Kosmos = Lots of people

It's obviously the middle of summer now and you can't go down anywhere in Chania without bumping into someone from another country. I'm not arguing that it's a bad thing, it's quiet the opposite especially when Greece is facing the worst economic disaster in over a century. What my complaint is that people don't get how to walk down the street here. For example, tour groups with one local woman with an annoying pink umbrella seem to invade the street like it's theirs to own. People should leave space! The amount of times I had to apologize in a weird language is beyond count.

Tourists of the world in my mind need to learn two things. The first is to not be afraid to go places beyond the hotel and beach to go eat, it's cheaper and the food is better quality. For example, a little village about 10 miles away from Chania is Alikianos, its in the world's second biggest orange grove and has the most amazing view of the mountains. However, tourists just seem too afraid to head down there. This I believe is due to not understanding Greek and being too adjusted to a comfort zone.

What do you mean by comfort zone, I hear you ask. Some tourist's have that area of a hotel to beach to cheap taverna where the owner speaks English and they understand the food. English people are particularly bad at this, often ordering chips and spaghetti Bolognese in GREECE! It's about time tourists break out of this and go to areas like Alikianos. In a time when we have less money, it's crazy to be ripped off by expensive tasteless food with a 'comfort zone'.

London Riots

Can't feel I can continue blogging today without bringing up the horror which has unfolded in London. From what, the BBC and Sky have been saying from the shooting of Mark Duggan. It's shocking that people can go low enough to burgle and vandalize and ruin peoples lives. Out of all, we should be impressed by the British Police Force who go out every night to deal with the thugs and hooligans.

Even celebrities like Lord Sugar and Jamie Oliver have put on their twitter sites how they are appalled by the destruction. as some twitters have said, young people in the Middle East riot for peace, young people in England riot for Ipads and trainers.

I just hope that the 16,000 officers out on the streets tonight can deal with all the problems in the capital. We might of been complaining about police brutality earlier this year, but certainly now we are behind them one hundred percent. 

Street Art From Chania

I love how random these are! From Chania which is great to see. 

Street Art Athens

Here are some pieces I have taken pictures of in Athens! Hope you like them. Don't have an idea who the artists are so If anyone knows please comment :) 

Street Art

It's one of the most misunderstood forms of art work in the world. Street art is mysterious mostly illegal but amazingly beautiful.

Banksy, the infamous street artist to me is very clever and also is out there only for the art. His most recent street work for me is a testament to that. 

Check more of his work out! I love this book 

Songs from my SoundHound App

If anyone out there is an iphone user I highly recommend using the music recognizer app SoundHound. It's amazing for those times that you just think, heck what's the song! So for everyone I thought I would post some of the amazing songs I have heard over the last few months.

If your interested In getting SoundHound for yourself click the link!

So here they are:

1. Summer Holiday by Wild Nothing

2. Imagine by Snoop Dogg

3. Pumped up Kicks by Foster the People

4. Halfway Gone by Lifehouse

5. (Just Like) Starting over by John Lennon

Hope you enjoy these Songs as much as I did!

Fly Away Euro

Beautiful graffiti which speaks the truth about whats probably going to happen

Beginners guide to Nikos xilouris

He is the angel of Crete and had probably one of the best voices in music ever (That's my opinion). From anogia in the Heraklion district of Crete his music still touches the hearts of many people across the world. From simple beginnings playing the Lyra in small clubs in Heraklion he hit the big time and started to be produced by Giannis Markopoulos.

Even during these times of economic problems in Greece, his music inspires people to shout their voice to mr Papandreau and the other ministers.

In this blog I will show you some of Xilouris's most famous songs so like me you can start to love one of the best singers to ever come out of Greece

Pote tha knaei ksasteria (the Cretan national anthem) 

Itan Mia Fora (It was one time)

xilia miria kimmata ( a thousand miles long) 

Greek Coffee

It's Thursday afternoon and thought I would make myself a cup of Greek Coffee. It takes a lot of paitent to make, but in the end the smell and the flavours are out of this world.

A greek coffee is a bit like being Greek itself. You mix everything together, put some fire under it and eventually you will get an amazing flavourism end product.

I recently lost my Gia Gia (greek for Grandma) who around easter died from cancer. She was always a big inspiration to me and helping me to identify myself as a Cretan Greek. Having a Greek partner I now have an almost adopted Gia Gia who insists on cooking a lot and like many Cretan Greeks brings the best hospitality.

Like my Gia Gia used to make Greek coffee in the morning, I make it to give me energy to head to the beaches and night clubs of Chania!




So when you read this Grab your kettle and make a nice cup of coffee or tea!

What would I do if I was Papandreau for a day

Wherever you are around the world there is no escape from the news about Greece's economic problems. For the Angela merkals and George Osbornes of this world there is a misunderstanding about how this affects the normal Greek citizen. Being half Greek Half English it is hard to understand why my homeland is so lawless and backwards.

One major problem is that the Greek public sector is very badly organized and money allocated for it is just wasted on €900,000 on chemicals for the police or spent on a railway system which only 4 people seem to use.

It is of course every humans right to protest against their goverment and until the Papandreau administration understand it nothing will change.

So if i was George Papandreau I would do these things

1. Make Greek MP's accountable for misuse of expenses

2. Review and change the public sector and change to private where it is needed

3. Review the police system

4. Allow a democratic election where the leader isn't a papandreau or karamanlis

5. Hold a public vote on what government policy and economics should be

For a country where democracy was born it needs to look in the mirror for a long time! As a wise friend said to me Greece's worst enemy is Greece itself.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Greek TV

Staying in Chania can be amazingly fun and wont leave you dissapointed generally. However, when it comes to the mesimeri time when lots of Greeks sleep (which is during the hottest time of the day) the TV can sometimes be your only form of entertainment.

Currently sitting with my partner and her family and watching a show called 'δέστε τους' where most of the panel members are loud and over the top. It can provide some great laughs if you can understand Greek but generally it isn't for the tourists coming to Greece.

The news here which seems to be on the global network also leaves something to be desired. With news in the UK or the USA the main layout of a show includes the opening tasters of the news packages which then leads into the presenter reading off each one. However in Greece, the general rule of thumb is to show some sort of package while four or five people are arguing madly over whos right and wrong.

Recently Greek news has been showing mobile phone footage of the violent protests between police and protesters. Constantly showing the police violence it proves a lot about the terrible things the riot police do here.

Like everything Greek it all turns into a drama.

Baptism of Fire!

So I headed back to Greece today from England flying from London Gatwick airport to Chania. I arrived almost four hours before the flight was due to depart (Bit early in hindsight) having almost no where to sit at 2 am I decided to be sleep rough on the floor of the departure area at Gatwick. Sadly, going to Greece yesterday meant dealing with onward protests from the air traffic controllers who have been constantly on strike these days. After sitting for an hour or two I noticed that my flight was delayed from 5:50 am to 7am which I was expecting. After trying to amuse myself for the last four hours because of being physically unable to sleep I headed to the plane happily knowing that I was only three and a half hours away from being in the arms of my love. After getting into the seat of the 8781 Easyjet flight to Chania the pilot then notified us all that due to the strike from the greek air traffic controllers we would be sitting for another hour twiddling our thumbs and continually getting pissed off.After an hours wait we had all finally taken off and were well on our way to Chania.

I arrived well in Chania, got to my partners place and had settled down after sleeping for an hour or two. We had decided to go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean film, because my girlfriend Elizabeth is mad about Johnny Depp!

Advert available at the Megaplace

After checking on the website of the Megaplace bowling and Cinema in Chania we went excitedly to the epic fort of fun for all the family and went to get the tickets. At this time, the girl ( who i think poorly needs to learn about customer service) told us in a I can't be bothered to speak to you voice that the film was actually at 7 instead of 9 which was advertised on the cinema site! Driving back to Elizabeth's place we saw cars driving dangerously through red lights and at that point I knew that for the next two and a half months that I'm here for, I have had a real Baptism of fire introduction to being back in my homeland Crete!