THE ISLAND OF CRETE

Azure and argent. Between heaven and the earth lies the island. Set in the living sea. A place of peace and joy where nature and the gods have combined to leave a mystery. A place where eagles soar and the sound of the susurration of the wind touches ears and hearts in a way unknown before. Here is Eden, the first garden and which you can still walk in day-by-day; where the essence is happiness and where the land and the people are both at one with the place.

Here in the island may be found a happiness unsurpassed in the whole wide range of the globe, here is innocence and ancient wisdom. Here is exuberance and expression in life and death which does true humour and justice to the feelings that beat in the breast of mankind. Here is a handshake and a kiss which lets you into the heart and where the mind is second.

Emerald and ruby. The growing life and the land, fertile and abundant, giving and receiving with the pleasure of innocence and passion. Under a mighty sun or a vast serene moon with a million lamps lighting up the velvet mantle of the night are a people who live life and death with confidence and have no need of fighting against the current of a mechanical world. Here a language of the voice means nothing compared to the language of the heart.

Here is the land which gladdens the eye and which the passion of the people has maintained as the Eden for millennia. Here the rich red of their blood has added to the colour of the land so that the two flow together and the people and the land are one. Here is the place which has been the beginning and will last in innocence to the end. A home for its people and all of these called in their spirit to a place where the bare honesty of life is visible day by day.

This is the island where music is in the very air and welcome is an open gesture to the stranger with a courtesy never learned in artificial ways, but coming as naturally as breathing. The place where the stranger is a guest and where the breaking of bread is a holy and daily offering practiced in the taverna and the house and the kafenions, as well as the Church. Here the Samaritan may be found on many a road and mountainside.

This is surely a blessed island, the island of Crete.....

Crete is an island on which every traveler visits finds fun, relaxation and adventure. The Cretans' Association of Toronto "Knossos" is privileged to share with you the adventures of one such traveler, Eric Bornstein, who visited Crete with his family in 2008 (reprinted with the permission of the author).

Some months ago, my wife and I decided to go on our first cruise; a vacation in Greece had always been a dream for Brenda. We chose a cruise that commenced in Istanbul and would finish in Piraeus but would disembark for a day each on such wonderful places as Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini and Navplion. Brenda very much wanted, however, to savour a Greek island, at both first thing in the morning and last thing at night. We had therefore to choose somewhere to go for a number of days to fulfill her wish. Since we would have already visited some of the smaller islands, our choice was obvious; it would be Crete. The following diary represents the emails that I sent to our children for our five days in Crete, the next portion of our holiday.

Day 1 – October 25, 2008

•    It is 8:50 AM and we are in Piraeus on a bus headed to the airport. It is a beautiful morning and we are looking forward to a few more days of holiday.

•    It is now past 2:00 PM and we have boarded the plane to Heraklion. It sounds more like a sewing machine than an airplane but it has wings AND propellers! We are a few hours late in our take off which gave us more opportunity to eat and yawn in the boarding gate. Eat - because we are conditioned to ingest food, and yawn - well because, we are tired. The cruise was spectacular. Our first cruise was a resounding success - our friends, the ports of call, the good weather and the excellent cruise line.
 
•    It is now the late afternoon and we have settled into our new environment for the next 4 days. The Blue Palace Spa is in Elounda, which sits on a bay called Kolpos Mirambellou. This bay is part of Kritiko Pelago, more familiarly known to us as the Aegean Sea. Elounda is approximately an hour's drive from Heraklion. The town of Elounda is very pretty, has an interesting mix of shops and restaurants and is situated on the water. The hotel is like a small city, set into the hills, overlooking the bay. If you want to go to the beach, pool or spa, a funicular takes you down to the lower levels of the property. As we were driving from the airport, I stopped several times to take photos. This is “one” beautiful place! We will do some touring and some relaxing - it will be hard to strike the right balance.
 
•    We have just finished dinner in the hotel’s Asian-style Restaurant. The menu includes Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Polynesian dishes, as well as Sushi. We had excellent soup and entrees BUT the dessert of fried banana with ice cream and chocolate sauce was "over the top"!  We spoke for some length with the manager of the restaurant. She was born in Athens and moved to Chicago, as a young girl of thirteen, with her family, as her father wanted more opportunity for his family. This move was likely in the late 1950’s. Once her own family was grown, she returned with her husband to her roots and a more relaxed lifestyle and settled in Elounda. Her son, born, raised and educated in America, married an American girl and they now live in Athens and she is “becoming Greek”, so our new friend advised us.

Day 2 – October 26, 2008

•    It is about 10:00 AM and we have just finished breakfast at the hotel. There is a lot to be said for luxury. The Blue Palace Spa is definitely Five Star in anyone's rating. Along with all of the facilities, we are also offered a complimentary breakfast. WOW! I can easily envision all of you making several trips to the "trough". Mom is feeling a bit tired today, so we will keep it simple. I will report to you later.

•    It is 7:00 PM and we are in Elounda, in a restaurant called Vitromartes Taverna. The owner and staff are so very friendly, welcoming and charming. We have had a wonderful day, driving very curvy roads and visiting villages perched on mountain sides and seaside towns. The weather was scattered light rain, partly cloudy, thus producing interesting colours and mist; dream conditions for photography. We set out at around 11:00 and by 11:30 we had made a wrong turn and were hopelessly lost in Agios Nikolaos. Our recovery did not take long due to the fact that there are not that many roads and a kind lady in a car rental shop gave us the route out of town. It has also helped that Mom has opportunely rediscovered her superb map reading ability.

•    It is fun driving manual transmission on these winding and narrow roads, even necessary for better control of the car. The cars are all over the place on the road, but the drivers are good. However, due to the many twists and turns, as well as the beautiful terrain, it takes "for ever" to go short distances. It is an interesting time in these parts. These islands exist mostly on tourists - people seeking sun and warmth. In a few days, October 31, many of the hotels and restaurants will close for the season. Our hostess at the restaurant last night told us that many of the staff is local and they will turn their efforts to harvesting olives and making olive oil. We stopped many times to take photos and other times for WC breaks. Each of these times, we had coffee - excellent cappuccino in Sitia, a seaside town/city. There is wonderful history here. We will attempt to visit Knossos, which is apparently some 4,000 years old and was the centre of the Minoan people. In a more modern perspective, our hotel is directly in front of the island called Spinalonga which was a leper colony from 1903 until 1957. There is a Venetian fortress on this island. We will learn more upon a visit there.

Day 3 – October 27, 2008

•    We have had another wonderful day driving in the interior, mountainous region called the Lasithi Plateau. We left the new National Road at Malia and ventured south. We climbed the mountains through small villages with such names as Krasi, Kato Meloni, Kaminaki, Agios Georgios, Agios Konstantinos to name just a few. We visited the cave where Zeus was alleged to be born, as Rea his mother fled to safety. We trod upon a very steep and slippery stoned pathway to reach the cave. We eschewed the offer of a donkey ride to the summit. It would have been well worth the 15 Euro. Next time! As we climbed up the path, we heard all around us, the peeling of the bells worn by the many goats grazing in the nearby mountainous fields. These were the only sounds one could hear. It was difficult to see the goats as they were camouflaged by their environment. To reach the depth of the cave required the descent of 110 steps. The cave was extremely beautiful, filled with stalagmites and stalactites. I took several photos but could not really see what I was photographing. We did not feel like we were in the presence of Gods but the place had spirituality. During our drive to, in and from the Palteau, we stopped at several of the villages to view the crafts, take photos and in some, have coffee. These villages, which have rich histories and loads of atmosphere, are in decay and decline, unfortunately. Each village has a taverna and some have cafes and some have stores selling locally made products like honey, olive oil and embroidered products. They all have old people no longer able to sustain their fields and properties. It is so unfortunate that these villages will likely soon disappear; not being able to compete with other seaside communities, all inclusive resorts and cruise lines for the tourism and all that comes with it. We returned to our home base after it had turned dark; driving hairpin turns down a mountain on narrow roads with few barriers, is a new experience.

Day 4 – October 28, 2008

•    Yesterday, Mom went for a massage at our hotel. She enjoyed it immensely. I walked to Plaka (5 minutes 'down' the road) and took a boat to the island of Spinalonga. I and two other passengers were the only visitors to the island for a short period of time until other visitors arrived. The two forged ahead and I toured the island accompanied only by the sounds of birds fluttering their wings and chirping and the water lapping on the shores of the island. The recent story of Spinalonga and its inhabitants is fascinating. It involves the incarceration of people afflicted with leprosy in the period 1903 to 1957. Before that the Venetians had built a fortress there (on the ruins of an earlier structure), which was ceded to the Turks in and around 1715. I took about 120 photos on my two hours traveling to and fro and touring the island. I especially understand more about modern day Spinalonga as I am reading a book called ‘the Island’ recently published, which relates the story of some residents of Plaka who were banished to Spinalonga in its period as a leper colony. We spent the afternoon in Agios Nikolaos, a beautiful seaside town. Yesterday was a holiday in Greece celebrating the expulsion from Greek soil of the Italian fascists. Many local families and others were out for the day enjoying the air, refreshments and each other. The weather these past 2 days has been sunny, dry and somewhere in the 25C area - beautiful.

Day 5 – October 29, 2008

•    Kalimera; we have had a wonderful four days in Crete. We have only seen a small part of the island; this island definitely warrants a return visit to explore the Western part and lots of other interesting sites in the East that we did not see. You would love it here. The people are fabulous and the scenery is breathtaking. The food is fresh, prepared in an uncomplicated fashion and is very tasty. We set out from our hotel around 10:30AM and stopped in Elounda, to bid farewell to our friends at the Vitromartes Taverna. This is where we had dinner for three consecutive evenings; we know a good thing when we see and experience it! We did a little last minute shopping in a beautiful shop that sells fashionable clothes from Italy and other European countries. We are now stopped for a coffee in Malia, but are making our way to Knossos and then on to the airport at Heraklion for our flight to Athens.

•    It is now just past 2:00 PM. As we were approaching Knossos, luckily near the airport in Heraklion, the car "gods" declared forward gears not necessary; perhaps not for the Gods, but required by us mere mortals. We quickly, by decision, not by horsepower, made our way to the airport, literally abandoned the car and made arrangements for an earlier flight to Athens. Our flight boards in a short while.

•    We are now on board an airplane whose moving elements are inside the engines - a jet versus a turboprop.


Travel day – October 30, 2008

•    We had an uneventful night in a hotel at the Athens airport. We arose very early for our 6:40 AM flight to Rome. Once we had checked in at the counter, we were anxious to eat our breakfast of cappuccino and those fabulous donuts – sugar coated and oh so fresh. This was not a low fat repast. A short time after arriving in Rome, we set out on the last leg of our journey and arrived in Toronto at 4:00 PM.
•    We visited many places on our three week vacation; all of them interesting and memorable. None, however, is as memorable for me as Crete. I am not sure if there is any one particular element that I enjoyed most about Crete. I believe that it is the combination of the people’s friendliness, their willingness to converse, the sights, sounds, tastes and aromas particular to Crete.

•    I have begun to plan my next trip to this fabulous island.


Eric Bornstein
November 2008