No links to sites with adult content
accepted.
|
|
AUGUST
WEATHER.....
Heat wave; heat wave; heat wave. There
wasn't much else one could say to describe it. We have been there before,
hot weather is not unusual on Crete in summer, but this really was
something to behold. From inside with the air-can on...
Current Chania
Webcam
Current Cretan Weather
Link
_____________________________
ANEK Lines El Venizelos at Patra.
BIG. Maybe bigger than it looks, but easy
peasy for boarding motorists and lorries, and the service was of the
very best - read below. |
_____________________________
Astratigos Village Life.... Travelers Tales.. XVIV
....
I avoid gate 3 (because it is always closed) and cajole and sometimes
bully my way to gate 8 - which has always worked for me. The port
police officer glances at our ticket and says, in fluent Greek, 'you
want Gate 3 - you can't enter here - go back out and around the harbour'.
I paled as I looked at the grid-locked but moving Piraeus traffic
that I will have to cross and join to get back to gate 3!...... |
'Lonely Planet' III....
I was overheated, sweating, hyper-hyped, and angry that within a few
hundred yards of my destination I was being told that I had to go back
outside the port and fight my way back around the horrendous Piraeus
loop to a gate that was always closed! But arguing with port police is a
no-no. Doesn't work. Better just to do it and, and - I had once attended
stock-car racing at Belle-Vue Stadium in Manchester. Maybe I could
remember the basics.....
Continuing to display the signs and symptoms of a pending coronary I
turned for the exit. And there it was, the worst possible nightmare
and rapidly deteriorating. Traffic Lights! A traffic cop (police sergeant)
attempting to control the traffic - against the lights. His 'go'
was everyone else's opposite - no go! He had stopped, by some miracle (or
madness), the three lanes of traffic from my immediate left, but the
lanes opposite, from both opposite and the T junction right, were moving
rapidly en-mass and not leaving gaps. Perhaps a better description would have
been 'not taking prisoners'....
The police sergeant was in imminent
danger of being run down and resembled a walking coronary himself -
'go, go'!! He was yelling and gesticulating madly at me - whist
standing directly in my path only a few feet away. It was going to be
one of us (probably several in a mangled pile of smoking steel and dead
bodies) - and it wasn't going to be me!! I went! Shouting
back at him "Get out the f.... way then" as I aimed directly at
him and the still not giving way opposing traffic - and crossed directly
and smartly, aiming directly for the closed stream whist executing a perfect left turn
- and
awaiting (for several instants) the 'BANG' and the screams...
The distances between 'me and them' was, I still believe, the thickness
of the paint on our car. How the cop managed to get clear is known only
to god - but he (the cop - not God!) had told me to do it. My version was that if I had
to die I would do so whilst shouting 'Geronimo' and charging! In
the event I just held my breath and charged and
dripped sweat. But I did not wee, honest....
Round the dock we went, alternation between heavy accelerator and brakes being
the order of the day, until I reached Gate 3. It was open! I had to
cross left through the opposing traffic - but my lights were green and my
way clear. We were in without pausing. A few hundred yards and we were
outside the ANEK lines check-in. The El Venizelos had not yet arrived.
It would be at least a couple of hours before we were able to board. But
I was an excited schoolboy again - this was a first for us, having never
been near the boat let alone on it - all I knew was that it was big,
and I wanted a go....
So we spent the next couple of hours in the torpid heat of Piraeus
harbour watching the world go by, which included watching a couple of gentlemen
in a rather beat up sports saloon bearing racing logos remove what
appeared to be an abandoned car from the dock behind us. The latter had
it's wiring harness apparently half ripped out - but these two spent 30
minutes or so what seemed to be 'hot wiring' it, did a jump start and
went away with one car each! Mind the 'hot wired' car looked remarkably
like one of those Belle-Vue stock-cars after an event. And I
couldn't help but wonder how far they would get before the police took
an interest. But then the harbour police were probably grateful to see
it gone....
There were several other distractions - or attractions - depending on
ones personal outlook. The (probably illegal) traders who seem to
inhabit the area attempted constantly to sell everyone who stood still
everything - watches; binoculars; brolley's; torches; telescopes et al.
Everything, I took delight in explaining, that I already had! Not one
offered the use of a personal toilet. Now that was becoming something
that I would have been willing to pay for...
And then, gliding backwards slowly towards the dock loading ramp, was
our boat. El Venizelos from Chania. And back then there, we hoped, with our good
selves and our CRV on board. The boat looked vast. It is vast. I sincerely
hoped that if we were directed to the upper garage it would not be
too upper! I needn't have worried - we were directed downwards - into
the very bowels of the boat. We were well below the waterline I thought
- if we get holed for any reason the car and precious contents - packed
so carefully in the UK, were goners! But I couldn't think of a way of
getting everything into our cabin!
Down, seemingly into the depths of beyond. The garage was bright, and
compartmentalized into four car sections. The central doorway to each
seemed to be at right-angles to the next. Rubix Cube style. It was very
tight entering and exiting, but the loader was superb - not the more
often seen panic and excitement we were used to. Smooth. Smiling. Very
definite but never pushy. We appreciated that. Last time we were on 'a
boat in the bowels' the car in front had balked at, so to speak, at the
last fence. The German passengers had refused to go further and
threatened to get off the boat if any attempts to make them do so were
made.... That loader had simply told them to do just that, and picked
the next car (ours!) to load. We never saw them again, but I have often
wondered how they managed to maneuver their car out...
The boat really was vast. The corridors seemed to stretch into infinity,
but, as on all boats that we have ever travelled on, finding ones way
around was simple. Just follow the signs and remember, if nothing
else, the number of your garage. As things turned out we saw the
reception; the route to our cabin; the route to the bar (and the bar!);
the route to the restaurant (and the restaurant!); the route back to the
bar (and the bar again); and our cabin.
The bar was packed and, (we had never known this on a Greek boat before),
amazingly well staffed by very attentive waiters. The service was
amazingly quick - the tills must have been on the point of overheating!
It was all very easy. We docked in Souda Bay on time. Our journey, at
least this one, complete. |
|
In the News
Reviews...
Some like it hot....
And in Greece generally, and Crete being no exception, the blazing
sunshine saw many seeking cooler ways - one of which is the
mega-fountain - where cool, water is rocketed upwards from jets set into
public play areas. It then falls down like giant rain. Got one? Want
one? It won't fit in the garage....
Link to Story.
Oil and gas from Crete?..
'Preliminary estimates by
the (Greek) Environment Ministry' suggest a total of 26 billion barrels
in the Ionian Sea and Northern Aegean. 'An area south of Crete looks
particularly promising'...
Link to Story.
But August is a bad month...
For fires. In Greece as a whole and Crete specifically. Especially where
arson is suspected, as in the case of fires starting in the Viannos area
of southern Rethymno on Crete ...
Link to Story.
It was also a bad month...
For four Indians who ended up in hospital in Rethymno with knife
wounds following an attack at a bus stop on their way to work. Their
assailants were thought to be Greek according to the Indians. The police
were not ruling out the possibility of the attack being made by other
Indians with whom they were in dispute...
Link to Story.
And
bad for the thirteen people...
Arrested, including an officer of EKAM (Police Force Special Services Unit)
who were arrested in simultaneous raids in Greek cities on charges of
dealing in child pornography. One of the cities was identified as being on
Crete...
Link to Story.
Plus, possibly good news for Crete...
And other parts of Greece some projects which
will generate growth for the economy from the fast-track process, including
solar energy in Thessaly, central and eastern Greece, and gold-mining at
Perama seem to be gaining ground. Also headed to for fast-tracking is the
Minoan Group (UK) project at Cavo Sidero on Crete - golf courses, villages
and luxury hotels...
Link to Story.
There are a
total of sixteen...
Projects being addressed by foreign investors throughout Greece listed,
including the up till now controversial Cavo Sidero on Crete...
Link to Story.
Though taxation problems
persist...
And in one effort to overcome them Greece has recently signed a deal on
double taxation which should help to prevent dodging using Swiss bank
accounts...
Link
to Story.
But having said that...
An ekathimerini report headlines 'More than 1,000 people face legal
action over farming pensions' saying that the details of more than 1,000
people who may have been claiming farmers pensions illegally has been
forwarded to a prosecutor by the Labour Ministry...
Link
to Story.
Plus - even tourists may become innocently
...
Involved in tax avoidance, as SDOE claims that over half island
businesses dodge taxes. An SDOE report made following inspections said that
more than 55% were involved in tax violation such as failure to issue
receipts....
Link to Story.
And sometimes local people...
Become involved, as in this incident on the Island of Hydra where riot
police had to be taken to the island in order to transfer a restaurateur
being taken to Athens to face charges of tax evasion. Some local people
attempted to prevent police transferring the man to Athens, which provoked a
strong very political response ...
Link to Story.
Back to the British Museum...
Where officials denied that a plan to return fragments of the Parthenon
(Acropolis) Marbles had been formulated, as had been suggested by the
director of the Acropolis museum earlier. But it isn't
just the British Museum which has parts of the marbles - Copenhagen, Munich,
Paris, the Vatican and Vienna all have parts which could be returned...
Link to Story.
And back at the Acropolis...
On another subject some superb news. The Lewis Cup, originally won by
Spyros Louis - winner of the marathon at the first-ever Olympic Games in
Athens in 1896, is to go on display at the Acropolis Museum from August 28th..
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which won the auction for the cup at
Christie's for 514,250 GB pounds agreed to display the cup until it's own
Arts Centre is competed in 2015. The foundation had promised to make the cup
accessible to the public.
Link to Story.
And at Iraklio archeological museum...
Two halls were about to reopen to the public along with free guided
tours by specialists on specified days...
Link to Story.
Plus, staying on the brighter side...
Cookery writer Fiona Faulkner 'in search of inspiration for her new
cookbook', ended up on western Crete, where she found that 'Traditional
Cretan cuisine is based on cheese, grains, fruits and vegetables - the
freshness and quality of which is incredible'. None of which is news to
those of us who live here Fiona, send us a copy and we will publish a
review. Crete: island of herbs and honey. Fiona Falkner.
Link.
________________
|
Amazon.co.uk & Selected Cretan
bookstores
Living in Crete
by Carol Palioudakis
OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK!
Price £9.50 GBP |
Amazon.co.uk & Selected Cretan
bookstores |
_________________
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
All of the material produced by Cretanvista is copyright and
belongs to someone who has spent time, effort and money to produce it. We
are often willing to allow the use of our material for personal
(non-commercial) purposes. For example our calendar photographs can be
used to reproduce the pictures for your own individual calendars,
or to hang on granny's bedroom wall.
We will however, take
action against anyone we discover using our materials in any mass
distribution exercise, especially for financial
gain, unless specifically authorized by us and we are
acknowledged as the source in the reproduction.
___________________________
|