Whitewashed houses and hotels surround an old windmill on the hillside overlooking the harbour next to the Old Port at Mykonos Town
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Category: Greek Islands photos
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Quirks & Curiosities: On Samos, you don’t even have to pull off the street to gas up your car!
This Eko gas station occupies the ground level of a building on a commercial and residential street in the town of Vathi, on Samos. The fuel pumps sit on the edge of the road, smack up against the front of the building.
Sidewalk station: While we were walking around the main town of Vathi shortly after arriving on Samos in May 2010, we were surprised to see a pair of fuel pumps standing beside a building midway up a residential and commercial street, just a short stroll from the waterfront. Only a few feet away sat a sign advertising prices for unleaded (€1.596) and “super” (€1.603), while a “no smoking” decal was pasted to the windows between the two pumps. At first we thought the pumps might be just an attention-getting part of a modern art installation outside a contemporary gallery, but then we noticed the Eko sign sticking out from a corner on the building’s second floor. It really was a gas station.
I can’t recall ever seeing a service station with fuel pumps positioned literally on the edge of a road, let alone mere inches from the side of a building. And I had never seen one operating from the ground level of a building in the middle of a street full of shops and apartments, either. I’m fairly certain that, in North America, putting gas pumps so close to a building or a roadway would probably contravene fire codes, safety laws and myriad other regulations.
The station was closed, so we didn’t get to watch anybody stop for a fill-up. But imagine the convenience of not having to pull your car off the road and into a service station to get gas!
The red, white and blue sign for the Eko gas station is visible above the cars parked halfway up the block on the left side of the street
Another view of the Eko station, from a different angle
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A colourful Oia memory gets whitewashed
The snow-white Santorini clifftop villages of Imerovigli and Fira provide a dramatic, distant backdrop for the distinctive blue and orange colours on the exterior of the caldera-view Armeni Village Rooms & Suites …
… which we photographed during a visit to Oia in 2005 …
… but as this photo I discovered today on the Armeni Village website indicates …
… the hotel has ditched the blue and orange, and now sports a simple stark white exterior. (Photo from the Armeni Village Rooms & Suites website.)
Santorini whiteout: We’ve been to Santorini three different times, but I’ve always had vivid memories of a specific hotel we photographed in the incredibly picturesque and romantic village of Oia back in 2005 — memorable because of its distinctive blue and orange exterior.
After looking at the photos today, I checked out the Armeni Village website and was surprised — and, to be honest, a little dismayed — to see it doesn’t look quite the same. The blue and orange paintjob is history, and the hotel now sports a simple but sophisticated stark white exterior.
The Armeni Village certainly looks elegant, and expensive, but to me seems to have lost much of its charm and appeal by whitewashing its eye-catching colour scheme. Now, it’s just another typical white Greek luxury hotel on a spectacular cliffside location.
But at least one important thing hasn’t changed: the hotel’s incredible caldera views.
If you want to experience them for yourself, you can still reserve a double room for as little as €110 per night — provided you can travel in April or early May. If you wait until June, that same room will cost you €170. And if you can’t travel until July or August, get ready to fork out at least €230 per night. Might sound like a lot of money for a room, but then it’s in Oia … and that marvellous, timeless view is priceless.
