I have a very vivid recollection from my childhood. It was summer and we were traveling, with my parents, at Crete. It was a time long before smartphones and GPS and if you haven't had a map, you simply got lost. And that's exactly what happened to us, even though Crete is my father's birthplace and he never thought we will!
There is an old saying in Greek that can be translated like: asking will get you to the town. So we entered an unknown village and stopped the car in front of a coffee shop. My dad lowered the driver's window and asked for directions.
There were a lot of men there drinking their coffee and an elderly one spoke for everyone.
Turn off the car engine and get out of the car,
he said. My father tried to say that we are in a hurry but the man insisted in a very pushy and almost demanding way.
We are not going to tell you anything
he claimed, with a loud, gruff voice. A second of awkwardness until he continued his phrase:
until you all sit with us and let us treat you something :)
That was the way that Greeks use to behave before the coming of tourism and the excessive amount of money that come along. Till then every stranger was a guest that had to be treated with care and respect. According to their mindset it was almost offensive to let us go without an act of hospitality.
Fragments of this mindset still exists but in a lesser way and mostly away from the main tourist attractions. I have experienced though, even nowadays, beautiful acts of hospitality from people I hardly know and every time I remember this story and I am glad that the so called civilisation hasn't steamroller all the old mentality!
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The pictures are from a day that I spent at a semi-mountainous part of western Crete when I was working for a travel magazine. I was with a reporter and the editor in chief and although it was part of our job, it felt more like social visits! The objective was to make a story about what the area has to offer (nature, guest houses, taverns etc) but the unaffectedly friendly manner of the people made it feel so authentic and natural. Of course it was in their best interest to be nice to us since a positive reference on the magazine would be potentially good for their business but you can't fake an attitude. I could see splinters of the old mindset in the way they prepared a snack or offered us a drink. It was beyond calculation and personal gain, it was simply what they felt it was the right thing to do!
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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A pleasure, @fotostef! :)
About your childhood story... is amazing how when things don't go according to our plans while travelling the magic open in front of us meeting lovely people and beautiful places.The pictures, colours and compositions are so pretty. 💫
Thank you very much Gabriela! You are right. A well planned trip is always pleasant but the magic begins when the unexpected comes :)
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Thank you for the detailed welcome! Glad to be here :)
Pleasure! Yeah even to myself it looks sooo long... 😁 Luckily there was some c/p involved. The next ones may be more like this comment.
Have a sunny sunday!
You too :)
I love the message in your post, we need to slow down at times and enjoy genuine hospitality from strangers, thus enriching not only our lives, but also theirs. A little kindness costs nothing!
That's right @lizelle , simple human values that make everyone's life better!
What a wonderful story and memory - thank you for sharing it with us!
I know exactly what you mean. When we lived in Germany hubby and I frequently visited different Greek islands to go windsurfing. One time we had booked Naxos but I broke my hand a few days before and couldn't go windsurfing, so we did a lot more driving around than we otherwise would do. We had rented one of those tiny motorbikes that felt like with the two of us on it wouldn't make it up the mountains 😁. But it did, very much so that while we didn't really get lost, we were so far up and inland that there was no traffic, no houses, nothing at all. Eventually, we found a cantina that didn't look very reputable but we stopped anyhow. It was the middle of the day, no people around, definitely not serving hours. But - we were treated like friends. The owner went out of his way to cook us a meal and we chatted quite a bit. I, too, remember it to this day, this was in 2016. So, well into the tourism time yet all good windsurfing places are always a bit out of tourist areas, plus we went a ways.
Anyways, just thought I'd share it with you :)
Greece still hides many pleasant surprises, especially when you move away from the mainstream destinations :)
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post and share your own experience!