My diary of the 2004 Hydra Rebetiko Conference.
Wednesday, October 13th 2004
I took my usual inexpensive easyJet flight from Luton Airport into Athens, and arrived more refreshed than usual, having actually managed to get some sleep on the plane. Athens Airport is still brand new and shiny, and has signs in Greek and English. So it was easy to find the place outside where the buses to Pireas wait. I couldn't believe the price, it was very low. The E96 bus service runs 24 hours a day, and is extremely fast. It stops right outside the Pireas dock gate, so not long after six in the morning, I was at the docks, buying a ticket for the Hellenic Flying Dolphin to Hydra. The one way price this year was 17 Euros.
The wind was quite strong, and the resulting waves were making the flying dolphin move in quite unpleasant ways. Hydrofoils tend to bounce when the foil goes through a wave, and a couple of times I was in free fall for a fraction of a second. Each time, I had just got off to sleep...
On arrival, I just sat down in a harbour-front cafe, and had the large Greek coffee I had been looking forward to for a while. Simon from Israel, whom I had met last year, joined me. In the middle distance, I noticed Ed Emery moving fast... I'm not used to meeting people I know when I arrive on Greek islands...
After I checked in to the excellent Ippocampos Hotel I wandered towards the harbour, and met Ed again. He introduced me to two Canadians, John and Rick, as well as Nikos Politis from Athens. Simon was there, and we all sat and had a Mythos Beer together, while Ed rushed off to organise things.
The suggested venue for the evening was Loulou's Taverna, which is one of the more traditional places on Hydra. It has some outside seating, but the main space is indoors, with a high ceiling, interesting old pictures on the walls, and excellent traditional Greek cooking. After we had eaten, a jam session developed. The main players were Nikos Politis on Tsoura, John from Canada on his Audition guitar, and Leif on his accordion. I had my Archos recorder running for most of the time, capturing over two hours of excellent music. The snag, I later found, was that I recorded this with the Archos's internal microphone, so this music has the sound of the Archos's hard drive and the conversation of the people sat nearby, as well as the music and excellent singing. It's not too bad though, and all the other recordings I made were done with the proper stereo microphone. I mention this problem because I have a lot of recordings from the conference, and am going to be selling copies.
