Dear co-travellers,

This blog brings together the ingredients of travelling, telling stories and photographing.

I launched it in May 2012 as a satellite of impressions, loving and enthusiastic.

I rushed to imprint the spark of a first encounter through my photos and storytelling, before it faded out by critiques of the intellect or embedded in the fog of memory.

As I got more familiar with the medium, I included confessional reveries of a melancholic tone when in contemplation, the moments or days one is turned inwards.

You are the receivers of the intensity and glamor of sunshine, or the gloom of recollection.

Following a pragmatic and practical path, I am aware of the usefulness of things done, their actual contribution in a wider context. Right from the start of my blogging enterprise I saw it serving two tasks: Cultural Heritage and the preservation of the Environment.

I believe each generation has to perform its role as guardians, custodians of the planet, the knowledge, and to pass tangible and intangible assets on to the future. A task that becomes all the more difficult. Yet, hope and possibility for action should not be lost in lamenting: turn lemons to lemonade.

Locations, be it archeological sites, landscapes, forests or beaches, cities, neighbourhoods or villages need care and active loving. They have so many tales to narrate if well-kept.

I wish you to find purposes that will inspire you to explore and care for.

Lisa Samloglou

Kokka, Kea, Tzia, night, mobile photo no flash

Storytelling is a Guarantee of Sanity: I have chosen it as signature motto for my blog, paraphrasing the great artist Louise Bourgeois “Art is a guarantee of sanity”.

Stories and travels put things into motion; they pour energy into the mental and emotional realms of our being. While travelling one interacts with everything in this space, to nature, weather to culture, food, humans, animals and all human-made constructs.

Seville, street & storytelling photography, April 2024, Easter

I have always considered storytelling and travel at the core of my existence.

Maturity has brought the uniqueness of the ephemeral, the fragility of the moment, our own vulnerability and the increasing need to let go of the superfluous or painful, away from dramas and conflicts, to hold onto the meaningful and rewarding, the pleasant.

I started collecting stories like colourful souvenirs we bring back from trips. With my photos I want to add the spark of that moment.

If you are aware about the long tradition of conversational travelling, people were walking long distances on horse riding, on donkeys, or on foot; they used to exchange anecdotes and jokes to entertain their companions and connect through their experiences.

It was a way of relating to each other and give a hint as to their past, to where they come from; their stories were a sort of passport to introduce themselves, to reinvent their travelling identities – when passports were not required and borders were free crossing.

Stories were a way to amuse themselves when they sit to enjoy a cooked meal and a glass of wine in an inn.
I love to reimagine by the random encounters at the written page or from my own experiences. I was lucky for having crossed paths early on in my life with gifted storytellers. one of the first was Afroditi, distant relative who flee Smyrna in 1922 like my paternal line. She was tall and erect at her 80s, always in black, with silver hair combed in a low bun, pink cheeks on white skin. Stories and anecdotes from her neighborhood, memories with her customers – she was sewing professionally. I don’t remember her narratives but her joyful mood; I was quite young and could not grasp the treasures she brought from her lost country.

Most of them have long passed, my treasured storytellers, and it is important to keep their memory alive. Some have entrusted me with secrets, figuring out that they were always safe with me.

This older generation of storytellers have passed on to us, their apprentices, the basic principles of storytelling, and the notion that trust is at the heart of the exchange between narrator and listener.
Whoever no longer trusts no longer speaks.

I need to speak, to tell my stories, so I need to trust. I created this safe space for my visual narratives to breathe, to be seen and be heard. 

Blogging provides a platform easily accessible to users and visitors, it is uncensored and has a
handicraft quality that aligns with my life approach – it is practical, rooted in personal observation, incorporates research and engagement with subjects categorised as humanities or arts.
Uploading one of my blog posts with photos and tags leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment similar after a day of gardening, or redecorating my house.  This hands-on approach consists the backbone of my everyday living. 

Few years ago I returned to Academia to hone my writing skills and in 2017 I earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Kingston University, UK– graduation in January 2018.

Learning and movement, physical and mental, was proven to improve resilience in life’s hardships in the most uplifting way – it brings joy, pleasure, stretches the muscles of the body and the psyche.

Whatever adds to one’s personal survival kit is precious and should be sought in defiance of taboos and prejudices. Ageism is one of these taboos targeting women either to get them out of the way from high profile careers, or confine them in roles of caretakers, unpaid and mostly under appreciated.

Women in their later years of peri-menopause, and later as pensioners, have one more chance to explore or continue vocations and skills that had been often sacrificed, put aside in favour of more “productive” and paid preoccupations, when growing a family and contributing financially were the absolute priorities. 

The internet gave a chance to many women to enjoy visibility, connection, success, money, autonomy and fun in the spotlight of the Youtube, the social, and as Bloggers.

In the difficult and divisive times we live in, it is important to develop one’s own source of self-confidence, refuge and consolation for life’s mishaps especially as we get older.

Talking about vocation, I have always felt at home with words, first in Greek, then in English. I learned photography gradually, and became more competent and visually literate since 2006.
Casa Battlo’, Gaudi’, window-view, April 2024, Easter

As most people I thought it necessary to ‘read images’ and express myself through them; part of the power of the image is the ability to trespasses linguistic and cultural barriers.

Sometimes it feels to me like the words run after the images to catch up and interpret them, like text and music added in silent films.

This blog was born on 12 May 2012. All you see and experience here is the outcome of time and work done with pleasure and pride with no ads or other financial rewards. 

I am proud to claim that the number of visits and views in this blog has not stopped even for a day since the beginning – it continues until now, though the date of my most recent post is back a decade ago. This is certainly a reward, a constant feedback beyond likes and comments.

If you find this Babel of languages and the colourful diversity we live in fascinating, you will agree with me that each one of us should try to keep it alive.

From my part I have worked hard to keep my blog bilingual. It has been particularly time-consuming. 

It is extraordinary that technology allows me to show you some of my favourite places in the slow pace and gaze of a traveller – for you can find elsewhere the ‘to do list’. Seville, Monasterio de Santa María de las Cuevas, exhibitions, April 2024, Easter

The traveller looks for details, for the hidden, the unnoticed; the traveller walks the extra mile to explore the back-streets, the less visited dusty shops, the less travelled roads. The traveller is nourished by the quiet and the murmur of melodies. The traveller respects the environment, feels like a custodian of planet’s riches, not an invader or a pirate.

I should not forget to emphasise how travelling, solo travelling in particular, and the outdoors has endorsed me with unexpected yet pleasant encounters, with new discoveries. I wish to communicate with you some of the magic I have found, and may inspire you for your next happy encounters.

At the beginning of each post I repeat in both languages En & Gr what has been my source of inspiration; early on I was motivated by the purpose in rising awareness for the preservation of Cultural Heritage, a concept and a reality that goes hand-in-hand with actively caring for the Environment.

Seville, Square at Museum of Fine Arts, April 2024, Easter

Years before the climate emergency of today I have started highlighting in my blog that Cultural Heritage and the Environment should be tackled together as a matter of priority! The natural & human-made treasures are enveloped in history, but also in the stories, the habits & the customs, the food & the dances, the music & the songs, the tastes & the fragrances.

The recording, transcribing or interpreting of some of these elements or information in my blog for you, make us all active participants in the process of adding value to these locations. This value is qualitative; it is made of emotion, impressions, memory, connecting the dots, opening up our antennas to receive with enhanced knowledge and sensitivity.

The more we enrich our imagination with references and memories, the denser the landscape or seascape becomes – ‘it talks more to us’, it becomes more eloquent.

We visit places, landmarks, we become time travellers: we view abandoned buildings enfolding their secrets, stories bring to us people who have passed from here, add new characters in the contemporary play.

We may find points of connection, or not; we may return to them or leave forever.

We are custodians of stories, too.

The posts in this blog are well-researched authentic posts, featured in En & Gr thoroughly edited and illustrated by my photos.
*** 3 times awarded blog

updated August 2024 – all content in this blog is protected by copyright 

Hydra, the port, sailing boats, seascape, iphone 2018