At 7:30 sharp this morning I entered the Customs Services building. Lies (not to be associated with previous statistics, but short for “Alice”), who had volunteered (after only just a teensy bit of persuasion from my part, basically only needed because of the early hour) to act as my translator in case I ran...
Read more →Do you remember when I wrote about the Greek traffic rules, or rather their non-existence in this part of the world, this time around last year? Well, it turns out that the Greek system is a better system. Hey, how can it not be, these Cretan guys are thousands of years ahead of us....
Read more →Read this in the Guardian: Prince Charles was last night following the punishing schedule of life on Mount Athos, the remote religious community in northern Greece which he has undertaken to support financially. The prince, who was introduced to the male-only enclave by his cousin Constantine, the former king of Greece, will remain there...
Read more →Good thing that Felicien reminded me this morning that Yvonne should be celebrating or we would have been terribly embarrassed and not a little ashamed for having missed “KONINGINNEDAG” today! We are proud as it is that we remembered that tomorrow is a holiday here in Greece and that — what with it being...
Read more →Some people have very diplomatically brought to my attention the fact that I never said anything about what it was exactly that I did here in Crete. I checked the archives of the Chronicles, because I thought I had narrated about that. Apparently, if I did, I only did it mentally. So, to make...
Read more →Many people have asked us what we thought of the Olympic Games, just in case you only just now crawl out from under some rock, this year to be held in Athens (some of them games also take place in Thessaloniki, Patras and our own Iraklio, none in Olympos though, funny enough). Most of...
Read more →Η Ελλάδα υπό το μυδέν. Greece is living a first for as long as anybody can remember. Temperatures dropped below zero (celsius) last night. Thursday was still sunny and relatively warm. In the evening (when the Tsiknopémpti celebrations were in full swing, remember) it started raining. That turned into snow in the higher parts...
Read more →Let me translate that for you. Τσικνοπέμπτη. That’s it. Today that is. Today is τσικνοπέμπτη. It is translated into “mardi gras” by one of the electronic dictionaries that my employer makes available to the staff. It’s just that it is not “mardi” today, it is “πέμπτη”, eh “pempti” for you, and that means “thursday”...
Read more →Man, this stinks! It’s over. The Year. 2003. It’s gone! Completely! Okay, almost gone, probably completely gone by the time you read this. It had just started. Now it’s over! This isn’t fair. I haven’t even begun yet! What is this? I want my money back! A full year’s worth, no penny less! Can...
Read more →It’s done. Flight A3-540 leaves on Saturday 29, at 7 in the morning and we will land at Düsseldorf at 12:40, with one hour to kill in Athens. We will be in Belgium/The Netherlands for a week and a half. It’ll be a little busy probably, what with our presence required in the Greek...
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