Greece monkey

I'd forgotton just how chaotic Athens is! It has been 19 years, 6 months and 14 days (approximately) since my last vist here, and they still haven't repaired that old building on top of the rock. There are cars everywhere, double and even triple parked, and they come at you from all angles, complete with hordes of mopeds that sound like a demented swarm of wasps. Packs of dogs (friendly mostly) roam the streets or kip out on the sidewalk, and people just step over them. There are unguarded potholes and excavations everywhere you walk, so you need to keep your wits about you, and your nostrils are continually assailed with several aromas all at one time.

I'm staying in the Port of Pireaus (pronounced 'Pirry Ass' by the locals and they should know) and the weather is clear, blue skied and about 18-20 degrees - very pleasant after 6 degrees at Gatwick yesterday. It's like a British summer (remember those?) I love the Mediterranean style of life - old boys sat out in ricketty chairs playing with their worry beads, ornate wrought iron roadside barriers, the trees heavy with oranges, greenery down every street I walk, and the laissez faire attitude of everyone - 'no problem'....

I'm here to speak at the ICODL conference (on Open and Distance Learning), which opens tomorrow in some strange part of Athens that no-one seems to know the location of. My colleague Mark Townsend from the University of Plymouth will be flying out to join me tonight, and there's safety in numbers. The hotel clerk last night was very surly, didn't crack a smile, and ignored most of my questions. There's going to be a battle! Going off now to spy out the best and most rustic tavernas... Κύριε ἐλέησον!

Cooking in Greece

It's a sweltering 37 degrees plus here in Heraklion today, and it's Sunday, a day of rest. I have seen several bearded Greek Orthodox priests milling around in their black robes and pillbox hats, and wonder how they keep cool. The heat is bearable if you can find periodic shade, but we're all cooking here. I guess you could say that we are the Sunday roast... The conference closed yesterday and ended with a Greek night. The remaining ICICTE conference delegates (those whose heads weren't hammering a Cozy Powell solo) have just returned from a short trip out to visit the ruined palace of Knossos. It's a site that has seen earthquake after earthquake, but each time, the palace was rebuilt using the technology of the time. They simply built over what went previously. Then it fell to complete ruin and was buried and only excavated again around 1878. Now it's a visitors centre, and it's crawling with tourists.

It is so easy to focus on the ruins when you go to Knossos - that's what most people go there for. But I was reminded by a colleague that the palace was originally purposed so that people could look out and enjoy the stunning scenery that surrounds the site. So that's what I did - looked out. And it was beautiful. So often, when we repurpose new learning technologies and build them onto the old ones, we tend to look inwards at what they are and what they can do. Instead, we should be looking outwards, through them, so seeing how we can use new technologies to communicate with each other and share our ideas better. I'm flying out tomorrow, and will be glad to get back home, but it's been an interesting and rewarding experience here in Crete.