Chernobyl Special Chernobyl Special
I found this old photo taken in the Bahia bar. My silly way of lightening the Chernobyl crisis. At the time fallout was threatening to radiate all of Eastern Europe. I remember there was run on NoyNoy tinned milk (there was no fresh milk to be had on the island bac ...
Chernobyl Special
Chernobyl Special
Donkeys Uber Alles Donkeys Uber Alles
Happy to be back in Greece after my first trip to the States since 2016. On Thanksgiving my sister in-law asked me what made the biggest impression of change in the ‘real’ world since my last visit … post-Covid etc. ! Quite shocking I can say: see ...
Donkeys Uber Alles
Donkeys Uber Alles
Hydra finishes the season on a high note! Hydra finishes the season on a high note!
Credit due, quite literally! When the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis as 2022 draws to a close, our beloved Rock is now getting renewable energy. Hugely beneficial to the island in so many ways. Bravo, and thank you to those who made it possible! &nb ...
Hydra finishes the season on a high note!
Hydra finishes the season on a high note!
Inkaminicado! Inkaminicado!
Roger Green came up with a classic to describe the Rock’s permanent inmates when the summer swarms drive local denizens into hiding. Now into its third decade, the resident bard’s traditional Pirofani opening poem was spot on. We shall be blissfully Inka ...
Inkaminicado!
Inkaminicado!
A Lovely Tribute to Kamini’s Tassia A Lovely Tribute to Kamini’s Tassia
Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) { "@con ...
A Lovely Tribute to Kamini's Tassia
A Lovely Tribute to Kamini’s Tassia
Kamini April Fool? Kamini April Fool?
Who wants to go for a walk? Unanimous yes. Quandary in the port: left to Vichos, right to Hydra town, or a dip in the harbor. Happy Spring all. Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in ne ...
Kamini April Fool?
Kamini April Fool?
Romantic August Kamini Sunset Romantic August Kamini Sunset
  But the flip side of our photographic flags a fluttering in the breeze is that with temperatures in the mid 30,s  hot wind can cause deadly wildfires. (As poor Greece has already experienced recently)Please be extra vigilant and always carry water on walks, ...
Romantic August Kamini Sunset
Romantic August Kamini Sunset
Hydra Revisited Hydra Revisited
Honoured to be included. Latest Hydra Book Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend ( ...
Hydra Revisited
Hydra Revisited
Okay who’s next ??? Okay who’s next ???
Easy livin’ August was fun, y’all come back soon y’hear. So that is August in Kamini is almost done and dusted, who’s up for September? We are going to win this season, albeit on marginal points. Happy Fall y’All, still standing KC staf ...
Okay who's next ???
Okay who’s next ???
Not Kamini’s Baby Beach Not Kamini’s Baby Beach
We have heard rumblings about August “Baby Beach” being a tad crowded. Try China for fun bathing then. Surfs Up Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in n ...
Not Kamini's Baby Beach
Not Kamini’s Baby Beach

A Day to Forget

Hollywood made a movie about it, an event that shocked the world. At the time of its occurrence the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking made world headlines, a drama mainly remembered for a poor fellow in a wheelchair being tipped overboard. History can be a fickle thing; another nautical calamity in the late eighties occurred just a few miles down the Saronic Gulf and has gone largely ignored in the annals of terrorism.

A Familiar Sight - 1980's

A Familiar Sight – 1980’s

I was reminded of the incident by a photograph posted on Facebook recently by the Hydra Once upon a Time group of a cruise ship named The City of Hydra that used to visit the Rock daily. I’m pretty sure the circa 1970s date is a bit early, but it and its sister ship, The City of Poros, were a regular sight in Hydra harbour. The Hermes, another three-island-one-day cruise ship of that time (the one which dumped me permanently on the Rock), moored for an hour each afternoon, and the “Cities” took morning shifts.

This particular day was pertinent because an English tourist off the boat was sitting at an adjacent table to us at the Liako, our breakfast club. I remember because when The City of Poros tooted to signify imminent departure, the lady leaned across to us and said she had overheard us speaking English and supposed we were local residents. She then offered us her chunky Sunday Times newspaper, a novel gift in those days as none of us had television or any form of news input apart from the weekly thin Athens News. That evening we started to hear rumours of an almost unbelievable attack on the selfsame cruise ship.

Until a couple of hours later

Until a couple of hours later

There is no point in going into the gory details and specifics of the assault, suffice to say that nine innocent people were slaughtered and almost a hundred tourists hospitalized. The executive officer was made to kneel, it was reported, and executed with a shot pointblank to the back of his head. A bungled car bomb and an escape in a high-speed boat all formed part of the sad antics that day. There is no real point to this blurb, other than as a reminder that insane acts of violence often get comparatively swept under the carpet for reasons we couldn’t fathom. Perhaps to protect tourism?

* * *

A small, quirky twist to this tale is that soon after this tragic attack, security screening and detectors were installed at the Flying Dolphin departure points in Marina Zea. One pushed one’s bag on roller conveyors through an airport type X-ray screening device. Only in Greece; come fall. the usual paraphernalia of islander big-city shopping was shunted through security, including, when hunting season began, shotguns, rifles, and ammunition. With alarms blaring identification of lethal weaponry, the mustachioed gents in camouflage were waved past as normal.

David Fagan
David Fagan is CEO, president, managing director, author, publisher, and chief bottlewasher of DavidFagan.org. On his first visit to Hydra back in 1983, David decided that owning a bar in this exotic location was an ideal way not to spend the rest of his life in the fast-lane of corporate advertising and journalism. It was an idea spawned by the Honorable Bill Cunliffe of Bill’s Bar, renowned wateringhole for anyone who knew this part of the world at the time. He and a couple of old-timers, Anthony Kingsmill and Leonard Bernstein, planted the seed: Come!

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