I’m 2 hours into the ferry (I think it’s close to 3 hours all total) from Heraklion to Santorini. There was a taxi driver waiting for me when I got downstairs to take me to the right boat (E11 – just want to keep some track of what things cost).
I forgot an important thing I did in Chania! When Portia and I had been walking in Heraklion, I saw something I had never seen before. A fish massage! I can’t pass that up! But we didn’t have time to do it then, so I did when I was at the harbor after dinner in Chania. You sit on a bench (mine was overlooking the beautiful evening harbor) and they spray and wipe your feet down. Then you dangle your feet in a fish tank and this guppy-like fish eat dead skin cells off your feet and lower legs!! I did it for about 40 minutes (she gave me an extra 10 or so because people were stopping to watch so I think it attracted business for someone to be doing it). E15 – for 30 min. It was weird at first but just felt like little bubbles bumping up against your feet. I’m sure if you were really ticklish, you wouldn’t like it. It is supposed to stimulate tired feet and smooth them. They did feel pretty smooth (my feet were pretty torn up after 3 weeks in mostly sandals!) Can’t EVER pass up a new massage experience!
So after my return last night from my overnight to Chania, I thought I would just relax, veg out, have a nice dinner at my taverna and catch up on my blog. I got a phone call from the desk guy (he brought it out to me on the balcony) from Portia saying a group of relatives were attending a concert down by the bus station/port outside of a mandolin festival, with Cretan dancing. I was ready in 5 minutes and fortunately asked the lovely waitress who spoke some English to bring me a glass of wine and fried potatoes! There hadn’t been a chance to eat earlier and it would be almost 10 p.m. before we did!
I had them call me a cab (E20!!! He said because he had to come get me and then take me! – no meters here on a regular basis! I hate the feeling I’m being ripped off. But the buses are so irregular! Portia had waited for an hour after a swim one day, so what they hey!) We met just outside the Café Marina where Portia had been waiting. We found Desmones and Portia’s deceased husband’s older brother, Demetri (same name as her brother-in-law). Big man! And his wife Sofia, and her friend. They had secured 3 chairs in the crowd in front of the 459 mandolin players! A Guinness book of world record!! Last year (so the announcer said) a German group had gathered 250, but this one was beyond that! And it was being televised! Well, they were practicing and singing and playing the same tune over and over. It was said to start at 8 p.m., then 8:30 but didn’t get going until 9! And then they played that same song over and over!! There were many mandolin young players near the front of the group so I suspect lots of the parents were in front taking pictures. Poor Portia had not eaten any lunch except just a bit of rice and was starving! So we left (Desmones, P and me) and went back to the nearby Café Marina, sitting outside, and I had a salad, she a veal burger and D. a toasted sandwich. We shared a bottle of wine, not as good as I’d had at my taverna. Smokers are allowed at outside tables and a group of women almost drove us away. They finally left. Portia insisted on treating and told us to go back to the concert as we might see some authentic dancing and we could hear more proficient mandolin players. The maybe 15 players who were performing had moved to the stage and the younger ones were gone. I think if there had been dancers they were gone! But the music was nice, a singer was singing, but Portia said it wasn’t real Cretan music. I had heard that my first night in the taverna with a mandolin and a lyre player – very plaintive, soulful type songs that usually tell a story, she said.
We finally each grabbed a cab to head home about 11. I packed for today and went to sleep about midnight. Great final night in Crete!
Oh, I forgot to mention when I met Immanuel’s brother, Demetri, Portia told him the story of my having been to Heraklion in 1965, meeting George Paterakis (I think that was his last name) who was in the Greek army – we met on the boat from Pireaus. We’d had a very romantic 2 or 3 days, riding his moped out to olive trees in the moonlight, etc. etc.! Betty spent time with his friend Walter. I remember leaving Heraklion on a night boat, SOBBING! All the way back to Athens!! J I received one letter (which I still have – just found it before I left! ) when I got to Munich from George! He didn’t sign his last name!! Hopeless romantic, I am!!
Anyway, Portia told him the story (he spoke no English) and he said he knew 2 George P.s and would call them this morning and I should wait for a call! He kept calling me “Susie”! No one called me that except Grandpa Rice! I kept telling him I was leaving on the 8:40 boat! He was very funny and so insistent!! I do remember George said he WAS from Heraklion itself. I also remember I got the feeling he didn’t want to be seen by any family around town, with a foreigner. Portia said maybe he was MARRIED! In 47 years, I never gave that a thought!! Innocent 21 year old that I was!! Anyhow, it was a fun evening and George will always remain a romantic memory! I know! TMI!!
More from Santorini maybe tonight. Will be at the Sunrise Hotel, same place Portia’s son=in=law and step-granddaughter stayed for a few days this month when they were visiting.
Haszas! (Not sure how to spell this!)
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