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by iankent

“TRAVEL TALES”

During our travels over the years, I have always kept a hand-written journal to remind us later where we were, what we did, how much things cost, etc. Later, we would recall certain experiences and laugh . . . or cry about them. “Remember that little guest-house . . .? or remember that great meal we had at . . .? That’s when I started writing these experiences down, recording little stories or what I call “travel tales”, to share with others, either family or friends. So what follows here is an eclectic sample of short anecdotes about our international travels over the years. To view a list of all the Travel Tales, click here Read More

by iankent

Cretan Adventures

Then one day a doctor from Germany showed up, sent by the insurance company to ‘escort’ me back to Vancouver.  Of course the hospital was reluctant to release me, as I was not deemed ‘fit to travel’, by their doctors.  When I met the doctor, he asked if I wanted to go home, I immediately said ‘Yes”!  I’m not sure what transpired after that, but I suspect there was a short ‘battle of the minds’ or an argument betweeen the various medical experts over jurisdiction all about me. Read More

by iankent

Cretan Adventures

Our return drive from Kato Zakros to Sitia was shorter and more disappointing than planned.  Originally, we had planned to make several stops along the way, one of them just past Paleokastro village to see Vai, the famous “Palm Forest”.  This is the location of a beautiful sandy beach, backed by thousands of palm trees.  We had read many stories about this ‘palm forest’, one was that they were planted by the Arabs, when they conquered Crete.  Another was that they were planted by Saracens pirates who used to hide nearby.  Yet another story says the forest was built in ancient times by Egyptian soldiers, who had come to help the ancient town of Itanos in one of its conflicts.  Read More

by iankent

Cretan Adventures

At the far eastern end of Crete lies another ancient Minoan ruin, the remains of the Palace of Zakros, one of the largest complexes of the Minoans.  As mentioned before, these ‘palaces’ were built as administrative centres, serving both a functional and symbolic purpose.  They served as a residence of the ruler, a centre for control over their domain, and a location of ostentatious display of wealth and power.  The largest was Knossos, with Phaestos, Malia and Galata in central Crete, and Zakros and Petras in the east.

On this trip, after we left Heraklion (sometimes called Iraklion in Greece ), actually Ηράκλειο in Greek, pronounced Irάkleio, we decided to take a taxi to Sitia, a seaside village about half way from Heraklion to the east end.  As luck would have it, the taxi driver spoke good English, in fact he was born and raised in Vancouver, and even knew about our village Tsawwassen and used to deliver pizzas for a local popular restaurant.  How weird is that?  His name was Marinos, and he worked for Yannis 24 hour taxi service.  So it was a pleasant drive out to the city of Sitia, with a driver we could converse with in English, and was familiar with our home-base. Read More

by iankent

Cretan Adventures

After our venture to the Minoan sites in central Crete, we returned to Heraklion for some ‘down time’ and a little fun.  I was personally having difficulties in my own organization, something rare for me as a traveller.  To begin with, I found after the first day that I had not packed any socks in my luggage.  Not a major problem normally, but I had to venture out to find a store that sold mens socks, something I had not bothered to learn in the Greek language.  After a lot of confusion, translation and taxi rides, I found “Paperinos”, a men’s wear place that sold socks.  I also found another shop that sold the book “Cretan Cooking”, which we had already bought for our daughter, but bought another for my son, both great cooks! Read More