Red to Amber, but not vice-versa! Phew!

 

It was a good "red moon" this month, with the best show on the evening after the full moon. Starting as a rising bright red orb and slowly becoming "amber" for the rest of its transit!

Red, of course, has a more vital meaning in the current Covid world! All of Crete is now "dark red" in EU terms, Chania was the first "nome" of the four to get this dubious distinction, and the others have followed one at a time. Our mini-lockdown has been regularly extended, and then in turn the others have joined. Greyrocks daily adds up the new cases for the four nomes to give a figure for the island, It went very high indeed last week. (The 15th effect?), but has now started to come down. Here we have seen no sign of serious enforcement of the special measures, but bars and restaurants are complying on the curfew as the fines are extortionate. There are plenty of groups armed with plastic seeing out the last few minutes after being ejected! The music rule is not even clear! Is piped music permitted? Are the street acts legal (when one even includes dancing)? Only a lighter red status will bring the music back!

It's red too for Fuerteventura - although the four numbered levels are widely used. We watch the reported data daily and the island has moved to a serious position amongst the islands - avoiding Level 4 (beyond red) by the skin of its teeth. as active cases stayed above 200 for a week or so, the hospital reached capacity and, sadly, this week a 16th person died of Covid. Before we left in May 50 active cases was considered worrying! Tenerife has recently moved to the dreaded Level 4, whilst Gran Canaria has just come out of it. Today's figure is 144, and declining daily!

Greyrocks also monitors Cyprus out of interest, and that is still "in a bad way"!

Potential travellers and the respective hospitality sectors in all three nations were nervously awaiting the UK's latest review of category listings for those returning. An objective data study would surely mean a move to "red" from "amber", but such would be the outcry and the chaos that it didn't happen. Phew! 

All three nations survive on the "amber list"

The "Fifteenth Effect" is still with us!

"Eleni, let's take the small car down to Paleo! Fetch the two dogs, five inflatables,
funny chairs, flimsy umbrellas, two cool-boxes and that new shelter
we don't know how to erect!"

Whilst Catholics name 15th August as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Orthodoxy it is her Dormition. If this point of faith is of interest click here! Greyrocks simply uses the nomenclature to describe the desire for a long sleep that covers the "worst" of the period in a Greek tourist town! For 2021 the period began on Thursday12th and is still ongoing today! The number of Greek visitors has gone through the roof! There are the day-trippers from within the island, who are mostly here at the weekend, but also a huge number from the mainland! Of course, local businesses badly need the custom after last year and many cancellations by other Europeans and the Brits, but those to whom Greyrocks speaks will through gritted teeth complain about the stereotype of "rude, impatient and demanding"! For us the complaints revolve around appalling parking habits (cones and wheelie skips blatantly moved) and shouting. We have also been eating earlier each evening to avoid the rush! Tempers all round get yet more frayed with the weather, which has not been the best: first the tail end of the heatwave, and now some dramatic wind! Roll on, September!

On Monday we had respite! Philip had a hire car and offered to take us on his annual daytrip to Sougia. Greyrocks remembers walking there (!!) many years ago, and we may have done it by boat but -again- a long time ago! We went via Azogires with only a wave to the Alfa, made a viewing stop at a high point and glided into the village, which has been considerably "gentrified" from our memory of it. There we pottered about and had a nice lunch, then returned via Kandanos,  passing the Temenia factory

Just for interest here are the average wind speeds and size and time of each day's greatest gust for the period 12th to 22nd August (in km/hr):

Dining on the Other Side - with or without music!

For the last couple of weeks the "stony side boulevard" or "prom" at night has been transformed, and those of us who have been Paleo fans for many years will have a sense of deja vu! At 7 pm when the road (and the parallel main street) is closed all of the bars and restaurants from Livicon to Maria's are entitled to place a row of tables and chairs on the pavement opposite. So, of course, they all do, for they are a very popular! This completes a circle -part of which was an absurd and expensive policy about unifying canopies - for back in the good old days there were always tables there! Then they were almost on top of the shore's boulders, and a good few of today's young adult visitors will remember injuries secured when climbing! Now there is a deep wall and elegant pavement. Greyrocks has been unable to determine whether this is just a temporary regulation to compensate for greater spacing during Covid restrictions (as in Corralejo) or something that might last! It means harder work for the waiting staff, and a rush to get the tables moved at 7, but happy punters,

An aside here: Last night - for the first time - they was no interest whatsoever in those tables, as the Force 5 wind meant the queues were for shelter! More on this after the dreaded 15th holiday, but it was Friday 13th!

So, here we go with the annual update on eateries:

The talk of the village is El Greco! It has been a long time in the making. The last time people were welcome there was when Barry and Jenny had Calypso there before moving two doors down! At least ten years! Every summer we have looked for progress and seen very little! There is something about the roof that made us think it might open as a Chinese, but no! It is an offshoot of Odysseia pizzeria but with a bit of "class". In particular they have an upstairs serving area with a fantastic sea view. That needs booking well in advance! The food and wine are both good too, apparently; but Greyrocks is currently too loyal to Porto Fino next-door to find out!

No such problem with the other featured newcomer. That is the old Veggera on the corner of Palm Tree and Sandy Beach roads. We had disappointments there over the years and only revisited last September, during the medicane! It seems the name was a problem as it sounded vegetarian, so it has suddenly become Zephyros (god of the west wind) with an upgrade of both menu and décor. We like the staff and for sundowner drinks, but no dining for us until after 15th!

Straddling the food and music fields we have three new ventures trying to entice music fans. First is Pirates, which is the old Anemos. It should be good: Suzi cooks from a short well-designed menu, and they had a night some weeks ago when a band that included street musicians known to us was playing some excellent stuff; but we left when we saw that we would not be served where we sat and had an encounter with an antagonist on the news front. So that's off the list for a while and we can't comment on their offer! Next is a place near the church and next door to the newer Skorpios bar.  (Name to follow when determined)!  It calls itself a music bar and has shishas, but our only attempt to have a drink there failed through lack of staff interest, and we have seen no evidence of music in the current conditions! Finally (and if only it were) is what has happened to the old Dionysus restaurant in the middle if the main street. Having been closed for a couple of years it is now - oh dear! - Barons! This is a "night club" masquerading as a "brunch-coffee-bar" and did have a decent  live rock band before lockdowns but is now highly intrusive in both space and recorded music terms and put an end to the first (and only) acoustic session by Mats and Drapanias John across the road. We are not fans!

Two further snippets on the eatery front: The old Skala, which had some other name is now back as Skala and had what is so far the most successful music night to greet our arrival in July, and Niki's Pizzeria is completely closed.

 

Arty Stuff!

 Lots of creativity around at present! Greyrocks has enjoyed three examples in particular.

On Friday we went up the mountain to Azogires:- in part to find some relief from the heatwave, and in part to see this exhibition before it finished. We took a taxi to the Alfa Café and enjoyed some soft drinks, then walked up to the venue, which is behind the Alfa Rooms and has a wonderful view.

There were a dozen or so paintings and other artefacts evoking the wonderful colours of those red moons which we see each summer month rising over the Libyan Sea. We were the only punters at first, but Lucky arrived with toddler Sofia and offered us chilled wine, and then there was John and his dog. So a catch-up on events and people in the village! We learnt that Yvette's redundant cover, which we had donated because John's vehicle was similarly shaped, had in fact been used to cover his winter log pile!  There are pleasing sketches of the aforementioned folk on the website of Rebecca at the café. She now has work displayed in the GrosRouge Gallery, which we also visited before our beer and spinach pies!

Revised Version

Hassan has been busy with sand sculptures on the beach, but (as described in a previous post) their life span is short in this period of rough waves and high water lines, and so far there has never been a set of five intact at the end of his creative week! This week began with a huge and meticulously detailed crocodile with an open mouth and menacing pebble teeth! Next day he worked on one of his specialities: a female nude in prone position; but this one had her head between the croc's jaws. Hassan came down to talk to us and we jokingly said we were disturbed by this image. He promptly destroyed the lower half, and the victim became a mermaid! He said he didn't want to worry the tourists.

Bob's regular bus stop in his youth!

And - back in Blighty - or specifically Norfolk/Suffolk we were delighted to read of Banksy's "spraycation". All the sites have meaning for Greyrocks. Bob has lived in Yarmouth, Gorleston and Lowestoft; we visit a cousin in Oulton Broad and Ruth spent many chilly summers in and near Cromer with her ex. 

Details of the artworks here!

A Second Wave for Greyrocks 2021

There were a lot of "fare thee well"s followed by a hiatus in the first week of August, but Friday saw the beginning of the second wave of tourist friends we have met regularly over the years.

Oh dear!!

 Friday also saw the introduction of a week-long "mini-lockdown" for this end of Crete. Arguably so mini as to be pointless, or even counter-productive as it has had the effect of producing a huge wave of Greek visitors and a Saturday night in town that will not be forgotten in a hurry! The transition into the "red" status and the imminent 15th August holiday has caused fear of a real lockdown and "last chances" are being taken.

The current measures involve a curfew at 1 am and a ban on music at bars and cafés. During a normal August Greyrocks thinks carefully about where to eat on Saturdays. Most likely to be very busy are the pizza/ pasta places and grill/gyros houses. The decision was the Seagull which we expected to host mostly foreigners (like ourselves). It was absurdly busy, as was everywhere else! Daniela advised us to choose cooked dishes as there was a table of eleven still waiting for other items.

Big Bucks for Kostas in Lockdown!

 There will be more on both the live music scene and the changes in eating-out options, but for the present the interest is in Kostas - the solo bouzouki player (with backing track) who has been around for years and played at the wedding in 2018. He positioned himself lockdown-compliant and just outside what could be seen as the restaurant's purlieus and started to play, finishing after a handful of numbers and coming round with the hat! As he packed up to move on someone from the table of eleven offered him more money to stay, and this was then repeated. We were served quite quickly and stayed to enjoy the long session. (We later stupidly went to the crossroads where all bars were as busy as we have every seen them. It took just one round to teach us that this was not a pleasant experience, so we  slunk off to the wine bar, where - again - there was just one table unoccupied!) Last night our local ATM was out of dosh!

A new wave too on the climatic front as we come to the end of a week-long heatwave. No wild fires locally of late, but a few power cuts and exhausted workers. The weather station recorded these maxima temperatures. At the cantina the thermometer hit 47! So intense was the heat that even highly commited sun-worshippers like Mike and Gail gave the beach a miss on some of the days. Greyrocks are not in that league and has - even now after this peak - been getting there later than usual, or even not at all! The good news is that access to the sea in our area is still pretty easy, and the water is lovely!