GREECE 2016 - 5 - KIND KIND PEOPLE OF CRETE

Heraklio, Crete… Wow, the airport has grown in the last 5.5 years since my last visit here tremendously. In 2010, all rental car companies were in the main airport building; it was very easy to find mine, and with only few people passing by here and there I didn't have to struggle through a crowd at all. Now, not only I find myself in an instantaneous flood of people, but also whoever I ask about my rental car company, they either don't know about it or are telling me some rental car companies have desks out in the rental car parking area and some have shuttles to go to their off-site location. Despite November versus June consideration, there is some change in the air. 

National Library in Athens

 

I finally find my shuttle just as described by some of the wise informants, and the first gesture of Cretan kindness becomes apparent. The young Cretan man, seeing my limp since I fell in a tour bus spraining my ankle just before going to the airport in Athens, takes both of my luggage and relieves me from the burden of that work very gently. I discover that he doesn't do this because he expects a tip, since when I give him his tip, he refuses it at first with embarrassment! I am dumb founded and notice how Americanized I have become. How can I forget in parts of the world, before capitalism takes over all relationships, people do things for one another just out of the goodness of their hearts. Once all is measured through the lens of $$$, every kindness acquires a price as in all corners of America.

 

Heraklion is the largest city in Crete

 

He carries my luggage up the steps into the office of Gold Car. I get in line behind the only couple in front of me. It is time to get my driver’s license and credit card out and I reach into my purse to find them. I take out the credit card from where it was supposed to be, but my driver’s license is not there. The first thought is I must have put it with the “to-be-less-used” items like health insurance card, etc. It is not there, either! Hmmm, there is something wrong here. Time to be mindful and see if I can recall the sequence of events of the last evening when I was getting done with my packing back at home.

 

Venetians did build quite strong fortresses in Crete including the one in Heraklion

 

To my surprise, a scary scene comes to mind very clearly now! As I was checking the cards in my wallet to choose which ones I would take with me and which ones not, I recall a mindless moment of looking at my driver’s license and thinking “I won’t need this” and putting it back into its slot in my wallet to remain dormant with its fellow cards in my purse, which went to its safety in my walk-in closet! That was May 27th, and until June 4th, I indeed didn't need it. But now I do, and my driver's license is resting peacefully back in Iowa City! I know how I did this: I forgot to put it in the long list of things to take with me on international trips since I usually use public transportation abroad, and didn’t move away from that list to think whether I might have forgotten something I would need! This is a first, and I sense that there may be no solution to this.

My friend Sofia's son is always reading something

 

With the calm of knowing what the outcome will be, I approach the desk and tell the clerk, who has a warm, soft face and kind looks “I feel like we have a dilemma here that we may not be able to solve, but here is the situation:” I have all his attention and very compassionately, too. I tell him the whole story. I will never forget the human interactions that took place in the next 24 hours with multiple people, who tried to make my situation better not only in Crete but also across Atlantic. When I got to the rental car place to discover I hadn't brought my driver's license with me, I had wondered what good would come out of this as I always do every time I face a no-solution in the moment situation. 

 

Sofia and Michaeli preparing our first lunch

 

Here is what the lesson turns out to be out of all my mindlessness. I now know better than ever that I have a village back in Iowa City, willing to put everything aside to help me with any problem, that is why it feels home to me. My dear neighbor/friend Kate, who always waters my plants when I am away, several friends of mine I alerted to inform Kate of the dilemma, since she was the one with a key to my house, my dear chosen brother Don, who left everything aside and rushed not only photographs of my license but also the actual driver’s license to Crete as fast as possible are some of those precious members of my village across the ocean.

Stewed fish, potatoes, horta and salad will be followed with apricots and peaches from Michaeli's own farm

 

 

And these Cretan people, who know nothing about me, yet, feeling my difficulty in the depths of their heart. Where does this exceptional nicety, willingness to help, and kindness come from? Looking at Costas’ face at the rental car place (we know each other’s name now) anybody can see the deep desire to make it happen for me along with the helplessness generated by the knowledge that there is nothing he can do. I will see time and time again in Crete, this child-ish innocence come out in each and every Cretan that I will connect with to do their best to help, when the situation requires it. Costas calls a nearby hotel when we both understand compassionately that there is no way I can have a car tonight and makes a reservation for me.

The drive from Heraklion to Rethymnon reveals wild gems of the nature

 

And Yorgo (the driver of the shuttle) carries my luggage back to his shuttle one more time with compassion and understanding and is happy to drive me to the hotel at no cost. Again he is very shy in accepting the tip I give him after finally carrying my luggage to the hotel lobby. I am sure both Costas and Yorgos will have a story to tell in the next several years about a crazy Cretan-Turkish-American woman with white hair, who looked like a smart lady but didn’t have her driver’s license with her upon picking up a rental car!!! As my brothers like to believe and joke about “Sister, there is no cross-Atlantic trip you take that doesn’t have a story attached to it” (to be exact they usually like to say a ‘major reportable event’, vukuat in Turkish), in a way they are right. Perhaps, one day, I should write about my travel vukuats! Food for thought.

Another view from high up of the Aegean on the way to Rethymnon

 

And here I am on an unplanned bus trip from Heraklio to Rethymno. After spending an uneventful evening at the Sofia Hotel at the airport, during which I made calls to my friend Sofia, who was expecting me in Rethymno on the 4^th of June, and texted and e-mailed my friends across the ocean, plans have been made. Sofia mou, with her typical Greek/now Cretan hospitality offers to come pick me up from Heraklio, of course, I won’t have her do that. I can easily catch a bus and add that experience into my repertoire of experiencing Crete.  Don sends me photos of my driver’s license, but he will send me the license to Sofia’s address as soon as he can. With this plan in place I fall into a peaceful sleep.

Infamous Rethymno light tower

 

In the morning, I learn at the hotel that there is a bus leaving the bus terminal in Heraklio to Rethymno every hour. That is very comforting. I give it another try to see if Gold Car will rent me the car with the photos of my driver’s license. The new clerk at the office is also as kind as his fellow from the night before, but his manager is a business man, and the answer is a kind, sad (the clerk's) and definite (the manager's) “No”. Option is clear, take a taxi to the bus terminal, a ticket to Rethymno and enjoy the scenery, which I recall to be beautiful and awe-inspiring. We are following a route along the coast, which brings memories of 2010, when I was driving the same stretch that brought Lenea into my life and started this blog in the first place. Today, the emerald Aegean seems to be more vibrant with surf capped with big white energy.

The serenity of Rethymno harbor at dusk

 

As I enjoy the vistas, I am also reading my book “The Map of Lost Lovers” by Nadeem Aslam, given to me by my dear friend Marcia, a long-time artist in Iowa City, with whom my road has crossed last thanksgiving at a common friend’s house and since then we became sisters, at least in my heart. She is an avid reader and we exchange thoughts and feelings about the books we have read, often. This one, she just dropped on my lap to take to Greece, and I am grateful that she did. Everywhere I go I take it with me. It accompanies the whispers and roars of the Aegean as I sip my wine to witness the pink, red, orange, and violet sunsets of Rethymno. The last thing I touch before melting into my delicious sleep at Liberty Hotel every night is again this amazing book.   

First sunset in Rethymno, light tower in the distance

 

Nadeem, I must say is the coming Gabriel Garcia Marquez of this century. The content of his writing is so insightful, so analytical, and self-critical, assuming he might have grown up a Muslim then chosen a secular life  style. His technique is almost more impressive than Marquez’, making what initially seems to be the theme of his novel the murder of two lovers in religious context, which eventually turns into merely a subtext leading the way to many more important overriding themes he wants to share with the reader: the violent history of Pakistan and India involving the conflict between Islam and Hinduism staged and encouraged by the British, the personal histories of multiple individuals under the immeasurable oppression of Islam and with such humanistic approach, allowing them feel and be aware of the multiple layers of oppression they have to endure in the name of a merciless God and religious culture. And much more…

Two Greek boys are running toward the sun