Crete News & Life on Κυδων

There isn't an English language newspaper in Hania, so we have been relying on the 'Athens News' for a weekly round-up of what has been happening in Greece, and also for our weekly TV guide.

One of our local TV channels, Κυδων, does have an English language news programme though. We found out about it via the newsletter of the CIC, the local ex-pats "Cretan International Community of Hania". There was a small piece in this month's newsletter:

For those who may not have heard, every night at 6:30pm (Greek time, so give or take 20 minutes) and repeated every morning at 8:30am, Κυδων presents a half hour news program in English called Crete News & Life. The first 10 minutes or so is on current events. The rest of the program reports on a specific aspect of Greek/Cretan culture - the good and the bad. For example: the history and making of Cretan knives and traditional Greek chairs, International Women's Day celebration, Carnival celebrations, and the problems with garbage and litter on the island.

We've taken to watching the morning repeat, as the evening showing usually runs late, and if we hang on to watch the news we miss the beginning of "Smallville", which, as I've mentioned, is one of the few English language programmes we watch because we actually enjoy it, rather than just watching it because it is in English.

The news section is really handy, because we are still finding the regular Greek news programming absolutely impenetrable. The section on Cretan culture is really funny though - they are kind of like the factual features you used to get on Blue Peter when I was a kid - all earnest learning about the hard-working fishing industry on Crete or something like that. As the CIC Times newsletter put it:

It's like going to school for a half hour every night.

Comments

[Martin Belam]

So funny reading this back nearly a year on - Crete News & Life is our main daily source of news now. We wouldn't know what on earth is going on in the world without Sally Heard or Emma Perkins telling us every evening.