My Crete

Each person has a different relationship with the places where they live or travel to. Writer John Fowles, in the introduction to The Magus (1985 reprint edition), said, ‘In most outward ways this experience was depressive, as many young would-be writers and painters who have gone to Greece for inspiration have discovered. We used to have a nickname for the sense of inadequacy and accidie it induced – the “Aegean Blues.”’ The book has a small basis in Fowles experience as a young man teaching English on the Island of Spetsai in 1951-52.

I had a totally different experience in my nearly two weeks on Crete this past June. Perhaps the difference is the island, or my age (which is considerably older than Fowles was at the time), my writing experience, or possibly my own arrogance. I did not feel intimidated by the wealth of past Greek writing, but was instead inspired, soothed, relaxed, stimulated by the landscape, the legends, and the history.

The writing course I took during five days in the village of Loutro left me with a lot of bits and pieces of possible short stories. After I got home, I was inspired to write two completely new short stories. These stories had a basis in Greek and Cretan mythology.

The sea and the sky of Crete stayed with me – all those shades of blue: cerulean, turquoise, cobalt, ultramarine. White buildings trimmed with blue stacked up against the raw umber coloured hills. Clear, fresh air of morning invigorated me, but heated quickly and I was grateful for the awnings over the tavernas. A late afternoon walk up the hills left me sweaty and needing a shower! Thankfully my spacious room had its own bathroom with shower.

Fresh food with wild herbs, delicious – moussaka, stuffed tomatoes and peppers, wild greens, mountain tea, cheese, yogurt, lemonade, wine. I ate so much the first couple of days that I had to take a few meals of bread and cheese in my room to let my digestion recover!

Crete is old; its history goes back to the time of legends and beyond – Zeus and Europa, Minos and the Minotaur, the Venetians and Ottoman Turks, the second world war – but although I saw ancient ruins and parts of cities with new built on old, I also had a feeling of immediacy. This moment was important, this sun, this sea, this sky.

Will I ever go back? I don’t know. It’s a long way, and flying is not cheap. Still, I will carry Crete in my heart and soul for a long time to come, and I have lots of pictures.