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    Crete Visitors’ poll

    by  • 9 April, 2008 • General • 4 Comments

    When you come to Crete this year be prepared to be interrogated by friendly hosts and hostesses when you leave. Starting in May they’ll intercept you at airports and ferry ports and will question you on your experiences. Have any complaints? Not satisfied with your tour operator?

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    In a gallop

    by  • 8 April, 2008 • General • 0 Comments

    ERT’s fine journalists had me cringe again today. Consider the following quotes from a recent article: According to results of two recent gallops, the ND party is firmly in the lead against PASOK party and… In a gallop conducted by Public Issue on behalf of Skai channel and Kathimerini newspaper, and finally… Another...

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    Greek Places

    by  • 31 March, 2008 • General • 3 Comments

    Greece is currently subdivided into 13 Regions (‘Περιφέρειες’), 54 Prefectures (‘Νομαρχίες’) and 1034 Municipalities (‘Δήμοι’). This was the result of a major administrative reorganization in 1996, called the “Kapodistrias” plan. Initially some, but not all, Prefectures were further subdivided into Provinces (‘Επαρχίες’), but the latter were abolished after a couple of years. Municipalities were...

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    Earthquake “shakes” Crete

    by  • 28 March, 2008 • General • 1 Comment

    This from “Het Nieuwsblad”, a Belgian newspaper that I read online once in a while: Zeebeving schudt Kreta wakker ATHENE – Een zeebeving met de kracht van 5,7 op de schaal van Richter heeft donderdagnacht het eiland Kreta in de Middellandse Zee door elkaar geschud. Duizenden mensen werden uit hun slaap gerukt. De beving...

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    Bloody rain

    by  • 24 March, 2008 • General • 1 Comment

    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...

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    How money works

    by  • 23 March, 2008 • General • 1 Comment

    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...

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    Scenario of a strike

    by  • 21 March, 2008 • General, Weird • 0 Comments

    DAY 1 Government: we are going to pass a law to re-organize the Greek pension funds. Unions: Oh no, you’re not! Don’t touch our pensions or we’ll organize massive strikes for weeks, leave the garbage cluttering the sidewalks and the streets, cut down the electricity to hundreds of thousands of households, sabotage the financial...

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    Knossou dump

    by  • 19 March, 2008 • General • 2 Comments

    As I mentioned before, we live in a small street off Leofóro Knossoú, which is the main road from the center of Iraklio to the archeological site of Knossós. It goes all the way down from the Palace to the sea. We usually call it Knossoú Road, except in the winter when we rename...

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    Blog spot

    by  • 10 March, 2008 • General • 0 Comments

    We have a new internet phenomenon in Greece. It’s called the “blog spot”. I don’t know what it is. I spotted (pardon the pun) it first in an article of eKathimerini which I quoted earlier. At that time I postulated that it might be some as-yet-undiscovered variant of the G spot. But I didn’t...

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    Greek press: good news

    by  • 5 March, 2008 • General • 0 Comments

    Back in 2003 when I just arrived here in Crete, at a time where 64Kbps ISDN was called “broadband”, I couldn’t really afford to spend too much time hanging out on the internet. I just made short connections to download my e-mail and my newsgroup subscription (anybody remember newsgroups?) and uploaded my pre-written postings...

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