Archive | Greece

hello from Crete!

August 29, 2013 at 12:30 pm

Stavros Beach, Crete

A water bottle that I won in a giveaway. I never win anything!

Contemplating a nap. (He took a nap!)

You will know this if you follow me on Instagram: we are in Crete! My veterinarian husband travels here every quarter to care for the pets and military working dogs at the tiny little base in Souda Bay. We came with him last year, too, and had a harrowing journey back when one of our plane engines died mid-flight!

One of Elliott’s soldiers also brought his family, good friends of ours from church. Rachel and I have been enjoying our side-by-side apartments and chances to take the kids to the pool or beach at a moment’s notice. Tonight they have offered to babysit while Elliott and I go out for Greek food!

Sometimes I stop and shake my head a little bit, marveling at the amazingness of this week. I can hop on a military plane with my two children and spend a whole week vacationing on a Greek beach? Perks of military life! But none of these blessings comes without sacrifice. In this case, the biggest sacrifice is made by my husband, who goes quietly to work each day (in Sicily or in Crete) in order to care for his family. Thank you, Elliott; I could never do what you do, and if I had to, I could not do it with such grace.

I’m trying this week not to take this stage of life for granted. By next summer we will undoubtedly be back in the States, and trips to Greece will be a thing of the past. This brief season — sand in tiny swim trunks, a two-year-old learning to dog paddle, a date to eat Greek food in Crete, a 7-month-old sitting beside me taking markers out of a basket over and over — will be over before that next wave sinks into the sand.

What fleeting stage of life are you enjoying right now?

2 :: in Greece, holiday, husband, thoughts, travel

Greek beaches and losing plane engines

July 6, 2012 at 11:25 am

On our last morning in Crete we carpe diem-ed and went to the beach. I’m rarely at the beach before 9am, but my goodness… they are such peaceful and lovely places at that time of day. At first we were the only people there, spreading out wherever we wished and basking in mellow early morning sun.

We saw a bucket of old lost-and-found toys and Lena went to town with all those treasures!

Sometimes you want to splash and play and sometimes you just want a hug.

Eventually we headed back to the hotel to shower, finish packing, and head to the little airport. Once again we had no idea if there would be space on the plane for me and Lena. I waited in prayerful apprehension, watching as the waiting room of the terminal filled up with passengers. The tiny C-26 we were scheduled to fly only has 10 seats:

And then suddenly the woman in charge of seating was standing in front of me, saying firmly and apologetically, “I am so sorry. There are 11 passengers and just 10 seats. You will have to stay behind. We will try to get you on a flight back to Sicily as soon as possible, maybe tomorrow…”

I gulped, anticipating a long weekend by myself in a hotel room, wandering around base trying to amuse a baby and sitting in the air terminal waiting for a seat.

Suddenly, once again, our hero in a flightsuit walked into the room, did an official count, and announced that there were only 9 official passengers. There was space for us and Lena could sit on my lap. What?! The woman must have miscounted and included Lena and me (the 10th and 11th passengers) among the official count. Praise God! Within moments we were walking across the tarmac to the plane.

So close. Both times, so close. Crete is great, but… do I want to go through this every time?

We boarded the plane, ducking down the narrow aisle to find a seat. Lena promptly fell asleep in my arms, exhausted from the beach and missing her nap. I fell asleep only moments later.

I woke up to hear a crewmember yelling down the aisle over the noise of the propellers.

“WE LOST PRESSURE IN ONE OF THE ENGINES. WE HAVE TO TURN IT OFF AND DROP TO 10,000 FEET. WE HAVE ABOUT AN HOUR TO GO. WE’LL BE OKAY.”

Elliott and I stared at each other, eyes wide. Outside his window I could see the left propeller slowly coming to a stop, then rotating lazily in the breeze. Our entire plane was now flying on just one propeller engine. The pilots were busily balancing the plane in the cockpit, making constant manual adjustments and pressing buttons that had turned red and yellow.

My mind started to go crazy thinking of all the things that could go wrong. Where there parachutes in this plane? What would I do with Lena? I guess strap her to me with the Ergo carrier and then strap the parachute over both of us. But there probably were no parachutes. What would we do with life jackets?? And if the other engine went out, would the plane glide for awhile, or just… dive?

This was useless. I prayed, closed my eyes, and determinedly slept.

About an hour later, I could see land below the plane. Sicily! We flew in south of Catania and in a moment I could see the base, and then the air strip, and then a small army of firetrucks waiting for us, lights flashing in the hot sunlight. Oh boy. Elliott wrapped both his arms around Lena as we dropped closer to the earth to land. The wheels touched. We bounced, jostled a little bit, raced down the runway. Home safe.

After all the flying I’ve done my entire life, I would have to say that is the closest I’ve come to knowing our plane could go down. Not fun in a tiny little metal tube you can’t even stand up in, with a baby in your lap and the love of your life beside you. But then I think… how many times has this happened on a plane and I haven’t known it? How many times has a reckless driver swerved right before connecting with my car? How many times have I been within an inch of my life and yet here I still am, typing this, on an ordinary Friday, living this ordinary life, very much alive?

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:16

5 :: in Greece, travel

visiting Greek Orthodox monasteries in Crete

July 5, 2012 at 4:20 pm

On one of our afternoons in Crete, we drove to visit some nearby Greek Orthodox monasteries. These are popular tourist attractions near the tiny base, as several of them are within a 30-minute radius. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we were all (including Lena) completely entranced by the afternoon’s discoveries.

Both monasteries were self-sufficient communities of monks. They cared for themselves as well as dozens of tidily groomed little cats, much to Lena’s delight.

Outside the walls of the monastery we discovered rolling vineyards and olive groves, which explains the abundance of wine and oil for sale inside.

The monks also kept about 100 rabbits (a nest full of babies pictured below!), sheep, goats, and so many chickens.

The next monastery we visited was known for a hiking trail down to a cave on the coast. According to legend, St. John spent the night in that cave thousands of years ago. The woman in the travel office on base said the hike would “take about 15 minutes,” and so we immediately set off down the rocky trail.

Roaming local goats watched us warily as we passed by. Can you spot the black and white one on the wall in the photo above?

Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes of working our way quickly downhill, Lena was crying continually from hunger. We stopped to feed her and assessed the journey ahead. We could tell the woman in the travel office had never hiked the trail before, as it looked like we had at least 30-45 minutes more hiking ahead of us, about 1.5-2 hours of hiking on the return, and not enough daylight to enjoy the cave (it was already 7pm). Also, we had packed no water. I have never done this before in my marriage to a hiking/nature/outdoors aficionado of the highest caliber… but I asked to turn back. Such a sense of an uncompleted mission!

“Next time, honey,” I promised, “we’ll bring water.”

And since Elliott has to fly to Crete every quarter, there seems a fairly good chance that I can make good on that promise. We all hope so!

2 :: in Greece, hiking, travel

Crete: Part I

July 3, 2012 at 1:40 pm

First glimpse of Crete from the plane window:

Crete was great, but getting there and back again was harrowing. Elliott and his soldiers were flying on a teeny tiny Navy plane for this trip, but Lena and I could only fly if there was Space A[vailable] after all the official passengers were seated. This means I had to pack and close up the house as though we were leaving for the week but had no guaranteed seat on the plane. So I did all the prep the night before (cleaning out the fridge, freezing food, giving away produce, washing the last of the cloth diapers, cleaning the kitchen, watering the plants, giving a key to a friend so she can water the plants mid-week, closing all the shutters on all the windows, unplugging everything, taking out all the trash…) and then at 6am on Monday morning we drove to the Naval Air station airport.

After two hours of assuming we couldn’t go (no seats left, Lena couldn’t fly on my lap, we didn’t have the right paperwork) a crew member in a flightsuit walked up and said: “There’s room for you. You can come.”

And just like that, we did!

[There is more to the “harrowing” adjective regarding our return trip, but I’ll save that story for a little later.]

Elliott worked every day (Monday-Thursday) that we were there, but his hours weren’t super long on this trip. Lena and I kept ourselves occupied on base until he was finished for the day.

One evening we all went to the pool on base. These days Lena loves playing with volleyballs, soccer balls, beach balls, tennis balls… you name it, she wants to carry it around and then “throw” it.

Another evening we went to the beach. The water was so warm and clear!

Later that same evening we went out to eat gyros with Elliott’s soldiers. I meant to take a picture during the meal. Whoops. Obviously it was delicious!

Elliott, Lena, and I explored the port city of Hania one evening. There were hundreds of fun shops and delicious seafood restaurants. This wins the “coolest walk-in spa ever” award in my book:

More photos coming soon of a trip to a couple of monasteries, a hike that we never finished, and our pre-flight trip to another beach at about 8 o’clock in the morning.

1 :: in Greece, travel