Hydra, Day 2: The Ghika House (Ruin); The Leonard Cohen House

The Ghika Mansion (burned down 1961)

Paddy Leigh Fermor on Hydra, drawing by Ghika (Benaki Museum Exhibition):

"Henry Miller"

Hallelujah!

From "Leonard Cohen: Beautiful Creep", Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, New York, 28/12/1967:

"I wrote Beautiful Losers on Hydra, when I thought of myself as a loser. I  was wiped out, I didn't like my life. I vowed I would just fill the pages with black or kill myself. After the book was over, I fasted for ten days and flipped out completely. It was my wildest trip. I hallucinated for a week. They took me to a hospital on Hydra. One afternoon, the whole sky was black with storks. They alighted on all the churches and left in the morning...and I was better. Then I decided to go to Nashville and become a songwriter".

Also quoted in Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen, edited by Jeff Burger, Omnibus Press, 2014