greek news - summer of 2016

We don't watch much news in the summertime.  It is too hot to sit inside and watch the television.  Yesterday we set up our outdoor TV on the balcony, a little old set, flat screens being still a thing of the future for us.  This is for sitting out after 9pm and watching the Euro 2016 soccor matches, maybe Wimbledon in a few weeks and then the Olympics.  

  Parliament will vote for our economic destruction whether we watch or not and then the MPs will all go for summer holidays to their villas on Myconos.  

 I look at the weather forecast now and again, heaven knows why.  Every day will be hot, hot and hotter till September.

However, always there is a 'however'.  I have been aware of a few events.

We welcomed Pope Francis, we saw Putin close up.  Latest big-wig to visit was Head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon.  He visited refugees on the island of Lesvos.  The UN Refugee Agency says one in 122 persons are now a refugee or seeking asylum.  Incredible.

Archeology -

Tablets were found in an ancient grave near Athens engraved with curses aimed at four tavern keepers.  A drunk kicked out for making mayhem?  Five tablets were found pierced with an iron nail and asking the underworld Gods to 'put the plague' on those named.  Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble.  

The above quote is of course from Shakespeare's MacBeth.  And I decided to check it online.  The quote is wrong.  It is -

Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

I'm always learning.

A partly sunken port has been found in Piraeus harbour.  These ruins, lying in heavily polluted waters,  played a vital role in the Battle of Salamis in which the Athenian fleet  beat the Persians and saved the city of Athens.  2,500 year old naval bases and fortifications have been identified, showing just how great was the Athenian Navy back then.  Archeologists seem to think these finds are as important as the Parthenon.

Matala Festival - Matala is a small town in Crete  where hippies gathered in the 60's and 70's living in caves carved out of the rock.  It was a sleepy fishing village till the hippies congregated there and is now a modern tourist attraction.  This modern festival  took place on the beach near the caves. As of old the music and dancing continued for days.

Joni Mitchell, the Canadian folk singer wrote her 1971 song 'Carey' about her time with the Matala hippies.

And Br-exit.  I'm beginning to wish there had been a Gr-exit when we were first threatened.  We might be on our way out of this mess by now.