My “short break” turned out to be a rather longish break. Everything went fine with the trip to Brussels. We had some problems at the car rental desk due to my credit card having extended it’s limit for the month (I didn’t keep track carefully enough) but after 3 hours of phone calls and...
Read more →Bad news for the culture buffs amongst you tourists visiting Crete this season: the Archaeological Museum in Iráklio, Xanthoudidou Street, will remain closed until at least 2010. The second most important museum in Greece next to Athens, it hosts (or rather: will host when it is finished) the most magnificent collection of Minoan art...
Read more →No, this is not an old sepia photograph that you’re looking at right now. This is how the world looked like here in Iraklio, Crete, yesterday in the afternoon. “Bloody rain”, that’s how Homer called it in the Iliad. It’s tons of African dust carried over from the Sahara through strong South winds, the...
Read more →At the end of the year, Fabian left his shop and visited all the people who owed him money. Some had more than they borrowed, but this meant that others had less, since there were only a certain number of coins issued in the first place. Those who had more than they borrowed paid...
Read more →There is some controversy going on in Greece about the anonymity of bloggers. I noticed it first in the local newspaper Nea Kriti which ran an article under the title “Βάζει φρένο …” which is translated by Google as “It puts a damper..”. Since, as usual, I couldn’t make sense of the automatic Google...
Read more →I’ve been thinking a lot lately — with more than enough time on my hands now, I was bound to do that sooner than later — about what it is that makes this world of ours so messed-up. No need to give you examples of this messed-upiness, there are plenty of examples around you....
Read more →You might have scratched your head a few times in the past wondering why news about me and my new home country wasn’t more forthcoming. Why wouldn’t I write about what was going on in this country? Something must be happening here, won’t it? Why didn’t you hear my perspective on these events? Indeed...
Read more →A 1,5m long squid weighting 4,2kg was washed ashore Koum-Kapi beach in Chania, Crete. A resident of the area saw the giant squid as he was trying to park his car. His son, who was accompanying him went straight to collect the squid, which is usually fished in deep waters in the Mediterranean. The...
Read more →The Greek authorities are finally going to be cracking down on misbehaving tourists in the Gouves-Chersonissos-Malia area this year. The three resorts, about 40 kilometers east of Iraklio, Crete, are probably the most popular holiday destinations for tourists in Crete, each year attracting hundreds of thousands of youngsters, mainly from Great Britain and the...
Read more →For the year 2008 the Greek government has implemented phases 2 and 3 of the planned tax reform program that the conservative ND (Nea Demokratia) party has initiated when they came to power in 2004. You might think of Greece as a poor country. You’d be wrong. As a matter of fact, Greece is...
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