Summer 2025: Holidays in Antiparos, my homeland paradise - Storytime

I am spending my holidays in my homeland, the island of Antiparos in Greece, and I am inspired to write a blog post, which will also be a cool reminder of these beautiful new memories created here, as well as remembering the good old times which shaped all of us who had contact with this place.

View from my grandparents' home!

The transition from Prague to Antiparos, without Athens on my stop-by list, was a very unique moment. There is a huge contrast between these two places, on one side, a very old, classic, gothic and atmospheric city, and on the other, a small island in the Aegean sea with the white, blue and stone architecture, the crystal clear waters and the smell of the sea… I love them both equally, with all of my heart and the same strength. Athens was always marked with depression, especially when returning from a 3-month holiday during my school years. I can now experience what it is like to live in a civilised city/country while visiting Greece for holidays. 

As I am an extremely romantic and nostalgic person, I cannot stop mentally travelling to the past when I lived in Antiparos, and missing what the island was back then. In recent years, I have realised that I am not the only one who feels the same, that the identity and the spirit of this island have been ripped off from it. Antiparos has very ‘fanatic’ visitors, Europeans mostly, who visited the island from the 80s, even the 70s, and decided to buy property, spend their summer holidays, and later, even retire on the island. These people brought their friends and family, who also got obsessed with our island. I respect and appreciate people who, while they can travel the world and see more places, choose instead to visit the same place over and over again each summer.

One of the oldest traditional taverns, 'Klimataria', as it looks today.

For my family and me, it is only natural to feel longing for this place. I have visited other islands, of course, and definitely, there is nothing to compare with being in Antiparos. We say, we do not need to go anywhere else for holidays, since we have Antiparos to go.

As I wrote in another blog post, four years ago, I owe to this island my love for music and lighting. One of the reasons I cannot stop mentally returning to old memories is that nowadays, the island changes faster, in a direction which causes it to lose its identity. Antiparos has started to 'Μυκονιάζει', or if I can play with the English version, to Mykonizing / Mykoning. With that, I mean that our island has become a smaller version of cosmopolitan Mykonos, and this is not good. Mykonos was and still is our most cosmopolitan island, where all the famous, rich and show-offs visit. Nothing to blame there, Mykonos had the personalities and the places to attract such people and evolve with them. But, as we have so many islands, there was no need nor reason for the rest to become like this one. I loved the fact that each island has its unique ‘personality’ and places, so one depending on the mood, character or company, could choose the proper island for the seasonal holidays. 

Even foreigners, who love and have made Antiparos their own, are disappointed with how the island has turned out. 

I divide the time I have lived and experienced Antiparos into periods. First, it was the period of carefree fun, which was about 20 years, the decades of the 80s and 90s. The picture was a typical, tropical summer on a Cycladic island, which every year was flourishing with life, not only by the tourists who year after year discovered this small place next to the more well-known Paros, but from families of locals, like us, who were impatiently anticipating the summer holidays, and came to visit the grandparents, cousins and of course, the sea. Especially in the 80s, Antiparos was not popular, even among the Greeks. I still remember one of my teachers asking where our parents are from, and when I said my mother was born in Antiparos, the teacher asked exactly where this place is. I was surprised that a teacher wouldn't know the place, and I said, 'Paros?, Anti-paros. It is an island opposite Paros.'

Streets and alleys during the hottest hour of the day.

Slower boats, cleaner seas, fishermen every morning in the port to unload their catch, or to unfold and repair the fishnets. The island was evolving slowly, with new stores/tavernas to come or renovated year after year, but its core, its identity, remained the same. The good old Antiparos, as I now say.

This period was my favourite, as I was visiting the discotheques, I was spending hours under the hot sun with my cousins on the beaches, playing restlessly in the water, and also cycling and exploring the island from one side to another, feeling safe, as there was almost zero traffic on the roads. The discos, the pubs and cafes were accompanied by the awesome music of that era as well. In all the restaurants, one could eat fresh fish and traditional plates from the Greek cuisine. 

In that era, people warmed up their nights in the famous pubs, like Remember the Time, Stones, Doors, and Lucky Luke, having the first drinks/beers, and then they checked the options where to go to dance. Disco Mill, Mariano, La Luna, and Tropical. Pubs and bars remained open until late after midnight as well, causing trouble to people living around them, with the loud music.

The second period, in my point of view, starts from 2006 to 2016. These were, as I understood them, transitional years, where it seemed that things were about to change soon, and people and places tried to find a way to adapt to new trends. Many restaurants, shops have been closed, one of the most classic discos, the Disco Mill, remained abandoned for about 10 years before its total renovation, and my favourite place, the Mariano Club, has changed tenants, with no specific success in the nightlife career. The glory of the 90s was already gone, together with the energetic people who filled up such places and danced their hearts out.

Disco Mill in the 80s. Photo by Peter Lindback, posted on the Antiparos Photo Gallery Facebook group.

Disco Mill after its complete makeover in 2013. Among other effects, ADJ Inno Scans were lighting up the dancefloor. As a reference to before and after, Peter's picture from the 80s was taken in the left area, looking right.

Mariano Club has also been abandoned for many years, maybe less than ten, and until now, it has changed a few names (it became KooKoo, Remember, and Hora). The last time I saw the Greek-made Euroscans, with the micro motors and the HTI 400 light source, was in 2004. These classics were present there from 1991 to 2004. You can check out their dedicated page on this website, even though when I created the article, I didn’t write many details about them, now that I think about it, probably because they kept me busy for a very long time. Hm, maybe this is an opportunity to renew their page.

The Mariano Club entrance as it was in 2004. It was the last year Euroscans HTI 400 were lighting up the place, and for 13 years in total.

Mariano Club entrance as it is today, 2025. The club reopened in 2022 with the name Hora, and even if the owners put a lot of effort and work into renovating the place, they didn't reopen next year. The reasons are unknown -but I can guess one or two.

However, you can read a more vivid description of the architecture, lighting and general style of the Mariano Club in the post I made a couple of years ago.

Even if I got the same Euroscan model, these things are still in my heart, as they are connected with this beautiful period here on the island. And the music, oh my goodness, the music. It connects everything and keeps the memories vivid. I am always impressed by how I feel about them. It's like a trauma, but a good one.

After the Euroscans HTI carrier ended, Martin MX4 scanners were housed in the Mariano Club. The following summers were also MAC 250s, during the Kookoo era, were Martin Wizzards and MAC 500, controlled by an old Avolites, during the Remember era, four Clay Paky Miniscan HPE installed there (the very same 4x first Miniscans I purchased for my collection), and later, two Martin MX 10 Extreme scanners were there. This was an 'one of a kind' experience for me, as I had the opportunity to program these scanners, with a simple 192-channel console, similarly to how the old Euroscans scanned the dancefloor. I was so excited to somehow work with the lights in a place that marked my life in such an intense way.

One of the dreams I have, but I am not sure if I will ever make it true, is to rent, bring back its original name and operate for a few summers. Such a dream is not realistic, though, not only because of the investment one has to make and the time to dedicate (abandoning regular jobs and residence for at least 3 months of the summer season), but also because nowadays there are many residences around the property, making it hard to operate as a club with high sound levels. It must operate only as an indoor dance club.

So, let's get back to the 'eras' description.

This was a period in which the owners tried to fit such places to the changed music industry, tourist trends, and how the newer generations liked to go clubbing. 

It was the era when people went out for a drink in a bar and remained in the same place until the morning. 

It was the era where people stopped dancing, or just the visitors generations changed, and such people weren’t interested in dance.

It was the era when Antiparos had already started to attract phoney people. The pretentious people who visit this small island, which started being too popular among other Cycladic islands, and check out ‘what is going on here, who’s here’. Antiparos made the news quite often for gossiping/tabloid journalism reasons, like Tom Hanks' house, international celebrities' visits and so on. So, Antiparos started gaining a kind of celebrity-visit fame, similar to Mykonos.

In the early morning hours, you can enjoy a walk on empty streets and your breakfast at the small cafes. In the afternoon hours, you can barely move here.

And nowadays, since 2016 or slightly later, we are running on the Mykonizing period. Our island became overcrowded with black Jeeps and Land Rovers. First time this year, I experienced traffic on the streets, blocked, as people tried to enter narrow alleys. I am going to the beach, and too often, I need to stop, push my back against a wall and make space for a car to pass through the tiny alleys of our island.

Of course, the visitors cannot be blamed for such troubles; only the local authorities, who don't seem to care at all about the cars piling up on the narrow roads. Antiparos hora is way too small, you can go by foot from east to west and from the beaches on the north, to those in the south. Unfortunately, there is no measure to stop the traffic in the afternoon hours, so people can walk easily and safely around Hora (the main village of Antiparos). 

Another sad thing is that the traditional tavernas are being reduced year after year. Places for elegant brunches and fusion/gourmet restaurants have popped out almost in every corner, while the traditional tavernas can be counted with less than ten fingers, at least within the Hora. It was interesting this year, for the first time, to see that a fast-food type of place opened, with Mexican cuisine. I mean, seriously, who would fly to Greece and then travel by boat 5 hours to Paros and then Antiparos, to seek a Mexican restaurant? This is out of the range of my thinking, as a traveller. Our Hora tends to become like a Mall, where one can find anything from branded clothes and jewels to international food. I found this frustrating, as such mentality spoils the spirit of the island and the spirit of the pure holidays and sea/nature enjoyment in a place like this.

We are currently in the period with the worst side of overtourism, not for the sea, the sand and the sun, but for the showing off. Just dress expensively, eat expensively and play to be someone important to the locals, behaving like they are on their high horse. This was the first year ever that I saw beaches empty and only the Hora full of people. This is what I mean by the island already started to attract the 'wrong' type of tourists. Those who do not seek clear beaches to swim, but shops, fancy restaurants and rooms with private pools. People who do not even walk for 500 meters to the beach must go by car instead. Antiparos should not be like this, and I fear for the future. 

Back in the 80s! With my mom on my grandfather's fish boat!

I still have a few days left here, and there are many places to visit again. I dedicate most of my time to being at the sea, though, as I cannot get enough. Since Czechia is a landlocked country, I feel that I need most of the sea's healing energy. Even when back in Athens, I didn't visit the sea often enough, but the thought and only that I could just go whenever I wanted, when needed, was a solace. It's a good feeling meeting relatives here, being on the beach in our same spot under the trees, and it's nice and impressive seeing people from other countries as well in the same place and at the same time, revisiting our island. From most of them, as I hear now and then, coming here is like a must-do action, like a tradition!

Thank you for reading! See you on the next post!