Goodbye Plaka

 

Photo courtesy of Liana

Athens felt like home. Plaka felt like home. Over the last few days I've tried to remember all the times and different reasons I came to Greece - which always involved Athens.

The first time was 1976 - on my way to Israel. It was one of at least two occasions when I took the Piraeus - Limassol - Haifa ferry. (It's not possible anymore.) So Greece, Athens, is firmly lodged in my memory as a part of my visits to Israel. And they were always occasions of great joy. So Athens basks in the glow of my memories of Israel.

There were several other visits that had nothing to do with Israel. Peter and I came here on route to our eventual destination of Patmos. Hiske and I on route to Sifnos. With Elizabeth on route to Delphi. And then there were a couple of occasions with the Australian Greek truck drivers out of Arnhem. On all these visits there would have been a visit to Plaka  - that’s where I would have stayed.  Probably on Odos Nikis - it sounded very familiar.

When I stood there on my last night on one of those charming narrow streets in Plaka I felt like I was saying goodbye to a considerable chunk of my life. I doubt I'll be back there.

I shed a tear in a moment of sweet sadness as I took in the sight of Plaka one last time. A bouzouki and guitar duo added to the sentimental moment as I bade farewell to a wonderful part of my life. A part that was young, fancy free, and fearless.

It's difficult at this age farewelling old much loved haunts. You know in all likelihood this goodbye is the last. Plaka will go on drawing in travellers of all ages from across the globe. They’ll continue to sip wine beneath the Acropolis and feel part of something ancient and charming. ‘Efcharisto’
Plaka. I've always enjoyed being here.

Song #64 Santorini

 

CC image courtesy of Maggie Meng

SANTORINI

Santorini

Santorini

Santorini – we had such high hopes for you

They once called you Atlantis a long long time ago

We sailed into your darkness and came up against you -

You’re a jagged unforgiving land and you have lost your soul

You play with us like laughing clowns in a twisted carnival

 

Set ‘em up to knock them down

Get ready – easy pickings

Get ready - there are tourists in town

 

Get ‘em drunk – they’re gone tomorrow

They’re richer than their blue jeans show

They’re captives on this island

They’ll pay the price only locals know

 

La Bamba, Club Atlantis

You can dance down at the Lido,

Boppin’ young flesh down at the Rio

Nirvana in Acapulco

 

Meet Neptune at the Roxy

Get stoned – Marrakesh disco

Cocktails a la Adonis

ACDC rules Atlantis OK

 

Let ‘em stew ‘cos we don’t savvy

Their foreign ways and their weird lingo

There’s no need to scrape and smile

For like the wind they come and go

 

There’ll be more on the next boat

We don’t want them here anyhow

So let’s send them all a-packin’

Let’s have a real good row

 

And rip em’ off.

 

You’ve come to Greece , well here’s Led Zeppelin

A stairway to heaven

Ouzo, Metaxa, and retsina

Dionysus lets the good times roll

 

Apollo rocks with Aphrodite

Woodstock is at the Mars Bar

Get your rocks off at Paradiso

Copacabana

 

Santorini – we had such high hopes for you

They once called you Atlantis a long long time ago

We sailed into your darkness and came up against you

Santorini

Santorini

You’ve lost it.

 

(Michael Coghlan 1992)

COMMENTARY: a possible site of the mythical Atlantis legend, so much of Santorini truly was a big disappointment. Nightclubs and bars with stereotypical names to appeal to mindless young travellers – Lido, Paradiso, the Roxy, etc. But move out of the larger (spectacular!)  towns and you can find the peace and beauty typical of most Greek islands. It was a complicated song – lots of changes of pace – and I’ve almost completely forgotten how it went. Probably won’t try and resurrect it. It belongs to another life.

 

Song #26 The Ugly Australian

 

I wrote this song after a deck class passage on a Greek ferry between Greece and Haifa. Deck class was cheap and basic – you slept outside on deck but a meal was included. I complained about the dreadful meal (don’t remember what it was) but to placate me they put in the first class lounge. I sat there alone for quite some time before I was served a meal that wasn’t that much better.

Decades later I added a verse to highlight the plight of refugees languishing in Australian off-shore detention centres.

 

THE UGLY AUSTRALIAN

(listen HERE)

 

You put shit food down in front of me and expect me to eat it

You put me up in the first class lounge with my anger and expect that to placate it

I’m on a foreign boat in a foreign sea In times foreign to us all

At times like this I'm wonderin' why I’m so far from my native shore

So I’m going home

 

I’m tired of the ever moving round

I’m tired of the ever changing ground

 

Australia will you wait for me with your long and golden shore?

You’re a land of sun and dreams they tell me

But I wanna know for sure so I’m coming home

 

Are you keeping up with fashion? Or are you keeping down the poor?

Are you looking down the barrel? Or has nothing changed at all?  I’m going home.

 

You put shit food down in front of me and expect me to eat it

You stick me out on an offshore island with my pain and expect that to placate it

I’m in a foreign place in a foreign sea in times foreign to us all

Australia was what I was looking for - why I left my native shore

Now I can’t go home

 

I’m tired of the never moving round

I’m tired of the never changing ground

 

Australia I will wait for you with your long and golden shores

You’re a land of sun and dreams they tell me

Will I ever know for sure? I have no home

 

Are we closing up the country? Have we locked up all the doors?

Are those in need no longer welcome? When did we get so mean?

And they can’t go home

They have no home

(1982 and 2020)