Time to break my writer’s block by posting a few bits and pieces.


This photo is of a painting hanging at Lavantis Restaurant in Parikia, Paros. It includes a quote from a Pablo Neruda poem loosely translated as:

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.






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Escorting some guests through the gauntlet at the port reminded me of this quote from last year:
“There are so many people waiting for you at the dock and trying to get you to come to their place to stay. It is like being a rock star and having reporters screaming at you for a photo.”
From a Travelpod blog.

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Another year of awards for Greek olive oil including First Prize in the medium green fruitiness category for the Kritsa Agricultural Cooperative in Lasithi, Crete.

Contestants in this year's awards included 76 olive oil producers from
the 10 member-states of the International Olive Council (Egypt, France,
Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and
Spain)

Read more at his old post.

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I have also written before about Greece’s slow absorption of EU integration rules. The latest report says they are only 1.4% not in compliance. This is their best score yet. On average the rest of the EU, including the new members, have only 1.0% of Internal Market Directives for which the implementation deadline has passed that are not currently written into national law,

EU-wide in terms of open infringement procedures, environmental rules are the source of the highest number of cases (23 percent),taxation and customs union rules (18 percent)are second.

I have written several times, e.g. Taste the Place, extolling the virtues of enjoying Greek food and wine at its source. Now I can say unequivocally that same applies to art.

Last week Karin and I drove our scooters up a long, narrow, rough road several miles into the central hills of Paros to an abandoned village. A few of the houses have been upgraded and re-occupied but there are still no electricity lines. My words cannot describe the beauty of the setting that our Dutch sculptress friend, Reina Ramakers, creates in. Hopefully these pictures will convey the quality of the experience.

Likewise my photos just hint at the quality of the work produced by the two artists who were exhibiting. I was very impressed with the photo galleries on their web sites. They are in Dutch so just browse around and you will find them.

Reina Ramakers

Jessy Boelen



The two artists

They just successfully navigated the Greece bureaucracy to obtain the license for their scuba diving centre: Paros Dive

Only three months late!

So, from yesterday on you can get PADI instruction and recreational dives with the most modern equipment from three transplanted Brits and one Greek.

They are located in the Paros Kiteboarding Resort at Pounda, but take a look at their web site. It has a lot of detail and photos and if you are lucky you will find their web cam of the beach. That link again: http://www.parosdive.com/