In the last few weeks there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle in Greece, in the travel industry in particular, about a new proposal by the Greek government. They plan to introduce a bill which will require hotels, casinos, ports and airports to play a minimum of 45% Greek language songs and music. You can read more here.
Greek people don’t like being told what to do, especially by the government, and you can just imagine hotel owners saying, or rather shouting: ‘Who the hell do they think they are, telling me what music to play in my hotel!?’ The hotelier is probably already playing 100% Greek music, but he doesn’t like being told that he has to, by law.
We love hearing Greek music when we’re in Greece, and it’s fun to have a bet on how many hours after your arrival you’ll first hear the familiar strains of ‘Zorba the Greek’ or ‘Never on a Sunday’. And we love it when we come across live Greek music by accident:
Or on a Greek night with traditional Greek dancing thrown in:
Donna’s music duo even has a Greek name: Meraki. (They don’t play Greek music but they do have a YouTube channel, here.)
But what about you? Let’s have a poll! How exciting, we’ve never used the poll feature before, but why not?
That’s it for this week, as we’re actually away travelling when you get this, so we’re writing it in advance.
Till next time, when we’ll be travelling home.
Mike and Donna
Nothing worse than being in a Greek taverna or cafe and hearing techno music or something from the United States (horror of horrors is hearing U.S. country music in Greece). And, please, turn off the television, regardless of whether it's the news, a Greek soap opera or the Greek version of Wheel of Fortune!
I remember my first night in Greece sitting at a beachfront restaurant being serenaded by...(bad) reggae. Disappointing.