Crete - an island under construction

Every year in summer months we go to Crete. We sail and fly from three different places, two different continents, all this just to spend time together in Crete. Being a family unrooted long time now from what we had thought was our only and unshakable home – a country once called Yugoslavia, we unconsciously sought for a new place to call home. Somehow, at least for the moment, it turned out to be this peculiar island. Crete is a beautiful island. Most people know it for its tourism – crowded beaches, sun, umbrellas, delicious food and wine in the evenings. But Crete is so much more (or less) than this. It is also dry, sun stricken grass, bare mountains, long curvy roads that lead to nowhere and everywhere. And along these roads, lonely, half-finished construction sites. Houses made of bricks and pillars, some cement and not much else. Left in the middle of construction to wait, indefinitely. Most of these places were destined to become hotel complexes, but it somehow did not work for them. We can only guess, but it is likely we are not far from the truth, that the reason was the lack of money. Greece went through a sudden economic distress that has lasted for over a decade now. And these buildings stay there. Alone, abandoned, aging unfinished, there year after year. Another road-side landmark: large-scale advertisements for the fur stores. Fur stores! In Crete, an island where the temperature never goes under 4 degrees Celsius. And those women posing on the billboards. And who buys the furs? Who buys the furs? This project is a record of the peculiar beauty of the landscape of contemporary Crete. Built with no architectural sense, hosting dubious businesses, but uniquely attractive – an island under permanent construction - Crete.