“What’s with the boat”, you’re asking? Well, before the Greeks imported the custom of the christmas tree, they used scale models of boats in just the same fashion as other parts of the world used pine trees. They would dress up the boat in similar ways, with candles and balls and other glittering garlands....
Read more →I know, I know, the roof above the main stadium, the building contractors, the power surges, or worse: the power breaks, and to top it off, the terrorist treats, it’s all doom and gloom about the Olympic Games. You would almost be forgiven to doubt that anything goes well. Okay, you at least are...
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 →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 →Okay folks, it was a long journey, a difficult journey, with lots of hurdles, you know, of the bureaucratic type, a few of the technical type too, but we got to the finish. We now are the proud users of an Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). In order to get there I went to...
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 →Armed with 5 copies of this all important form, without which I would be denied residence in Greece, because I was employed, while Yvonne would be a legal alien, because she was unemployed, I entered the building of the emigration police on the harbor grounds at eight thirty. That morning the ferry boat Knossos...
Read more →Where were we? Right, I had left the offices and was trying to stay ahead of the traffic, in which I succeeded marvelously, thank you. A bit before 6 o’clock I was home. Now that Yvonne doesn’t have to work anymore at night, I usually start with the preparations for our evening meal right...
Read more →And there we were, at the beginning of this week, thinking that we finally had left the summer behind us. Today the temperature rose above 30 degrees centigrade. Our neighbours are firing up the barbeque right now. It’s 9 o’clock in the evening — or as the Greeks say, in the afternoon. This morning...
Read more →Two Dutch guys, aged 19 and 17, made it to the frontpage of the Saturday edition of the local Cretan newspaper “Patris”, or Patrida as it is still lovingly called by the elder people. It appears the boys had found a wallet on the beach in front of one of the sea-side hotels in...
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