Hydra: The Gaze of the Xenos (2) and of Two Cats

Medicane in the Aegean Sea: Mediterranean Hurricane; Storm Gales Rage On; "Xenophon"

We're all stuck om Hydra as the winds keep blowing. They must be around 8 Beaufort (34 knots) right now. Some reports suggest that squalls reached 10 Beaufort during the night.

In the afternoon, the island remains completely cut off from the mainland, thanks to "Xenophon".

Συγκλονιστική μάχη του Superunner με ανέμους 9-10 μποφόρ στο λιμάνι της Ραφήνας, in.gr

Worse to come?

Medicane to reach Greece on Thursday night, eKathimerini

36-Foot Waves Expected as Greece Braces for Cyclone Hit on Saturday, Greek Reporter

Update: we made it back to Athens on Friday evening, with the wind at around 6 Beaufort.


Yacht on the rocks, Lakonia: video on Facebook  Βίντεο: Παναγιώτης Παλούκης


Ships destroyed, homes ruined and buildings flooded after cyclone 'Zorba' batters Greece with winds of 55mph and torrential rain, Mail Online


Ferries, ships traffic in Greece still disrupted due to extreme weather, KTG, 30 Sept 2018

250 tourists evacuated after Medicane Zorbas caused flash floods on Skiathos, KTG

Hydra: Haunted by Leonard Cohen, George Johnston and Charmian Clift

See the photo in this article (eKathimerini)

Leonard Cohen arrives on Hydra - March 1960

Το νησί του Leonard Cohen, Greek film

Where is my gypsy wife tonight? Leonard Cohen

Professor Richard Nile at Douskos

On the walls of Douskos Taverna:

Boy on a Dolphin

Painting by Linniotis Evangelos

Painting by Rappas Panagiotis
(son-in-law/gambros of the taverna owner, Stavros Stef. Douskos)

Katsikas Taverna (now Roloi):

Panayiotis Katsikas at the Roloi (formerly Katsikas Taverna)

Hydra Scenes:

Napoleon presented one of the chandeliers

Peter Bull on Hydra in 1963 (It Isn't All Greek To Me, 1967):

"I decided to visit Hydra. It is absolutely beautiful but at the time of my brief sojourn it was full of Students of Life from England and America who could have found out most of the info for which they were searching in an evening on the King's Road or Forty-Second Street. In fact it was very little different, atmosphere-wise, from what I had just escaped in Spain...Hopefully I sped across Greece in a high-powered bus and ended up in Albert Finney's villa in Corfu".

"Australia House", Hydra: George Johnston and Charmian Clift Lived Here

Hydra's Water Supply, from Hydra Direct

Solastalgia: A New Word for Stress/Distress Caused by Environmental Change

Solastalgia

"Solastalgia is a new concept developed to give greater meaning and clarity to environmentally induced distress. As opposed to nostalgia – the melancholia or homesickness experienced by individuals when separated from a loved home – solastalgia is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment".

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