An Inconvenient Truth and Aglaia Kremezi

Damn its hot. We got here almost 2 weeks ago and the temperature has been rising ever since. Even in Hora in Kea where it rarely gets unbearably hot and we can usually count on pleasant evenings at least, last night it just stayed hot with a hot Sahara breeze blowing. And it all started with AL Gore.

On June 13th Al Gore flew into Athens and gave a speech at the Megaron that drew such a turnout that they had to open another auditorium and show him on a big screen. He introduced himself as the man who used to be "The Next President of the United States" and then gave his talk that he gives in his film An Inconvenient Truth peppered with references to Greece, calling our stand against global warming, our Thermopylae. Almost every politician was in the audience with the exception of the minister of the environment, surprisingly.(or maybe not).

The Prime Minister pledged to pledged to provide every school in Greece with a copy of An Inconvenient Truth just as the British had in February.

The Athens news came out with a photo of Gore looking quite serious and severe with the headlines 'This is your final warning'.

Since then the temperature has been rising. If Gore wanted the Athenians to see how serious and how dire the situation was he could not have planned it better.

I can't say I am really suffering, but I am on an island in an old house though without AC stays cool because of its location high in a mountain village and the fact that the walls are made of stone and about 3 feet thick. But Athens must be hell especially for those without air-conditioning. For those who have it they are being asked not to use it because of the danger of overloading the system. Last night the village was full of Athenians who had escaped the city for the weekend. It felt more like August than June and though heat waves do happen every summer what makes this frightening is the fact that it is so early and is lasting so long. Last year at this time we were wearing jackets at night.

So how do I keep cool? I eat fruits and vegetables. Stay in the house answering e-mail and updating the site, and then at about 7pm walk down to my car (I had to park about a mile from the village there were so many people here last night) and drive to one of the beaches on the Aegean side of Kea and swim for an hour. The sea is still cool and that swim keeps me cool for the rest of the night.

Last night we went to dinner at Aglaia Kremezi whose books many people have seen in Barnes and Noble's cookbook section. She does these food workshops and tours called Kea Artisinal and the dinner was to welcome the group of chefs, cookbook writers and people who are interested in learning to cook Greek food. Andrea and I had stopped and I put on my mask and flippers and caught a dozen archinous (sea urchins) which I planned to open at the party and serve them while they were still fresh. But Aglalia who really plans these dinners out from one bite to the next, did not seem to pleased with my choice of appetiser and would not let me open them because they would make a mess and bring flies. So I drove them back to the sea and let them go and returned to the dinner. They weren't missed. Aglaia is a great chef. But I have a feeling that for most of those people that was their one opportunity to eat fresh archinous.

Tomorrow we take the tiny ferry Panagia Hozoviotissa which sails around the Cyclades connecting them to the capital island of Syros. Our plan is to spend 2 days in Syros and then take the ferry to Patmos for a few days, stop in Samos to visit my nephew Shane who is spinning pizzas there and end up in Lesvos where we will show the island to my brother James and his family who are on Sifnos right now. The weather should get better by Thursday. I hope. I have been trying to visit Patmos for about 30 years. My father went there in 1964 and you can read about his trip and see his photos on Nick Econopouly's Patmos Page

I will let you know how I like it. Til next time...