Greek Cats and Pandemic Travel Musings

There’s no running from the truth. This post, as most of the Internet, was born from cat pictures. I nevertheless felt that the Zakynthian bestiary could not be topped. Perhaps I could go for a more serious topic. Like that moment when you extricate yourself from a ’50 pictures that prove cats are liquid’ collection…

All Them Lovely Beaches- Where to Swim and be Reborn on Hydra

At seven in the morning in early September, the light over Hydra is more of an impression than reality, a fluid veil of burnt orange sneaking over the hills. The port is hidden from the rising sun, like a pearl inside its shell, by the barren, burnished cliffs that run across the island, like the…

Looking for Leonard-A Pilgrimage to Hydra

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is one of the most misunderstood and misused songs ever written. Just recently, it was played during a rally by Donald Trump’s campaign team. It has a special charm with purportedly religious people, because they misinterpret the hallelujah. Understandably, Cohen’s estate put out a few words making it clear that they had…

Six Cats of Zakynthos

Breakfast Cat, feline in residence of Argasi’s Family Inn hotel and bar. General traits: dignified demeanour, underlined by a gracious but insistent limp: I am wounded, help me, minion. Will materialize out of nothing like a Hellenic Cheshire cat at the first clink of a plate in the morning. Food of preference: bacon, ideally dislodged…

Life is a Beach- Zakynthian Holiday Part Two

I found it very odd that the promotional plastic bags of Zakynthos (every even moderately touristy location should obviously have its own promotional bags) affectionately call it the Island of Culture. Perhaps it’s the already mentioned ubiquitous presence of Dionysios Solomos permeating the island air, for otherwise Zakynthos is probably one of the least cultural…

The Isle of Alexis the Great- Zakynthian Holiday Part One

Having gotten over our failed sailing project, it’s time now for the practicalities of this most tentative of Zakynthos guides, and we’ll start with the beginning, namely how to get there and around once you’ve arrived.  Ensconced in the greenery above Laganas bay lies Zakynthos’s understated airport affair, going by the official name of Dionysios…

Tutti Liberi Subito- Best of Travel 2015

Too much cheap bullshit has been blown into the bloodstream of the Internet about how you should be a traveler, and not a tourist, so much so that the original statement has lost much of its meaning. What does being a traveler imply, after all, besides some Instagram shots of the second most interesting thing…

Best of 2015- Cats

I was a cat fiend way before the domestic feline became the absolute ruler of the internet. I don’t know how it came to pass, but I just never liked dogs, albeit the first pet I recall was actually our mongrel Vuk (a dog named after a fox called wolf, what can I say), who…