Volume 2, Issue 2, February 2008

Journalism as never before

Contents

Around Town

Carnival Preparations

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Positive Messages for 2008 Preparations for Carnival which starts later this month are well under way (you will find details of listings on the following page). We’re anticipating that this year’s celebrations will be really special. The council has been working hard to promote the event, both here and abroad, along with local carnival teams, we will also be welcoming floats from as far away as Hania and Athens.

The council has been keen to try and inject more of the traditional aspects into the festivities. When we interviewed the mayor for the January issue of the Bugle, he expressed concern that the carnival was starting to lose its unique Cretan flavour and was “Becoming too much like Rio.”

Rethymnon carnival is the biggest on Crete and the fourth biggest in Greece. All manner of festivities, many of which are steeped in history, take place over the three weeks leading up to ‘Clean Monday’. You can find out more about the traditions associated with carnival in our February 2007 issue of the Bugle. Carnival finishes on 9th March, look out for our round-up of festivities in April!

Parking Your Submarine in Rethymnon
	Parking in Rethymnon always makes for ‘interesting’ photos. And yes, the weather was extreme, but the Bugle team would like to make a couple of small suggestions: Firstly, maybe the car park by the port isn’t the best spot for your vehicle on a rainy day. Secondly, if you fancy a romantic walk round the base of the fortress, watch out for tidal waves. As for sipping cocktails at sun-down by the water’s edge, forget it unless you’ve got a wet-suit. In our mini photo montage you can see the sea at its wildest on a late January Day. Happily our photo journalist didn’t get washed away!

Sporting Life: Some Good News

Well it is for football in town at any rate. After nearly two months without playing competitive football, local football team Asteras have started the New Year with a bang. So far they have had two wins and one draw. Come on you blue and yellows! Unfortunately our female soccer players aren’t doing quite as well, having lost two matches, drawn one and won one.

New Year has not brought any change in fortunes for Agor, our basketball team. This is hardly surprising as we were pitted against the top three teams of the league, Aris (away), Panathanaikos and Olympiakos at home. In true Cretan optimistic style local spectators said that ‘we played very well’, but not well enough to win any points…..

On a positive note, the women’s basketball team OKA Arkadi are reaching for the stars. They are now champion of the Cretan league and are preparing for the play-offs for promotion to the A2 league.

As for volleyball? Well, regular readers will perhaps not be entirely surprised to learn that once again, the less said, the better.

Glass Recycling: Yellow Bins...?

Good Bin

Bad Bin

Yellow bins for glass recycling have now started to appear around town. As you can see, though, in order for recycling to work the bins have to be used for the correct purpose, and it helps if they get emptied regularly! So far we have seen quite a few bins in town — one on the main road opposite the big pink building, one in Melissinou (same street as Fortezza hotel), some on Moatsou, some by the marina and one at the top of the beach road by the Venetian Harbour. If readers spot any more please let us know so we can publicize their whereabouts. And any photos of bins that should be ‘named and shamed’ are always welcome!

Blue bins for paper, plastic and tin cans are now to be found all over the centre of Rethymnon. They are also starting to sprout up in villages in the region — for example, Armeni now has a couple. Here, too, if readers can let us know of locations we’d be grateful (you’ll find contact details on our This Month page).

Bugle Roving Reporters