I caught the early morning Flying Dolphin to Hydra, having spent the night in the airport building. I had asked about prices at the hotel opposite the airport, but they said they only had a few rooms left, all at the 300 Euros a night level. I had a good laugh at that.
After a Greek coffee at one of the harbourside cafes, I went and checked in at the Hippocampos Hotel and was most gratified to find that they remembered me from last year. I did a bit of catching up on sleep, managing to miss the conference registration session. It didn't matter. I had met Ed and a couple of other conference delegates, so I knew we were heading for Lulu's taverna at eight, for dinner and music.
I shared a few starters with people I met, and had some very good food from the display, and drank a little retsina. After a while, when they had eaten and had a drink or two, the proper musicians among us began to play. I set my recording gear going, and settled down for a pleasantly mellow evening. I could not help noticing some very good video equipment being used, we had a crew from a Greek TV channel watching us.
I met Tony Klein and had a brief go with his trichordo bouzouki, which was made by Manolis Raptakis of Crete. It's a terrific instrument, with a very smooth fingerboard. I wandered back to the hotel at about ten past two in the morning.