed shot? The way we see it, the richest images are going to come from the people who are there for us, care for and know each other. And given the unparalleled ease with which modern photography (digital or otherwise) can be processed and shared, it would be too dull to do otherwise.

So here is what we have planned:

First, everyone bring along your favourite photographic or video apparel (with adequate supplies of batteries & films). Anything goes, from home-made keyhole, pro medium-format and 35mm compacts to SLRs, pocket digital to the imperial EOS 1Ds MkII, Super-8mm film to pro cinematic widescreen (with Peter Jackson in tow).

Then shoot at whim. Impressionistic, expressionistic or journalistic style – just no rigid, posed stuff. Distributed means we get to see ourselves and our special day through your eyes and your style, and this is what we most look forward to.

Look at these pics on flickr.com for inspiration!

Remember, there will be no wedding photographer –you all get to have control, capture the moment and immortalise the people. As well as the sensible shots, use your feeling and your imagination, experiment, and see with new eyes. Take burst shots, black & white, shoot from the hip, paparazzi-style overhead or dizzy-style with drink in hand! Short videos (all digitals are pretty good at this too nowadays) can also be very interesting.

NB Non-Greek guests may be dutifully coy about shooting during the ceremony. Rest assured that it is typical for the Greek wedding photographer and guests to deliver a veritable barrage of flashing and clicking. Especially during the rice-throwing bit…

We will also hopefully have plenty of warm, natural sunset light and not much need for flash (get your settings right!) so be nice but don't feel too inhibited about shooting at this stage.

Then, before you go, you drop off the films or download your image files to our laptop (armed with an all-format flash memory card reader) that will be waiting in a corner. Don’t worry, kind help will be at hand if you are new to this. We will also have some NiMH battery rechargers just in case you run flat.

We will then process both digital and old-school photo film and upload the best pics onto a dedicated area on flickr.com (the best creative photography sharing site on the net) where all can have free viewing access and can download the pics.

Or, if you prefer, you process and upload yourself (dead easy – just create a free account on flickr.com and upload to the specified group – more details on this in due course).

Of course we don’t mean to have this take over to the point of anyone missing the fun; but remember that we will depend on you for posterity (no pressure…).

NB This is a blog-style website, so if this is your first visit, start reading from the bottom!

Welcome

We are excited to welcome you to our wedding blog! We’ve put together all you need to know on the wedding day plan –including our trailblazing distributed photography project– as well as a steady stream of information & resources relating to travel, accommodation, facilities and our favourite haunts on Samos and around.

As you can understand, several details are still being worked on and won’t be finalised for a few more weeks, so please check back regularly for updates – or even better, subscribe to the page feed (see right sidebar). Please don’t hesitate to get in contact by leaving a comment or e-mailing, same if you dig up information that could be useful to others.