Memories of Grece and Crete and Hydra
Covid-19 in Greece tops the list, with the lowest death rate I turn to my wife and tell her I just both 2 tickets for Greece on my phone. 1st) she tells me she feels terrible and 2nd) she tells me I am crazy. Yes I am. When I want something, nothing stops me. Not even the fact that I have purchased Air France tickets and the French won’t let me in. SO I switch to KLM. We arrive in Amsterdam and get through the customs control but then we have to go into the Schengen Area.
The very big border control guy looks at my passport and he shakes his head, NO. I take out my outdated French passport and he say YES!
We arrive in Athens and our Greek friend picks up at airport, it is hot and miserable but it is Greece. We stay a few days and then we all fly to Crete. On the plane I see this tall beautiful Cretan air hostess, and I blurt out, “ You are the tallest Greek I have ever seen!” She is not amused. Hania, beautiful place, old Venetian Ottoman town. I get massage at Hamman on the roof like out of the Arabian nights with the port below and streamers waving in the wind. We eat Cretan honey and yoghurt ( a lot of it ) which reminds me of my days as a student visiting Crete. I am in Heaven, in a great two story B and B. I walk around the city, loving it, loving being in Crete. Our friend leaves but we stay, renting a car. An Opel automatic.
At Suda bay military cemetery we visit the tombs of the fallen soldiers (the Anzacs ) and then go back to the car which doesn’t start, until I figure it out. Then we enter the road to the White mountains, the road I took by bus so long ago. And I was afraid then and I am afraid now. White knuckle driving on better roads until we get to the descent to Sfakion. We stop at a cafe to piss but I am too afraid to piss, the view is of the Samantha gorge or of a lesser gorge (the deepest in Europe). I am petrified. But brave. We go on down the mountain on switch backs and find out they are still working on the road, even more dangerous. I don’t take my eyes off the road,
Till we get down to the village which is overrun with tourists. Eh Gads! it is a nightmare. High rises, parked cars everywhere; where is my little village of yesteryear? We leave without stopping and go to a hotel to eat tomato salad. We go on the the Venetian castle and beach. I see the coast which is steep and the roads are small, especially in the villages. I take over driving. We arrive in Heraklion to seek our next stop but can’t find it, keep running in circles and finally give up and go downtown, and continue to drive in circles in the old town. Hotels are closed because of lack of tourists. Finally we come back to hotel we saw an hour ago and I go in to the reception,
12 hours of driving without pissing caught up to me and I relieve myself in front of the desk in front of a pretty woman. Oh God. My wife looks at me askance. I look for a toilette. But we have room that is upgraded to a better room over looking the harbour and it is wonderful. We watch the ferry boats arrive and depart for Athens; it reminds me of my night on deck long ago. Next day we have the best breakfast I have ever had in a hotel, gobs of food. We leave early to visit Knossos to avoid the heat and crowds. I am a little disappointed, but that turns to wonder as we return to the city to visit the archeology museum.
We continue on. We take a nap at our hotel at Rethymnon, I still can’t pronounce it, but then got out to go to find a place to eat. My wife was still suffering from Stendhal’s syndrome; she was a Minoan archeologist after all. The combination of Knossos and the archeological museum. We found the best place to eat, typical Cretan food. Moussaka. We continued on the next day, taking a detour to Hania to have some more Cretan honey and yoghurt. Stop by the market and buy a Cretan weaving from a pretty girl. Afterwards to drive to Suda bay and our hotel on the ocean, wonderful bungalow and food and people. A nice two day respite.
Back to crazy Athens where we get taken for a ride by an aggressive taxi driver for 100 Euros. Then I lost my iPhone. Ah well.
We are glad to leave the city behind, to take a fast ferry to Hydra where we are in heaven. Staying in a hotel next to at taverna where Leonard Cohen used to hang out. We had a wonderful time and celebrated our wedding anniversary in the ‘Sun set cafe”. We were planning to stay a couple of days but stayed a week. A second honey moon….…
