Latest news with #LeonardCohen
Cosmopolitan
3 days ago
- Cosmopolitan
Hydra is the laidback, stunning and walkable Greek island you need to book for your next summer trip
With hundreds of islands, it can be slightly overwhelming to know which of the picturesque Greek paradises to spend your precious annual leave at. However, after spending a week on the calm, sunny and car-free island of Hydra, it's safe to say it's at the top of my list of recommendations. The small island is located less than an hour away by ferry from the city of Athens. Spend a night in the city and soak up the lively atmosphere before heading over for a week of true relaxation in Hydra. The island was beloved by Leonard Cohen, and recently featured in an episode of Prime Video's Daisy Jones and the Six. But despite its fame, the vibe is lowkey and relaxed. Cars aren't allowed so everyone travels by foot, boat or donkey. The town itself is easily walkable, and you can see it all within a day, which leaves plenty of time for the highlight - the beaches. Dotted around the island are a number of gorgeous coves, mainly rocky, that took my breath away on multiple occasions. There are so many, you'll want to spend a good week on the island hopping from place to place, picnic and books in tote bags, ready to spend afternoons swimming in the crystal clear sea followed by Spritzes and games of Uno. And when the day is over, make sure to pay attention to the unreal sunsets as you get ready for a chilled out dinner in the marina. Ready to plan a week in Hydra? Here's everything you need to know about the Greek oasis. One of the biggest reasons I love Hydra is how the buildings have been maintained, with many restrictions stopping the development of big hotels taking over. Instead, hotels are boutique and intimate, like the Hotel Miranda where we stayed. It's located just a minute's walk up a side street from the main port, and was originally a sea captain's mansion built in 1810. There are just 14 rooms in the hotel, some with balconies looking out to sea, and others with garden views. The small number of rooms and relaxed nature of the hotel makes it feel like you're staying at the house of a great family friend. And this in part is due to the fact the hotel is run by Miranda - hence the hotel's name - and her lovely family. Breakfast is served each morning in the hotel's courtyard, surrounded by lemon, orange and jasmine trees, where you can tuck into freshly made pastries and local jam, while chatting away with other guests. Simply heavenly. Over the years it's played host to a number of artists and exhibitions, and this is reflected in the walls of the hotel, which are decorated in a very classical style but with all the modern facilities you could want. Book your stay at Miranda Hotel here Hydra is the island to come to if all you want to do is relax on the beach, catch-up on your reading list and swim in crystal blue waters. However, knowing which beach to go to is crucial. Many of them are accessible by water-taxi only, so you do need to slightly plan ahead - however the ones I've listed below are all accessible on foot. The journeys to them are so picturesque, it makes the stroll all the more enjoyable. Spilla beach Located less than a five minute walk from the centre, the Spilla beach is less of a beach and more of a series of plinths to rest and dive in from. It's set between two beach bars - the Hydronetta and Spilla beach bar - which are built into the rocks. It's the sort of place you go for a proper swim and then get out for a much needed Aperol. Avlaki beach This is just a 10 minute walk from the port and is located down a long set of steps. It's a very small beach with crystal clear blue water. It's a spot for a morning swim, where it's pretty much deserted, and then heading back for breakfast. There are no toilets or facilities, just two ledges to rest on. However there is a very nice restaurant, Téchne, at the top, which is open for lunch and dinner. Kamini If you're looking for a beach to spend the whole day on then I'd head to Kamini. It's about a 20 to 25 minute walk from the port, or you can get a water taxi. You can either lay a towel out on the beach for free or there are a few rows of sun beds and umbrellas you can rent for the day. They're part of the Castillo restaurant, which is truly stunning,and you can either eat in the restaurant, or order to your sunbed. We ended up taking sandwiches with us and ordering rosé while playing Uno all afternoon. Honestly, it doesn't get better than that. Mandraki Located to the right side of the port, this is either a five minute water taxi or 20 minute walk. There are two beaches, one that belongs to the Mandraki Hotel where prices for the sunbed a day are pretty spenny, or there's the public beach which has sun beds at a more affordable rate, restaurants, toilets and a beach bar. There's a number of yachts docked around this beach which makes for some great people watching. To note: apart from the beach at the Mandraki Hotel, the rest of the beaches on the island are made up of stones and not sand, so while not essential, next time I'd definitely bring a pair of water shoes. While you can get a water taxi to one place, there are also plenty of boat tours that will arrange to take you to many of the best beaches on the island in one day. Ideal if you're only there for a long weekend and want to pack as much in as possible. If you need a bit more activity in your day, then start the morning off with a horse ride. Harriet's Hydra Horses company leads group riding treks across hydra, visiting monasteries and beaches dotted across the island. She keeps the groups small and every trek is personalised to that group. Hydra is a small island with a small main town, but it's still packed with plenty to keep you entertained. As well as the shops lining the main port, there's also a number of galleries, the Hydra museum, and Leonard Cohen's house (you can't go into his old house but you can walk past and take pictures) to keep you busy. A classic no frills Greek taverna which easily had some of the best food we ate on the island. It's all about the salads, fresh fish and peppers stuffed with feta, and it's located in the most gorgeous square with live music playing. In the same square is Kafeneio, which is a more modern and elevated take on classic Greek dishes. It kind of felt like if you picked up an east London restaurant and dropped it onto a Greek island. This seafood restaurant elevated above the port is the best place to go for good food and unmatched views in the evening. While they specialise in seafood (order the king prawn linguine - you won't be disappointed), they also do plenty of Greek classics. You can't really leave Greece without having gyros, and this was our favourite place on the island to get them. The gyros are super fresh, have a variety of toppings available and the come in very large portions. There are plenty of places to drink along the main port, however our favourite place for cocktails was at Amalour. It's set in a lively square and looks out on a number of bustling restaurants. They do an unreal margarita and from around 11, you can start dancing until the early hours. Hydra isn't the island to come to if you want to go out partying every night - Amalour and Red Club are the only two venues to play late nice music. Amalour is perfect if you just want to let you hair down for one night while you're there. For more low key and intimate evening drinks head to the L'Americano. It's just down the road from the Miranda Hotel and does an incredible cocktail menu. With relaxed jazz music playing you could easily spend a few hours here. Oh and be sure to try the spicy white negroni. The best (and basically only) way to get to Hydra is to fly into Athens and from there take an hour and a half ferry from the port, which you should book ahead. Lydia Venn is Cosmopolitan UK's Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer. She covers everything from TV and film, to the latest celebrity news. She also writes across our work/life section regularly creating quizzes, covering exciting new food releases and sharing the latest interior must-haves. In her role she's interviewed everyone from Margot Robbie to Niall Horan, and her work has appeared on an episode of The Kardashians. After completing a degree in English at the University of Exeter, Lydia moved into fashion journalism, writing for the Daily Express, before working as Features Editor at The Tab, where she spoke on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Talk Radio. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gilmore Girls and 00s teen movies, and in her free time can be found with a margarita in hand watching the Real Housewives on repeat. Find her on LinkedIn.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, In the Hole
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! In the Hole Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel Editor: Amanda Rafkin NES (24A: Mega Man console) Mega Man is a video game franchise. The original Mega Man game was released in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Since then, over 50 games have been released that feature a a fighting robot nicknamed "Mega" (originally named Rock). WTA (Org. for Zheng Qinwen) Zheng Qinwen is a professional tennis player from China. She won the gold medal in women's tennis singles at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. In November 2024, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her No. 5 in women's singles. COHEN (13A: "Hallelujah" songwriter Leonard) It took Leonard COHEN (1934-2016) about five years to write the song "Hallelujah," and he reconfigured it a number of times for different performances. Leonard COHEN first recorded and released the song in 1984, but it didn't make it onto the Billboard charts until after his death in 2016. It's estimated that over 300 singers have performed cover versions of "Hallelujah." Thank you, puzzle, for providing my earworm for the day. ALBA (28A: "Sin City" actress Jessica) Sin City is a 2005 movie based on Frank Miller's comic book series of the same name. The neo-noir crime film is an anthology, meaning it consists of several short films, each a complete story in itself. Jessica ALBA is part of the movie's ensemble cast, playing a character named Nancy Callahan. She reprised her role in the 2014 sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. AND (33A: Salt-___-pepper hair) It's always interesting to see how constructors clue common words such as AND. I have had salt-AND-pepper hair for a few years now, and this clue made me smile. HONORARY TITLE (37A: Colonel, for Harland Sanders) Coincidentally, I happened to mention Harland Sanders' HONORARY TITLE a few days ago. We saw the clue [Colonel Sanders' chain] for KFC, and I wrote, "Founder Harland Sanders (1890-1980) was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel (an honor bestowed by Kentucky's governor) in 1935, and became known as Colonel Sanders, the company's spokesman." PESO (45A: Currency of the Philippines) The Philippines is one of eight countries that currently use the PESO as their currency. The other seven countries are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Uruguay. However, the currencies are not interchangeable, as each country has its own PESO. BBS (52A: _oard of _ehavioral _ciences) A Board of Behavioral Science is responsible for the licensing and enforcement of standards for certain professionals such as Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers. EPEE (59A: Fencing sword with the fewest rules) The sport of fencing uses three weapons (in different events): ÉPÉE, foil, and saber. In ÉPÉE, the entire body is a valid target area. Foil and saber events have specific rules restricting the target areas. HUNS (69A: Invaders in "Mulan") The two Disney Mulan movies, both the 1998 animated film and the 2020 live-action adaptation of that movie, are based on the Chinese folklore story Ballad of Mulan. In the animated version of the movie, the HUNS breach the Great Wall and invade China. The HUNS were a nomadic people in Central Asia between the 4th and 6th centuries. PEAS (3D: Veggies in mame gohan) Mame gohan, a dish in Japanese cuisine, is also known as "green PEAS rice." Not surprisingly then, the dish's main ingredients are PEAS and rice. BTS (53D: "Boy With Luv" K-pop group) "Boy with Luv" is a 2019 song by BTS, which features the singer Halsey. The song's music video was viewed over 74.6 million times the first day it was released. OWL (62D: Hoot ___ Hoot! (kids' board game)) Hoot OWL Hoot is a cooperative game for children in which players work together to move OWLs back to their nests before sunrise. A few other clues I especially enjoyed: WEBS (20A: Traps made of spider silk) KENS (47A: Guys in Barbie's universe) POPSICLE (11D: Sweet treat that drips in the heat) NAPKIN (48D: Sloppy joe eater's need) HOW ADORABLE (16A: "Aww, so cute!") HONORARY TITLE (37A: Colonel, for Harland Sanders) HONEYSUCKLE (61A: Fragrant flower that attracts hummingbirds) IN THE HOLE: Each theme answer is IN THE word HOLE: HOW ADORABLE, HONORARY TITLE, and HONEYSUCKLE. Theme-answers-within-a-word is a classic USA Today crossword theme type. It's well-executed here with an enjoyable set of theme answers and a perfectly descriptive title. I appreciate that the word break of HO/LE is consistent in all of the theme answers. (This isn't a requirement; I just appreciate the consistency.) Thank you, Zhouqin, for this excellent puzzle. USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crossword Blog & Answers for May 26, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
"White genocide" and white guilt: Donald Trump versus history
It's pointless to proclaim that the second Trump administration has hit a new low. There's always next week, and the likelihood of deeper and ever more painful absurdities: Drinking straws are causing gender confusion; many Americans are declining COVID boosters and therefore no Americans may have them; the price of eggs has fallen so far so fast that the supermarket now pays you. As I wrote a few months ago, we now seem devoted to living out, on a national scale, the thesis of Leonard Cohen's final hit single, 'You Want It Darker,' released the day before Donald Trump's election in 2016. Furthermore, in the face of a widening campaign of abduction and deportation conducted by masked, armed paramilitaries with no identifiable uniforms, Trump's theatrical displays in the Oval Office can justifiably be viewed as irrelevant distractions. But still: For the president of the United States to accuse the government of South Africa, in 2025, of conducting a racial genocide is so craven, so shameless, that beggars any rational description. We are no longer at the level of right-wing conspiracy theory invading the body politic or contaminating government policy — admittedly, that's been true for years. Trump's assault on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, featuring an insultingly clumsy propaganda video about that nation's alleged 'white genocide,' represented the triumph of paranoid racist projection as official White House doctrine. To inflict these delusional internet memes and outright fabrications on the elected leader of the nation that made 'apartheid' a household word goes light-years beyond historical irony — it's like an Upright Citizens Brigade comedy sketch that was rejected as overly cynical. Indeed, the bottomless cynicism of the White House 'white genocide' teachable moment strikes me as its most salient characteristic. Trump's deployment of this far-right fantasy, which emerged in South Africa's domestic politics about a decade ago and was laundered for American consumption, of course, by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, had nothing to do with its nonexistent truth value or with the internal realities of contemporary South Africa. It's only feeding the flames to engage with what-abouters who will suggest there are shreds of plausibility to Trump's claims. Objective reality doesn't matter to our president or the rest of the 'do your own research' crowd; they either believe that it doesn't exist at all or that it can be reshaped according to their whims. We can, however, observe that the South African 'white genocide' narrative resembles the widespread perception that New York City has experienced an explosion of violent crime, and that the city's subways are an anarchic wasteland. In other words, it's not true at all and is almost entirely the product of media incompetence and public illiteracy. In both cases, a handful of traumatic incidents have come to symbolize dire but nonexistent trends. Admittedly, the underlying facts are quite different: After a brief pandemic spike, crime rates in New York have returned to near-historic lows, and violence in the subways is exceptionally rare. South Africa is another story, for reasons stemming from its troubled history. It remains a deeply divided society with extreme inequality (even by American standards) and high rates of violent crime, most of which occurs within impoverished Black communities. One Afrikaner organization claims that more than 2,300 farmers have been murdered over the last 35 years, which sounds alarming until you realize there were 26,000 reported murders in South Africa last year alone. Anytime a white farm family is attacked it makes headlines, but Black people, and especially Black women, are far more likely to be victims of violent crime. Donald Trump, to be sure, neither knows nor cares whether his allegations have any basis in reality. His video was essentially a deepfake, and not a skillful one: It included a supposed graveyard for 1,000 farmers that was actually a memorial for two farmers, and news images of dead bodies from a conflict thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. No doubt the opportunity to humiliate a visiting Black head of state was a massive bonus, and to Ramaphosa's credit — even if reviews back home were mixed — he remained largely dignified and managed to avoid the full Zelenskyy treatment. But South Africa's leader was nothing more than a bit player in this tableau, while the white Afrikaners under supposed threat of extermination didn't even get speaking parts. They were more like pathetic background extras, or bizarro-world inversions of the starving children from charity ads of bygone years: You can save Farmer Piet from white genocide, or you can turn the page. In an essay for the Intercept unpacking the tangled backstory of the five dozen or so Afrikaners recently welcomed as refugees by the U.S., Sisonke Msimang observes that these "new arrivals represent the bottom rung of the Afrikaner socioeconomic ladder: those who have not been able to transition smoothly into post-apartheid South Africa without the protections that white skin privilege would have afforded them a generation ago." They are, she writes, "the first beneficiaries of America's new international affirmative action scheme for white people." Trump's true audience, as always, was his own dismal horde of followers, and this shabbily constructed myth about persecuted white people in a distant land was meant to serve as a 'There! You see!' illustrative moment within a much larger narrative: The world has gone so badly off the rails that white people everywhere are disadvantaged, downtrodden and despised; but needless to say, we have a great champion, and only he can fix it. What does it matter if the economy has been torpedoed by tariffs, the government has been demolished by wrecking ball and the supposedly sacred principles of the Constitution are blithely ignored? The white man is in big trouble! The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be — will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved. That isn't Trump talking, or Elon Musk or any of the loyalists who spend their days praising and parroting them on X. It certainly could be, but those of a literary bent will recognize the words of Tom Buchanan, the racist former athlete and cuckolded husband in "The Great Gatsby," published just over 100 years ago. No advanced degree is required to perceive that Tom is a profoundly insecure person, disappointed with his life, anxious about his status and given to outbreaks of cruelty and violence. (Perhaps that reading is a product of the 'woke mind virus'; then again, so is most of American literature.) However we define the profound sense of psychic injury that has rendered so many white Americans — and lots of other people of differing backgrounds around the globe — terrified of the contemporary world, mesmerized by an imaginary past and all too easily seduced by ludicrous fictions, it wasn't invented this year or in this century. Tom's anxiety about the future of 'the white race' is set in the 1920s, very nearly the worst period of Jim Crow segregation and racism in America; two decades later, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, inspired both by America's example and the 'race laws' of Nazi Germany, launched South Africa's elaborate apartheid can go much further back than Scott Fitzgerald without finding the lost golden age of mythological harmony and stability the Trumpist dreamers seem to imagine. Slaveowner statesmen of the antebellum South, like John C. Calhoun and Alexander Stephens, were plainly terrified of the racial apocalypse they feared might come with abolition, let alone any version of legal equality. Most of those who willingly inhale Trump's 'white genocide' lies wouldn't say flat-out that they want to reinstate apartheid or Jim Crow or slavery. (There are certainly exceptions.) Even with the death of wokeness, it's not quite OK to wish for such things openly, perhaps because of a dim awareness that there's no escape from the paralyzing dynamic of racial fear. The present is always understood as an impending catastrophe in which white people will be killed en masse or 'utterly submerged,' but there's no discoverable or recoverable past moment when the fear was absent. This soul-gnawing anxiety is not original sin in the Christian sense, even if it functions in much the same way. White people are not born with corrupted souls, contrary to the Nation of Islam's doctrines. It's more like a legacy of collective guilt, something we've been told is not passed down by the sins of our ancestors. Of course the Tom Buchanans and Donald Trumps of the world cannot be held responsible for crimes committed by others in the past. But they are responsible for refusing to face the truth about the past and for telling outrageous lies about the present. They live in constant fear of judgment.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Scotsman
Why it's time to decriminalise selling sex – and make buying it illegal instead
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Imagine we had a referendum tomorrow on this question: 'Do you believe that a Scottish citizen should have the right to buy the use of another person's body for their own sexual pleasure with legal impunity?' How would you answer? You may think this is some sort of joke – obviously every decent person would say no. That would be tantamount to slavery and utterly preposterous in terms of their human rights. Yet, for millions of women and girls across the world, including Scotland, that's exactly what prostitution is. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The situation reminds me of Leonard Cohen's iconic song, Everybody Knows. We can pretend prostitution is consensual between adults, and maybe for a very few it is, but 'everybody knows' the consent of a woman to have sex with an unknown man is often a choice of the Hobson variety. Women who sell sex on the streets or through pimping websites very rarely do so by choice. Picture:| Getty Images Child sex abuse survivors For a homeless woman, her consent may be a matter of 'do I have paid sex with this man in a warm flat or risk being attacked in a doorway of a cold street?' Or, for a trafficked or pimped woman, 'do I have sex with this punter, or risk a beating and my family being harmed?' Research shows most women who end up in prostitution experienced child sexual abuse, where they learnt the skills of dissociation as a way of 'getting it over with'. The average age of entry to commercial sexual exploitation worldwide is 13. Reports of schoolgirls being bought and sold by grooming gangs have brought this to the light, but it has been around in various guises since time immemorial. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Cross-Party Group for Commercial Sexual Exploitation undertook a parliamentary inquiry into sexual exploitation advertising websites which clearly demonstrated how pimping websites facilitate trafficking for the indoor market of prostitution, making it much easier to give access and anonymity to the buyer and vast sums of money to the pimps. If you were particularly sceptical of the term 'legal impunity' in the referendum question, you only need to check the conviction rate for traffickers and pimps to realise the risk of being prosecuted is negligible and the reward is riches beyond belief. A woman can be sold repeatedly and the catalogue of physical injuries from repeated rape, strangulation and beatings from large numbers of men destroys women's bodies and minds. Research has shown that 70 per cent of women involved in prostitution suffer from PTSD comparable with Vietnam veterans. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Loving husband, doting father Last, but very much not least, it's time to consider the person who has been missing so far from the referendum question – the 'citizen' with the money to buy access to this market of women and girls. Who is this invisible man? When it comes to women locked up in flats and advertised on pimping websites as 'independent', the police never go looking for him. He has legal impunity because the women and girls will be too frightened to say they didn't consent. But surely, this is the man raping, strangling and beating the women's bodies that they've bought? Who is he? He is the loving husband, doting father, your lovely big brother, your son, grandfather, neighbour and colleague. He has turned hiding in plain sight into an art form, and his biggest fear is being found out. No consent We know from research undertaken on punter websites, where buyers rate their 'purchases', that they know full well that their prostituted woman was trafficked, drugged, ill, bruised, undernourished, frightened and not wanting to perform a sexual service, because they tell us. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad They describe how they have been cheated, and how they took out their frustration in a violent act on the vulnerable woman. They agree with the pro-prostitution lobby that prostitution is 'sex-work'. As one punter said: 'I don't ask how the girl got her job at Tesco's, so I don't ask how she ended up here, I've paid for a service, that's all there is to it.' They always use her, whatever the circumstances. They don't report the traffickers, they know full well there is no consent, they know these women and girls can't report them, because buying sex is legal in Scotland. To stop this appalling slave trade in human misery, we need to end the demand for prostitution and close the market down. By criminalising the men who buy, the police must go after him, the punter. This simple action brings the buyer out of hiding, which will stop most men from pursuing their activity, as the law on kerb crawling (when fully implemented) has shown. Buyers are otherwise law-abiding men, in respectable jobs, with wives, partners and families; they have a lot to lose. Making sex 'Unbuyable' For those concerned about the fiscal impact on the state of releasing vulnerable women from their pimps and traffickers, yes, there is likely to be an initial need to provide emergency financial support, which is the state's responsibility to anyone in dire straits. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, these costs will be recouped again and again over time. Research undertaken by NGO Nordic Model Now demonstrates, unequivocally, that the cost to the NHS, social services and other public services is far greater when women are prostituted, than it is in helping them to exit and flourish. Today, the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Act Private Members' Bill will be launched by Ash Regan MSP. This bill is also aptly titled 'Unbuyable' and follows the principles of the Nordic or Equality Model, a ground-breaking, iconic law first passed in Sweden in 1999. As well as criminalising the purchase of sexual services, it also decriminalises selling, removes previous prostitution offences from women's records and provides support for women to exit. I began this article with an imaginary referendum question, but it will be the question your MSPs will have to vote on (even if phrased differently). If you answered no, please demand they vote Unbuyable for Scotland and set all our sisters free.
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Brits urged to ditch Santorini and Mykonos for beautiful crowd-free island
The absence of mass tourism means you can connect with Greek island life and enjoy the company of likeable locals without the hustle and bustle of the country's holiday hotspots British holidaymakers often default to Santorini or Mykonos when planning a Greek island getaway, drawn by the stunning beaches, whitewashed villages, iconic sunsets and buzzing nightlife. But while these islands have become victims of their own popularity — crawling with tourists, commercialised and increasingly expensive — the lesser-known isle of Hydra offers a crowd- and car-free alternative promising a more authentic, tranquil and enriching escape. This Saronic gem, renowned for its calming atmosphere and absence of automobiles — the sole exception to the vehicle ban is bin collection trucks — is located just an hour and a quarter from Athens. Without honking horns and revving engines, the tiny island exudes a rare peacefulness that encourages visitors to mellow out and truly unwind. On Hydra, goods and luggage are transported by donkeys and mules — it houses the largest herd of working equines in the world. Cat lovers are also in for a treat, as Hydra's streets are full of friendly felines. Much of Hydra's charm lies in its preservation of traditional Greek island life. The absence of mass tourism means you can wander whitewashed lanes, marvel at the and Neoclassical mansions, discover hidden courtyards and enjoy the company of likeable locals without the hustle and bustle. Even in peak season, Hydra remains blissfully uncrowded compared to its Cycladic cousins. Hydra has long been a haven for artists, writers and musicians. The legendary Leonard Cohen famously lived there for several years, drawing inspiration for this song Bird on the Wire (1969) from the island. Today, the island continues to attract creative souls, with contemporary art galleries nestled alongside historic heritage sites. The Deste Foundation Project Space, perched above the sea, hosts edgy exhibitions, while the Historical Archive Museum offers a deep dive into Hydra's pivotal role in the Greek War of Independence. The rugged landscape is ideal for exploration, with over 300 chapels and monasteries scattered across Hydra. Hiking enthusiasts can wander scenic trails through the isle's olive groves and along dramatic cliffs. The coastline is dotted with hidden coves and pebbly beaches, many of which are only accessible by boat — perfect for those seeking solitude and unspoiled swimming spots. Adventurous visitors can also try diving among ancient shipwrecks or join local fishermen for a traditional line-fishing experience. Unlike Santorini and Mykonos, which often require long ferry rides or chaotic airport transfers, Hydra is a straightforward 75-minute catamaran journey from Athens' port of Piraeus. As soon as you arrive, you'll be immersed in a world that feels both ancient and alive. So while Santorini is famed for its volcanic caldera views and stunning sunsets, and Mykonos its buzzing beach clubs, Hydra invites you to slow down, decompress and connect with the simple joys of Greek island life.
