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From
Alexandria [Jesus, Gonod and Ganid] sailed for Lasea in Crete.
[1427]
The
travelers had but one purpose in going to Crete, and that was to
play, to walk about over the island, and to climb the mountains.
[1436] |
AT
AROUND 5 A.M. we awoke to the sounds of the boat docking. We made some
instant coffee in the cabin, took showers, packed, and were on land by
6:30 in a taxi headed for the main town of Hania. Here we also planned
to look up a fellow Urantia Book reader named Joan Wentworth, a friend
of some mutual UB friends of ours, who had been living on Crete for several
years.
Neither of us had met her before and all we had to go on was an old address from when Joan lived in a
town on the island called Kolumbari.
It
was still dark when the taxi dropped us off with our backpacks in the
middle of town. The sun was just beginning to rise and there were few
locals around. After a cup of coffee in the still of dawn and a look at
the map to get our bearings, we walked down to the waterfront where the
outdoor cafes were just opening. It was hauntingly peaceful and almost
surreal as we sat there, browsing through our tour books, watching the
Greeks beginning to stir.
Joy and Saskia on the waterfront at daybreak, waiting for Hania to open up.
In
the distance we spotted a funky-looking hotel, the Tempemi. It had a
harbor view and what looked like large rooms, tall windows, high
ceilings and big balconies. While Joy stayed behind to keep an eye on our bags, I walked over
to inquire. The large room in the front would be vacant at noon, and it cost 7000 drachmas (around $28). I
reserved it, went back to get Joy and we soon returned to drop
off our bags at the reception.
Not
having Joan Wentworth’s phone number, we left a message on her
daughter’s machine (Joan's daughter also lived in Hania and was married to a
Cretan) and turned to the hotel manager for ideas on how to find her. The manager said he knew an American lady in
Hania who used to live in Kolumbari and who knew all about the town, and
he promised to find
her for us so she could help us locate Joan.
With
a little time to kill, we went exploring in the town of Hania. It looked
like Venice without
the canals—the same style of buildings and narrow streets, and the
same general atmosphere. The shops were beginning to open and we browsed through
them, being particularly impressed with a large rug shop diagonally across
the street from our hotel. As we looked over the colorful rugs we exchanged smiles with
the couple who appeared to be the proprietors.
When
we returned to the hotel the manager was waiting for us. “First we go to meet the
American lady,” he said, and steered us straight back to the rug shop we'd just
been in, leading us right to the same man
we’d smiled at earlier, the shop owner, Kostas, who happened to be
Joan Wentworth's partner. Joan, he said, had stepped out and would be
back in half an hour. It turned out that Joan was the woman who
used to live in Kolombari, but had now moved to Hania! Joy and I decided the social architects must have
led us to the Tempemi Hotel, only 100 feet from where Joan’s boyfriend owned
a business!
We agreed to come back in an hour or so, after we brought up our bags
and settled into our room.
There
was enough space in our enormous quarters for each of us to have a bed at
different ends. A large bathroom had been built right in the middle of
the room, most likely after the invention of plumbing as the building
seemed hundreds of years old. Thinking we might stay here for several
days, I immediately rearranged the furniture and
threw the Greek-patterned sarong I'd just bought over the table
for a tablecloth.
Back
downstairs we sat in the hotel’s outdoor taverna and ate omelettes.
After half an hour I returned to the rug shop and there was Joan
Wentworth, an exotic fifty-something Joan Baez lookalike, tall and lanky
and friendly.
Joan in the rug shop.
Joan
returned to the hotel with me where I introduced her
to Joy, and the three of us spent the afternoon sitting outside drinking
shot after shot of a licorice-tasting Turkish drink, something like Raki
or Ouzo but with a longer name. Having the Urantia Book in common there
was an instant connection, and we soon felt we had all known each other forever.
After
a few hours we moved our drinking party over to the rug shop. Kostas
joined in, and in the end we must have had ten shots each. They were
busy preparing for a trip to the States in two days so we
left them in the early evening to their packing.
After
a short nap we got up and walked to a fish restaurant
Joan and Kostas had recommended, somewhat out of the main town but still
along the water. We were the only customers, and I would
have preferred to be in one of the more touristy, people-filled places
on the harbor, but oh well…. For a lot of money we had a mixed-grill
fish dinner, a platter that included just about every critter that swims
in the local sea. Swarms of cats wandered around our outside table as we
ate, and we fed them some the more suspicious looking part of our
dinners.
Back
at our hotel we drank coffee on
the balcony as we watched the moon, the water, the lights, the boats,
and the people moving in different formations. By eight we were sound
asleep, the Greeks just beginning their evening revelry.
A
SHORT UB HISTORY OF CRETE
About 12,000 B.C. a brilliant tribe of Andites
migrated to Crete. This was the only island settled so early by such a
superior group, and it was almost two thousand years before the
descendants of these mariners spread to the neighboring isles. This
group were the narrow-headed, smaller-statured Andites who had
intermarried with the Vanite division of the northern Nodites. They were
all under six feet in height and had been literally driven off the
mainland by their larger and inferior fellows. These emigrants to Crete
were highly skilled in textiles, metals, pottery, plumbing, and the use
of stone for building material. They engaged in writing and carried on
as herders and agriculturists. [895]
[About 10,000 B.C.] in Crete that the mother cult of
the descendants of Cain attained its greatest vogue. This cult glorified
Eve in the worship of the "great mother." Images of Eve were
everywhere. Thousands of public shrines were erected throughout Crete
and Asia Minor. [895]
When Egypt followed Mesopotamia in cultural decline,
many of the more able and advanced families fled to Crete, thus greatly
augmenting this already advanced civilization. And when the arrival of
inferior groups from Egypt later threatened the civilization of Crete,
the more cultured families moved on west to Greece. [896]
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CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO CALENDAR
or
read on by clicking on any of the following
links:
1.
From Los Angeles to Amsterdam
2. The Flight to Greece
3. Ancient
Corinth
4. The
Citadel
5. To Piraeus
6. Hania on
Crete
this
page
7. A
Day in Limbo
8. Back
to Athens
9. From
Athens to Cairo
10. Cairo
11. The Pyramids
12. The Bus to Israel
13. Jerusalem
14. Bethany and Bethpage
15. An Old Palestinian Hotel
16. The Drive to Galilee
17. Capernaum and Environs
18. The Ancient Boat and Nazareth
19. The Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon
20. The Eastern Shore and Scythiopolis
21. Mount of the Beatitudes
22. Ptolemais and Caesarea
23. A Day in Piraeus
24. Santorini
25. A Rainy Day
26. An Eventful Day in Athens
27. Return to Amsterdam
28. Going Home
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