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.-
