Winter at
the Old Harbor
The Old Venetian Harbor of Chania is a place which people usually visit during summer.
Then, it 's crowded, it is full of spectacles, light and joy. At the summer everything seems to be evolving around the tourist and his satisfaction. The tourist is the customer and the local works to serve. It wasn't always like that.
Only a few decades ago the Old Harbor of Chania was a rough place to live. The people who lived there where those who could not afford to live anywhere else. It was dangerous walking at the Old Harbor at night. There was crime, drug trafficking and prostitution.
From the 1980's onwards things rapidly changed. The once poverty stricken area became a tourist destination. And the ones poor inhabitants of the harbor became rich. Now, they owned valuable property at the center of the touristic explosion of Chania.
Old houses were rebuild, restaurants and bars were created. Those locals who didn't own the houses they lived could not afford the rents anymore and moved elsewhere. The human geography of the place changed. Now, the Old Harbor is clean. It's the theme park that feeds many and the heart of the tourist destination that Chania has become.
Old houses were rebuild, restaurants and bars were created. Those locals who didn't own the houses they lived could not afford the rents anymore and moved elsewhere. The human geography of the place changed. Now, the Old Harbor is clean. It's the theme park that feeds many and the heart of the tourist destination that Chania has become.
Things have certainly changed in the past decades. But there is still something of the old essence left.
Every winter under the grey sky, when there are no tourists to walk at the Old Harbor and no shops are open to welcome them, when the lights are off and the waves hit the harbor, the Old Harbor returns back to the locals as it was.
Any comments, positive or critical, are more than welcome.
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