As I've already mentioned, animation is entertainment for hotel guests, organized by special people. Animation happens during the day and in the evening. In the morning it's pool gymnastics, in the afternoon it's sports games like volleyball or archery. But in the evening, a themed show is put on.
I don't remember what was on which day, so I'll just tell you what kind of performances we saw. You could check the schedule on the board in the hotel lobby.
The first one – the fakir show, and they pronounce it in such a way that it's easy to make a mistake and hear "fucker-show".
First, the fakir stood on broken glass. Then he picked up a girl in his arms and stood on the glass. Then he took two girls – one for each arm. And stood on the glass. (All photos are Tanya's)
Then he called up two guys of non-flimsy build. Here I got interested: how on earth would he be able to lift 100 kg with each arm and stand on glass at the same time. But the cunning fakir instead lay down on the glass with his body, and invited the guys to stand on his back.
Having finished with the glass, the fakir moved on to boards with nails. First he lay on one, then put a second one under his feet, and asked either a kid or a girl to stand on his back. In the end, he took a poor kid of about 10 and laid him on the glass instead of himself. I immediately thought he was going to stand on the kid right then, and we'd be watching a horror show instead of a fakir show. But the body-hardened comrade didn't do that, he just brushed the glass off the kid and handed him back to his parents. The kid, as far as I could tell, wasn't harmed.
All this went on for quite a while, and I thought that this must surely be the end of the show, but the fakir didn't half-ass it and continued to light things up, in the most literal sense. He lit two torches, started dancing and running the torches over his arms and legs. Naturally, all this was happening to pseudo-ethnic motifs aka world-music. And as a climax, the fakir shoved a torch into his mouth, grabbed it with his teeth, and held it like that for about 20 seconds. All the while, of course, walking on his hands and doing the sort of thing that certain citizens call by the clichéd expression “magical plasticity”.
Here is a typical example:
Hint: This person really can't stand on his feet without crutches for more than ten seconds
By the way, the next day I caught the fakir talking to the bartender in English, and asked what that was about. To which the curly-haired guy informed me that he had arrived in Crete either from Tunisia or from Tanzania – basically, I couldn't find another African country starting with “T”, and I don't remember which one he named. Pool gymnastics was also led by the fakir – not surprising, considering he needs super-flexibility and super-strength at the same time.
The next evening, a wizard, aka a magician, performed for us. We were already thinking the fakir would pop out again, but an elderly uncle in glasses appeared, dressed in all things magical. He showed everything the way it usually goes – rabbits out of a hat, multi-colored handkerchiefs from out of nowhere and that sort of stuff. The mage was assisted by voluntary sidekicks from among the kids, and of different ages too – maybe 6 years old, maybe 10, or even 14. And eventually, he even called up a lady of about 60. German ladies stay ladies up to that age, they don't turn into old women. He showed how perfectly his guillotine, in the shape of a board with holes, slices cucumbers – 5 at a time. Then he shoved a fresh batch of cucumbers into the guillotine, and at the same time, the lady's hand. The lady, I must say, was scared, but held the line, that is, her hand in the hole. In the end, the mage brought down the guillotine, sliced the cucumbers, and weirdly enough, not the lady's hand. Not a bad trick, especially for the one whose hand is in the guillotine.
There were another couple of evenings with live music – they sang either local pop, or a medley of everything, including Russian songs. The Cretans are going strong – the staff knows Russian, the singers know Russian, well, except maybe the fakir doesn't.
Once there was an evening of national music – dressed in Cretan national costumes, three highlanders and one highlander girl were tearing it up to furious local melodies. Then they started dragging the audience up to them, teaching them all sorts of fancy steps and stomps. The audience turned out to be teachable – they repeated the simple movements no worse than the highlanders. Eventually, they dragged half the room onto the stage and started leading a round dance, occasionally breaking up into pairs. They hooked Andryukha too, and he danced with all his might on the dance floor, sometimes with the locals, sometimes with his fellow tourists. I'm shy and clumsy, so I watched from the sidelines and enjoyed it – the dances were actually very lively.
There was also one more time with a special outdoor dinner evening, I already wrote about that in the post about the restaurant.
There was also quite often a mini-disco, that is, a disco for kids. It was before or after the other animations. By the way, the hotel also has a regular disco – in the basement. I wasn't there, but I doubt there were many visitors – wrong demographic at the hotel. There was also dancing just on the stage by the bar – pop music was played by a versatile DJ who was also used for all the other animations. Once I saw a Russian bartender tearing up the dance floor savagely – I wonder, are they allowed to do that, or did she overdo it with the chillout here?
What impressed me the most about the animation? The fakir was excellent, the magician was not bad, although he is a far cry from Rick Wilcox. But the latter is a world-renowned magician, and this one is just a hard worker. The national dances were excellent – the highlanders gave it their all. You can immediately see that the chillout hasn't completely eaten them up, and in the event of World War III, the adversary better not mess with Crete. The BBQ evening didn't disappoint either.
So the final rating for the animation is 4+ out of 5. Which, by the way, is the hotel's rating as well.