'The Island' being serialised in Crete for Greek TV

Victoria Hislop's best selling novel 'The Island' is being serialised for Greek Mega TV and is currently being filmed on location in Crete.

'The Island' is (loosely) based on real events concerning the life of the inhabitants of Plaka and Spinalonga in Crete, who are faced with leprosy (Hansen's disease).

The shooting of the series started in December 2009 by the producers TVE (Tileoptikes Business SA) and Indigo View (a Chania based audiovisual production company). Pre-production began a year ago, with the construction of scenery and costume preparation.

The award-winning movie director, Theodore Papadoulakis, from Chania (his films have won awards both in Greece and 24 international awards abroad) is directing the series.

The adaptation (which is in Greek) of the best seller has been written by Mirella Papaoikonomou, a writer with enormous success in Greek television.

Leading roles will be played by Stelios Maina, as George the boatman, and Katerina Lehou as his wife, a teacher from Plaka who is affected by leprosy and transferred to Spinalonga, leaving behind her husband and two daughters.

The series is being shot on location in Crete at Plaka, Spinalonga, Elounda, Agios Nikolas and Chania.

Haniotika Nea

Ecotourism in Crete

Ecotourism is environmentally responsible tourism, supporting nature, cultural heritage and contributing to the local community, Travellers should be encouraged to minimise their impact on the eco system and support green practices.

Agrotourism - or agritourism - is an expansion of ecotourism in which visitors are encouraged to partake in farming and agricultural activities.

Crete has much to offer in sustainable tourism through her nature and cultural heritage. Holidays in the ‘real’ Crete are popular amongst the environmentally aware. Renting a village house or farm helps to support the local community and encourages the preservation of architectural heritage through the renovation of.. read the full article

Apokries (already?!)

Apokries starts early this year, from tomorrow, Sunday 24th January 2010.


The opening of the book of the Triodion, the Three Holy sacraments will take place tomorrow and marks the start of Apokries.

Apokries is the time of the Greek carnival, mardi gras, and lasts for three weeks leading up to Lent. The first day of Lent is called Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera) and marks the start of Lenten fasting.

Throughout the three week Apokries period Greece comes alive with masqueraders, parties and carnivals.

Read all about Apokries week by week here

EasyJet to Chania 2010 - It's Official

From today EasyJet flights to Chania, Crete go on sale on their website.

The Easyjet flights between Gatwick and Chania start on 23rd May and run until 29th September 2010 according to the first information.

Flights are three times a week on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Sunday

On November 4th 2009 the liklihood of Easyjet flying into Chania in 2010 was publicised in the local Crete daily Haniotika Nea and was covered in this blog entry

Since then, rumours have been flying back and forth in Crete about whether the route was on or off. The local Haniotika Nea confirmed on January 8th that the route was definitely ON, but there had been no news from Easyjet.

The same day, January 8th, Easyjet announced their Gatwick expansion plans, yet did not name the new routes, saying a forthcoming announcement would take place 'in a few weeks'.

We are still awaiting for the 'official announcement' any time soon. Meanwhile the Hania flights are already bookable online. Good news for tourism (and residents) in western Crete!

www.easyjet.com

The Kallikratis Plan – Big local Government changes

Last Monday, 11th January , the Greek government presented their plan to merge local municipalities, named the 'Kallikratis' plan.

Although it has many aspects, the main element to Kallikratis is the plan to do away with the 76 prefectures that currently span the country and replace them with 13 larger regions. Similarly, 1,034 municipalities will be whittled down to less than 370.

In the case of Crete, for example, the four prefectures of Crete (Chania, Rethymnon, Heraklion, Lassithi) will be become one prefecture for the whole of Crete. The number of municipalities (dimos) will be decreased and merged into larger Dimos’ – for example in Chania the Dimos’ of New Kydonia, Souda, Akrotiri would no longer exist and they will become part of Dimos Chania.


The plan is named Kallikratis after one of the two architects who worked on the Parthenon. Apparently the government chose to name the municipality restructure plan after Kallikratis in order to stress "its revolutionary character".

Prime Minister George Papandreou today said the government is determined to proceed with the "Kallikratis" reform and merger plan in public administration and local government, stressing that "the Greek people voted us into office to make changes, not patches". He said the plan has wide acceptance among the public and emphasised the critical importance of the Kallikratis plan for local government, saying this would bring about fundamental and much-needed reforms to public sector administrative structures.

There is opposition to the plan amongst other political parties, and even within Papandreou’s own PASOK party, where some ministers’ main worry appears to be that the politicians who are elected heads of the 13 regions will have too much power and influence.

It is intended that the programme will be ratified by May at the latest, with local government elections to take place on 14th November 2010 under the new set-up of fewer municipalities. The new municipal and regional authorities will then be created on January 1, 2011 with the newly elected officials.

Sources:ANA-MPA, ekathimerini

Viking sets up Greek airline

Viking Airlines has started a Greek operation and is launching a three times weekly service from Manchester to Athens with onward connections to Iraq from February 1.

The new arm of Sweden-based Viking Airlines AB is called Viking Hellas Airlines and is based in Athens.

Its Manchester-Athens route is targeting leisure tourists. The connections to Iraq will target Iraqi ex-pats, and eastern Europeans looking for work in Iraq.

Viking Hellas also has agreements with Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines to provide connections from Athens to Greek cities and islands, the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Travel Trade Gazette & more

Jobs in Greece 2010

Jobs in Greece 2010
Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Kos, Ios, Paros, Zante, Mykonos, Santorini. Summer jobs in the Greek Islands.





Looking for work in Greece this summer?

Each year there are thousands of summer jobs in Greece and the Greek Islands. If living and working in Greece is your dream this summer, start planning and take action now ..
Go to Summer jobs in the Greek Islands

Crete & Greece in Top 10 Travel Destinations 2010

The tourism industry in general took a big hit in the 2009 recession, with booking numbers dropping significantly across the Euro zone in particular with the devaluation of the pound.

The outlook for 2010 is a little more optimistic as thousands who stayed at home in 2009 say they will travel abroad in 2010.

Co-operative Travel, the UK’s biggest chain of independent agents, said bookings for the top 20 summer 2010 destinations have risen sharply in the past three months

Trevor Davis, director of retail distribution at Co-operative Travel, said: “As the holiday sector recovers, the battle for bookers will intensify, with firms seeking to increase their market share after a challenging 12 months.”

The Turkish resort of Dalaman has seen an 82 per cent increase in bookings and has taken over from Majorca as the No. 1 destination in 2010.
Majorca is now in second place, with Orlando, Florida, third, the Spanish Costa Blanca fourth and the Greek island of Crete fifth.

Meanwhile, the Lonely Planet guides recently unveiled the fifth annual collection of the world’s best journeys, destinations and experiences for the year ahead with the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2010. Greece is listed in the Top 10 Countries for 2010 (the others are El Salvador, Germany, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nepal, Suriname, USA ). About Greece, Lonely Planet say “Seldom does a travel destination satisfy the blurbs that shout ‘has something for everyone’ - but Greece truly does. Whether you’re there to poke around ancient ruins, soak in the sun on idyllic beaches, or party till you drop, Greece will leave you clamouring for more."

Related Reading,Crete Travel articles:
Crete's Top Ten Destinations & Attractions

Five Islands to visit off the Crete coast

Getting Married in Crete

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2010.









From Chania, Crete, 1st January 2010 New Year