5.3 - Earthquake Rattles Crete and other Islands.

5.3-quake rattles Crete and other islands

26 Jan 2012

(File photo) An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 rattled Crete and other islands in the south Aegean Sea.   Authorities have reported no injuries or serious damage.   The undersea earthquake occurred at 6:24am. Today, according to the Geodynamic Institute of Athens, some 244 kilometres south of Athens. A 4.4-magnitude aftershock in the same region occurred two hours later.   Earthquake expert Eftymios Lekkas, a professor of geology at Athens University, said the aftershock pattern from the earthquake was normal and not a cause for concern. (Athens News/gw)   Well, we didn't feel a thing in our house. So, no cracks, burst pipes, or shaking crockery to report.  The dogs were quiet too. 4 in a bed and the little one said... I had my first cello lesson of the year, today, and excited about learning a new piece, Vivaldi, Sonata in B flat (47) Hope the dogs are not too disturbed by it! Love Jane x

Want a Cheap Ferrari?

On the outskirts of Athens there is a company that trades in the unhappiness of others.

A dusty Ferrari sits abandoned in a garage, while the forecourt of Auto-Credit is packed with other luxury cars incompatible with this age of austerity.
This is where the wealthy come to pawn their supercars in order to ride out the recession.
Ten owners a day hand over their keys for a three-month contract and a handful of euros.
Increasingly, many of those struggling in the crisis can't afford to get their cars back, so the business has expanded into neighbouring lots.
There's even a secret location where company founder Christos Ioannou is now storing luxury yachts, which owners can no longer afford to run.
"Of course, they are emotional when they come here," he told Sky News.
"It's their car, or their boat and a means of transport and they are only here because of their difficult financial state."
There's an ironic twist to this story, too: the number of buyers is also drying up, so he's planning on reselling the cars in the country where many of them were assembled.

The Auto-Credit business has expanded into neighbouring lots

"Some owners cannot pay for cars which are left behind and can't retrieve them. These are usually big 4x4s," Mr Ioannou said.
"There is no demand for them in Greece right now so we have set up a company in Germany to export them there for resale."
It's not the only pawn shop doing a brisk trade in Greece. If you walk down Ermou Street, the equivalent of Oxford Street in London, there are flashing neon signs everywhere, offering cash for valuables.
Jack Moore, from Newcastle, was one of the first on the block, after assessing how much gold was being hoarded by people in other European countries.
"When I first came here I was one of the first. You would be lucky if you could see two shops. Now there might be 400 or 500 shops within such a short space of time," he told me.
"They've come from nowhere."
He said business has been steady throughout the crisis, but more unscrupulous black market traders have been springing up.
It's a sign of the desperation here, where incomes of civil servants have dropped by 40%, taxes have soared, pensions shrunk and job prospects all but disappeared.
The threat of even greater economic deprivation now hangs on talks to try to keep Greece solvent with another 130 billion euro bailout.
If it defaults, Greece could soon find drachmas back in their pockets.

Thanks to Sky News for this report.

I don't think I shall be rushing out to buy a second hand Ferrari, or much else come to think of it. I'm already running my own soup kitchen for our family of 6 (Me, David, Zouki, Maisie, Phoebie, and Percy). Tomorrow it is leek and potato. Roll on the salad days of summer!
Jane x

Yannis Souladakis - we loved you!

David and I went to church this morning. We don't usually do that, but today was the remembrance service for Yannis Souladakis, who died a year ago. At the time I was in hospital, and we couldn't go to the funeral, so we made a special effort to go to the service today. I am so pleased we did. Yannis ran the taverna, Platanos, together with his wife, Elaine, who still does. When David and I came to the village, Platanos was our first stop. We had walked up the old road from Sissi and at Selinari, just after the bridge, behind a concrete construction, is where the old cobbled donkey track converges with the main road. Unfortunately the last time I walked up this path, it was completely fenced off by shepherds, to make a pen for sheep. And I mean completely fenced off! No gate, no way around, I had to cross the hillside by the fields to get back on the main road. Anyway, in those days the path was a joyous way to walk into Vrahassi. It led us right to Platanos, where we met Yannis and Elaine. That was seventeen years ago. We saw Yannis become ill, but it never stopped him serving food and drinks, and always with a smile and a friendly word. He was very much a part of village life, and a part of our lives too. We found our first house by sitting in Platanos and asking around, and we shook hands on a property over a beer, with Yannis looking on. I'm sure that Yannis is resting peacefully, or else sitting in paradise with his mates. 

There was a good turnout in the church today, a very young priest from Xersonissos took the service because the regular priest is apparently in Africa for a month. It was a lovely service that resounded through microphones and over the hillside. After we were invited to Platanos where we sat amongst our neighbours and ate delicious cakes and biscuits, with cognac to toast a man who is missed by all.

The church in Vrahassi is extremely ornate. In this picture the painting has not been completed. Now all the walls and collumns ar covered in icons, and a red carpet covers the floor.The smell of incence and candle wax pervades the air, and makes for a very beautiful place to visit.

 And now it's back to work. David is writing on his computer; I am writing on mine. It's a lovely a Sunday and I'm full of cake - good job it's exercise day. I hope you are all having a good Sunday.

Love and best wishes,
Jane x

David Sharp and a Beautiful Winter Morning In Crete.

I hope you like this video which David took a few days ago.

Love Jane x

CRETAN CUSTOM CUTTING OF THE NEW YEAR CAKE JANE'S VRAHASSI

Thanks to our teacher, we had a break between classes to participate in the Greek custom of cutting and sharing the New Year Cake. A coin had been placed inside the cake, and the winner received a Greek/English dictionary. Afterwards we all got to work again. If you are interested in joining one of the classes, simply turn up at the Oasis cafebar in Neapolis on a Saturday afternoon to ask for details.

And now I am going to Agios Nikolaos to pay my electricity bill before I'm cut off!

Jane x

Get Fit For Fogies January 2012

Just to show that I am still fighting the flab with the 7 minute workout. It's no big deal, just 3 times a week.

Iraklio - Heraklion A Great City to Visit

Iraklio: Crete’s beating heart (article from the ekathimerini newspaper)

 The capital city of Greece’s largest island offers the ideal introduction to four millennia of history By Haris Argyropoulos
The history of Iraklio, capital of Crete and Greece’s fifth-largest city, is telling of its location’s geopolitical importance, as it lies approximately in the middle of the island’s northern coastline.
Even though there is no archaeological evidence, it may have served as a port for nearby Knossos, the island’s largest population center in Minoan times, and as far back as 2000 BC.
The first historical reference to the location as “Herakleion” was by the 2nd century AD astronomer Ptolemy. A fortified Byzantine settlement in the 6th century went by the name of Kastro. Andalusian Arab pirates who invaded in 824 were the first to establish it as a city proper, making it the capital of an emirate and building a strong fort named Rabdh el Khandaq (hence the Greek name Handakas). The Byzantines retook the city after a prolonged siege in 961 and sold it to the Venetians in 1204 as part of a deal that included the restoration by the Crusaders of the deposed Byzantine emperor. The Venetians built huge fortifications with walls up to 40 meters thick. Most are still in place. The city was named Candia and Crete the “Kingdom of Candia.” At the end of the 16th century, as the Venetians’ most important naval base in the east, Candia was known as the “Venice of the East.”
To consolidate their rule, the Venetians resettled families from Venice on the island. The coexistence of two different cultures and the influence of the Italian Renaissance eventually led to a flourishing of the arts and letters on Crete in general and accounts for the considerable number of words of Italian origin in the local dialect.
The artists of the Cretan School, which became the central force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, developed a particular style under the influence of both Eastern and Western artistic traditions. The most famous product of the school was El Greco, born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Iraklio in 1541.
The Ottomans besieged the city in 1645 but it took them 24 years to conquer it – the longest siege in history. In the final phase of the blockade, which lasted 22 months, an estimated 140,000 attackers, defenders and local population perished. The Ottoman administration ended in 1898 and Crete joined free Greece in 1913.
Today, Iraklio (population 142,000, according to the 2001 census) remains the center of Crete’s economic and cultural life, bearing all the hallmarks of its long history. Its airport is the second busiest in Greece after that of Athens, mainly on account of the charter flights that disgorge hundreds of thousands of tourists who flock to the district’s long tourist belt, which takes in almost the entire coastline but is mainly concentrated to the east of the city.
To be sure, except for historical exploration, Iraklio is not a place visitors travel to as a destination in itself. In this respect, it is much like Athens, which it resembles both in the array of monuments, its anarchic postwar development, the congestion and the lack of green spaces – but on a much smaller scale. In recent years, Iraklio has made serious and evidently fruitful efforts to upgrade and highlight its heritage, and large parts of the center are a pleasure to walk around.
Loggia, the city’s most elegant Venetian building, was for centuries the seat of government and today houses City Hall. It acquired its final form in the 17th century and received the top Europa Nostra award in 1987 as the EU’s best-preserved and restored monument.
Perhaps the Cretan capital’s best-known hallmark, however, is the 17th-century fountain with the sculpted lions complex (Liontaria), in the square across from Loggia. It is a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a coffee with a “bougatsa” (cream pie) from Kirkor or Salkintzis, two specialist shops.
The list of sights in Iraklio center is long, requiring the best part of two days. They include the 1239 Basilica of Aghios Markos – now a municipal gallery – and the Monastery of Aghia Ekaterini – the medieval university where many European philosophers, artists and writers studied and which houses a superb collection of Cretan iconography. The highlight of interest is the Archaeological Museum, which requires at least three hours.
Visitors can also admire the sculpted lions of St Mark which adorn the entrance to the Venetian fort and, from the walls, enjoy panoramic views of the sea and coast, the city and perennially snow-capped Mt Psiloritis in the background. Below the Martinengo bastion, on the south side, is the tomb of Nikos Kazantzakis, perhaps Greece’s most translated 20th-century writer and philosopher. “I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free,” reads a quote by him on an inscription.
Where to stay
Area phone code: 2810. Atrion (tel 246.000, www.atrion.gr), modern, elegant and friendly hotel near the old port; Capsis Astoria (tel 343.080, www.capsishotels.gr), comfortable, classic hotel for tourists and professionals, views over the square or the old city; Aquila Atlantis (tel 229.103, www.aquilahotels.com), near the old port and the central square, comfortable rooms with modern decor, three suites with jacuzzi; Lato (tel 228.103, www.lato.gr), modern boutique hotel on a quiet street with views of the Venetian fort.
Where to eat
Kyriakos (53 Dimokratias, tel 224.649), excellent mainstream Greek dishes, considered part of the city’s tradition, closed Sundays; Erganos (5 Georgiadi, Oasi, tel 285.629), old house with veranda, plenty of Cretan specialities; Loukoulos (5 Korai, tel 224.435), in a beautifully restored mansion, one of the best for Mediterranean cuisine; Parasies (History Museum Sq, tel 225.009), Cretan grill on the square, reservations advisable, closed Monday lunchtime; Giakoumis (Agora, Grousouzadika), well known for its lamb chops.
What to see & do
The History Museum of Crete houses numerous treasures dating to early Christian times (tel 283.219); the Cathedral of Aghios Minas; Natural History Museum, with excellent reproductions of natural habitats and photos (tel 324.711); Cretaquarium, Greece’s finest, 14 km east of Iraklio (tel 337.788, www.cretaquarium.gr); the Museum of the Battle of Crete and National Resistance (tel 346.554); the new Nikos Kazantzakis Museum will be inaugurated Saturday, July 3, at 7 p.m. in his native village of Myrtia, 15 km from Iraklio (tel 741.689).

Looking forward to my next visit.