2024 IDRA
Dear Viewer,
‘Hydra you have stolen my heart’ is what people on Instagram say, the difference is I don’t say it about every Greek Island, definitely not Mykonos, Philipp Plein can have Mykonos.
I have decided Hydra is my newest, lastest, most favorite-est place for vacation despite the fact I am pretty late to the lunch - Cohen, Condo, lots of cats and Giancarlo Giammetti have long love affairs with this beautiful, steep little island.
I’d like to say a big thanks to James the ‘light-artist’ Harvey-Kelly, Giacomo ‘backflips’ Cavalli, Zoë ‘making biscuits’ Barnard, Emily, Craig, Christos, Panos, Siri, Tam, Tom, the fisherman with the little boat, the sweet-hearted mules, the feline population of Hydra for their imperiousness, the French family for their cattiness (that reluctantly and eventually moved 3 metres so we could shoot), and of course the average Hydriot for tolerating us, you guys have great calf muscles. No, Hydriot is not a mean compound word I came up with, the people of Hydra are just great. Thank you.
The Nobel Prize winning Greek poet and diplomat Giorgos Seferis, who spent much time in Hydra really captured it in his extensive poem Mythistorema. Here is an excerpt from Verse 2 which has nothing to do with Hydra (the Hydra bit is later in the poem, Verse 13: “What were you looking for? Why don’t you come? What were you looking for?”). I can’t help but think Seferis is referring to all the calf-blasting stone steps -
We returned to our homes broken,
limbs incapable, mouths cracked
by the tastes of rust and brine.
when we woke we traveled towards the north, strangers
plunged into mist by the immaculate wings of swans that wounded us.
On winter nights the strong wind from the east maddened us,
in the summers we were lost in the agony of days that couldn’t die.
We brought back these carved reliefs of a humble art.
Efkaristo, PCJ.
