Harvest time

 

Five kilos of newly picked black olives, soon to be salted and marinated. I'm a talented gardener, right?

Hotel Sofia

A photo from 1967

 

Sophia Loren and Greece

 

I get many requests for more photos of Sophia Loren, probably because of her Hydra connection with the film Boy on a Dolphin. This photo also has a Greek connection, see the Greek text.

Sophia Loren

 

A signed photo of Sophia, while filming Boy on a Dolphin on Hydra.
This photo is for all you film lovers out there....

The house and the shop is back? (photo from 1973)

 

I found this old photo, it's from May 1973 and if you've been to Hydra recently you have seen that the house with the shop, that was in bad shape for many years and recently was a carpenter's shop, is now built up again. Also it seems like the houses in the back are reconstructed, and look just like they used to.

To the left in the photo is the old pharmacy, you see the balustrades on top.

Postcard from 1920

I found this old postcard, it's postmarked 1920 and for those of you who have been on Hydra and maybe even stayed with Spiros Kriezis in his pension, you can see his house there already in 1920. The large white house almost in the centre of the photo. Well, I think that house is a few hundred years old.

In front of Spiros' house are two large buildings down by the water, the left one is now the Melina Mercouri Hall, the island's exhibition hall.

The house that today is the Hydra Island Museum was not even built in 1920.

The characteristic mill on top of the hill - where now Maria and Lukas live - is not there in 1920, .

I can tell about other houses that are not in the postcard...

The Colossus of Poros

I wrote this little story seven years ago, after a trip to the island of Poros.


THE COLOSSUS OF POROS

My son William is six years old and
he loves Mr. Bean.

During our Christmas holidays in Greece we
took a day trip to the island of Poros.

We were walking around looking for the
supermarket and finally someone gave us the
right directions.

Close to the store they were repairing the road with
cement and part of the road was closed off by
red strips of plastic.

-Come this way, I said and
stepped deep down in fresh cement with
my size 12 runner shoes.

I felt like a fool but my son thought it
was really funny.

-Just like Mr. Bean, he said.

I managed to take a quick photo of
my footsteps, before the
road-workers filled them with cement.

William said he wants to have this
photo framed on the wall in his room.

It’s great to know that you can be a hero
for your son,
if you just try hard.