Party on at Privilege Beach Bar

Eight days to go, time for another teaser..

A lazy beachside walk from the chapel and we shall decant to Privilege Beach Bar, for meze, nibbles & cocktails at sundown. That should warm us up for a sizzling all-nighter party mood till dawn or till everyone drops -whichever comes first!

As you can see in the teaser video (courtesy of youtube)Privilege is pretty much open-air and straight onto the beach, but there are sheltered and cozier corners. The main benefit of the south side location is a a mild and warm evening but in any case, you may want to bring along something warmer to throw on, especially in case it’s on the windy side on the day.



Be warned, too, that you you will suffer extreme bouts of jealousy if you dress too stiff and square and you cannot follow all the cool people in flip-flops onto the beach..

Now for some necessary mundanities..

Greeks consider vegetarians a rare and rather unbalanced species, but we shall make sure you are well taken care of. Unfortunately, you will not be able to avoid the wafting smells of the BBQ.. I think I will leave the rest of the menu a surprise now.

One idea we had floated earlier was to schedule a coach to return to Kokkari - however, we realised this would probably cramp people's style, prompting a premature exodus, and we would rather have you there till dawn! So, if you don't have your own transport, and you smell too alcoholic to hitch a ride with some other guests, it's probably a good idea to obtain the mobile number of a taxi driver to arrange a pickup. There is a radio-taxi service in Vathy (Tel 22730-28404) and a taxi rank (πιατσα) at the airport and the centre of Kokkari.

I know I don't have to say this, but please be super careful if you drive yourself back, we would rather meet you on (rather than in) the beach on Sunday! Plus, in the early hours of Sunday there is pretty much always a police breathalyzer unit staking out at the Vathy-Kokkari roundabout (which you cannot avoid going through).

NB This is a blog-style website, so if this is your first visit, start reading from the bottom - and hurry up, not much time left!

Distributed Photography Project - Live on Flickr.com

As of just, uhm, now, our open-source, distributed wedding photography project (see the relevant blog posting here) has a home (click here). You can browse without signing up, but to bask in the glory of flickr (and to add pics, comments and notes) you really ought to make the move and join us (as a free citizen, of course).

Only 9 days to go now - look forward to seeing you in Samos!

Irene & Pandelis

Our most elegant, musical, lively and spontaneous friends Irene & Pantelis got married just this Saturday at a stylish do in Varkiza. We wish you all the lovely, cuddly and sparrrkly moment this world can offer!



Here comes some bootleg undercover video, stay tuned for more!

BlogAir

It was flying’ time to get back. After a weekend of downtown celebrations and two good friends' lovely weddings (yes, I admit, I spied on Pandelis & Irene, but it was for a good cause) I picked up my finished suit and Ms’ dress from the designer and headed for the airport.

The dress travel bag was taller than me, and to tell you the truth in 37 degrees heat the last thing I needed was to stand in a packed queue in El-Vel for two hours having to dangle it overhead.

So I suavely blagged an Executive Lounge ticket from the Olympic Airlines check-in desk. At the lounge, three most gracious ladies (real air hostesses, with that perfect smile, not the insipid ones you see onboard lately) knew exactly how to take care of everything smoothly (and even cooed over the invite by IPS).



An hour of air-conditioned therapy watching the football on a plasma, two espressos and two stiff Sapphire G&Ts, I was healed and ready to leave. To pick a fight at the security desk.

I knew they would refuse to let the dress through without shoving it through the Xray machine, and I knew I had to refuse to let it vanish into the belly of that beast, where it could get snagged, soiled, oiled, squashed, etc. They had a job to do, but I didn't want to end up as human sacrifice to Bridezilla.

I mean, what sick mad twisted terrorist would use a wedding dress as a bomb? (don’t answer that..)

Anyway, after abusing one supervisor after another (sorry guys!) the head honcho agreed to mcguyver a platform out of those big blue plastic containers they have for putting your stuff in, face-down, covered with fabric, held with some tape.. well at least it was a good show for the others waiting in the queue.

And then they found the bomb. No, I’m joking - would I do such a thing? (don’t answer this either..)

Then another hour of waiting at the gate, courtesy of a delayed flight, but at least I could lay the dress out nicely on four seats in the waiting area. The downside was I got envious looks from women and evil looks from gay passengers on the OA734 to Myconos.



When boarding, I realised the plane was not as tall as the bag. At least the hostess was quick to figure out a good niche, and my highness allowed the plane to take off.

An hour later, on Samos, M smiled and waved, and it was all totally worth it.

6/6/6 - another typical day

We were having breakfast today at 7:15 when the news broke on the Greek newschannels (we were watching ET1) about attempts to rescue refugees who had been dumped overboard (per the typical smuggler procedure) in the sea north of Samos (opposite, remember, the Turkish coast at Kusadasi).

Now, sadly, this is hardly news over here. The Navy regularly hauls in smuggler boats (which promptly get ransacked for parts by the honest fisherfolk of Vathy) and takes the poor folks in for a medical, and then to holding (and thence a very grey existence in legaland..).

Last summer, M treated a batch of refugees who were so hypothermic from being in the sea for hours, they were purple and shivering in a 35 degrees summer day with the aircons to full heat.
And those were the hardy, lucky ones who made it.

However, as M is on-call today until 12pm tomorrow, she was understandably less than thrilled. Thanks to the chicken virus alert, medics have to don full biohazard suits to do their medical workup on refugees, while also covering the usual ward and ER workload.

Yeah, I will have my own salvage operation tomorrow.. and I just have to hope none of this happens on 01/07, the suits will just wreak havoc on the hairdo..

Update: We just found out that the refugees were being returned to Kusadasi by the Dutch cruise liner that had picked them up. Except one poor kid whose body was brought in by the Navy. The ominous date seems to have had its toll.

NB This is a blog-style website, with newest entries at the top, so if this is your first visit start from the bottom.. and keep connected for updates!

Of Wedding Presents (updated)

Your making the effort and time to travel all this way to be with us on our wedding day is a special gift, as personal, memorable and moving as they come. We are so thrilled by how many of our favourite people are going to make it, taking one and two and three flights to make it for the day!

It's going to be a fantastic few days, thank you to all for supporting us - and we love & miss the rest of you :)

However, everyone keeps telling us that no-one feels quite right arriving at a wedding empty-handed, so we thought we might be a bit more specific:

First thing to consider is that we will be leaving Samos (sadly, but necessarily) a few months hence, with the likely prospect of more house moves once abroad. Thus, quite obviously, as much as we fancy our homeware, we would rather not ship toasters, hoovers, lampshades and candlesticks all across Europe!

What we have really set our hearts on is some more travelling before moving - maybe another road trip around our lovely Europe (Sicily & Sardinia especially), sailing the Aegean (the Aegean Rally in July and the Aegean Regatta in August) or braving the suicidal chickens to Istanbul and beyond.

Any contributions to our travel fund, no matter how symbolic, would be most kind and welcome, but let us say again, by no means expected.

Please contact Alastair (in the UK on 07714-761630 or alastairmbailey@yahoo.co.uk) or George (in Greece on 6974-345232 or george.scorinis@scorinis.gr) who have kindly agreed to organise the collection on our behalf. Thanks guys!

NB This is a blog-style website, with newest entries at the top, so if this is your first visit start from the bottom.. and keep connected for frequent updates!

Booking Alert! (Third Edition)

I thought you should know: twice I have been told by a friend who called the Hotel Lemos that the people there were quick to make promises to book rooms at Lemos.. then added "we also have another hotel, Lito (Λητω), come along and we will definately find you a place to stay".

This pissed me off, frankly, because Lito is an absolute doghouse - nowhere near the beach, ancient, cramped and scruffy, where seasonal labourers rent rooms by the month. Don't go anywhere near it! I liked Lemos just fine, and the lady that I spoke to there was very gracious, but this kind of tricky dealing is unsavoury. I myself would not book with them unless I got a written confirmation of the booking at Lemos hotel, and nowhere else.. which I cannot see how he can guarantee, seeing as they block-rent all their rooms out to a travel agency, which then only a week before notifies them if they will have any vacancies.

Anyway, on a finer note, the luxury Doryssa Hotel 5* (where the wedding chapel and party are) has good availability around the end of June. It's 30 minutes drive from Kokkari, and honestly folks it's a plush place! Book there through Mrs Sofia at Rhenia Tours (22730-92367) who can get you much better prices than the hotel offers directly (ie E70 instead of E100 for the best doubles).

The Ceremony (Remixed)

Hear, hear: it's June, summer is upon us for good, and we have important changes to announce!

As much as we initially liked the idea of the wedding ceremony at the St Nicholas (Αγιος Νικολαος) at Karlovassi, lately we became rather more fond of a ceremony at the Chapel of St Marina (Aγια Μαρινα) at the Doryssa Bay Hotel (pictured left).

The Doryssa Bay is on the south side of Samos, very close to the Airport and the town of Pythagoreo. You can get there very easily in 20-25 mins by car or taxi (E20) from Kokkari. The Chapel is part of a traditional village reconstruction within the Hotel's grounds, through an archway to the left of the main reception.

And yes, it's still July 1st, 7:30pm, and still a Greek Orthodox service.

The main advantage we have here is the south-facing location, which guarantees a smooth and warm evening, with a very mild breeze at most -the prospect of a force-5 wind carrying the bride away was always present at Potami.

Of course, we are moving the party to a fabulous beach bar nearby .. but stay tuned more on that in a next post!