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Sounion is the setting for several episodes in Greek mythology and is specifically mentioned as a place of religious significance in Homer’s Odyssey. In some myths it is the spot where the Athenian king Aegeus threw himself into the sea in despair at having sighted the black sail of his son Theseus’ ship returning from Crete and his battle with the Minotaur. Theseus had previously arranged to show a white sail to indicate his safe return but he forgot and so his father needlessly killed himself.
Hello you cheeky thing. Managed to draw out a rare smile from this proprietor at a taverna in Nafplio. He was perched at the back of the restaurant on a high stool, simply surveying everything that was happening with a glum expression. I asked if I could take his photo and though it looked like he was trying not to, he did accidentally slip into a wry smile.
Back to the whites and blues of the homeland 🇬🇷 summer is here beauties.
Nothing a smile can’t fix.
COOKING IN CRISIS. . . Cuba is in a critical moment post Castro, paving its way as a nation with great potential. Right now though, the country is in the midst of a food crisis that hasn’t been as bad as it is now since the early 1990s and the breakdown of the Soviet Union. . . New sanctions from the US blockade mean that ordinary Cubans are restricted on what they can eat. The state is in constant rationing mode and things as simple as a piece of plantain can cost as much as $4 - completely unaffordable for the average Cuban whose salary might be as little as $13 per month. . . Cubans subsist on rice, beans, salad - and if they can get it - a bit of pork, sourced daily after waiting in lines for up to 3 hours each day. . . Meanwhile tourists in all inclusive hotels complain about the lack of options. “If I see another plate of rice and beans again...” . . Imagine what it must be like for more than a 10 day getaway. The ladies I cooked with for @granddishes live their lives on a perpetual hunt for food on the black market. Feeding the family is not as simple as going to Sainsbury’s and grabbing something quick. These women are hunter gatherers. Seeking out the spots to find ingredients they can afford, then making a meal out of the simplest options. . . Article on this coming ASAP...
Colonial opulence.
Meet Isabel, a 79 year old Cuban beauty I met near my guesthouse in Havana Central. She stopped me in the street to tell me I was beautiful to which I replied, “no you’re the beautiful one!” . . She has lived in Havana all of her life. She has lived through a revolution. She told me she was there the day Che and Fidel drove through the streets into Havana from Santiago de Cuba. She told me life in Cuba was hard but “tienes que aceptar la vida.” She listed the items she has long lived without. Soap, shampoo, detergent, new clothes. She asked me for nothing but my time for a chat in the street outside her home. . . More soon @granddishes
Heading to Havana? Stay @lareserva_vedado - a beautiful colonial guesthouse restored by two architects with European smarts and a deep love for Cuba. Blending old and new seamlessly, the duo have made one of the best places to stay in Havana. Breakfasts in the verdant garden were a joy. My bed was the comfiest I have ever slept in. The wifi ACTUALLY works here (the only place I could connect in the whole of Cuba.) . . 🖊 writing up today for @wallpaperguides
Life off the ground. Writing my guide to Havana and thinking about how the city is lived on two levels. Those who can afford to, spend their days and nights on rooftop terraces, in rooftop pools, above the people below. The people on the street though, are on the street en masse, rocking it out in rocking chairs on their front porches, drinking rum, dancing to reggaetón through portable speakers and stopping passers by like me to speak and engage with them. I much prefer life en la calle.
“Man can never be more perfect than the sun. The sun burns us with the same light it warms us. The sun has stains. The ungrateful only talk about the stains. The grateful talk about the light.” - José Martí . . . Photos i snapped of sun down on the Malecón, where lovers linger and locals swill down rum as the sun sinks.
Plantain in Cuba is not plentiful. The nation imports 80% of its food and its people are struggling to survive on meagre rations and plantain at $1 per single fruit. Thanks to Mr Trump’s blockade, Cubans are struggling even more to get hold of every day items that come as a given to you and I. Things like soap, washing detergent and clothes are near impossible to find. . . Fruit, which could be grown on the fertile land of Cuba is not because wages are too meagre and farmers prefer to earn more as taxi drivers or waiters in all-inclusive hotels (which appear to have an abundance of food that simply goes to waste after the morning breakfast buffet is over).
Spotted these cool kids chilling down Paseo de Marti, the tree lined boulevard separating central Havana and Havana Vieja. . . All the teens on my evening walk were so well dressed I was compelled to stop and chat to these boys and take a photo. . . Clothes are hard to come by in Cuba owing to the blockade from America but quite often, someone will manage to get to Mexico with some empty suitcases, stock up on a load of tropical button downs then bring them back to Cuba and sell them on to their mates for triple the market price. The look then becomes ubiquitous with lots of matching outfits - but I love what they’ve got going on here.
Havana - you beat me black and blue and still I am obsessed with you.
Another country, another granny for @granddishes - look out for plantain soup from a granny of the Cuban revolution coming right up. . . The recipe will be in the Grand Dishes cookbook - now funding on @unbounders - pledge to get the book through the link in our @granddishes bio and help us seal and share grandmothers’ recipes and stories forever.
Centro Havana. My daily walk to Spanish lessons down Perseverancia and then Lealtad.
PARTY’S AT SYROS STREET . . Brief interruption from the Cuba spam to say I’M A HOME OWNER!!!!!! . . After months of searching, today I signed for my 1960s Athens apartment. Dad thinks I’m settling down. I’m calling it a “base”. . . Big love to my good luck charm, @potchron the King of Syros, who came to view my apartment on Syrou Street first with me, before I went off to Syros (the island) with @gia_lp the day after that first viewing. . . BELIEVE IN SIGNS PEOPLE - THEY WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY!
Havana, ooh na-na. Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na 💕
CUBA LIBRE . . After 8 hours of political history of Cuba on Netflix, two weeks in Cuba and three books down, Camilo and Che are my favourites. Their swaggering confidence is magnetising. I am not surprised their memory lives on. Confidence is perhaps the most important thing to have in life. Add that to rugged good looks and you got yourself some real SEX APPEAL.
Hiding sweaty cleavage + making new friends 🇨🇺🇨🇺🇨🇺 Cuba = my new love affair.
“All of us were creeping out of our cages and beginning to struggle in the jungle. That’s what it was. We were stiff coming out of our cages, sluggish and fearful. We had no idea what it was like to fight for our lives. But we had to try. We had been locked up in a zoo for thirty-five years . We had been given a little food and medicine, but we had no idea what it was like to be out there beyond the bars. And all of a sudden came the switch to a jungle. Our brains were sleepy and our muscles soft and weak. Only the fittest could hope to survive.” -Pedro Juan Guetierrez