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  Electricity is now less of a novelty for many island homes.  And for some of the really fortunate, a trickle of water is available - piped to some homes via PVC pipe set under ancient cobblestone walks - taking the place of buckets at the well. 

When I was last there, a new wave of europeans were buying up ancient homes and properties refashioning many structures into a type of germanic ideal. .

But just under the surface was still the Greece of my ancestors; more recently of my grandparents and our family's many relations.  The large Greek Orthodox Church and many little chapels throughout the island actively serve the spiritual needs of the faithful.

Chora, the town located at the highest elevation of the rugged island is now covered by a carpet of tall green pines planted by our cousin Nick Basil's uncle just after WWII (with the help of the island's school children).  making it a much different place than the photo below taken in 1875.

Many of the stories that I had heard from my Father, Grandmother, and Grandfather  sprang to life  as I walked the earth of Samothrace.  

What I had thought to be fictions from the old country designed to terrify little children assumed a reality that made me ashamed that i did not pay closer attention when I first heard them.

The text on the right is a portion of family (and Greek) history as written by an elder cousin as told to him by his father and references the home his father built after an odyssey that would try anyone's heart, body and spirit. 

It is a story of childhood's end and the ladder of changes from being part of a poor family, to surviving a raid by Turkish slavers, being sold at auction, an eventual escape and return to home, and the search for his brothers also sold into slavery.