Radio, TV and the Internet - Keeping in touch...
Many years ago in the UK, keeping in touch meant for the most part, physically meeting other people.  The church; chapel; synagogue; or other place of worship; clubs; dances; schools; scouts; girl guides; the local park and whole myriad of other places one physically went to or became a member of in order to meet; to exchange views and news.  To keep in touch.  The local (weekly) and the Sunday National newspapers essential, supplementing the mostly national radio stations (The BBC) until well into the late fifties and early sixties when TV became as common as cornflakes.  Saturday at the London Palladium on TV replacing the Saturday Night Theatre radio play as the star attraction!
Here on Crete...
Well, like the rest of the world, keeping in touch with the rest of the world today from Crete is'nt any great feat, no matter how you want to do it.   But assuming that you just want to listen to the radio; watch TV or surf the net, it is just as easy as it is at home - with one perhaps vital difference.  The Common language is Greek.  Quite often very, very rapid Greek.  One of my favourite TV stations has a slot called "The news in a minute" and it does not mean waiting time - the whole current news headlines and comment are delivered in one minute!  I usually get the introduction - "ladies and gentlemen".........

GREEK TELEVISION STATIONS:-

  • KRITI TV
  • KRITI 1
  • CRETA CHANNEL
  • KUDON
  • NET
  • ANTENNA1
  • MEGA
  • ET1
  • STAR
  • ALPHA

There are a large number of English and American films on TV with Greek sub-titles. Many are recent and can be a boon to learning Greek.

  • Cretan Radio: There are several radio stations on Crete which provide Greek language programs whose style and content equate roughly to those in other countries.  It may come as a surprise for modern Brits' to discover that the Greek pop scene is largely Greek and in Greek.  I hope that it will come as a very pleasant surprise to discover that the quality of the music, whilst sometimes a little different to the ear at first, is at least equal to and very often superior.

  • RADIO STATIONS:-
  • KRITI - 101.5 FM STEREO
  • HERAKLION - 98.4 FM STEREO
  • CITY - 99.5 FM STEREO
  • KNOSSOS - 100.7 FV
  • KASTRO - 91.10 FM
  • KLIP - 97.9 FM STEREO
  • LATO - AG NICOLAOS - 103.3 FM  
  • AG NICOLAOS - 104.4 FM 
  • CHANIA -100.00 FM STEREO 
  • ERA HANIA - 104 FM STEREO & 1512 AM 
  • KRITI STEREO - 191-102.2 FM
  • RETHYMNON - 99.4 & 99.8 FM STEREO 
  • ERA HERAKLION - 97.5 FM STEREO
Radio and TV Stations here share two common problems.  Extremes of weather and mountainous terrain. These often cause fluctuations in the quality of reception from unbelievably good to none at all from earthbound transmitters.  Euro-News and CNN suffer the same problems - but it does seem rare for all stations to be affected at the same time.  Reception on the whole is extremely good.  If you are staying at a hotel or other facility with satellite signal receivers you may find many other channels available.
Internet Cafes...
As far as we are aware our closest Internet Cafe is at Platanias, about 10 kilometers away towards Chania.  There are several in Chania, at least two in the harbour area.
  1. Internet Cafe     - Halidon 26.  Just before the Harbour.  Tel: + (0)821 98591 e-mail:

    2.    Vranas Net Cafe - Mitropoleos Sq.  Near the Harbour.  Tel: + (0)821 43788 e-mail: varanas@yahoo.com

The standard charge for both these cafes seems to be 1000drachmae ( about £2 ) per hour.  Both seem to offer the standard facilities of printers/scanners and video conferencing facilities.

These internet cafes are genuine Cretan establishments complete with their own cafe facilities - including food and drink.  They are not encouraging you to combine eating/drinking/computing at the same time.  We are developing a full directory of internet cafes which will be added to this page.
Village Net-Meetings...
Crete has a very modern digital telephone system and it would be a rare occasion that anyone using personal computers or mobile telephones would be unable to connect with the right equipment.   Our village for example, the fairly remote Astratigos, with no shops; no tavernas; no hotels and no tourist rooms, has all the technology anyone who wants to keep in touch can hope for.  We regularly hold Internet Net- Meetings with our relatives in the UK.  It is really good to be able to see and talk with our first grand-child with his parents, all the way back in the UK for less than the price of an ordinary telephone call.  
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