If you have some free time, this is a nice video I found on youtube about my little island, Syros, in the Cyclades.
It is from Xmas of '13 but I assure you nothing has changed since!
This is where I grew up, summers only that is, where my family owns a small summer house and where I always visit with my boat and spend more than a month each year.
On the 5:11 mark is the little port where I keep the boat, at Finikas, as it says on the screen !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RdTXReseI
Syros island
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Syros island
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
Re: Syros island
Thank for sharing Yannis!
Looks like a summer destination I'd put at the top of my list.
The building look like they have been there for a good long while. Is that because they have been or new building need to be built to keep with the look, so to say.
Looks like a summer destination I'd put at the top of my list.
The building look like they have been there for a good long while. Is that because they have been or new building need to be built to keep with the look, so to say.
-
Tony Meola
- Senior Member
- Posts: 7010
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 21:24
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Re: Syros island
Yannis.
Thank you. Looks like a great place to spend the summer. May be time for a Greek Island get together.
Thank you. Looks like a great place to spend the summer. May be time for a Greek Island get together.
1975 FBC BERG1467-315
Re: Syros island
Carl,
Syros is an exception, in that whereas all the other Cyclades are strewn with little whitewashed houses, Myconos or Sifnos being prime examples, this is an island with neoclassic architecture, especially in the capital Hermoupolis.
This is due to the fact that in the late 1800's and early 1900's the island was a center of industry, of which the shipyards in the main port are a remnant of that glorious era.
Also, it is a place with medieval Frankish influence, so that today half the population is Catholic and the other half is Orthodox, hence the two types of churches you can observe in the video.
And, yes, as in all other settlements with some architectural character, you have to build according to the rules.
Tony,
I wonder how many people from your side could be willing to take an exhausting 10 hour trip from the east coast or, yet better, a 24 hour trip from the west coast, as there are layovers from that latter. And survive a +6 to +10 hour difference...
And although there should be a substantial number of Bertram owners in Greece, I'd guess easily more than a 100, I doubt that they would be sincerely interested to participate, as all these kinds of get-togethers among unknown people is strange to our culture. In a much older thread I had explained why we are strangers to notions like "clubs" etc.
However, to make the proposition a bit easier, how about any one of you guys making that trip...I will gladly organize and assist, let alone put my boat to hard use !
Though you'll have to go through a medical before departure, so that you can somehow guarantee you'll survive the "various hardships" of a Greek summer lol.
Syros is an exception, in that whereas all the other Cyclades are strewn with little whitewashed houses, Myconos or Sifnos being prime examples, this is an island with neoclassic architecture, especially in the capital Hermoupolis.
This is due to the fact that in the late 1800's and early 1900's the island was a center of industry, of which the shipyards in the main port are a remnant of that glorious era.
Also, it is a place with medieval Frankish influence, so that today half the population is Catholic and the other half is Orthodox, hence the two types of churches you can observe in the video.
And, yes, as in all other settlements with some architectural character, you have to build according to the rules.
Tony,
I wonder how many people from your side could be willing to take an exhausting 10 hour trip from the east coast or, yet better, a 24 hour trip from the west coast, as there are layovers from that latter. And survive a +6 to +10 hour difference...
And although there should be a substantial number of Bertram owners in Greece, I'd guess easily more than a 100, I doubt that they would be sincerely interested to participate, as all these kinds of get-togethers among unknown people is strange to our culture. In a much older thread I had explained why we are strangers to notions like "clubs" etc.
However, to make the proposition a bit easier, how about any one of you guys making that trip...I will gladly organize and assist, let alone put my boat to hard use !
Though you'll have to go through a medical before departure, so that you can somehow guarantee you'll survive the "various hardships" of a Greek summer lol.
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
Re: Syros island
Yannis,
The 10 hours to make the trip by plane is easy....it's packing the boats up with enough ice, beverages and I guess some food then getting them to your waters that gets a little tricky.
I know we had the idea of clubs being strange to your culture...but yet here you are. I guess an odd duck in every crowd...or it's just a notion perceived as odd when it's really not.
I see clubs or social activities based on groups with common interest as a way to weave people together based on a commonality. Sometimes it's sports...people in your country folllow football(soccer to us)? Could be an activity like chess, fishing, hunting, dog training to common likes such as Bertram's. In the end it just brings otherwise strangers together...which is a good thing.
The 10 hours to make the trip by plane is easy....it's packing the boats up with enough ice, beverages and I guess some food then getting them to your waters that gets a little tricky.
I know we had the idea of clubs being strange to your culture...but yet here you are. I guess an odd duck in every crowd...or it's just a notion perceived as odd when it's really not.
I see clubs or social activities based on groups with common interest as a way to weave people together based on a commonality. Sometimes it's sports...people in your country folllow football(soccer to us)? Could be an activity like chess, fishing, hunting, dog training to common likes such as Bertram's. In the end it just brings otherwise strangers together...which is a good thing.
Re: Syros island
Carl,
Countries with a tumultuous history are sometimes hard for others to grasp...
Look whats happening in the middle east, 70 years now, the logic of the west...is just insufficient to offer solutions, simply because there are tons of history to unwind before any mutually accepted logical solution can be proposed.
As for the ice and munchies just call me from the airport...plenty of time to make all necessary provisions!
And, yes, leave your Bertram at home, we’ll find you a suitable replacement!
Countries with a tumultuous history are sometimes hard for others to grasp...
Look whats happening in the middle east, 70 years now, the logic of the west...is just insufficient to offer solutions, simply because there are tons of history to unwind before any mutually accepted logical solution can be proposed.
As for the ice and munchies just call me from the airport...plenty of time to make all necessary provisions!
And, yes, leave your Bertram at home, we’ll find you a suitable replacement!
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
-
Tony Meola
- Senior Member
- Posts: 7010
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 21:24
- Location: Hillsdale, New Jersey
- Contact:
Re: Syros island
Yannis
Some clubs and organizations are good and serve a social purpose. For example, I am involved with an Orchid Society here in NJ, 90 members, meets once a month plus a couple of shows during the winter. What all organizations are facing today is the lack of young participants and when they get them, they fail to volunteer to help the club out. Blame it on Social Media and the internet.
While I can find out almost anything I want about Orchids on the internet, sometimes you really need to pick a person's brain to figure out what you are doing wrong.
But not to worry, you found us and now you are stuck with us.
Some clubs and organizations are good and serve a social purpose. For example, I am involved with an Orchid Society here in NJ, 90 members, meets once a month plus a couple of shows during the winter. What all organizations are facing today is the lack of young participants and when they get them, they fail to volunteer to help the club out. Blame it on Social Media and the internet.
While I can find out almost anything I want about Orchids on the internet, sometimes you really need to pick a person's brain to figure out what you are doing wrong.
But not to worry, you found us and now you are stuck with us.
1975 FBC BERG1467-315
Re: Syros island
Tony,
The clubs of today are facebook etc!
That's why you can't find any new members, they're too busy on a screen somewhere, unfortunately if you ask me.
As for me, I'm very international, I've lived, studied and worked in 4 countries, only one of which was english speaking, so this Bertram "clubbing" is perfect, actually I shed most cultural traits a long time ago. The more you're tied up to religion and your own culture, the less you allow yourself to absorb from the world, I came to conclude...
The clubs of today are facebook etc!
That's why you can't find any new members, they're too busy on a screen somewhere, unfortunately if you ask me.
As for me, I'm very international, I've lived, studied and worked in 4 countries, only one of which was english speaking, so this Bertram "clubbing" is perfect, actually I shed most cultural traits a long time ago. The more you're tied up to religion and your own culture, the less you allow yourself to absorb from the world, I came to conclude...
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
Re: Syros island
[quote="Yannis"
As for the ice and munchies just call me from the airport...plenty of time to make all necessary provisions!
And, yes, leave your Bertram at home, we’ll find you a suitable replacement![/quote]
Keep sending pictures like that and one day I'll find my way there...
As for the ice and munchies just call me from the airport...plenty of time to make all necessary provisions!
And, yes, leave your Bertram at home, we’ll find you a suitable replacement![/quote]
Keep sending pictures like that and one day I'll find my way there...
If anyone wanted to know my dumb opinion...You can learn from the past, but you can only change the future.Yannis wrote:Carl,
Countries with a tumultuous history are sometimes hard for others to grasp...
Look whats happening in the middle east, 70 years now, the logic of the west...is just insufficient to offer solutions, simply because there are tons of history to unwind before any mutually accepted logical solution can be proposed.
Re: Syros island
You may have to get rid of some of the past, to be enabled to change the future.
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
-
Tony Meola
- Senior Member
- Posts: 7010
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 21:24
- Location: Hillsdale, New Jersey
- Contact:
Re: Syros island
Yannis
The past teaches us what to change or what to keep. I think getting rid of the past causes us to forget where we all came from leading to well some of our youth of today.
The past teaches us what to change or what to keep. I think getting rid of the past causes us to forget where we all came from leading to well some of our youth of today.
1975 FBC BERG1467-315
Re: Syros island
Tony,
There is a fine line between “use” the past to change the future (which is fine with me), and, “stay locked” into the past.
The more “past” you possess, the greater (unfortunately) is the tendency to remain locked into it.
The less “past” you have, the easier it becomes to feel free.
The US were able to be creative and prosper during this past century because they had no serious bonds to the past. On the other hand, the heavy chains of historic and religious bonds to the past prohibited other nations to be creative and move ahead. I don't want to give examples of specific countries, because this might turn into a political thing, but if you just look around you you’ll see clear examples of historical (and religious) ankylosis that simply prohibit development.
As a compromise, what I proposed before is to get rid of “some” of the past! Just to make some room to become creative.
It’s hard to understand sometimes, but it becomes very heavy, almost a burden, to have so much “past” to deal with!
For example, it’s hard to be religiously neutral or even tolerant, if the very God everyone believes in was literally walking on the SAME path your kids take today to go to school, you tend to become too protective about it...it’s also excruciatingly difficult to break the bond and create new “art”, if your society is literally impregnated in a given set of deeply rooted values.
That’s why you don’t, you can’t see major breakthroughs in art, technology, medicine etc. where the heavy past rules all present life around you.
And don’t be fooled...you’ll still make mistakes whether you do have a heavy past or not...society forgets the lessons learned.
History just repeats itself...
Otherwise, all nations with a lot of history would just make no mistakes...
There is a fine line between “use” the past to change the future (which is fine with me), and, “stay locked” into the past.
The more “past” you possess, the greater (unfortunately) is the tendency to remain locked into it.
The less “past” you have, the easier it becomes to feel free.
The US were able to be creative and prosper during this past century because they had no serious bonds to the past. On the other hand, the heavy chains of historic and religious bonds to the past prohibited other nations to be creative and move ahead. I don't want to give examples of specific countries, because this might turn into a political thing, but if you just look around you you’ll see clear examples of historical (and religious) ankylosis that simply prohibit development.
As a compromise, what I proposed before is to get rid of “some” of the past! Just to make some room to become creative.
It’s hard to understand sometimes, but it becomes very heavy, almost a burden, to have so much “past” to deal with!
For example, it’s hard to be religiously neutral or even tolerant, if the very God everyone believes in was literally walking on the SAME path your kids take today to go to school, you tend to become too protective about it...it’s also excruciatingly difficult to break the bond and create new “art”, if your society is literally impregnated in a given set of deeply rooted values.
That’s why you don’t, you can’t see major breakthroughs in art, technology, medicine etc. where the heavy past rules all present life around you.
And don’t be fooled...you’ll still make mistakes whether you do have a heavy past or not...society forgets the lessons learned.
History just repeats itself...
Otherwise, all nations with a lot of history would just make no mistakes...
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
Re: Syros island
Very different perspective Yannis and you make some great points.
Difficult for me to understand your ties to the past when my personal family past only goes back to my Great Grandparents on both sides and live in a nation less then 250 years old whose major city skylines have changed multiple times.
I will say getting rid of the past strikes a cord with me as today here...there seems to be a movement of trying to get rid of anything and anybody in our past that does not live up to todays standards. Standards set by "certain" people here. Aside from that I see it as bad people can still achieve great things and "that" needs to be remembered in history. Case and point Columbus is credited with finding the "New World". Yes - no - maybe - but he definitely made a huge step in that direction and we commemorate him for that...or did. But then ok, he kinda wasn't exactly a Mr Goodie two shoes, not pure in spirit and mind. He destroyed, ransacked, enslaved as he went along...Does that make his achievement anything less? Then we go back to "His Day" and age, what he did "then" was somewhat acceptable in His field of work. Does that make it right, of course not... My point is we learn new aspects of history, we modify and add to it for a better overall view. Not remove it from history as we no longer like it or its not quite acceptable or palatable.
On our wonderful selection of TV stations we have a show called "Horders - Buried alive -" If your not familiar it is about people that basically find a reason not to toss anything out. Pictures, books, stuffed animals, clothes, clothes that don't fit, mail, catalogs toys, food, it all gets saved and saved. Then when the closets and selves overflow, the stuff piles and piles and piles to a point the homes become dwellings. Dwellings with huge mounds of Personal belongings from floor to ceiling. Mounds of seemingly to us "garbage" going from one room to the next. As the show progresses they are given help to sort out the clutter, toss whats not important.
Sounds like you area is a "horders" area of history.
Too much of a good thing is not a good thing...preserve and compact what is of real importance, but the rest needs to go.
"God" may have walked this path. Got it, good...but he walked there and there too. Pick a place, commemorate it there and be done. Then go build a nice marina along the rest of the path by the water.
How ironic is it that in a place Art evolved to new levels, celebrated and revered the world over is the reason Art has stagnated.
Yes, I would not do well there....aside from my month on the boat at Syros Island.
Difficult for me to understand your ties to the past when my personal family past only goes back to my Great Grandparents on both sides and live in a nation less then 250 years old whose major city skylines have changed multiple times.
I will say getting rid of the past strikes a cord with me as today here...there seems to be a movement of trying to get rid of anything and anybody in our past that does not live up to todays standards. Standards set by "certain" people here. Aside from that I see it as bad people can still achieve great things and "that" needs to be remembered in history. Case and point Columbus is credited with finding the "New World". Yes - no - maybe - but he definitely made a huge step in that direction and we commemorate him for that...or did. But then ok, he kinda wasn't exactly a Mr Goodie two shoes, not pure in spirit and mind. He destroyed, ransacked, enslaved as he went along...Does that make his achievement anything less? Then we go back to "His Day" and age, what he did "then" was somewhat acceptable in His field of work. Does that make it right, of course not... My point is we learn new aspects of history, we modify and add to it for a better overall view. Not remove it from history as we no longer like it or its not quite acceptable or palatable.
On our wonderful selection of TV stations we have a show called "Horders - Buried alive -" If your not familiar it is about people that basically find a reason not to toss anything out. Pictures, books, stuffed animals, clothes, clothes that don't fit, mail, catalogs toys, food, it all gets saved and saved. Then when the closets and selves overflow, the stuff piles and piles and piles to a point the homes become dwellings. Dwellings with huge mounds of Personal belongings from floor to ceiling. Mounds of seemingly to us "garbage" going from one room to the next. As the show progresses they are given help to sort out the clutter, toss whats not important.
Sounds like you area is a "horders" area of history.
Too much of a good thing is not a good thing...preserve and compact what is of real importance, but the rest needs to go.
"God" may have walked this path. Got it, good...but he walked there and there too. Pick a place, commemorate it there and be done. Then go build a nice marina along the rest of the path by the water.
How ironic is it that in a place Art evolved to new levels, celebrated and revered the world over is the reason Art has stagnated.
Yes, I would not do well there....aside from my month on the boat at Syros Island.
Re: Syros island
Carl,
I very much enjoyed your metaphor of that TV series. This is exactly what I had in mind when I proposed to get rid of some “past” so as to make room for some creativity.
However, the example I cited about god’s path does NOT take place in my country! Luckily enough!
It takes place further east, where all kinds of atrocities take place in the last many decades. In more than one country. Even as we speak.
Luckily, here in europe, if we ever did one thing right, is that we managed to combine thousands of years of history with a very creative and bright spirit. Possibly because we also invented that spirit too, in the form of art, or math, or navigation skills...Despite all heavy bonds with the past, and there are many of those, we managed to break these bonds and while still keeping the essential, we progressed so that we are now very successful in most, if not all, facets of civilization.
Some countries did better than others, it’s true, some had serious reasons to lag, that’s also true, but overall we managed to both keep the essential while progressing. Not bad for a continent the size of the US, which actively speaks 47 different languages, suffered the result of hundreds of wars, most of them between its own members!
So don't worry, nothing has stagnated here, you’d do very well and you’d enjoy every bit of it.
You may find bizarre, however, that we do not celebrate our national holiday in the way you do, meaning with such a wide participation of people, fireworks, praising our military etc. It may be because there have been so many important events in the course of time that everyday has become a national holiday. We just can’t cope with remembering what’s what anymore!
I very much enjoyed your metaphor of that TV series. This is exactly what I had in mind when I proposed to get rid of some “past” so as to make room for some creativity.
However, the example I cited about god’s path does NOT take place in my country! Luckily enough!
It takes place further east, where all kinds of atrocities take place in the last many decades. In more than one country. Even as we speak.
Luckily, here in europe, if we ever did one thing right, is that we managed to combine thousands of years of history with a very creative and bright spirit. Possibly because we also invented that spirit too, in the form of art, or math, or navigation skills...Despite all heavy bonds with the past, and there are many of those, we managed to break these bonds and while still keeping the essential, we progressed so that we are now very successful in most, if not all, facets of civilization.
Some countries did better than others, it’s true, some had serious reasons to lag, that’s also true, but overall we managed to both keep the essential while progressing. Not bad for a continent the size of the US, which actively speaks 47 different languages, suffered the result of hundreds of wars, most of them between its own members!
So don't worry, nothing has stagnated here, you’d do very well and you’d enjoy every bit of it.
You may find bizarre, however, that we do not celebrate our national holiday in the way you do, meaning with such a wide participation of people, fireworks, praising our military etc. It may be because there have been so many important events in the course of time that everyday has become a national holiday. We just can’t cope with remembering what’s what anymore!
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
Re: Syros island
My wife and I spent a vacation on Naxos several years ago and loved it. About a 2 hour ferry ride from Syros?
Re: Syros island
Yep, Syros, Paros, Naxos is the itinerary, should be around 2 hrs, you’re right!
When I go to Naxos I visit the little port southeast, right opposite from the little Koufonissia islands, called Calados.
If you visited more than 15 years ago that port didn't exist.
Next time you’re over just yell!
When I go to Naxos I visit the little port southeast, right opposite from the little Koufonissia islands, called Calados.
If you visited more than 15 years ago that port didn't exist.
Next time you’re over just yell!
1973 B28 FBC/2007 4LHA STP's - "Phantom Duck" - Hull "BER 00794 1172"
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