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!