A few words about me

I earned my degree in Chemistry from the Faculty of Science of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2008, after having completed secondary school in Kolymbari, Crete.

I have been dancing traditional Cretan dance since I was a child, and have been playing traditional Cretan music on the violin since the age of 14, when I began studying at the school of the late violinist Michalis Kounelis.

I was fortunate to have had the great violinist Kostas Papadakis, known as “Naftis” (“Sailor”), as a teacher, who taught me many melodies of the traditional local music.

Aside from the violin, which I occasionally play on a professional basis, I am also an amateur player of the Cretan lute (laouto), mandolin and guitar.

I was highly stimulated by rural life in the village as a child, whether collecting olives, stomping on grapes or gathering chestnuts. I also recall moving beehives at a very young age from Palaia Roumata to Floria with a certain Manolis Lionakis.

It is more likely that Manolis had brought me along for the company than for any actual help. I recall his telling me on that rough and rocky road how dangerous a profession beekeeping was, and that if an accident were to befall us and the pick-up truck turned over, we would be promptly smothered by the bees.

After having completed my compulsory military service in May of 2009, I tutored both high school and university students in mathematics, physics and chemistry, all the while working as a beekeeper on the side.

My knowledge of beekeeping improved, and my beekeeping skills were gradually honed, at the side of older and more experienced generations of beekeepers; at the same time I worked and experimented with my own hives.α.

I believe that if you truly want to expand your knowledge of something that you love doing, you can achieve it by devoting time and gaining direct experience.

Lefteris Panagiotakis