rickg523

Hi all.
In 1972, after graduating University, I decided to backpack overland to India and Nepal. My idea was to be away a year. In the event, I was overseas for 7 years. On my way, I fell for Greece in a big way. I ended up renting a small house on the Tepe in Kokkari on the island of Samos. No running water or electricity (filled amphora at the tap in the little square, used oil lamps).Overall, I stayed for a year (1973/74) in Greece. In that time, maybe a dozen travelers passed through Kokkari. On my return from Asia, I lived on Crete for another year (1977/78) in Ano Stalos, a village outside of Chania. In both these villages, I was the sole foreigner. In the year I lived there, not a single foreign traveler visited Ano Stalos, unless I invited them.
This upcoming May, I'm finally returning to Greece for the first time since 1978.
My plan is to be there a month with a week each in Western Crete and Samos.
I'm well aware that Greece has enormously developed over the last 40 years. I know that Kokkari, a sleepy fishing and farming village in 1974, is a pretty major tourist center now. And even Ano Stalos, which, unlike photogenic Kokkari, was really a back-of-nowhere kind of place (nice view of Agioi Theodoroi though) now has half a dozen hotels. And the Samarian Gorge I hiked on a summer day without seeing another soul (I skinny dipped in the stream) is now a Would Heritage site, well-visited and can even be over-crowded. This I've gleaned from web research. So I'm not expecting the kind of untouched local life that I found in the 70s. At least not in the places on my itinerary.
For this trip I've chosen the beaten path, because I'm traveling with the missus, who has never been to Greece. I originally tried to incorporate Karpathos and Alonnisos, to get more off the tourist grids, but transport became too laborious. However, I'm a flexible traveler and could change plans midstream with ease. As it is, I'll be visiting in order (Athens), Naxos, Santorini, Crete (Rethymnon and Chania), Rhodes, Kalymnos, and Samos (Pythagorion and Kokkari).
What I'm wondering is what these places are like in May. Relatively crowded or relatively empty? Most things open or closed? Most of all, to anyone who knows what Greece was like in the 1970's, how will 21st century Greece compare? One of the things that struck me most about Greece was how happy and outgoing the people were compared to villagers in Spain or southern Italy. I characterized this as the difference between being poor and living in abject poverty. I wonder how modernization has affected happiness on the Greek islands.
Any thoughts or insights you might wish to share about this would be welcome for sure.
Thanks.