Recent Excavations at Ancient Aptera

Legend tells that a musical contest between the Sirens and the Muses led to the defeat of the Sirens, who plucked off their wings, flinging themselves from Aptera down into the sea, falling to form the three islands in Souda Bay.

“Aptera” translates to “featherless”.


Aptera stands above the entrance to the Bay of Souda, beyond the village of Megala Chorafia (which has recently been renamed 'Aptera' village).

Aptera was one of Crete’s most important cities from the fifth century BC until early Christian times.

In 2006 Greek archaeologists unearthed the fortifications of a 2,350-year-old city marked by extensive signs of siege. Of particular importance to research on Aptera's history were signs of battles from the post-Classical era, and the discovery of newborn infants buried near the tower.
Other finds included two well-preserved burial chambers, one of which still retains its subterranean stairs and anteroom.


2009. Archaeologists have now finished the first face of the excavation at the recently discovered amphitheater at Aptera. Originally it was thought to be a Roman theater but actually it dates back to the Hellenistic times and was re built during the Roman occupation of the island.


A path and viewing platform have been built around the amphitheatre and it is now open for public viewing.


My thanks to Nektarios Mavromatakis for the photo and latest information.
Visit Nektarios' informative website all about Aptera at
www.just-crete.co.uk

A Cretan Vendetta Resurfaces

One dead, four wounded in the village of Pervolakia, Municipality of Mythimna, Kissamos, Chania.


An old Vendetta was sparked last Saturday between two familes in Kissamos. A 25 year old man was killed from gunshot wounds, while his mother and brother-in-law were stabbed and two members of the other family were injured by gun pellets.

According to reports, at midday on Saturday members of the Koukoulas family were clearing and burning brush in their field when members of the neighbouring Bonataki family complained about the smoke from the bonfire. It quickly turned into a heated argument as old frictions resurfaced between the two families. One woman, the mother of the deceased, was hit on the head by a stone. Gunshots followed which slightly injured members of both families, while 25 year old Xenofota Koukoulas received a serious gunshot wound to the chest.

The injured were taken to Kissamos Health Centre where the 25 year old died.

A further episode ensued at the health centre, where both the mother and brother-in-law of the deceased were stabbed and received serious knife wounds. They were transferred to Chania hospital but were out of danger.

Two men aged 34 and 26 years were arrested and will appear before Chania magistrates today charged with murder. The police are looking for four other people who are believed to have been involved in the incident.

The village of Pervolakia is now living in fear of further retaliations amongst the families, meanwhile a heavy police presence is patrolling the village and searching vehicles for weapons.


The History

The conflict between the two families began in 1987 over land disputes when Konstantinos Koukoulas, age 66, confronted Georgos Bonatakis, age 47, over damage to his land caused by Bonataki’s grazing sheep. In the argument which ensued Koukoulas shot and killed Georgos Bonatakis with a hunting rifle.

After the murder, the family of Georgos Bonatakis destroyed the home of Konstantinos Koukoulas and also set fire to the home of his brother, Manolis Koukoulas.

Konstantinos Koukoulas was charged with manslaughter and served 6 years in prison.He was released in 1993 but didn’t move back to his village fearing retaliation.

On the evening of 6th May 1999, while sitting on the veranda of his home in the centre of Kastelli, Kissamos, Konstantinos Koukoulas (then aged 75) was shot and seriously injured by crossfire from two different hunting rifles at a distance of 40 meters, sustaining 12 bullet wounds. He was transferred to hospital but died the next morning. Before succumbing to his injuries Koukoulos identified his attackers as two brothers of the Bonataki family. The brothers were arrested and stood trial for the murder, but they were found innocent and released.

Translated from the Haniotika Nea newspaper

Cretan Vendettas

Vendettas in Crete used to be very widespread. Reasons for starting a vendetta were many, but often they started as arguments over sheep stealing, dishonouring a woman or fights over land rights. The result is a series of murders which can go on for decades.

The Scorpions LIVE in Chania and Athens July 2009

German rock legends, The Scorpions have confirmed two concert dates in Greece for July 2009. The first takes place in Athens at Karaiskaki stadium on July 6th and the second in Crete on Saturday July 11th at Perivolia, Chania.

Playing support for the Hania gig will be the Greek band of 'melodic metallers' FIREWIND, who hail from Thessaloniki. Two Firewind releases can be found in the Greek charts this week: their current studio album, "The Premonition", celebrates its 11th week on the chart by re-entering the list at No. 24, and the band's "Live Premonition" album is at No. 22.

Commented Firewind guitarist Gus G.: "We're so happy and proud about the fact that we'll share the stage with our idols — the SCORPIONS!! I personally am a huge fan from their early '70s stuff up to their latest album. It's also the first time that we'll play the beautiful island of Crete — a place where fans have been asking for Firewind for quite some time now."




Tickets for the Greek concerts are due to go on sale shorty. Keep an eye on the Scorpions Official Website

New Airline “Athens Airways” flying Athens to Crete

A new privately owned airline, Athens Airways, has started operating out of Athens airport, with scheduled flights starting at the end of March to Chania and Heraklion airports in Crete.

Flights to and from Athens / Chania start on 26th March 2009 and run twice daily.
Flights to and from Athens/ Heraklion start on 2nd April 2009 and run three times a day.

The airline will be operating a fleet of four small 50 seater jet aircraft.

Fares start at just 1 euro plus taxes (= 19 euros ex HER and CHQ and 34 euros ex ATH).

Athens Airways website and online booking

Olympic Airlines Buyout by MIG

The Greek government has reached a deal over the sale of Olympic Airlines to the investment holding company Marfin Investment Group (MIG).

Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis yesterday said the sale of Olympic Airlines would be a major money-spinner for the Greek state, as details of the new owners’ plans for the carrier began to emerge.

The State will receive 150 million euros per year in taxes, instead of Greek tax payers shelling out 350 million euros per year for the State airline.

MIG has offered a total of 177.2 million euros for the airline, including 45.7 million for Olympic’s flight operations and 16.7 million for its technical base.
Negotiations between MIG and ground-handling firm Swissport for the purchase of Olympic’s ground-handling services for 44.8 million euros are expected to be concluded by the end of the week.

A rival bid by competitor Aegean Airways of 90 million euros, more than double that of MIG, for Olympic’s flight operations was rejected by the government as they believed a merger with Aegean would not meet the approval of the European Commission.
The MIG deal has yet to receive the approval of the European Commission but Brussels is expected to give it the green light this week.

The future of some 8,000 employees currently working for Olympic is set to be decided over the next few weeks. Sources said that MIG plans to offer 2,500 to 3,000 workers early retirement while another 4,500 will be offered jobs in other areas of the public sector, although they will also have the opportunity to apply for positions with the new airline.

MIG is expected to take complete control of the airline in September and part of the deal it has struck with the government is that it will not sell it on for at least another year after that.

There should be no break in schedules for the upcoming months, but from September onwards schedules and frequencies could be changed to incorporate only the most profitable routes.

Founded in 1957 by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, Olympic Airlines was acquired by the state in the 1970s. It has cost taxpayers more than 2 billion euros in the past decade.

Some text from ekathimerini.com

Nationwide scraps foreign purchase promise

The Nationwide Building Society has announced that it will scrap fee free transactions on its debit and credit cards for foreign transactions outside of the UK and Europe.

From the beginning of May charges will be 0.84% per transaction, rising to 1% in July.

Nationwide's fee-free cards were promoted heavily but the country's largest mutual now says that the fee, which is levied by Visa, can no longer be absorbed into day-to-day costs.

Read more here from Times Online

Crete in Bloom

Spring is well and truly underway in Crete. A colourful array of Cretan wild flowers are in bloom.


Clicking the photos will enlarge them to see in detail

Initiative for a "green" Gavdos

The Technical Chamber of Greece, Western Crete (TEE) has put forward the island of Gavdos for selection after the Minister of Development announced that Greece will establish a "Green Island", an energy - autonomous island covering all the needs of each energy form using sun, wind, biomass and waves.

The Ministry / EU will provide funding of projects for the chosen island and the TEE Crete put forward their arguments that Gavdos is the ideal location for implementing this initiative, thus:

- It is the southernmost threshold of the EU and has great potential for RES (unprecedented sunshine, wind force, etc.). The energy needs of the island are relatively small, served by oil generators and photovoltaic systems

- The morphology and scattered populations of the island suggest facilitating implementation of the interventions that will be required at minimum cost.

- It is not interconnected with the electrical system of Crete and will be the first globally interconnected non-energy island. The total cost required will be very limited, providing the possibility of funding another island also.
Haniotika Nea

Gavdos Island Quick Facts

- Gavdos is the southernmost point in Europe and lies off the South west coast of Crete, 22 miles from Sfakia.

- During the summer months there are daily boats from Sfakia and Paleochora to Gavdos.

- The year-round inhabitants of the island number 45 people.

Is it a plane, is it the Martians ? What the heck?

Forced landings in Athens due to rashermartization and passengers with pain in the years.

What's that? The Martians have landed? Martians are bacon? Their passengers have years which feel pain? What the heck?

Here's the news report:
Athens. Second plane forced landed at Athens airport in the frames of several hours, RIA Novosti informs.
Airplane of Air Company Alitalia, which was flying from Milano to Kairo forced landed due to a problem with one of the passenger’s health. He was taken to hospital and the plane continued the flight.
Early Airplane Boeing with 192 passages forced landed in Athens. The reason for the forced landing is rashermartization. Five people have reportedly been injured. The plain was travelling from Manchester to Kairo.
The people who were taken to hospital complained of pain in the years.

Oh and I mustn't forget the credit : © 2009 All rights reserved Focus. Reproducing this website’s contents requires obligatory reference to FOCUS Information Agency!

Thank you Focus agency for the laugh. Keep up the good work!
(With apologies to those who injured their years)

Edit Update @ 3rd March
Have seen a number of Google searches for rashermartization bring up this post. So to clarify: there is no such word, perhaps there is in Bulgarian but not in English!

The article should have read 'depressurization' was the cause of the forced landing so assume that those who were hospitalised had complained of pain in their 'ears' !