Tuesday 13 March 2012

Greece : Here's One for Bloggers and Aspiring Travel Writers


I took this picture in Santorini, Greece, in March ten years ago. Digital cameras weren't quite so good then, were they? :) Santorini town itself was too developed for my taste but the natural setting is fantastic. I stayed in a hotel built into the hillside, overlooking the fabulously coloured sea and caldera of the volcano. Amazing.

This picture illustrates the news that after my blog post here, I got the chance of a whirlwind March trip to Greece. Seven days in the Pelion peninsula, with the aim of getting an article out fast to show what holidaying there is like right now. It seems that some British holidaymakers are concerned about booking in Greece in case they hit a riot or violence (very unlikely indeed) or a strike or disorganisation (rather more likely).

To be honest, I've often hit some degree of disorganisation in Greece, a country I adore, but people always seem to find ways around it. Rather than generalising, though, let me just direct you to naturalist Gerald Durrell's delightful "My Family and Other Animals" describing his wonderful, crazy, funny childhood in Corfu. I can only say that sometimes in Greece I have felt as if I'm in a scene from Durrell's book.


Anyway, I was really keen to go on the trip. We're planning a private visit to Greece next year, so it would have been great to look around. But then - well, you don't want to hear the details. Nothing awful, just annoying. And to cut a long story short, I can't go.


(Photo, Cheezburger.com)

Npw, here's the bit for bloggers..... The person who would have organised the trip is called Sue, and she runs the PR agency handling the GNTO's efforts to keep Brits coming to Greece. Discussing this with her, I remembered that several travel bloggers read this blog, and readers come from many countries. including Greece.

So I suggested to Sue that perhaps a few bloggers might want to work with her on this story on Greece now, and she was interested in that. I don't know what exactly she has in mind, or what she will be offering in return, but I think it will partly depend on how many suitable bloggers she can find, and how quickly. A developing concept, in other words.

Learning to work with PRs is a useful business skill for any communicator. A PR's job, of course is totally to push their message, and there really are no free lunches - but they can also be worth their weight in gold. Sue is well known and well respected, and in fact, as I was searching through my Santorini pics, I noticed that her agency organised that very same trip. (And what a lot of problems someone else caused us, I now remember, but a wonderful lady at the agency called Pippa Sutton sorted everything out).

Anyway if you are interested, or know anyone who might, please act very soon, the sooner the better. Please don't use the comments box on this blog. Send me a brief email message here as soon as possible, with your blog url, an email contact address and info about when you will be in Greece. I'll then pass it on. Bloggers or writers need either to be in Greece right now, or just this minute back, or just about to go, and of course, they can be of any nationality, but writing in English, please.

Relationships between Greece and Germany are not good right now, to put it mildly, but actually my hope is that there might be a few Germans enjoying themselves out there. Often when cycling round empty, bumpy roads in the remotest areas of Greece, the only other foreigners I found were Germans exploring hidden sights and forgotten history. Truly dedicated visitors.



While I'm at it, here is something for aspiring travel writers. The 2012 Nomad/Rough Guide travel writing scholarship is offering a wonderful prize and fair & decent conditions.

Quite recently their rivals Lonely Planet did a travel photography contest in which the winner got ... unpaid publication in one of their guides, and Lonely Planet got ... a 5 year license to use the winning entry worldwide, free of charge. TA-DA! (Moral: read the small print - here's the story.)

This Rough Guide prize is quite different from that. It looks like a route straight into professional travel writing and will surely change the winner's life. The Youtube video tells you more.


38 comments:

  1. Interesting post which bought back many happy memories of years of holidaying in Greece during the 80s - always hot, happy, haphazard affairs involving basic village rooms and lively tavernas, clear turquoise seas and amazing beaches, retsina, inter-island ferries and mopeds on rough roads!
    The Gerald Durrell books are marvellous!
    Good luck to anyone lucky enough to be involved in the PR activity.

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  2. Hello Jenny:
    How wonderful to be promoting Greece in this way and particularly at a time when that country's self esteem is at a low ebb. We do hope the response will be great.

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  3. It's a golden opportunity for those who like to travel AND write. Greece badly needs tourism right now. I read Gerald Durrell's book but never got round to visiting Greece. I was, though, delighted to visit his 'zoo' in the channel islands.

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  4. I hope people will still go to Greece. What a great idea to promote tourism in this way.
    I loved Gerald Durrell's books and now I think I may have to read them again x

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  5. An inspiring post love to read. Thanks Jenny, excellent post. I like it.

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  6. I certainly didn't expect Lonely Planet to be so 'evil'!

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  7. Agree with you about Greece being a bit like Durrell's book, but we loved going to Greece. When I found out we were being sent to Turkey for a couple of years I cried, then hoped I'd like it as well as Greece. As it turns out I like it even better.

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  8. What a great opportunity for aspiring travel writers.

    And what way to prmote Greece. :)

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  9. I've been to a few of the Mediterranean islands but I'e yet to make it to Santorini. It's one for my bucket list.

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  10. Thanks, Jenny! If I was still doing as much travel writing as I used to, I'd definitely be all over some of this!

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  11. No travel is without its "adventures", and Greece is not an exception, so go enjoy the adventure. When i was there, i always did.

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  12. Thanks for highlighting a great opportunity - wish I were in a position to go for this.

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  13. Gerald Durrell's story is quite fun. I haven't read the book but I've watched the BBC production...loved every minute of it. And I have a feeling the book will be even more fascinating...I need to find a copy and read it.

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  14. We visited Athens plus Mykonos & Crete on our visit several years ago. Athens was a bit of a trial at times and sometimes inconvenient...but it is also where we met and became friends with a local restaurant owner. Like the previous poster said...no travel is without adventures & I think they are what makes a place extra memorable!

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  15. This looks like a treasured opportunity for a few special folk. What a wonderful chance to explore and write and enjoy! :)

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  16. I've never been to Greece, but now they're desperate for tourists to come and visit them, maybe I should. I could spend a bit of money and erode .000001% of their debt mountain!

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  17. I just read your past posts – all very interesting. There are some good opportunities for travel writers. I enjoyed a trip to Greece on my own many years ago and visited several islands including Rhodes, Mykonos and Ios. I’ll need to write posts on them but my pictures were taken with my old print camera so they are not the best. I did get postcards though.

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  18. Jenny!

    Thanks so much for thinking of me! I will email you right NOW and let's see if we can get some collaboration going.

    Cheers
    :0)

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  19. We visited Mykonos a while ago, and I would love to return someday, but we are being encouraged to stay in England this year....to increase our tourism plus the Olympics too, I suppose. But, oh, how I long for some sunshine!

    Following you from Rita (plus I also had an English teacher called Mrs Woolfe....how bizarre!)

    http://ladyofmuse.blogspot.com/

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  20. Forgot to add - I am off to Crete first week in April for a few days. I want to see if any German tourists are there and maybe interview them for a blog piece, plus also speak to hoteliers/guesthouse owners to see how they feel about German tourists.

    Cheers for this inspiring post and letting us know about these 2 wonderful opportunities.

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  21. ugh i totally wish i was heading to greece....how cool an opportunity is that...

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  22. Excellent opportunity for aspiring writers . . . .i wish I knew of omeone o asto pass this info on . . .

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  23. The economy of any area depends so much on tourism. When things go bad for a country or if there are any political happenings, that industry suffers.

    I have been to Santorini, albeit 25 years ago, but I remember that I thought that if there is a heaven, it must look like Santorini.

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  24. I saw the BBC production of Gerald Durrell book and I have wanted to read it ever since. It must be a hoot !
    I wanted to go to Greece and Egypt when I was younger but now they are very low on my list. I feel sad that I will never be able to visit Egypt, Americans are not very welcome.
    I hope to visit Poland see if I can find any of my family history with a stop in Paris but I now spend so much time in Japan who knows ? Plus now I am very house bound so who knows if I will ever get to travel again... le sigh

    cheers, parsnip

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  25. Thanks for sharing the info about the Rough Guides Scholarship. Pretty interesting!

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  26. Sounds like a great idea to include bloggers and aspiring travel writers in this! So far, I have not visited Greece and have no plans to, either, but I remember how enchanted my sister was when she visited Santorin about 10 years ago.

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  27. Interesting, I know of Greece, although I have seen thousands of reports on TV and love it. They are evil with greater disaster by passing his government and support tourism in the area is something they really need. A good work. A greeting.

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  28. Good for you. It is clear Greece is going through a difficult time just now but the beaty of the place remains. Visitors show the people that all is not lost... that they are not being left to a fate so much out of their control.

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  29. I went to Lesbos in 2010 with two bloggers, one from Ohio and one from South Africa. We had a whale of a time - skinny dipping in the Mediterranean should be on everybody's bucket list

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  30. My favourite book about Greece is Henry Miller's "The Colossus of Maroussi" -- he wrote about a year he lived there with Lawrence Durrell!

    Wonderful to be encouraging travel to Greece at this time. It's still a country on my list of places to visit, a trip I've dreamed about making for far too long...

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  31. It sounds like I should add this Durrell book to my book list. I visited Greece so long ago with my family before I went off to university. Gamboling around those ruins by the Aegean Sea were just magical.

    And I apologize for confusing you in my post! I do love the non-linear and the surreal, and unfortunately it flows through to my prose and thinking ... But what a treat to see the ENB dancing up close. My favorite experiences have always been being with the great dancers in a studio setting (this was back in NYC, when everyone went to the same studio and I think I've mentioned sharing a barre and floor with Baryshnikov a few times), seeing them work so hard at rehearsals, before they get on stage. I haven't seen Alice yet either, though my friend promised to lend me her Alice DVD. I'd love to read a copy of your essay in the program if you have a link to it.

    - Jenny

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  32. My husband is part Greek and I've always wanted to go there. Hopefully, some day!

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  33. Having never been to Greece and definitely a place on my list to visit, I would be interested in reading other travels' writings on how they see Greece now other than the political and economical issues I see on tv.

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  34. It's sad that Greeks find that mismanagement of their own economy should cause them to feel antagonistic towards Germans. Their main tourist base is Germany. I follow the German news and have come to the conclusion that Greece may well default on the conditions of the new bail-out and should therefore be only too keen to keep all their tourists on their side.

    Greece is a mess, we don't hear the details in the UK, but it is still a very beautiful and interesting place and well worth visiting.

    I am sorry that you are unable to go and hope you'll find yourself minus any problems soon.

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  35. Interesting and varied comments, as usual. Thanks to everyone.

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  36. What a shame you can't go, Jenny. That first photo is lovely, btw, and thanks for the reminder of the Durrell book.

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  37. wow..well the picture IS breath tingly beautiful!

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  38. Santorin is one of the most beautiful places I visited. Nice post.

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