26 replies to this topic

[Pam]

I'm sitting here at my computer on a hot and sultry day in London (but it has been raining) and all I seem to be able to do is dream of Crete, the people we met, the places we saw and the wonderful time we had in May. Spending too much time on this site (not just the forum) plus other Cretan sites when I should be working! We saw a lot (and I will be posting my blog in a couple of days, Santo, when I'm happy with it), but there's still so much more to see and people to meet.

Anybody got a cure for the post-Cretan holiday blues or do we just have to live with it?

Pam (and Bob)

[Kritsa Yvonne]

Hi Pam,

The only cure I know is to start planning the next trip!!

Yvonne

[Wim]

I know the feeling too. Pam and Yvonne.

Its called melancholy, others name it a reversed kind of homesickness. Only thing you can do is reasoning why you have this feeling and why you can't get rid of it.

The main reason must be the fact that you feel better in Crete than at home.
The reason you feel better in Crete has to do with.............and............and............(fill in for yourself)
If you don't have those elements at home you have a problem because they seam to be connected to Crete

Solution: pack up your gear, take a sabbatical and go and live there for a long period.
Then go home again and if you still have the same feelings when you're back home then you have a serious problem and you have to emigrate

Once you live there and get homesick you're incurable because than it means that you don't feel at home at any place in the world

Wim Freud

[Kritsa Yvonne]

I like my work because it lets me have the long breaks that Dr Wim prescribes but I set up an extra line on my time-sheet and every day when I make an entry it tells be how long I have to go until I set off for Crete.

This is horrible at the start of a contract but next Tuesday it will say 6 Weeks and 4 days to go and once it gets to 6 weeks we are allowed to start getting excited. Ooo I think I can envisage feeling better already!

Yvonne

[Tinks]

I have 64 days to endure in dreary Wigan until Dave and I can jet over to Crete again for a wonderful fortnight. Will have to break up the time with a few visits to my South Western roots in Gloucestershire!!

Can't wait!

[Pam]

Hi, Yvonne, Wim

Yvonne, part of me wishes I was in your position doing contract work and the opportunity to take long breaks, but I have always been a play safe person and like the security of a permanent position, which I have been fortunate to hold on to for 30+ years (not the same job, but in the same company), so am restricted to my (fairly generous) holiday entitlement. However, retirement is not that far away!

Wim, filling in your blanks:

The reason I feel better in Crete has to do with the weather, the sun and the heat always seems pleasanter in Greece
Also, the scenery, blue sea, mountains, the smell of the herbs, the sound of the birds and cicadas, the colours - everything always seems so much more vivid over there.

Plus the relaxed way of life and the people - I can only think of one or two unpleasant experiences in the dozens of times we have been to Greece and they were in very touristy spots. We have experienced countless times the friendliness and generosity of the Greek people. I remember particularly the first holiday we had after my father died, when we went to the same apartment we had been going to with him for years. We had decided to cook for ourselves a lot of the time that holiday, as I didn't really feel like going out much and after the first couple of nights our landlady kept on bringing us homemade dishes for our supper.

However, we also like where we live and have good friends, which we will miss when we do eventually move.

I wish a sabbatical was an option, but (a) we couldn't leave our cats for a long period and wouldn't want to inflict a two-way trip on them and ( my company wouldn't allow it (money would also be a problem), buit as I said retirement isn't that far away.

[Helena Howard]

Hi Pam I feel you're pain ((huggs)) I am just back 2 days now from Crete and the only thing that is helping with my loss is the hope of a september return one week is not enough to sustain the soul I have never felt so happy as when I'm on this beautiful Island, I watched a magnificent sunrise over Stalis on Thursday 29th June last I will try post a photo later

[Wim]

How about this sunset in Sfakia

Attached Files

•  plakias_sunset.jpg   28.06KB   81 downloads

[Helena Howard]

Hi Wim that is truely amazing :)beautiful , how can I show my photo on this website?

[bu67]

I think Wim described what many of us feel after returning home from Crete! Melancholy.......

Pat & I spent 8 wonderful days on Crete from 7 to 15 June. This was our second trip to Crete. It is difficult to adequately describe Crete to people who have not been there. Living here in Texas/USA, we have been asked why we would take our annual vacation (2 weeks) and go to Greece & Crete? I think people think we are crazy with all of the "wonderful" places around the world to visit! They just don't know, do they?

We did spend 4 days on the mainland of Greece, seeing Delphi, Meteora, Athens (again), etc. There is so much in Greece to see that it might take a lifetime of trips! However, the mainland is not Crete. The differences are dramatic.

I am envious of you in Europe being able to jump on a plane and be stepping onto the tarmac in Heraklion or Chania in a matter of about 3 or 4 hours! I find myself drawn to this forum every day, looking for more stories of your super holidays, new photos, and people you have met. Keep it up!

Jeffrey & Pat
Texas/USA

[DaveW.]

..after returning from a fortnight's working holiday in Crete in December my wife, children and work colleagues have described me as being 'unbearable'. Crete is always on my mind and the friendships made there. But have I found the answer to this melancholy? Maybe....... a little while ago someone wrote that they had some olive trees growing here in the UK. So, today I made my way to the local garden centre and bought myself a small olive tree. I am now sitting in my dining room, listening to Greek music, with a glass of raki (made by my dear friend Iannis in Kalyves) whilst I gaze out at the silver, grey leaves of my olive tree (all 100 cm of it). It may not be Crete but it is a little way there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pass some more keftedakia would you my dear..thank you

[harribobs]

fantastic photo Wim, but that's not Sphakia...it's Plakias

it's the headland beyond suda known as the sleeping dragon!

[Wim]

Yes Harribob, I know.

I made a mistake but was too late to change it due to the few time given to edit ones post after adding.
Anyhow when you hover over de picture with your mouse it says Plakias doesn't it?

Very clever of you to see that mistake.

Stay alert

[gary]

Reply to Jeff and Pat,Sounds like you may have been stationed at the airbase as you lived just out side of it.Many of us miss that place.My family and I will be in Crete on the 18th of july for 40 days.My wife is greek and we are going to have a big reuion.I do want to go to the old base and see just how bad it looks now.I was there in 92 but other members of my family go back every year or two.I know i will be suprised as to how the island has changed.We had planed to retire there but when I found out the base was to close it changed things.No military no medicial or Bx.As others have said it is hard not to fall in love with the island or the people.We have a large group of ex-military who were stationed in Crete and some who have gone back and reported to the rest of us on their trip as well as photos.

Gary and Magda
Northern Calif.

[Wim]

I think you wrote in the wrong topic Gary

[Tim]

Dave W
You have had that tree for over a week now, has it grown much yet?
I think mine are racing on - but it could be the raki
Tim
;-)

[harribobs]

It's hard not to be thinking of Crete, especially there rare hot summer days in england

but crete means different things to different people

[Wim]

Yeah right Harry, I was thinking of him,

[harribobs]

Yeah right Harry, I was thinking of him,

not his product then Wim?

[Wim]

Stin yassas