Life Disrupted: American Excursions, Greek Diversions, and the Challenges of Education in Greece

A Long Intermission, With an Interval of Grief

My world changed this past winter: my mother died suddenly. For nearly a year, this blog has been deferring to life and death: to course revision and preparation, family, home, holidays, teaching, travel--and most notably, my mother's completely unexpected death. Even after I overcame the months of disabling depression that followed my sudden trip to the U. S. last winter to share the love and sadness of family and friends, so much has reminded me of my mother and my loss: hairspray, my kids' clothes, tall trees, cooking, scenic views, makeup, flowers, fudge cake…. Our summer trip to the U. S. came too late for my children and me to play miniature golf with their grandma; relax and play with her at the playground, amusement park, and beach; relive my childhood walks on the boardwalk together; or show her their drawings and discoveries. It came too late for me to spend time close to my mother during the relaxed vacation days that bear little resemblance to her annual fall visit to us in Greece, when school hours, homework, and (this time) preparations for the last birthday party she'd share with us distracted me, yet again, from the importance of our relationship. I thought we had at least ten more years to share.

An American Interlude

Our summer in the U. S.--my longest stay there since 2000--did include a number of enjoyable reunions, as well as enabling more accurate comparisons between the two countries I know best. I was most struck by differences in size, space, and convenience: even in the smallest state of Rhode Island, everything from paper towel packs and milk cartons to appliances, parking lots, and highways tends to be big. Not only the excessively extravagant Gilded Age mansions of Newport, but even the smallest middle-class houses on our street in a Providence suburb, were roomier than typical middle-class homes in Greece. And so much is ultra-convenient: "drive-thru" pharmacies, pre-cut and peeled carrots, cash back with debit cards at supermarkets, smart phones, little electronic boxes to entertain kids. Of course, it all comes with a high price in both dollars and health; I was surprised by how much healthy, real, and especially organic food costs in comparison to the omnipresent junk food, how often I saw kids interacting with electronic devices instead of with each other, and how much health care and medicine can cost for the uninsured. Expenses did vary; gas was cheaper than in Greece even in the Northeast, as were many of the clothes and shoes at Delaware outlets, but groceries, rent, and services were more expensive. My friends and I talked about corruption in the government and the legal system, injustice and poverty, crime and danger--in general, about the imperfections of the American system as well as the Greek one. But mostly, this past summer, I savored time with my family and friends and appreciated the good side of American life: helpful new neighbors; polite strangers; clean yards, sidewalks, roads, and parks; vast extents of green grass and trees; plentiful space inside and out; mint chocolate chip ice cream; sweet corn; blueberries; and being surrounded by completely comprehensible English.

As fortunate Americans who could afford to explore, we were impressed by the monumental bridges we crossed on our way up and down the Eastern U. S., and even  landscapes that bored me in childhood inspired a lazy, peaceful fascination, an attraction of the old and familiar: smooth, wide, endless highways between lush green cornfields and roadside forests, marshes, rivers, and ponds contrasted with the rugged dryness of much of Greece; neatly paved roads through neighborhoods of carefully manicured lawns with flowerbeds and well-kept single-family homes contrasted with the large, boxy concrete structures and compact, largely utilitarian fruit, vegetable, and flower gardens of our neighborhood in Crete. We also passed through areas of the industrial ugliness, monotonous strip malls, crowded and unkempt lower-income housing, and littered yards of smaller rural homes that are additional hallmarks of America, but most of our trips took us through the more prosperous areas that fit the positive stereotypes of the USA. Driving through New England with Prairie Home Companion and Garrison Keillor's caricature of Minnesotans as "God's chosen winter people," the highway a ribbon snaking along between tall deciduous trees toward New York City and its Spanish and Greek radio stations, I was often amused. But a nostalgic sadness and fondness hit me as the Pennsylvania Turnpike's smooth roads wandered across rolling hills of farmland and forest in the green and gray of light summer rain. The grazing horses and cows between the cornfields, tall silos, capacious barns, and rambling old farmhouses and outbuildings were as welcome to me as if I'd never seen a farm, as if I were a tourist on a first visit to Amish country, and as if I'd grown up there--as I had. 

It was often a summer of nostalgic memories, visits, and re-creations of childhood pleasures, but it was also a summer of discovery in Rhode Island, where I hadn't spent much time before. I wandered among colonial era houses near Brown University; we joined the street-fair-type excitement of Waterfire's bonfires on the river; and I joyfully breathed in the smell of thousands of real paper books in libraries peopled by real readers, such as Edgar Allan Poe's hangout, the Athenaeum. My children and I delighted in the extensive lawns and forests of Roger Williams Park, with its carousel, swan boats, gardens, ballfields, playgrounds, and zoo, the latter boasting far more shade, space, and water, not to mention air conditioning and misting stations, than the zoo outside Athens. We enjoyed visiting the strangely lumpy camels, seeking out the elusive snow leopard, adoring the furry red panda, and hunting for the monkeys in their large rainforest-like building. But on the hottest, most humid days of a record-setting July, we sought refuge in the cool reading room of our local public library, which offered so much more than the children's library in Chania. In addition to checking out hundreds of English-language books, we appreciated free internet access; free performances by a storyteller and a magician; free or reduced tickets at the Providence Children's Museum and the RISDE Art Museum; and the incentives of the children's reading club, which (after the discovery of Nate the Great) finally interested my son in reading by offering crafts, prizes, fast food meals, and passes to such extravagant mansions as Blithewold in Bristol and The Breakers in Newport. (Talk about conspicuous consumption--as Mark Twain and Edith Wharton did!) That's America, with all its contradictions: more (offerings, solutions, problems), bigger (spaces, places, income gaps), richer (communities, organizations, elites). In spite of Greece's glorious beaches, clear waters, and breathtaking scenery, as well as the generosity, hospitality, openness, and friendship of Greeks, I wasn't ready to leave the USA.

Back to School Blues and the Modern Greek Tragedy

But we did leave. Welcome back to Greece, I thought, as we rode in a taxi amidst the suffocating fumes of uncontrolled vehicle exhaust at the end of the summer. Welcome back to Greece, I thought, as I struggled to re-acclimate to the intensely burning sun, the frequent barking of dogs tied up to act as alarm systems, and the intermittent strikes that  interrupt garbage pickup and close public services such as post offices, hospitals, and schools. Welcome back to the "Utter Confusion" a Greek journalist associated with Greece, and to its illogical public education system.

Now, the kids are more or less back in school. I think most of the high school teachers in our area ended their week or so of strikes a few weeks ago, although one local junior high school started full-time classes only in October (instead of mid September). Some Greek universities remain closed because their presidents (called rectors here) claim they don't have enough administrative staff to function now that the Greek government has allowed the Troika's insistence on transferring and firing civil servants to hit their campuses. By American standards, D's university is and was understaffed (if over-creatively designed, architecturally speaking), but some of the public universities in Greece boasted far more staff members, some of them unproductive and illegally hired by political patrons at taxpayer expense. I can see why such past mistakes need to be remedied, but it's not clear that the remedy, hurriedly applied to please the Troika, avoids disrupting necessary administrative functions performed by diligent staff members.

And I can't figure out why the Troika would insist on firing grade school teachers. This packs many elementary school kids into classes with 34 other children and reduces secondary school students' already dim hope of learning enough at crowded public schools to pass the demanding Panhellenic exams, an extremely stressful ordeal of six two to three hour exams taken over a two-week period that determines whether or not they attend a public university in Greece. I can't see why the Troika would increase the need for public school students to attend private "frontistiria" (costly after-school schools) or hire tutors to properly teach them the foreign languages, science, composition, and math they'll be expected to master. Since the government needs to save money, why don't they fire the civil servants who sit around smoking, drinking coffee, or chatting while lines lengthen in the post office or at City Hall, or those who receive a paycheck for a job they don't do, rather than the people who teach the youths of Greece? And why on earth don't they ask students to refrain from writing in their school books, so next year's students can use the same texts, they way we did in the U. S.? It's not like Greece has extra trees, extra paper, and extra money to spend on new books each year! Yes, Greece certainly needs to cut its budget, combat tax evasion and corruption, and reform its civil service system, but what bewilders many people here is that the government hurries so fast to give in to the Troika's demands that many of its "cost-saving" "reform" measures are illogical and ultimately costly because they disrupt society and destroy health and lives.

One Troika official claimed that they are "not blind," that they know that about 60% of Greek youths are unemployed. What are they, then, deaf to pleas to allow proper education of these young people? I realize they want to reduce public spending and strengthen banks and the economy, but the public education system was faulty enough without firing teachers and increasing class size. And what is the basis of a nation's economy, if not its people, who need a good, affordable education? I repeatedly demand of hapless middle-class parents why they continue to pay the thousands of euros required each year--even during this economic crisis--so they can drive their children to extra lessons to do extra work at extra schools, staying up late studying instead of enjoying the sports, dance, or music lessons most have to give up by high school, if not earlier. Families may give up expensive food and drink, new clothes and shoes, but many continue to pay frontistirio fees even now! I've asked so many times why Greek parents do not demand that the public schools do their job of educating the country's sons and daughters, rather than simply accepting the fact that they don't expect their children to learn enough in them. Greeks strike, occupy, and protest hundreds of times more often than Americans (or so it seems to me!), and teachers, students, and parents do call for better funding of better free education, but their protests, organized by political parties such as SYRIZA to shame the government, seem to me to most often highlight anger at particular changes in the laws, rather than emphasizing a serious demand to overhaul an unnecessarily ineffective, costly, wasteful public/private education system. Of course, under the reign of the Troika, they face an uphill battle against even one new law, so I suppose it's unreasonable to expect them to fight for more, but I’m bewildered by the acceptance implied by the ever so common phrase "ti na kanoume," what can we do? The answer is most often merely "ipomoni," patience.

I'm discussing the middle class here, whose parents expect their children to attend university and pay dearly to ensure that they do, but I wonder just how many intelligent lower-income students are shut out of Greece's public university system because their parents cannot afford frontistiria or tutoring for them. (Yes, there's universal free public primary and secondary education in Greece, but not enough to ensure the ability to continue into the free public universities, for which there is stiff competition!) Wealthier families often send their children to expensive private schools which offer better preparation for university entrance exams--or for studying abroad--and then supplement that schooling with private tutoring. But for the middle class, according to one Greek mother, frontistiria are in style, enabling families to keep up with the Joneses (or Yannis  and Maria's children), since one child must know as much English (math, science, composition) as the next child rather than being embarrassed or disadvantaged by falling behind. This Greek mother also believes nearly everyone in Greece, or her brother (sister, aunt, father), works for a frontistirio or tutors children, so that dismantling the current system would damage the national economy too seriously to be acceptable. It's true that Greece could hardly absorb another large group of unemployed individuals right now; nor is there money to employ these teachers in the public school system. An annoyed British mother here recommends closing the public schools, since kids don't learn there anyhow. Since no one expects students to learn much, many teachers apparently don't try too hard to teach. Other teachers--even very good, dedicated instructors--work with the justifiable expectation that most students are also learning part of each lesson at their frontistirio, so that the entire subject need not be covered in public school. In fact, in the last month before the Panhellenic exams, masses of students suddenly become too "sick" to attend their public schools, spending all their time studying for the more useful frontistirio lessons. There are too few vocational or technical schools below university level, so even many middle-class students who don't do especially well in school are pushed to struggle their way into universities.

I think many of the youths who spend at least their last year of high school studying intensely for long hours become too sick of this educational struggle to care to attend their university classes. Urged to excel in music, dance, or sports on ultra-competitive teams or with high-level exams or recitals in elementary and junior high school, and then to focus on intense study to learn an impressive amount at a very advanced level by the end of high school, middle- and upper-class Greek children are pushed to be highly educated, but they don't have much chance to be children who enjoy childhood. By the time they reach their university years, many tend to merely take the exams that are the sole requirement in most courses--and they may take them as many times as necessary to pass, as long as they finish in seven years (for a degree that should take five). Finally released from parental and social pressure to perform, university students begin to relax and enjoy themselves, partying, lounging at cafes, and driving drunk just as they should become serious about preparing for life and a career. I realize that this happens elsewhere, too, but it strikes me as a more widespread problem here, with a more obvious, ironic, and perhaps avoidable cause.

There are some encouraging signs that the situation may be starting to change, however, as more students attend classes during this economic crisis, especially following the recent reform that requires students to finish their studies within seven years. That reform led to great fury and many occupations of universities by a radical minority of students offended by the idea that they couldn't attend university indefinitely at taxpayers' expense. While it may be hard for some students who are earning enough for their room and board to finish on time, most are supported by their families, and many seem to simply feel entitled to fail exams as many times as they wish, without bothering to attend classes. As I understand it, a minority of students, some of them belligerent and violent in the face of disapproval of their disruptive protests, generally manages to control student meetings and votes on whether to occupy the university to protest any proposed changes, closing D's campus (for example) several times per year so professors can't teach and the students who wish to can't learn. In 2012, classes continued an extra month or so into the summer here to make up for time lost during occupations, scrambling summer plans for internships, research, or travel.

My children learn quite a lot at their public elementary school--for now, since their classmates attend frontistiria only for foreign languages so far, and their parents still expect public school teachers to teach the rest of the classes adequately. There are many excellent, hard-working teachers and professors as well as serious, talented, smart students at Greek schools and universities, and many students do manage to learn enough to excel in prestigious foreign graduate programs, so Greek public education works for some. But so much more is possible. Students, unite! Not to further curtail your education with more occupations and strikes--to expand your education with sensible demands and plans for a logically organized, truly free, well staffed, wisely utilized, efficient public education system that could realize the full potential of Greece's intelligent, talented population without the excessive financial and psychological demands on students and parents during secondary school years that reduce the quality of many a university education. Of course, I am well aware that sensible demands tend to lead to little action now, with deep divisions between political parties and few non-ideological efforts at logical compromise--so widely known an American problem these days that my kids' school principal asserts that I'm better off here in Greece, even if she can't tell me when Christmas vacation starts or when we'll have the additional teachers we need, even if there are no substitute teachers after kindergarten, so students simply miss their lessons if teachers are ill (on strike, at a meeting, etc.). It is always hard to agree about what is "sensible" or "logical." A common Greek response is to take to the streets in desperate attempts to attract the government's attention--or change the government--and no solution is in sight.

Here in Crete, we aren't as seriously affected by strikes and demonstrations as Athenians are. We have our share, but this term D's university stayed open except for a two-day occupation, and our children's elementary school teachers kept teaching all along, although some in the area went on strike for a day or two. In fact, once I'd given up on my son's school days lasting more than a meager 4 ¼ hours (that's through 2^nd grade), our principal astonished me with an announcement on the first day of school, September 11: school days would be extended to last from 8:10 to 2:00, thanks to the EU program the Greeks call ESPA! I am less surprised that this hasn't happened yet, even in October; but the missing art, music, and theater teachers materialized last week, so school ended at 2:00 three out of five days this week. There's still no sign of the additional English and gym teachers needed to staff the extra classes, and they're still trying to finish the computer room this week, but we have had a computer teacher for a week or so, along with 10 or 12 computers that will eventually be shared during lessons. Every year, there's uncertainty about who will teach each elementary school class until the first day of school. Last year, there were many missing school books, and no English teacher at our school until November, with our usual, wonderful English teacher on maternity leave and some difficulty providing for all the far-flung islands of Greece. (And what an English teacher we ended up with! He could barely understand or respond when I slowly and clearly introduced myself!) But this year the Ministry of Education seems to be shuffling teachers in even more belated, wild confusion than usual as it tries to decide whom to fire. So we've had a gradual lengthening of our school day, which ended first at 12:25, then 1:15, playing havoc with working parents' schedules. We're luckier than some students in Chania, though, where school ended at 11:30 at least through late September because a building was not finished.

The most recent strikes and protests are understandable, if no more constructive than usual; the Troika demands more and more firings of public sector employees, and there are no jobs, social services, or insurance plans to help all the people who'll be sacked, or already have been. There is no money to replace their salaries, to pay their rent and bills, to buy their groceries, to pay for their medical care, to pay the higher and higher taxes demanded by the Troika and accepted by the Greek government. But the Troika isn't blind. They're just deaf to reason. Fire the civil servants, they say, fire them, and cut off their health insurance; reduce the salaries and pensions of the rest. They don't seem to hear that this means children go malnourished and undereducated, that the sick go without medicine. For the Troika, it seems that anything goes, as long as Greece can repay its creditors and strengthen its banks. The Troika is not blind, not to the numbers that look slightly better in terms of Greece's ability to repay its debt, even as the numbers of unemployed skyrocket beyond the latest statistic of 27.6 %, which counts part-timers as "employed" and drops the hopeless from the counts as the numbers of suicides climb. This helps to explain the increasing popularity, during the years of the economic crisis, of not only the relatively new opposition (SYRIZA, the Coalition of the Radical Left), but also the neo-fascist Golden Dawn, which entered parliament for the first time last year. Only the recent murder of a Greek man by a Golden Dawn member--not the hundreds of acts of intimidation, the many beatings, or the murders of immigrants allegedly carried out by people affiliated with this group--has finally led to a serious investigation of this political party as a possibly criminal organization, as well as belated arrests of prominent party members. (For more on this, see, for example, this brief overview of Golden's Dawn's role in Greek politics and society by a conservative/centrist Greek editor. Leftists criticize the government's delayed response to violence against immigrants in much stronger terms.) Increasing numbers of Greeks seem to agree with a slogan of KEERFA, the Movement United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat: "Each vote for Golden Dawn is a knife in Nazi hands." The Troika seems to be deaf to pleas to help desperate Greeks in order to stop them from turning to neo-fascists for the answers. We can only hope the government's crackdown on Golden Dawn opens people's eyes to the dangers of fascism, rather than creating a backlash of fascist sympathizers who believe Golden Dawn's hypocritical claims that they are being persecuted, rather than being the persecutors.

Natural Uplift: Awe-Inspiring Agios Pavlos

When we first returned to Greece at the end of August, jetlagged and kidlagged after a summer full of family time, D and I needed a vacation, a brief escape from the utter confusion of Greece's modern tragedy. Unlike many, we were fortunate enough to manage a few days in our favorite part of southern Crete, the Plakias area south of Rethymno. (See my October 25, 2012 blog for some photos from last year's trip there.) We enjoyed visiting favorite beaches and restaurants, plus one that was 1 hour and 20 minutes' drive farther east of where we stayed, taking the "good" roads vs. the treacherous, rutty gravel ones we got lost on last year. We'd made it to the top of the Agios Pavlos cliffs and sand dunes last year, but just at sunset, too late to descend to the beaches. We found closer parking this year, right above the dunes, instead of next to a café above another beach from which we needed to ascend many steps, traverse a wide open area, and climb up before heading down. This time, it was just a matter of carefully slide-walking down dunes several stories high--with a much harder climb up afterwards, obviously. Initially, it wasn't clear to me that last year's vantage point from on high didn't provide as spectacular a sunset view as one could find, with the sea extending out to the west and layers of hills and promontories fading off into the distance in varying tones of purple or orange and gray (as in my last two photos from last October's blog section, Exploring to the East: Toward Agios Pavlos on a Blustery Day). Down on the beach at sea level, the perspective looking inland to that hill of dunes rising close behind us was rather unsettling. But once I began exploring to the north, where boulders and cliffs hide caves accessible by wading or swimming around the rocks, I became enchanted. I love the cool, dark spaces of caves freshened by little waves washing up onto their minibeaches, rustling the tiny pebbles against each other. I love the frames provided by the black outlines of cave openings looking out toward spectacular views of the Libyan Sea at sunset. Cave walls, boulders, distant hills, sea, and sunset--what more could we ask for? Crystal-clear waters for viewing fish and the sea bottom, with or without masks--and we enjoyed that, too. Of course, we didn't manage to tear ourselves away from all that before dark, but fortunately D had come prepared with a strong flashlight and a head lamp for the challenging ascent. Life in Greece is no vacation, but vacation in Greece reminds me that there's hope for Greeks' life. Along with neighborly, sociable, kind, clever people, Greece has its glorious scenery and sea, and so do the people who live here--as I do. By no means will it feed or heal everyone, but it can both offer peace and attract the more tangible economic benefits of tourism, which continues to thrive into a warm October this year.

 

Return to Reality in Greece This Fall: Outages, Protests, Strikes, and Rage

BACK TO REALITY: THE FRUSTRATIONS OF DAILY LIFE IN GREECE TODAY

After summer vacation ended, we were welcomed back to reality with a cutoff in water to our area, news that pharmacists and doctors had once again stopped accepting our insurance since the government wasn’t paying them, and a New York Times headline encouragingly screaming, “U.S. Companies Brace for an Exit From the Euro by Greece.” Even before the summer’s roaring hum of cicadas gave way to the more familiar, softer chirps of crickets, and then the occasional chirp and flutter of migratory birds, both the autumn rains and the strikes and protests began. In the first major storm of the season, a sudden violent downpour of raindrops as big as hail changed the streets to rivers. In the past few months, we’ve lost electricity during storms or high winds, and during electric company strikes--usually when it’s dark, so we need to have candles, flashlights, and batteries on hand. At least (so far) we haven’t had to wait more than an hour for electricity to return, unlike a friend in a nearby community, or so many victims of Hurricane Sandy in the U. S.

We joined other parents for the priest’s blessing on the first day of school in September, asking whether the academic year would begin with classes or a teachers’ strike. The teachers did teach that week, but our school was missing some books as well as a music teacher and an English teacher. We’re also missing many stores, which have gone out of business. We’ve heard that engineers can’t collect money due for renovations, salary cuts have jeopardized mortgage payments, most Greeks can’t afford dental care any more, and unpaid bills to drug companies continue to jeopardize the supply of medicine in the country. In addition to the hordes of Greeks and immigrants who have already left the country, some heading to the Arab states or Germany, more Albanian laborers, Greek dentists, and Greek professors have been fleeing.

It’s a good thing this has been a warm autumn so far, because many people can’t afford heating oil, and someone stole the oil from our elementary school, crashing a truck  through a padlocked chain and a gate! The parents’ association used funds intended to improve the school grounds to replace the oil, and we just hope there’s enough for adequate heat through the winter. A quarter of the heating oil supply companies in Greece have gone out of business in the last month, and more are sure to follow, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather and a tax increase that drastically raises the price of oil. I put on layers, turn on the dehumidifiers, and delay turning on the heat at home, since D and the kids don’t feel cold yet. I hope we’ll be able to keep the dehumidifiers running to avoid the dampness that mildewed many of the clothes in my closets our first winter here. For some reason, the troika has demanded increases in electric bills to go along with tax hikes and salary, benefit, and pension cuts. I suppose the state might be subsidizing electricity costs, but how the troika expects poorer and poorer Greeks to afford 40% more for electricity, as some will apparently be charged, I don’t know.

High prices really do accompany ever lower wages here: according to the Greek daily Kathemerini, Europe’s statistical agency announced in early October that “Greece remains one of the most expensive countries in the eurozone in terms of consumer prices,” especially for dairy products, which are “31.5 percent higher than the eurozone average,” with bread, cereals, furniture, and electronics also well above average. Kathemerini reports that the Development Ministry blames our high prices on high transportation costs and high taxes combined with a continuing demand for the food staples (Despite recession, Greece still among priciest countries in EU). I shop at three different supermarkets, looking for the sales and best values at each: milk here, toilet paper there. I order books, lotion and decaff tea from Amazon, where they’re much cheaper than in Greece.

We remain among the most fortunate (although not the wealthiest) in Greece, since D still has his job (albeit with a constantly shrinking salary), and we still—at the moment, more or less—have health insurance, even if it no longer covers doctor visits when we are actually ill (but only those appointments that may be available in a month or two). We are lucky that most of the medications we need are affordable, and that family doctors and pediatricians tend to charge only 20 to 30 euros per visit in our area. We need to economize, of course, but so far we can afford the necessities. Compared with Athenians dependent on public transportation that often doesn’t run due to strikes, we have suffered relatively minor inconvenience when school is canceled with one day’s notice, D can’t get to his office because a small group of students has decided to occupy the university, we can’t shop on certain days, or we have to pay for medications and doctor visits that are supposed to be covered by our insurance.

THE SCOURGE OF AUSTERITY IN THE REGIME OF THE TROIKA: REPORTS

According to Kathemerini, environmentalists claim that the government is now allowing a great deal of environmental harm in the name of budget cutbacks, economic growth, and increased income through fines (e.g. for illegally built or altered properties, whose owners can pay fines now, and then avoid legal trouble for 30 years, regardless of environmental impact). This includes a decrease in the fire brigade’s budget of “up to 45 percent,” decreasing the ability to combat many of Greece’s summer fires, as well as a reduction in the fines for the illegal logging that has increased as heating oil prices have skyrocketed beyond the means of Greeks with slashed incomes (In debt-hit Greece, much-craved development is no longer green). The Council of Europe has judged two changes to Greek labor laws to be illegal violations of workers’ rights because one doesn’t provide workers with adequate notice before firing, and a decrease in the minimum wage for those under 25 leaves them liable to fall below the poverty line. Unfortunately, this is a non-binding decision, but it does draw attention to the fact that the troika is encouraging the Greek government to impose measures that are inconsistent with the European Social Charter, as well as common sense and concern for environmental and human welfare.

Kathemerini reports that Greece is making progress in reducing its deficit in spite of the continuing recession here, yet a recent AP headline proclaimed, “Greece considered more risky to invest than Syria.” Austerity measures certainly don’t seem to be helping anyone in this country, given that Greece has the highest level of unemployment in Europe for people aged 15-24 (58%) and the second highest level of general unemployment, at 25.4% in August. In an editorial on the occasion of the loudly protested German chancellor’s visit to Athens in mid October, the New York Times argued, “[t]hree years of spending cuts imposed largely at her insistence have reduced Greece’s gross domestic product by a staggering 25 percent and wrecked its mainstream political parties. ...Severe spending and public service cuts have failed to significantly reduce budget deficits or lower Greece’s debt burden as a percentage of its fast shrinking G.D.P. Economic contraction has taken a huge bite out of tax revenues and forced much of the labor force into involuntary idleness. A country that is not working cannot pay off its debts and cannot offer much hope for the future” (Ms. Merkel Goes to Athens). 

In an October editorial, the New York Times insisted that “[t]he lesson that should be learned from Greece is that its fiscal mess has been made far worse by severe budget cuts,” referring to “New data from the European Union” which shows “that countries that have most ruthlessly cut their budgets — Greece, especially — have seen their overall debt loads increase as a share of the economy.” They continue, “[t]he data provide objective support for what has been clear to just about everyone…. [D]eep government budget cuts at a time of economic weakness are counterproductive, complicating, if not ruining, the chances for economic growth.” They point out that even the IMF has agreed “that budget cutbacks are much more damaging to economies recovering from recession than has been previously believed” (The Austerity Trap). Hear, hear!  Won’t the troika listen? Apparently not; they’ve insisted on budget cuts and tax hikes until the Greek coalition government (just barely!) passed “a budget that goes even against the recent rhetoric of the IMF that heavily frontloaded fiscal consolidations have a damaging effect on economic activity and hamper any efforts of recovery” (The 2013 Greek budget: submitting it was the easy part).

REACTION OF RAGE: RALLIES, STRIKES, AND VIOLENT ATTACKS

‘Tis the season of flies and strikes. Greece has had nationwide, across-the board strikes September 26, October 17-18, and November 6-7, plus a pan-European strike November 14, with many more strikes by members of various professions and unions in between. In September, municipal service workers struck to protest planned cuts likely to result in closures of day-care centers for children and the elderly as well as free medical clinics and food donations. These municipal workers—who struck again in October--include garbage collectors, which leads to considerable pile-ups around overflowing dumpsters. Athens city nursery staff members staged a sit-in to protest layoffs of 65% of their staff. Power company workers engaged in rolling strikes, which meant unpredictable electricity outages. When teachers strike, there’s no school, often with little or no notice, and working parents need to scramble to arrange childcare. Overall, this fall, teachers, doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, postal workers, public transport workers, journalists, ferry workers, air traffic controllers, shopkeepers, bakers, kiosk owners, union members, bank employees, lawyers, tax and customs officers, government employees, ambulance drivers, professors, museum guards, and members of the military—almost everyone except parents and grandparents--struck to protest the past and proposed salary, benefit, and pension cuts and tax hikes. The strikes are most frustrating to the countless civilians who are repeatedly inconvenienced by them, as the Powers That Be are not, but the same is even more true of the measures that prompt the strikes. As American economist Paul Krugman (a Nobel Laureate) wrote this September, “[m]uch commentary suggests that the citizens of Spain and Greece are just delaying the inevitable, protesting against sacrifices that must, in fact, be made. But the truth is that the protesters are right. More austerity serves no useful purpose; the truly irrational players here are the allegedly serious politicians and officials demanding ever more pain” (Europe's Austerity Madness). 

Almost no one has anything good to say about the situation here. Even one of the three leaders of the governing coalition insists, “The troika’s demands are not structural reforms. They are aimed at razing Greek society, fueling the recession and increasing unemployment,” [governing coalition junior partner, Democratic Left leader Fotis] Kouvelis said. He added that the troika’s insistence on tough changes to labor laws “surpass the ability of Greeks to cope” (Coalition partners lash out at troika). If a member of the government has this view, no wonder a union leader claims that lawmakers voting for the latest austerity measures “will have committed the biggest ever political and social crime against the country and the people,” threatening to “destroy the country." Ironically, Jean Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, not only claims that “Greece had no choice but to continue painful cuts in its bloated public sector”—which may be true, if Greece is to remain in the eurozone—but also oddly states that his “impression is that the reforms which are (being) undertaken in Greece are increasingly better understood by the Greek citizens." Indeed, they are, but he doesn’t seem to realize that this is how they’re being understood: "”They've taken everything we have - our money, our jobs, our lives - and they won't stop until they've finished us off to satisfy the Europeans,’ said Popi Alexaki, 40, a former nurse in a dentist's office who lost her job in August. ’They make me sick. Enough, enough, enough!’” (Greece to vote on austerity, protests intensify). 

Even the prime minister admitted that the latest salary and pension cuts were “unfair,” but he portrayed the parliamentary votes as a choice between leaving the eurozone or staying in it. Kathemerini columnist Costas Iordanidis suggests that the civil unrest here may end up being even worse than a default and an exit from the eurozone, but he believes this could be avoided if these really are the last cuts to salaries, pensions, and benefits, as the Prime Minister claims—like his two predecessors, who proved incorrect (Primitive politics). At least 70,000 people protested outside Parliament before last week’s vote on the austerity measures. That may not sound like so many, but for the size of the country—almost 28 times smaller than the U. S.—it’s pretty much: almost the equivalent of a 2 million person march on Washington.

Austerity is not the answer, however much the troika seems to think it is. I don’t pretend to have a good solution, but I know a start would be increased efficiency, decreased waste, less corruption, the collection of taxes due from the wealthy, and, importantly, more fairness and compassion. Austerity does not only mean suffering due to lost wages, pensions, jobs, health insurance, buying power, and the inconvenience of endless strikes; it also means hopelessness and despair—which have led to a record number of suicides in Greece--and misplaced anger and fear. The victims of this anger are often immigrants, especially those with dark skin. Their detractors and attackers often come from or support one of the extremist parties which the troika’s policies have pushed Greeks to support as never before: the nationalist, neo-fascist party Golden Dawn. 

Kathemerini reports, “[s]ince the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn won seats in parliament in the June election, there has been a sharp rise in racist attacks in the immigrant quarters of Athens.” For example, two Pakistani immigrants were stabbed after an anti-racist rally in a western suburb of Athens on September 22; two others were seriously injured by a mob in western Greece in October. That same month, “a young Iraqi was stabbed to death by five bikers.” Yet Golden Dawn continues to gain adherents by giving out free food to needy Greeks, organizing Greek-only blood donations, and accompanying the elderly to the bank if they fear thieves, efficiently providing protection and services like a new era of godfathers who replace a failed state apparatus. Many Greeks even support Golden Dawn’s alleged destruction of immigrants’ street market stalls, although the neo-fascists have also been accused of usurping authority when they demand to see immigrants’ papers. “[S]ome observers say that the group's members have benefited from judicial inertia and a suspiciously soft-handed response by police, who usually fail to arrest Golden Dawn members even when under direct attack by them” (Two Pakistani men stabbed near Athens demo). I will have a great deal more to say about the neo-fascist threat to Greece, the lack of an effective immigration and asylum policy here, and the situation of impoverished immigrants in the face of racism and xenophobia, in another blog entry, because that’s a whole story unto itself. For a useful overview of the reasons for the rise in popularity of the Golden Dawn party, you could, for now, see the New York Times article “Right-Wing Extremists' Popularity Rising Rapidly in Greece.” With the troika pushing the government to impose painful changes on a long suffering population, people desperate for hope, answers, and action increasingly support a neo-Nazi movement on the one hand and leftist extremists on the other. The situation in Greece has been compared to that of the Weimar Republic in post World-War I Germany, which supported Hitler’s rise to power. Yet Europeans do not seem adequately concerned about avoiding a similar epoch.

Even so, the European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! Although I understand that there are many reasons for this decision, I’m one of many who view this award with deep cynicism, almost to the extent that it seems ironic. The European Union includes many members of the troika that forced harsh austerity measures on Greece, bringing down one government and shifting the balance of power toward extremist groups. The current coalition is a centrist sum of moderate leftists and conservatives, but the leading opposition party is more radically left, and the extremist neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn now ranks third in the polls, even as its members and supporters allegedly attack, threaten, and terrorize dark-skinned immigrants and their defenders. The more the troika insists on the severe salary, benefit, and pension cuts, as well as firings of civil servants, on top of tax increases and rising prices, the more the troika—leaders of the EU—push Greeks toward extremism that often erupts in violent protests and attacks. How can the European Union then deserve a peace prize? From here, the reasoning looks terrifyingly murky.

CENSORSHIP INSTEAD OF REFORM?

With so many people unhappy with government policies, will the government reform? Perhaps, but first—censorship I’d sooner have expected in the days of the Greek dictatorship (1967-74). One of the Greek government’s most inexplicably foolish moves lately was the swift arrest and prosecution of an investigative journalist and editor who published a list which he claimed included the names of 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, a list said to be the one that Christine Lagarde passed over to the Greek government in 2010 for investigation of possible tax evasion. Although the newspaper’s editor wrote that inclusion on the list did not mean a person broke the law, the journalist was arrested and brought to trial for alleged violation of privacy laws in what must be record time for Greece, while the various past and present government officials who should be pursuing tax evaders tried to talk their way out of wrongdoing. This is particularly astonishing for two reasons. One is that it encourages both the Greek public and the international community to censure the Greek government for censoring the news and punishing the messenger—twice: two popular, highly respected public television journalists were fired after they criticized the public order minister and mentioned evidence to support allegations that police had tortured anti-fascist protesters. Another reason the journalist’s trial is shocking: some have claimed that if the government could claim what it’s owed in unpaid taxes, it would not have to impose the austerity measures that are tearing the country apart! Yet the government’s record of collecting unpaid taxes, and its apparent effort to do so, are dismal.

No wonder the result is “outrage at the swift pursuit of journalists in comparison to the sluggish crackdown on suspected tax evaders”—and, of course, a strike to go with that outrage, since we’re in Greece (State TV journalists strike over suspension of two presenters). The Athens Bar Association found the editor’s speedy arrest and trial surprising, especially “when against former ministers, who were by law responsible for utilizing the list and nevertheless 'lost' it, there [have] so far been no legal or other proceedings of any kind.” The lawyers went so far as to accuse “the authorities of ‘protecting powerful social, economic and political elements,’ saying that ‘such choices transmit the message to society as a whole that the democratic institutions of Greece, or what is left of them, are operating exclusively for the protection of the authority system itself, at the expense of constitutional legitimacy and the rights of the Greek people’" (Athens Bar expresses 'surprise' at editor's arrest). 

Many fear both that the government’s choice transmits such a message, and that the message is correct. The journalist, who did not publish private account information, was acquitted (although the prosecutor is now appealing that decision, and there will be a retrial). Yet the outrage remains, and a scathing indictment by the New York Times editorial staff nicely sums it up: they claim, “[r]ecent studies have shown that the government may be losing nearly $40 billion a year from unpaid taxes. Recovering that money could allow Greece to meet its current budget targets without recourse to the additional spending cuts and tax increases now being debated” (and later, actually passed). “Mainstream Greek politicians have been shamefully quick to strip basic social services from the country’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens. And they have been shamefully slow at probing possible tax evasion by the rich and well connected. Greece’s elected leaders need to pay more attention to investigating possible financial crimes and less to prosecuting journalists” (Greece Arrests the Messenger).

GOOD IDEAS, DAILY ESCAPES, AND SILVER LININGS ON CLOUDY DAYS

The situation looks bleak, with few rays of hope for the future of Greece. But some good ideas are circulating, and some noble Greeks are acting productively to improve the situation. Perhaps these are the European Union members who deserve the Nobel Prize. One useful idea, which the Health Ministry is considering, is to increase the tax on cigarettes in order to both decrease the number of smokers and raise money for the health care system. One useful policy change will stop forcing Greeks to stand in long lines at tax offices to pay their annual road taxes, instead enabling online payment or payment at banks or post offices along with police access to the database showing who’s paid and who hasn’t; this is expected to save 80 million euros per year. More importantly and impressively, some Greek doctors are organizing help for uninsured cancer patients who’d otherwise have no access to care since the troika has encouraged the Greek government to stop providing health insurance for the unemployed (Amid Cutbacks, Greek Doctors Offer Message to Poor: You Are Not Alone). And throughout Greece, ordinary citizens of various backgrounds have formed anti-fascist initiatives to correct misconceptions about immigrants and organize rallies to encourage anti-racist attitudes.

I can see why many Greeks are moving out of cities, and into the countryside. Even in our semi-rural/suburban neighborhood, with its empty lots and borders of olive groves and undeveloped land where goats graze, some of my neighbors grow a lot of their own produce in their gardens. Other neighbors keep hens that lay eggs, and I even saw some sheep in a pen next to one house. Goats wander along near the playground and basketball court, or graze in large enclosures, eating from the wild shrubs. I’ve mentioned that neighbors have given us zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, lemons, and olive oil (by the gallon!); we’ve also received bags of loquats, tangerines, and oranges, plus a few pomegranates. I see trees full of lemons, bitter oranges, figs, quince, olives, and even bananas in our neighborhood. The other day I also collected some grapes growing among wild shrubs, a fallen lemon, and an avocado that had plopped down onto the road with only minimal damage. Recent rains have invigorated the bougainvillea, hibiscus, and other brilliantly colored exotic flowers. This is the bright side of living in Greece today.

I am repeatedly awed by the skies of paradise, which are not the endlessly cloudless blue of summer in Greece, but the amazing cloud paintings of fall, patterns of white and gray puffs against clear blue, sometimes with the proverbial silver lining, or rosy and radiant illuminations of the most extraordinary sunsets filling the broad canvas of an open sky. The autumn skies distract me into taking walks and photos when I don’t intend to, forgetting the troubles of the country in which I live. I notice the otherwise elusive fall colors in Virginia creeper with its yellow, orange, and red next to dark blue berries. A favorite walk provides brief escapes: morning traffic sounds recede as stragglers make it to work and school, and they are replaced by the crunch of gravel and dirt underfoot, the distant bark of dogs, the crow of a rooster, chirps of birds. One luminous October morning after rain, dramatically backlit dewdrops clung to grey brown dried branches and yellow-green leaves and lavender blossoms on meandering rocky hills interrupted by ravines and gorges and rolling down to the sea. A mountain-like hill rose sharply beyond the bay and the arm of land surrounding it. Fishing boats dotted a sea that shimmered with reflections of puffy white clouds in the light of the warming sun. I noticed new pea sized red berries, twittering birds, buzzing flies, flying moths, and waves splashing on shore. The light brown and faded grey of last year’s dried herbs and shrubs, burnt by the hot, dry summer sun, were gradually being overcome by new green growth and lavender flowers as the humid, rainy season began. This is a season of new growth on Crete. We can’t hope for a Greek spring any time soon, but there are small signs of hope in the Greek autumn.

The Calm before the Storm, Part 2: Retreat from Reality (Early September in Southern Crete)

Greek Vacations

I’ve said that life in Greece is no vacation. Okay, I admit it; sometimes it is, for those of us with the time and means to temporarily escape from the reality of the socioeconomic crisis. We were fortunate enough to manage some modest trips this year. Many families did not leave town, instead limiting themselves to local beaches they once scorned (if they were lucky enough to live near a beach)—hardly surprising as the unemployment rate hovers around 25%, with something like half of youth unemployed, many salaries (including D’s) cut by 50% compared with two years ago, and taxes and utility prices climbing while rent and grocery costs haven’t dropped at nearly the rate of salaries, pensions, and benefits. And news reports suggest all of this will keep getting worse.

Greek vacation patterns differ from those of Americans. Or rather, those of the middle and upper-middle class Greeks I know have, in the past, differed from those of my American family and friends of the same class. Greeks are much more likely than Americans to live with or near their extended family members, so that they feel freer to travel away from family, rather than joining them for holidays. Before the crisis hit, some went skiing in the Swiss Alps or visited Euro Disneyland; others spent Christmas in New York City. Athenians tended to flee to the islands in August, while Salonicans headed to the northern resort of Halkidiki. Island dwellers sometimes explored other islands, but many spent vacations in “the village,” where they may have family and/or an ancestral home, often with olive groves or other produce attached. Living atypically far from our families, we have spent most of our vacation time with family and friends in the Athens area or, on the rare occasions when we could afford the trip, in the U. S. But for a brief escape, we’ve found that Crete has far more to offer than we could ever find the time or money to enjoy, so that there’s little reason to leave the island for vacations. Western Crete is famous for such gorgeous beaches as Falasarna, Elafonisi, and Frangokastello, and last year we first explored south central Crete, falling in love with its varied offerings of beaches, gorges, and scenery.

Heading Southeast of Chania, then through Kotsifou Gorge

This year, we again drove east through wooded hills toward Rethymno, then turned south to cross the mountains in central Crete, heading toward the Plakias area on the southern coast. The evergreen forested mountain views punctuated by villages and olive groves were sufficiently interesting that I was surprised how soon we reached the stunning little Kotsifou gorge, which runs from the village of Kanevos toward the coast. I enjoy passing through this gorge repeatedly, because its stark cliff faces feature such fissures, bulges, and variations in shape and altitude that upward gazes rival entranced stares between the narrowly separated towering rock walls, with their own bulges, turns, and fascinating irregularities. As the light changes toward late afternoon, deeper shadows create an even more spectacular show. A priest who worked for the foreman in charge of building a road through the gorge many years ago may have been as awed as I; he caused a church to be erected there, half built into the face of the gorge’s stone wall.

 

Lodging and Food:  Simple Choices

This year, we skipped the time-consuming study of internet sites and the repeated stops in Plakias to inquire at hotels and headed west of the village to Creta Spirit, the same medium-small, family-owned apartment/studio complex where we’d been pleased with our clean, roomy apartment last year (www.creta-spirit.gr). Then, we occupied the largest apartment they have: a large separate bedroom and spacious living/dining/kitchen area where the kids also slept, a large bathroom with a tub, and a short hall. Unfortunately, that wasn’t available on short notice this September, but Theodoros and Maria Arabatzis, the friendly, helpful multilingual owners, had added a comfortable, attractive new unit suitable for a family, with a good-sized living area plus a bedroom loft overlooking it. It’s not as big as the other, and the bathroom doesn’t include a tub (as opposed to an enclosed shower), but it’s just as clean, carefully designed, and well-equipped, down to the cooking and eating utensils, hair dryer, drying rack, wash tub, and clothespins. So aside from our little guy having trouble getting enough sleep—it’s hard for one to sleep when the others don’t, there—it was a pleasant place to stay. Its blonde wooden stairway and ceiling create a cozy atmosphere, and while the windows don’t offer impressive views, the spacious private balcony compensates with its panoramic view of the sea.

We also returned to some favorite restaurants this year. Iliomanolis Taverna, at the edge of the Kotsifou gorge in Kanevos, is so well known and oft praised that some people drive an hour or more out of their way just to eat there. It’s a simple, modestly priced family run enterprise which continues to flourish in spite of the death of its namesake last year. One can always find a dozen or so Cretan foods ready, including tender meats cooked in a tomato and olive oil sauce. The home-made spoon sweets there are the best and spiciest I’ve had, almost good enough to eat without yogurt (although such things have always been too sweet for my American palate). Closer to the coast, two restaurants in Mirthios, a village in the hills above Plakias, feature striking views of other villages, hills full of olive groves, and the sea. One is recommended in tourist guides, but we happened to try the other and enjoyed the food as well as the view both this year and last.

Souda Beach: Pebbles by Clear Water, Caves, River, and View

The beauty of southern Crete may be rivaled by other spots in Crete, the rest of Greece, and other parts of the world, but for overall picturesqueness I doubt it can be surpassed. One beach after another yields its charms to the slightest inspection, and as long as the wind hasn’t stirred up the water too much, the sea is wonderfully clear, clean, and blue or blue green—far more so than in northern Crete. Arriving at our hotel close to sunset, we hurried on to Souda beach, the nearest one with a bit of sunlight left. We struggled over the pebbles next to the sea, then delightedly immersed ourselves in the cool waters. Swimming out beside the irregular rock walls that rise sharply next to a small, palm-lined river, I disappeared—to D’s distress—in search of a sea cave I remembered from last year. I must have visited it earlier in the day then, for I recall that the white, lavender, and green rock inside it was brilliantly lit by rays shining through gaps between the piles of boulders that form the cave. This year, the cave seemed farther out—quite a swim—and more dimly lit. Seeking a resting spot, I welcomed the chance to step onto algae-covered stones, explore the pile of boulders inside, and peek through the frame of the cave’s opening. A small cave on the beach doesn’t offer quite the same fascination or fresh cleanliness, but it does provide another picturesque frame for our view of the sea and the distant hills still lit up by the sinking sun.

Plakias Beach: Big Waves and Little White Lilies in the Sand

Plakias initially appears to be an unremarkable Greek tourist resort, with the usual restaurants and cafes, shops full of souvenirs and beach goods, so-called “super” markets, and hotels facing a long, narrow, partly sandy and partly pebbly beach in a large bay. But we continued past all of that toward the stark cliffs, where I thought the waves might be less dangerous for the kids as the wind picked up, and discovered that nudists had claimed the best part of the beach: a glorious, wide expanse of soft sand, partly in dunes full of white sand lilies I’d never seen in such abundance. With waves substantial enough to teach our kids how to handle the Atlantic (as I did during childhood trips to Delaware), and a gorgeous view of hills and mountain villages in the misty distance toward sunset, Plakias beach turned out to be both a children’s and a photographer’s paradise. There is plenty of room for everyone there, modest or free-spirited.

Exploring to the East:  Toward Agios Pavlos on a Blustery Day

We’d truly enjoyed the tonal separation between layers of hills and peaks visible at sunset from Schinaria beach last year, as well as the hike down into the Helidonion (Swallow) Gorge at Preveli, with its palm-lined stream and “forest” (by Greek standards) near the beach. However, curiosity and increasingly strong northerly and westerly winds impelled us to bypass those and explore farther east this year. Our map, the most detailed I’ve seen of the island, suggested a “scenic route” on an “unpaved road of good quality,” as far as we could determine. Branching off toward Ammoudi beach, away from the road to Preveli, we inquired at a café and were told that our Nissan sedan could handle the road. However, after struggling along for a kilometer or two over dirt and stones, ruts and bumps on a winding single lane next to an unguarded free fall into a gorge, we met an old farmer with his daughter in a 1970s or 80s era pickup truck. They debated the wisdom of our continuing in our ten year old “nice car.” Should we go on, at least heading downhill rather than struggling upwards, or should we retrace our painfully accomplished route, which had already upset our daughter’s stomach?

  

The father’s arguments prevailed, and we reached the windy, lonely Ammoudi beach, where we discovered an even more scenic route that was apparently unknown to our mapmakers, or newer than the map: a better gravel road running right along the coast. There I encountered the most spectacular seaside drive I’d seen since Oregon’s coastal highway in the 1980s. While the well-paved American highway surface certainly provides a smoother ride than the rutted Greek gravel road, the views are reminiscent: a rugged coastline with layers of cliffs and hills, impressive boulders, and expanses of luminous, turbulent sea. In southern Crete, we traded safety (a single lane with no guard rail) for proximity, often driving quite close to the water toward Agia Irini and Agia Fotini. We took a break at the tiny pebbly beaches on either side of immense boulders at Agia Fotini. My daughter and I tried to swim there, but the sea churned up such a lot of seaweed and sand in its strong crosscurrents that she just drifted back and forth in the shallow water that washed over the pebbles, while I exercised away the stiffness of our drive in cautious four-stroke laps through rushing waters, toward and away from shore. We enjoyed a seaside meal at the well-known taverna in what used to be carob warehouses before proceeding on paved roads toward the three boulders of Triopetra—a beach far too open to the elements to stop at, as gusts created small sandstorms that swept out to meet powerful waves in a sea full of whitecaps and suddenly shifting, windswept currents.

We wandered aimlessly for a while, lost on the paved but inadequately marked mountain roads, passing unconnected swaths of burnt land where the wind must have been as strong as we saw it back on the day of the fire, no doubt wildly blowing flaming leaves and branches, lifting them up and setting them down some distance away. We eventually located Agios Pavlos, with its protected cove and the only beach that looked calm enough on that tempestuous day. On the far side of the beach, a long staircase led up the cliffside. After a refreshing swim, we climbed the tempting steps, which led toward a massive sand hill and another beach. Armed with a picnic supper and some argumentative children, we continued along the promontory to the far edge of sand above us so we could witness the sunset where the world seemed to end. It was breathtakingly worth it; even the children were awed into peace. Directly below us, a long, steep dune led down to a sandy beach; beyond, sea, more sea, yet more sea, and the rising and falling lines of hills behind which the sun was almost ready to sink. I used to claim that the island of Santorini was the sunset capitol of the world, but now I’d say Agios Pavlos is just as amazing a spot for watching the approach of darkness, as we did perched high above sand and sea.

Hiding from the Wind:  Calm in Two Sheltered Coves 

We knew that was our best day for exploring, since the forecast called for even stronger winds the next day, and indeed we got them. In some places, it was too windy to even sit or stand outside and enjoy a view (5, 6, 7 on the Beaufort scale—up to 38 mph winds and 19 foot waves, whole trees moving on land, rough to very rough sea, near gale force). I’d seen trees, grasses, and other plants violently blown and bent by almost hurricane-like winds many times in northern Crete, and I’d seen plenty of whitecaps on winter days when boats weren’t allowed to sail (so that we received no fresh cow’s milk on the island). But this was the first time I saw the wind pushing so many warring currents one way and then, suddenly, another, and the first time I witnessed misty curtains of sea water raised by the wind in the distance. It was a fascinating sight, but not one to encourage lounging on a sandy beach. However, the two small coves within 10 minutes’ walk of our hotel were adequately enclosed by cliffs—about 20 steps’ worth, I suppose—to offer some protection from the squalls and the current. Knowing the forecast, we’d saved them for our last days in southern Crete, and then we rediscovered their charms: clean, clear turquoise waters; picturesque boulders to climb; appealing views toward and beyond Plakias; and bits of shade next to the cliff walls and (with a bit of scrambling over rocks) under a tree. The pebbles and rocks destroyed my flip flops last year, so I came better prepared this time for quaint little beaches without umbrellas, showers, or other frills. On our last morning, we really hated to leave that little bit of neverland. It was harder to go than last year, perhaps because we were aware that the reality we had to face after returning from our retreat was much harsher. More on that soon.