Fri 20.Nov.2009
Iráklio, Crete, Greece
Roadside Rubble
A fenced-off pile of rubble by a city street. Pretty interesting
rubble!
Is that Arabic script? The Otttomans used that. So what is this
stuff? I dunno, but nobody seems very concerned about it.
Lazy Lighting
When nature gives you lighting like this, a photographer hardly needs
to work at all, even with a city as generally un-photogenic as
Iraklio.
The Venetian Harbor, today a yacht harbor, is pretty enough under it's
guardian fortress. It is dwarfed by the adjacent concrete port, where
the ferries dock.
This capital of the island Region of Crete is a hard-working,
rough-edged port city of 300,000 or so; a medium-size city that does
its hard-working best to jangle your nerves as jarringly as any of its
bigger counterparts. Overrun with concrete and traffic, mostly in need
of a wash or a paint job. A few streets around the central square have
been pedestrianized to soften the edges just a bit, but Iraklio is in
the league with Athens itself for "See what you came for and move on."
What you came for is most likely Knosssos of which more in subsequent
posts.
Clouds of Birds
Huge clouds of individuallly smallish birds. Flowing, pulsing like
airborne blobs of mercury. These flocks have come out at dusk for two
evenings in a row now. They settle into some kinds of trees, like the
one shown here, chirping up
the music of a thousand slipping fan belts.
There were at least two clouds of these birds around where I was
standing yesterevening. Sometimes they would
merge and fly as one huge cloud, then separate again, and wheel and
swoop as separate, merely big clouds. Spellbinding to watch!
Changing the subject...
I'll accept NO PARKING, and the line
above it seems to say the same in Greek.
But what do you suppose Idiotikos Choros means, and why is it
being said here? Inquiring minds...
Christmas Windows
Sunnuvagun, it is Christmas shopping season, even thought Christmas is
not until next year (January 7th, Greece being an Orthodox country.)
Shop windows are already festive for the season. Is fir-and-snow really
a motif native to Crete?
Does it matter? Makes for purty enough window displays.
Hanging out around Platia Venizelou, aka Fountain Square or Four Lions Square,
after a Venetian-era fountain featuring four stone lions. This square
is more or less the center of the pedestrianized district.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf