19th June 2008 Early Season Roundup

The season is now well and truly under way and we've had some great times already this year and looking forward to lots more so I'll try to bring you up to date with a few events, places and news from Elounda 2008 so far.

The beginning of the season has seen traditional civic and church events that have brought people out onto the streets or into the garden for family BBQs including Easter weekend and the prcoession from the church to celebrate Constandinos and Eleni. Events like this mean that the move from Spring to Summer is a great time to be in the village and time seems to speed by. The mountainsides turn from green to dry brown as the earth dries out with increasingly warm and arid days.

In May and June we held our first few evening events of the season. Apologies that they're not yet quite as regular as we wanted. Someone has already pointed out that it is now only four and a half months to the next St Amstel's Day! Please, just carry on watching this space and bear with us! Upcoming events include a G2G in Hellas and at least one more new location plus a DDC @ Sea event. If you weren't there then you've already missed out on the G2G @ FRienDS, A Night of Global Grooves @ Pevko and Groove Juice @ Symbol so far this year plus quite a few open invite/private parties, including the triple birthday with Sam playing Hellas for the first time in a fair few years. It was brilliant to catch up with so many friends from both the village and the makeitgreece.net forums. I missed the most recent DDC event having flown to the UK that morning but c'est la vie. Our spy on the stage tells me that it was one groovin' night. Don't forget you can catch Michael / Mike Dread singing at a number of locations around the village and Sam plays Symbol Club late on a number of nights each week. Keep an eye on the News page for details of July's upcoming G2G, DDC or similar happenings.

What's been going on around the village then?

Something that we've all now experienced and think is great news. Kanali is the reopened, but reassuringly similar, Canal Bar. Well worth a stop, even on a ridiculously windy day like the time we went down to check it out. There's a great buzz about a new Kafenio opened on the seafront on the way back from Kanali. Drop into Paparouna (Poppy's), another excellent destination for a coffee or bite to eat. It's on our itinerary, as are those where we hold events and other perennial favourites like Alyggos and Hellas Bar. Additional usual haunts we've checked out recently with friends include Mediterranean, Babel , Rendezvous, Bar74 , Bar Bee and Evangelias Bars, Maritsa , Select and Moxanios Kafenion, and many others besides. Its a shame we didn't have chance to get in every one of them but ace to know there's such a wide choice of great places in the area, and for all times of the day or night.

Work is progressing on the new road. In June 2008 most of the work was centred around the hillside area to the south west of Kato Elounda. We've put up a couple of video clips in the YouTube group taken from where the work crosses the foothills of Oxa (above Elounda Heights on the road leading up to Elounda Residence). You can see some of the work in the shot below, taken from approximately the same position and showing where the new road cuts horzontally across the middle of the picture in the distance.

You can see it in better light in another of our shots that we sent up to Flickr

There have been lots of attractive paving stones put down on some of the side streets

There are now a number of new rush parasols on the beach which are an attractive addition.

The bay continues to be a popular destination for international sailors and craft of all different types and sizes have been seen in the bay under local and foreign flags including this attractive classic craft below, flying the Luxembourg flag

Work continues on new hotel developments at the Plaka end of the bay. Renovation projects are underway and new villas and apartments are being built all around including Mavrikano and Mirabello

There is now a parking charge in Schisma covering the harbour and beach areas. At the time of writing the price was 1.50, 2 and 3.5 Euros for 1, 3 and 6 hours respectively. Tickets can be purchased from the kiosk, tourist information and other vendors.

Recycling bins have appeared around the village. Separate your rubbish and dispose of organic, metallic, paper and plastics in the appropriate manner. Some general local bins are now getting extremely full at times, even with regular collection. Residents can ease the problem by separating out waste that belongs in the recycling bins and reducing their general waste.

Personally it's been great being involved with the DDC nights. It's excellent fun with friends and I love that they are evenings that people really seem to enjoy. This site's directory has been updated with some new pictures taken during a research wander around the village over a couple of days at the start of June and we've added details and links for a number of businesses that have contacted us recently. Some lists have been consolidated and we've featured a wide range of shops we snapped on our travels around.

If you wish to get your business added or update your info then please use the 'Webcards' link at the bottom of our pages or catch us in person at a Get Together or other social / networking event. We do try to respond to all interest and keep lists up to date but please do not be offended if we have missed out your business so far this year. Submit it for this summer and we'll get round to it asap. What do you ideally need to plug into our new pages? All businesses supplying information for their first entry at our site should still fill in the 'Webcards' form. Both old and new layout pages will normally include a photo and link through to any existing website that a business may have, but soon each will have the option to display their latest news on their directory page at Elounda77.net just by supplying us with a RSS/XML feed location. Promote your daily local offers, share your thoughts or information with our viewers with a feed straight from your blog or other source. Syndicate your content into your webcard at our site and tell our readers what's new at your place this month/week/day.

This season we've listed and seen turnover of businesses and property for sale in the area. We wish Gwynn and family from Oasis all the best and no worries on the Harley trail and a warm welcome to the new owners. Various reasons mean a number of businesses are for sale in the area and you're reminded of our featrured ones at Property-and Business-Greece.com. New webcards and websites this season have come from Davies Property and Prime Properties in that sector alone.

Elounda.TV now redirects as a shortcut to our YouTube video group and we recently launched EloundaHolidays.com for tips, info, ads and links for booking Elounda Holidays from the UK.

Finally, I'd like to welcome Rita aka Sanghita onboard aswell. Another good friend now online. Keep an eye out for her pictures, video and pages.

Anyway, that's it for now so catch you soon in the village and hoping you're having a great summer wherever you are,

Mike :)