Hydra

Seeing Leonard Cohen in concert took me back to a holiday some 12 years ago, when I first got close to the man. More or less. To a moment when I learned something more about him and the way he lived.

I went to Greece for a spring holiday, and it was a mixed trip in many ways. I started off in the north, and went skiing for a day near the Yugoslav border. Then down to Mount Olympus, home of the gods, only to get rained off again. At my next destination, Meteora, the weather was lovely, and I visited the monasteries in the sunshine. Further south I stood in the pouring rain in Delphi, watching Hillary Clintons motorcade drive past. And then it was time for some real sunshine, on a Greek island. Hydra seemed the obvious choice. Not too far from Athens, and Leonard Cohen used to live there.

Once on the island, after finding a place to stay and something to eat, it was time to try and find the Cohen house. I asked a few people but no luck. "Somewhere up there" was as far as I got. So I walked a little way up the mountain, until I met someone who did know and who could point me in the right direction. Close to the house the lady who walked up with us introduced us to the lady looking after the house. I looked at the walls, the trees above, the windows and the wires. It wasn't possible to go inside the house, but the lady said that if we came back the next day we could just have a look in the garden if we wanted to.


The next morning we walked back up to the house, where the old lady was already waiting for us. We went into the garden, which was a lovely, quiet corner with some lemon trees. We got to taste the lemons. The lady ended up changing her mind and she showed us something of the house as well. It was a strange experience to be in that small house. It was light, sparsely furnished and spacious. It still looked lived in, because of all the personal items, the photographs, the books, some children's toys, the old guitar. I saw the room where Marianne was photographed, the drawers of the desk that were full of fan letters. I wouldn't mind living in this house.

After visiting the house the lady invited us to her own house for a drink, and we met her husband and her mother. She was a very kind lady, who seemed to enjoy the interest in her Mr Leonard Cohen, and she was proud to be working for him. It was a special day, and a special meeting.