Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Changes in the last 3.5 years while residing in Ithaki

all photos by stavros "delas" dellaportas copyright 2002 - 2011 all rights reserved.

by Alexia


          Changes in the last 3.5 years while residing in Ithaki

location: ithaki
time: past
suggested song: όμορφη πόλη.


 
I left New York in May 2008 to come to Ithaki. Since then many changes have happened, most of them as of late. 


Let’s start from 2008, the summer of 2008 debuted the Ntamari bouzouki club in Peraxori.


 It was popular at first but then it lost it steam and it is now empty with a car service repair center on the lower level. 



A big change was the move of “Ena” supermarket. After being located under Dennis Grivas’ house for as long as I could remember it moved next to the bookstore “Libro Doro."



Let’s move on to 2009, I really can’t remember anything remarkable, except that the president of Greece, Mr. Papoulias came to visit our tiny island.




 Nothing else I can remember  happening that year so let’s skip it and go to 2010. In the beginning of the summer of 2010, we had a huge fire at the garbage site, who knows what we were breathing in. That fire lasted well into the winter.


At the end of the summer, the excavation at Ag. Athanasios produced the possible site of the palace of Odysseus. Only time will tell if this is the real palace or if it’s located on Kefalonia, I kid. Those Kefalonites are wasting their time. 




One thing is for sure, 2010 was the year that made Ithaki stand out on the map. Our own Stavros Dellaportas was involved in two large scale worldwide advertisments for the island. He was the head of local production for Vogue Germany.

 With the success of the shoot not only was Ithaki given a feature spread for Vogue Germany (September 2010) but for Vogue Hellas (November 2010) too. The second production was for Gladys Magazine (an American fashion magazine) that was slightly a more special article. Ithaki was the cover story (Winter Issue 2011) with a fashion spread by a model with Ithacan roots, Elena LaQuatra, and all the amazing photographs of Elena and Ithaki were shot by Stavros.

  After the elections in November, the “Eparxeio” of Ithaki ceased to exists, even though the building is still there with the sign “Eparxeio.”  2011 probably showed the most change on Ithaki. I guess there were a lot of changes going on because of the economic crisis in Greece and because of the new leadership on the island. Town Hall is no longer being occupied; instead the local political leaders and advisors are paying rent at the prior “Ena” establishment. Apparently, Town Hall is going to be renovated, which I guess is needed. 



Drakouli has closed down for good. It's owners have taken over, I don't know what will become of it.




 What else, ah yes, the tents in the square are no longer. According to the grapevine, there was some sort of paperwork that wasn’t being filed and money not being paid.




 After years and years of this not being a problem, money is needed and many will unfortunately suffer. One of the saddest changes is that the ferry no longer comes into the port of Vathy. I will no longer be able to see the ferry come in from “apenanti” enjoying its parking maneuvers while sipping on a refreshing beverage.






 As a result, Piso Aetos is getting a face lift and expanding.



 Finally, those tin shacks that were used for shelter after the earthquake almost 60 years ago near the church Mitropoli have been demolished, the rubble remains. 




As for changes in the near future, there are rumors that a nursing home will be built, that the island will have an airport, and that the square will once again change. We will just have to wait and see.-




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