A lemon tree of our own

Agricultural fair and folk music exhibition

Early in August we went to two exhibitions in town. KAM had a celebration of Cretan folk music on, complete with the instruments used through the ages. They also had lots of photographs of famous musicians from the island. It is quite amazing, and a contrast to the UK, that these musicians from the late 1800s and early 1900s are still remembered and revered to this day, even, in many cases, without the benefits of recordings. Also on at the same time around the harbour was the annual agricultural fair. This seems more like a trade show rather than something...

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Mourning a national disaster

It has been a very sombre weekend here in Greece, watching on as the national disaster of the fires sweeping through the country unfolds. The government has declared a state of emergency, and this photograph by NASA of the country ablaze from space shows the extent of the battle being fought It is incredible to think that so much of this devastation has been man-made. Arson is thought to be the prime cause of the fires. What could move someone to start a fire on purpose when the country has already experienced such terrible forest fires already this year, and...

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England misery but Kiss Bar joy

We went to watch the England fiasco during the week at The Kiss Bar in Agia Marina. It is the place with free wifi and more football screens than you can shake a stick at. In fact during the course of the night we saw bits of Denmark v Republic of Ireland, Norway v Argentina, and Greece v Spain, as well as the England game. Sadly though, we ended up being ashamed to be English - and not on account of Paul Robinson's goal-keeping. There was a group of youngsters - probably the kind of binge drinkers terrorising every neighbourhood...

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Eco-friendly graffiti in Greece

It is good to see that the anarchists over here are positively on-message when it comes to the importance of recycling glass.

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A night out at Hippopotamus in Hania harbour

Very soon after we arrived in Hania last year our explorations of the harbour took us past the Mexican Restaurant and bar called Hippopotamus that nestles amongst the fish restaurants at the less-touristy end of the harbour. It seemed like it must have been put there sepcifically for us - my mum collects hippos, and we love Mexican food, so it seemed an obvious place to eat. But somehow, until this week, we never got around to it. We made up for this with a vengeance on Tuesday night though - gorging ourselves on Mexican food and Mojitos. The waitress...

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Oooh, election fever!

We are getting early elections in Greece. The Prime Minister will be meeting the President tomorrow to ask for Parliament to be dissolved. He'll have to say yes, because Νέα Δημοκρατία have already told the press what is going to happen and that the election will be on September 16th. It would be a bit more exciting, to be honest, if we'd got around to registering to vote. Or were actually going to be in the country at the time. We are going to be spending nearly all of September and October in London, and so, sadly, I suspect quite...

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Sometimes -12 is the best you can hope for

No, I'm not talking about the temperature in Bratislava when we were travelling, I'm talking about -12 being the best Leeds United could hope to achieve in their first day in the depths of League One. They started on -15 thanks to an astonishing series of events that appear to have allowed Ken Bates to re-purchase the club about a gazillion times in the last 6 months whilst paying a penny in the pound to anyone who was owed money. I'd like to see the Inland Revenue accept that on my tax return. Anyway, thanks to a last minute goal...

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Road Trip Day #9: Spili and the Spoon-Thrower

Following our unscheduled drive through the mountains, we arrived at Spili just in time for lunch. Because we'd come in at the wrong end of town thanks to my idiotic navigation, it meant we ended parked quite a way from the main square - and Spili was a bit bigger than we expected. Eventually we found fountain square, which houses the town's main attraction - a fountain and water feature where the water emerges from numerous lion's mouths. We sipped some of the cool refreshing water, and then found a place to eat, perched above the fountain. It was very...

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Crete Road Trip #9: Bad, bad navigation

On the whole, we found our efforts to navigate around the island worked pretty well. Especially after we bought a road map which actually showed Crete's roads with any degree of accuracy. We had a little bit of trouble navigating around the Knossos region on the second day, but apart from that it had been fairly plain sailing. Until we tried to get to Spili. First of all I set us on a small road heading too far south, and we suddenly found ourselves at the sea again. And then, once we'd set ourselves right again, I managed to get...

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Road Trip Day #9: A spot of cat and mouse

We got up early on day #9 of our road trip, and headed to explore the caves of Matala. Although they dominate the small village, we hadn't visited them on our first day. In fact, we were so early that the ticket office wasn't open yet, so we were able to sneak in for nothing! After that we packed up the car, and then headed towards Kalamaki. Not the Kalamaki down the road from us, of course, but the Kalamaki beach with a good reputation about 15 minutes drive from Matala. We thought we would head there for a coffee....

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Road Trip Day #8: Matala at night and lots of photography

After Claire's minty fresh Mojito, we went off in search of somewhere to eat. Everywhere seemed geared up for tourists, so it wasn't like there was much of an 'authentic' Cretan choice to had, so we just plumped for one of the tavernas on the beach. Matala faces west, so we were treated to an epic sunset out across the water as the sun dipped below Crete. It was obviously an arresting sight, as if you turned away from the sun, it seemed that as far as the eye could see were rows of tourists all pointing their digital cameras...

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