In my mind, Greek olive oil is the best in the world (what did you expect?). And it is not even expensive, usually. But which of these treats are readily available in your local supermarket at home? Usually quite a lot, in fact. I am fond of Kalamata olive oil and one company from that town that exports across Europe is AGROVIM S.A. Their Iliada brand should be available maybe even in several qualities in a store near you.

Kjentmannsheftet 2010-2012

Again, for more information about “Kjentmannsmerket”, see Bernhard Herres hjemmeside for Kjentmannsmerket. Recently totally refurbished pages now with information about all the walks also in English. More information about my walks (in Norwegian only) can as usual be found at http://islandwalking.com/marka.html. The grand opening of the new season will be on Sunday 5th of September, at “Langliadammen” north in Sørkedalen. Get more info about that from Skiforeningen (in Norwegian only).

I think it’s time we had some nice OT again. Remember the 90’s game Myst? What about Riven (Myst 2, or “The sequel to Myst”)? Riven is just about the most fantastically designed game ever, both in sound and vision. I have seen developments of a Riven X to be able to play this game on today’s Macintosh computers, but thought the project might have been abandoned by now. How wrong I was, Riven X has now reached 0.9.6 and is actually already fully playable. And on a modern screen it has of course never looked better.

Chios has/had a free walking map (or actually a set of maps with accompanying booklet) available from the local tourist office, also available online courtesy of chiosnet.gr. I doubt if it has been updated lately, and it was of limited use even when I visited years ago. It is, at least theoretically, available in several languages, but I could only get hold of a German copy myself. Lucky I had German at school also then… But there you have it:

ROUTE 1 & 2

ROUTE 3

ROUTE 4

ROUTE 5 & 6

ROUTE 7

ROUTE 8

ROUTE 9 & 9a

ROUTE 10

Dr. Georg Perreieter’s old map of Amorgos is a classic, but probably not on sale anymore, it shouldn’t without a serious update. Outdated even when I used it, ten years ago.

Amorgos South West

Amorgos Central

Amorgos North East

Folegandros is another lovely island with a good local map of footpaths:

ΦΟΛΕ- ΓΑΝΔΡΟΣ FOLE- GANDROS

Some good local maps also exist. E.g if you are visiting Tilos you just *must* buy their famous “Blue Map”, the Nisos Tilos, which is the original footpaths & road map for this very nice little Dodecanese island.

Nisos Tilos

It is also available online, but that one is not completely updated.

The good map series you can find for the Greek islands also in most cases will show the major footpaths. Some even include walking guides. Always ask for these from local bookshops and shy away from cheap tourist maps that are drawn it seems often from pure fantasy wrt both paths and roads.

Road Editions

Anavasi Topo Islands

There are walking guides for mainland Greece too, of course. When I visited Kardamili I bought the above book, “Walking in Mani (Book 1)” by Mat Dean. Not sure what has happened to this intended series (obviously?). There is a new book now, “Inside the Mani – a walking guide” by the same author, covering the same ground:

There is an accompanying web page at http://www.insidemani.gr/, but their book shop is dead, so I am unsure if even this one is still in print. Check local book shops. If not available anymore there are several other alternatives, including Sunflower Books and Marengo Publications.

“A Walking Guide to Aegina” by Gerald Ephraim Nektários Thompson is more than ten years old now and in need of an update, but still a good booklet with some hand drawn maps of more dubious quality. Lots of information (perhaps too much for a walking guide) about history etc built into the text makes it a bit hard to follow at points. But still I am certain you will have lots of fun with this one too! Available in bookshops on the island.