We're all foreigners somewhere

 Where Bohemian chic never fell out of favour

It’s always good when a place you know makes it into popular culture. And so it goes with my favourite Greek island, Hydra.

Daisy Jones and the Six is a mini-series based on the the band Fleetwood Mac, and it seems to have made the seventies cool again. Hippy chic and bohemian flair are back. The miniseries uses music venues from the seventies, somewhat reconstructed to their past glory. However, one backdrop featured in the series needed no makeover. Hydra is much as it was in the bohemian sixties.

The restaurant where Cohen, Marianne Ihlen and other artists hung out still serves good food, and the tree they all sat under remains rooted. Other bars popular at the time have changed their names but little physical on the island can change too much. Geography defines Hydra. The main town rises precipitously from the port, like an amphitheatre sweeping up from the sea. The steps are steep and donkeys carry the main burden of moving goods around, whether it is groceries, furniture or white goods. Filming Daisy Jones and the Six last year was not easy in these circumstances. The crew found the logistics of using beasts of burden to transport filming equipment and props up steep steps and around tight corners a true challenge.

But it is the lack of vehicles, and their noise, that makes the island so appealing to musicians and artists. With no cars, and no traffic noise, the tranquillity cannot be overstated. When you step off the ferry your shoulders ease downwards. And, as you follow a donkey bearing your suitcase up the steps to your hotel, it is easy to feel your stresses have been left far below. 

Writers and artists have long been attracted to Hydra, some visiting to work alone, some to attend short-term courses, and some even making permanent homes here. The Old Carpet Factory offers recording space to musicians, composers and sound technicians. Art schools and galleries are plentiful but there is tight competition among artists for exhibition space. Jeff Koons, the artist famous for creating balloon creatures in aluminium, made his Hydra debut last summer with a 30-foot sculpture of the sun on the exterior wall of the old slaughter house, now a prestigious art gallery.

Hydra’s appeal to artists began in the 1930s when the father of Greek cubism, Nikos Hadjikyriafos-Ghika, made a home here and beaconed other artists, musicians and writers to follow. His 40-room mansion became a retreat and party venue until it was mysteriously destroyed by fire in 1961. Ghika left the island never to return. However, many artists and musicians stayed, leaning on each other both socially and creatively.

Cohen heard about the artistic community on Hydra while in London. He travelled here and was taken in by other writers happy to nurture the struggling poet. He felt so comfortable that he used a small legacy to buy a house on the island and wrote early songs here such as So Long Marianne, Bird on the Wire and Suzanne as well as books such as Flowers for Hitler and Beautiful Losers. Cohen’s romance with Marianne Ihlen on the island has become almost mythical. She was his muse, even while still married to her writer husband, Axel Jensen. Cohen’s fame grew after Judy Collins performed his song, Suzanne. He was lured away from the island to tour with Collins, making occasional trips back to write. The Cohen family still own a house on Hydra and are firmly bound into the fabric of the island.

While Daisy Jones and the Six has made vintage trendy, Hydra never lost its vintage theme. Nothing here changes fast. All new building is limited to plots with existing ruins, and construction must use the rubble of the previous property. Old photos of the island are easily recognisable as the buildings don’t age.

Social life here is mellow, much as it was in Cohen’s time. Evenings are for dinner and perhaps a post-dinner drink with friends. There are no dance clubs. Any dancing that takes place usually breaks out spontaneously.

The water around the island is beautifully clear with steps fixed onto the rocks making life easy for swimmers. There are beaches about one mile out of town in either direction, with paved paths following the coast so that the walk is a joy. For those who feel one mile is a step too far there are boat taxis plus hourly boat buses to transfer bathers between beach and town.

Other Greek islands have moved on in time, leaving the trend for headscarves, billowy dresses and espadrilles behind. Hydra, however, has hung on. Hippy chic here is still trendy. In fact, it never left.