Sunshine, or Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Hi Hatley, I know you never did it but I wonder what the consequences would be for an American taking prohibited photographs at a military place as they wouldn't be able to arrest you as a foreign spy. Just a thought. When this did happen over here it was a huge story in the UK press but not at all over here as the Greeks just weren't interested and had no concept of people watching and photographing planes as a hobby,

Hi purplealabaster, well that certainly sounds unusual traipsing round abandoned buildings, hopefully in the dark to add a little more atmosphere. You can tell the police you were looking for a body rumoured to be secreted on the premises but your source wasn't perfectly reliable. Spies in large groups wearing conspicous anoraks whilst openly breaking the law I agree was always an unlikely scenario, but a most amusing one, and certainly gave a little fame to our local airport. Hobbies myself. We don't go in for that kind of nonsense in Greece and if I did it would sully my reputation no end as being completely non conformist.

LOL - I might consider that suggestion, Thea, but I'm afraid that they would find a body and think I put it there!

There's always the chance of a new hobby though, inspecting the insides of police stations. Don't worry, Thea, they will never find the bodies that I've hidden. Urm, I'm mean I'd NEVER do anything of the sort. Really.

Aye Aye sailor ;0) The Titanic Museum is in Southampton where of course the doomed liner set off from. It was a wonderful experience, hearing audio and accounts of the survivors as well as artefacts from the White Star company. I am actually going to be attempting to draw the Titanic at my next art class.

Of course, where else would it be It's good to hear you've found a class you feel comfortable in Wolfie, keep on enjoy it. Will you be wearing your anorak whilst drawing the Titanic?

Hi Wolfie, it's a harmless enough hobby I agree and much preferable to football hooliganism or playing the drums, but it can lead to trouble if practiced over here where the whole idea of any sort of hobby is an unknown life style choice. You can't be described as a boat anorak unless you insist on keeping it on in the classroom whilst you draw. Oh you do. I didn't realise there was a Titanic museeum in the UK, where is it? We have tons of boats over here as you can imagine, ranging from small to large fishing boats, fancy yachts up at the marina in town, and a selection of ships. In fact we saw the largest cruise ship ever the other week parked up in town and my son declared it must be bigger than the Titanic, but it was certainly no where near as glamorous. The Greek navy often park up there to, many Greeks travel the world that way.

That's hardly suprising about the actor, bad news spreads much quicker than good and the Americans do themselves no favours by doing things like that. Can you imagine the news if India detained a top American actor for interregation?

Hi Sunny, these were plane enthusiasts who probably read up about the airport and the planes there before they even arrived and also there were massive pictorial signs up forbidding the taking of photographs so it wasn't as if it was an obscure local law which they disobeyed, it was a long standing law at this airport. Regarding the interrogation at airports though this is clearly ridiculous, picking on someone because of their appearance, presumably his religion wouldn't have been shown on his passport. T his will have had a knock on bad publicity effect against the US in your country I would expect.Surfing the internet should be safe but best to remember that your hard drive stores all those dodgy sites you visit such as Mylot

mylot..? dodgy..??...i wonder why my anti-virus didn't beep on that one.....okay.... i have informed the intelligence agencies and they promised to keep an eye on this. (time to interrogate mylot..). and yes, about the actor, it certainly was a big issue here and he has said that he would not like to visit US again. and another actor canceled his trip to US, indefinitely, for no apparent reason..!

Hi Malpoa, you do realise that you've just confessed to being a secret anorak. It was indeed a weird thing to do as this kind of thing is most usually a boy thing to do. Counting things on buses sounds a harmless way to pass the journey and the way you observe planes now could hardly be considered too much, it's not as if you are travelling around to foreign places to photograph them. We have very few planes fly overhead, but I do watch the sea planes when they swoop locally to refill their water supplies to deal with a sudden fire, they often have to fly miles off course for water to a less windy area.

Hi hi I know, it was long back and I wasnt a serious one at that...hmm i have seen planes filling water but only in movies. My hometown is near coastal area and cost guards helicopter used to hover around quite often, but those were grey in colour and i didnt used to mind it...

aeroplanes!! I have been misspelling a lot of words!!!

Whoopee just noticed the signed up members reached 50. dbu, pranking friends is a nice hobby and not likely to get arrested. You won't like souvlaki as you don't eat meat, it is skewered pork on a stick. You can give your bit to Mike

dbu, as you have nothing to say I can only presume you are following Mike around whilst wearing an anorak There were two of you a minute ago, the other one was eating souvlaki.

What is souvlaki? Your Question was about the hobbies which will trouble others isn't it? If not like that Explain me in a simple English.. I thought pranking with friends is one kind of hobby which is trouble to others isn't it? Have a great day..

Hi Garden Gerty, I think the Greeks have always been a suspicious race due to their earlier confabs with Turkey and other countries but I do agree, when in a foreign land abide by their laws and don't take pictures of planes in a military airbase which prohibits it. Obviously they had no idea of the serious consequences of breaking such a law. Unrestricted areas fun, whatever can you mean Gerty?

You may not have them in Greece, but here we have air shows and I have lots of pictures of planes from those days. Locally we recently just had small planes, but I have been to those that have large military aircraft. On the other hand, even airports do not want pictures taken anymore.

You must be kidding Alice surely. I heard about the law of no cameras being taken into school but now you can't include another child in a picture. So now everyone is deemed to be a peadohphile before they are declared innocent

Hi mimpi, I really can't tell if you're joking or not, really. I have never once heard of plane spotters being described as having a beautiful hobby, a little eccentric would be nearer to the mark. But watching planes or trains wasn't the problem here as that is innocent in the right place, just not inside a Greek military air base. I rather see you as the sun loving nature type than the photographing planes type.

Ahhh, there was the germination of this idea even as I wrote my last discussion....I do understand....they were there, ergo, they are spies.

Hi MsTickle, good and sensible points you make there, all of them, however you have not allowed for the Greek mentality I'm afraid. There are in fact two activities whick Greeks indulge in which other mentalities would perceive as hobbies, these being the game of tavli, indulged in by grown men in kafenions, and racket ball, indulged in by the young set on the beaches during summer. They would not consider these hobbies as indeed there is not even a Greek word for 'hobby' and the whole concept is beyond them. 'Walk for pleasure' Why? Ohene does quite enough walking between olive trees at picking time, is a good example of how the mind works. 'Spotting'of any nature cannot be conceived of in a land of sunshine, as it would detract from the main purpose of any free time, which is to sit in kafenions or tavernas and drink coffee and smoke, or eat and smoke. Thus their supsicion of anything of a hobbyish nature. These plane spotters were obviously suspicious as they did their hobby openly rather than hiding it, thus must have been spies. All very logical and of total disnterest to the Greeks at the time as the spotters were not providing any gossip.

Hi snuggle bunnies, I wasn't sure if you had anoraks in the US or not, it's really an English thing, zip up waterproof quilted jacket completely lacking in any style at all with big pockets for the cameras and notebooks. School boys wear them too. So you're a plane spotter without an anorak but not on restricted military sites I'm glad to hear.

Yassou Aunty, I don't think anyone actually looking at these fourteen people could ever have seriously imagined they were spies, they were all very ordinary looking and I believe that spies are often a little more discreet than to travel in large groups, but at the end of the day they did break the law here. Maybe a fine and a rap on the knuckles may have served better than a month in prison but it just shows how important it is to respect the law of foreign lands.

Thanks thea, I can't really add the interest since I've only lived in the US and well I'm not Greek LOL I was curious about your airport, why is it only opened full time 6 months out of the year? Is that tourist season or something? I've lived places that have a tourist season but, our airport was always opened. Oh, and why do Greeks not think it is a hobby to watch planes? Is it just to boring to comprehend that someone would want to do it?

Hi ZephyrSun and welcome to the new interest here of Greek life style. Planes flying overhead would indeed be terribly annoying, one of the good things about this airport is that it is only open to commercial flights six months of the year and then only a couple of days a week in the summer so we don't have the noise factor to contend with. The anoraks involved weren't actually suspected of being terrorists but spies come to steal military secrets and of course the Greeks were incapable of believing that any sane person would go around to foreign countries to photograph planes as a hobby, the idea of hobbies alone is not known to the Greeks. This was actually a huge news story at the time in the UK whilst Greek journalists were completely uninterested in the whole thing.

Hi ZephyrSun, you don't need to add this interest, you have already achieved a rank in the top 40 of it (evil laugh). I little trick I learnt that even if one says 'no thank you' to adding an interest you still end up ranked in it by your participation alone. I suckered nearly 50 into Panaithinaikos and only two of them have any idea what it is. Yes our airport is only open to commercial flights during the tourist season, it was at one time open for domestic flights to Athens but no more. Not that many Greeks holiday abroad so it doesn't bother them and they would think nothing of popping along to Athens, four and a half hours away, for a hospital appointment anyway. Greeks just do not understand the concept of having hobbies, they aren't needed when the whole day can easily be filled drinking coffee in the cafenion and relaxing. Things such as walking for pleasure are viewed as nasty foreign habits and they were probably all so overworked and poor for so many centuries that the habit of hobbies never caught on. The twenties generation do enjoy beach games though and the men are obsessed with tavli (backgammon) but they wouldn't like it if they were told it was a hobby

Hi Karen, I can see I'm going to be in trouble here with the anorak remark as this seems to now be attracting some train and ship spotters.I'm actually interested as you are on the other side of the Pond, if this attracted huge publicity there at the time, or maybe it was just in the UK. Certainly always wise to obey the laws on these things though, especially on foreign soil.

I'd have to research that one :D But I imagine it did. It is a wonderful hobby, though!

Hi Judith, annoying anoraks. I don't think they were actually arrested because they were annoying as unfortunately that isn't against the law here yet, but I did hear that it was being considered in the UKalong with other barmey laws there. It could well be why they were moved to other prisons though outside of Kalamta. They did accuse the Kalamta police of turning the water off on them for several hours which is a ridiculous accusation to make. Hello this is Greece, the water is always being turned off, they don't just do it for the anoraks.

Is it all just silly laws now for the sake of employing people to make new laws plus how many people do they employ now to think up all those new job titles to replace the ones I used to know there, such as dustmen.

not completely sure that is a barmy law. i've got a massive list of people who are going to be reported to the police the minute it takes effect. will just have to decide how to avoid being arrested myself.