03 July 2010

Back in Crete after almost 10 years

A charming side street in Koutouloufári ... back for the first time since 2001

Patrick Comerford

I have arrived back in Crete after an absence of nine years. During the 1980s and 1990s, I spent weeks on end, summer-after-summer, first in Réthymnon on the mid-western coast of northern Crete, and then in Piskopianó, east of Hersónisos, but close enough Iráklion, the capital.

The last time I stayed in Crete was in 2001. Now I’m back again on this beautiful island, having arrived late last night. This is the island where Zeus was born; the home of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth; this is where Daedalus tried to teach Ikaros to fly; this is home of icon writers like Mikhailis Damaskinos and El Greco; this is the birthplace of the politician Eleftherios Venizelos, the writer like Nikos Kazantzakis and the composer Mikis Theodorakis; this is the adopted home of the Irish composer and musician Ross Daly. This is an island of inspiration, roamnce and steely determination and independence.

I am staying in Koutouloufári, which is close to Piskopianó. This is a small traditional hillside village of only 600 residents, but each summer it is thronged by tourists, especially in these months of July and August.

Koutouloufari has an abundance of tavernas and gift shops catering for the tourists. But there are also great views from Koutouloufari out across the Aegean Sea. Lively, popular and over-developed Hersónisos is about 2 km away, at the bottom of the hill. But for holiday-makers in Hersónisos, Koutouloufári is a good village to escape the wilder sides of nightlife, a romantic location for a moonlit dinner.

The view from balcony in the Astra Village Apartments in Koutouloufári, where there are breathtaking views of both the Aegean Sea and the Cretan Mountains (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

I am staying at the Astra Village Apartments, previously known as the Ikaros Royal Apartments. These family-run apartments are set on the side of a hill, with breath-taking view of the sea and towards the mountains of Crete.

Koutouloufári is roughly half way between Iráklion (32 km) and Aghios Nikhólaos (34 km). So during the coming week I may visit the museums of Iráklion or the former “leper colony” of Spinalónga. There may be visits too to Réthymnon, the Minoan Palace at Knossos and the traditional villages around Archanes.

But I’ve taken some good reading with me too, including the poems of Cavafy and Victoria Hislop’s The Island (2005), which was hailed by one reviewer as “the new Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” and was a Number 1 bestseller in Britain.

And I’m also looking forward to Greek coffee, retsina, early morning swims, walks on the beaches of Crete, visiting some Byzantine monasteries and some long, lazy, late dinners in Koutouloufári and in the neighbouring villages of Piskopianó and Old Hersónisos.

Odysseus returns to his island after 10 years

The lighthouse at the end of the harbour in Réthymnon

Patrick Comerford

I am heading back to Greece this weekend. The promise of revisiting familiar places in Crete, meeting old friends, and rekindling my affections for a place that has very special to me for almost four decades, since the 1980s, is excitement enough.

It took Odysseus ten years to get back to Ithaka, and – although I manage to get to Greece at least once or twice a year on average – it’s almost ten years since I was last in Crete.

The journey back is almost as exciting as the promises and the prospects the week ahead holds. And I am reminded of the joy of travel in one of my favourite poems by Cavafy, Ιθάκη (Ithaka):

Ιθάκη

Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.

Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωιά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους•
να σταματήσεις σ’ εμπορεία Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν’ αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ’ έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά•
σε πόλεις Aιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ’ τους σπουδασμένους.

Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει•
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.

Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.

Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

[Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard]