Our Global Volunteers Project in Crete

We flew to Crete from Athens on Saturday afternoon, March 26th, and found our way by bus to the Hotel Handakas in Amadoura, a beach town west of the main city of Iraklio and our home away from home for the next 2 weeks. The first thing you notice flying to Crete are the spectacular snow-capped mountains that rise up out of the ocean. The biggest Greek Island, Crete’s economy is fueled by agriculture (wine and olives), with tourism playing second fiddle. Its people are very welcoming but also fiercely independent and proud of their heritage, which they keep alive through music, poetry, dance and close-knit family traditions. Irakio, or Heraklion, (the spellings vary because it’s neither of these in Greek …more on that later) is Greece’s third largest city and, like Athens, it is noisy, dirty and congested with the same compliment of graffiti and feral animals. The beach town of Amadoura, about 3 miles to the west of Iraklio, is an non-descript strip of tourist shops, bars and hotels with a ratty looking beach that doesn’t seem inviting for swimming –the huge power plant at the far end a contributing factor.

Our first reaction to the boarded up store fronts, half finished buildings and deserted, litter-strewn streets was that the place had been hard hit by the down economy but then we discovered that the shop owners and innkeepers simply paper over their windows and lock the doors at the end of the beach season in October. Over our two weeks there, we saw a gradual transformation as the owners came back to ready their businesses for the onslaught of (mainly northern European) tourists starting in late May.

The other major reason for the lack of activity on the island during our stay was Lent. There is no live music during Lent so the tavernas and bars that were open were relatively subdued. The Greek Orthodox Church wields a mighty hammer and its influence is pervasive as witnessed by chapels and memorials at every corner. (more on that later too) April is nice time to visit Crete if you don’t like crowds and hot weather but it would have been fun to see a little more life. That said, the flowers and vines were just beginning to bud and it was wonderful to see the transformation from browns and greys to brilliant green over two weeks. It was really pretty cool most of the time we were there and the concrete slab buildings do not provide good insulation or soundproofing. I got really tired of my two fleece jackets by the end of our stay and Peter became quite proficient at laundering jeans and socks in the tiny washbasin in our room.

The family who owns the Hotel Handakas were welcoming and friendly and we really did feel like it was our home for the two weeks. The off season is very slow so they were quite grateful to have the global volunteers business and they worked hard to meet our needs even with limited English. Next post: our fearless leader Samantha and our global volunteers team.