Trip to Crete (Greece) in August 2019

The island Crete is usually associated with the warm sea and the sun.

The region Chania represents the greenest part of the island.

We stayed in the hotel Yakinthos. This three-star hotel is located in an excellent place, 30 minutes from the center of the city Chania. There is a nice swimming pool in the hotel. The water is warm and deep enough for a good plunge.



You can see in the picture that there are no people lounging on the sunbeds. Most of the time the swimming pool was empty.

All of the days during our stay at the hotel, we were laying under a shady tree or walking to the sea. It takes only two minutes to walk through a green small road to reach the shore of the sea. The sea was great, clean, warm, and relatively empty. This picture was taken in the morning.



We visited Chania, a beautiful city built in Venetian style, where the harbor and old city are the main tourist attractions.



This region is located in a relatively remote place, three hours by car from the main airport on the island, in Heraklion. Due to the long-distance, we only bought two tickets for the excursion.

The first excursion was to the uninhabited island, Gramvousa, and Bay Balos. There is the old ruined fortress on the hill of the island. Tourists go up to the peak to see the beautiful views from the hill.



The Bay Balos is a very popular place for tourism. It's interesting to see the emerald, crystal-clear water, but swimming there is not convenient because the place is quite crowded.



On the way back there was an incident on the ship. One passenger of our ship had a health issue which was believed to be a heart attack. The ship had to return to the port and it left all passengers in this isolated place. All of us from the ship had to wait for two hours sitting on the stones. Some were in the open sun trying to prevent themselves from getting burnt.



Our next excursion had the title "Unknown Crete". On the way to the final destination, we visited another beautiful city- Rethymno.



We visited a medieval monastery Preveli.



During the last part of this excursion, we visited the south part of the island. This place is quite exotic, it is surrounded by mountains and the sea. The Greek government tries to keep this territory untouched. Only a very few hotels are built there. That is why the excursion bears the name, "Unknown Crete.”



In summary, we can conclude that Crete is an ideal place for a calm, relaxing holiday.

Speed by Sinclair Lewis Review

The short story "Speed" by Sinclair Lewis is written in a style that highlights the high rhythm of life.

This idea implies in many aspects of the story:

• The title (Speed)

The plot (It is about a racer of car's competition who desires about highest speed to won in competition)

• The relationships between two main characters (They have only a few minutes to decide if they’ll marry)

The story has a surprisingly happy end. The narration is dynamic and well written.

Here are the links to the text of the story and audio:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301161h.html#s09

http://www.morningshort.com/

Clean Sweep by Joan Bauer - Review

The short story "Clean Sweep" by Joan Bauer is written like a diary of a young girl who works in her mother’s business - cleaning houses.

The story starts with a description of dust: what it looks like when we see it under the microscope. Things can be seen differently if we pay enough attention to them - this idea was implemented in the main part of the story.

The central action of the story starts when the family got an order to clean the attic of the house of an old lady. She lived alone. The girl suggested to throw away some stuff from the attic: old newspapers and torn books, toys and so on. The landlady disagreed and even became angry with this suggestion. Along with other things, the old lady saw a ragged book which she thought had been taken by her sister. The sisters hadn’t talked for many years. The girl advised the old lady to call her sister but this suggestion was met with indignation. It was clear that these old things aroused a lot of memories for the mistress of the house. The next day, the old lady eventually called her sister and they planned a meeting after many years of being apart.

At the beginning of the story, the author presented that by paying attention we can have a different view (it was inspired by dust). In the last part of the story this idea was expressed with links to memories and it also applies to relationships between people. It certainly has given "food for thought".

This is the link to the text of the story:

https://drbarrsenglish.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/2/8/48280451/clean_sweep_se_pages.pdf

Review: The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury Review

The plot of the short story "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury takes place in the future  (the year 2053 A.D.) but it references a present issue.

The main character of the story, Mr. Leonard Mead, walks during the night alone, through the empty streets. The planet where he lives doesn’t have enough oxygen to breathe, so he takes with him a container of fresh air.

He had been doing it for years and in all that time, he has never met another person along the way. The city was peaceful and calm, criminality had been completely eradicated. The local parliament voted to keep only one of the three police cars which the city previously had before.

One day Mr. Mead was stopped during his walk by the police, they accused him of breaking rules. The author presents this action and shows how it unexpectedly takes place: his arrest had no valid reasons, outwardly the police performed their role as it should be.

Ray Bradbury described how the bureaucratic machine worked, works and will be working into the future. That's the idea readers should begin to work with.

Here is the text of the story (on page 52 of pdf-file):

http://www.chs.accomack.k12.va.us/ourpages/auto/2017/2/10/31077797/se_unit6.pdf

The Life of Harry Houdini by Tom Lalicki - Review

Most of Tom Lalicki's works present biographies. "The Life of Harry Houdini" belongs to this genre too. This is a story about American magician Harry Houdini.

The author highlighted the very important feature of Harry Houdini's character - persistence in achieving the aim. Success came to him after years of painstaking work. The book can be interesting for people who like learning history through narrations and biographies.

Here is the text of the story:

https://d3jc3ahdjad7x7.cloudfront.net/jyKNTwcfLmOUQVJORjzdXU9OAk0C6z46S3QqscA35CXFe90l.pdf

The Pool by William Somerset Maugham - Review

The story 'The Pool" written by famous British writer William Somerset Maugham is about love. The main character, Scottish mam Mr. Lawson lived on the island Samoe. The island is located in the Pacific ocean close to Australia.

The author used the method of narration from the first side for the beginning and end of the story. The main part, the story of love Mr. Lawson with the girl Ethel was written from the first side. Ethel was a daughter of a native woman and a man from Holland. The author called her and people who had mixture parents - half-caste.

The plot of the narration took place on the island Samoe, in Scotland and on Samoe again. It is a very touching story about unhappy love, differences between cultures, human weaknesses and prejudices. 

Maugham's stories are highlighted by a very rich style, clear message- the main idea and the plot is really captivating. 

Here is the link to the text of the story:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26854/26854-h/26854-h.htm

Review: The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

The short story “The District Doctor” by Ivan Turgenev belongs to the genre of narrative. The author caught a cold and invited the district physician to his hotel. After some medical procedures were completed, the main characters had a frank conversation during which the district doctor told the story of his life.

The author said "I am going to impart his narrative to the indulgent reader. I shall endeavour to express myself in the physician's words". Ivan Turgenev is a classical Russian writer, his works are studied in schools. One reason for such success is the ability of the author to use the language of simple people. The translation text from Russian to English can't display all the nuances of this folklore.  

The story is very touching, it is a love story without a happy ending. The feelings of people, their thoughts and actions, all of them are very authentic. The slice-of-life narration style conveys perfectly the atmosphere of place and time, where and when the story took place.

Here is the link to the text of the story:

http://public-library.uk/ebooks/29/6.pdf