My summer holidays (the severely abridged version)

Proof that I had fun is the fact that I hardly wrote a word the whole month. I actually harboured crazy hopes that would write as much as two chapters. Then I got there and reality hit. I was on an island. Camping on sand dunes under cedar trees above an idyllic beach with golden sand, clear green-blue sea and lots of good looking naked men (it was a quasi-nudist beach), was I seriously going to pass my time writing? I am embarrassed to say that I do not have such strength of character.

What I did do was get a nice dark suntan, do a lot of swimming and meet new people. What’s remarkable with free camping is how much easier it is to meet people. You can’t not meet your neighbours, for one. Also it proves really easy to invite total strangers, who you see cooking over fires and gas heaters, if they want to eat with you. Everyone pools their food and drink together and you have a dinner party!

We did a bit of exploring and sight seeing (there weren’t actually any sights on the island), but for most of the time we just lazed around. On the beach, at the taverna, in the shade on the sand dunes. So many days passed where I did nothing and yet didn’t get bored. That’s the life!

The island was Gavdos, the southernmost island of Greece – and Europe. It’s a whole journey to get there from Athens. A boat and then a bus and then another boat. But it’s worth it. It’s one of the few islands where you can free camp without a problem. Also there is no real tourism (hardly any foreigners even know about the island) and only lately has development slowly begun with rented rooms and more tavernas.

So much happened in so little time and most of it incidental, the you-had-to-be-there sort of things. One thing was for sure, I had a shock upon returning to civilisation. I am certainly thinking of going there again next year, even though I don’t often go to the same place twice. The thing about Gavdos is not the actual island, but the ambiance and the people. Which means that every time is different.

More ranting about the fires

I come back from my holidays to find that a great part of my country (Greece) went up in flames while I was away. Not that I hadn’t actually heard of it before (there is no place on this planet without mobile phones), but I was ignoring the horrifying reality until I got back and saw the newspaper headlines and the live footage. Now, like most Greeks, I’m feeling saddened and furious. Like there’s a hole in my heart where the forests (and the villages) that were burnt used to be. Like if I sit and really think about it I will cry, so I don’t.

I’m assuming that the damage was so big that we got worldwide coverage and everyone knows about the fires and the deaths. Some of the most beautiful places in Greece: Pelio, Taigetos, Euboea, Parnitha and even groves inside Athens. I was away, but I am told the sky went dark with the smoke and the ash for days, even in the suburb where I live which was far from the fires.

One of the reasons we are all so angry is that it wasn’t only the winds and the heat waves and the incompetence of the fire-fighters and the state. Everyone knows that the majority of fires were arson. The reason why might only interest those into politics and town planning.

The sector of the economy that generates the most money and the most work in Greece is the building sector. Thus the Ministry Of the Environment, Town Planning and Public Works is obviously the most corrupt. The majority of buildings in Greece are more or less illegal in some way or another. Some are even completely illegal, as in they are built in forest or littoral areas where building is prohibited and don’t have a licence. Most town planning departments can unforunately be bought off. (I have seen it happen. I am working for an architect who does it all the time.)

Now apart from all that Greece happens to also be a country without a proper cadastre (: an official register of the quantity, value, and ownership of real estate used in apportioning taxes). It’s embarrassing really. For the past ten years a public corporation has been created to put together a cadastre. Its slow work and they’ve hardly got anything done yet.

When will I get to the point? Put the two above together and add the fact that for a number of months before summer came, parliament had been talking about this cadastre and amending the laws concerning it and what land would be considered forest land and what wouldn’t. The motion had been put forward to ignore the existing forestry maps as out of date (they date from the 40s I think) and to put together new ones. Obviously the public together with such bodies as the Technical Chamber, the Lawyer’s Association and the Forestry Department have been up in arms about it for months now. Everybody knows that the new forest maps will definitely not include all the forests that were just burnt, just like word has already got out that the government has already given a large area of the newly burnt Parnitha (a supposed National Park) to the casino that just happens to be situated next to it.

I’m starting to feel a bit sickened by the whole thing, so I’ll stop writing now and hopefully stop thinking about it.