At the hotel in Stalis (Crete) where I worked in 1979 the accommodation for the females was in one large basement room. By July, there were eleven of us sharing the room, with just enough space for us to get in and out of our single beds, as you see in the photo below. As the season became even busier and more staff came on, we had to jam the beds together and climb in from the bottom.
(EDIT: That’s not me in the nightie in the photo below, even though we have some facial resemblance. My nightie was pastel blue. That makes ALL the difference 🙂 )
I was the only foreigner, and that led to an unfortunate cultural misunderstanding.
I had received a birthday gift from my English “sister”; an ultra-feminine chiffon nightie, something she knew I would love. One day it went missing, and I was devastated.
After several days, a few of the women brought it to me, freshly washed. They looked abashed as they handed it over. It had been found discarded in a rubbish bin. Someone, who remained nameless, had stolen it, thinking that I was such a rich foreigner that I would easily replace it. When she had seen how upset I was, and all my room-mates came to understand that I was living pay-day to pay-day just the same as they were, she took fright and threw it away.
The event had a positive as you can imagine. Income inequality was rife between those who worked in the hotels and those who owned them, a tangible sign of the wider economic challenges on Crete, and it didn’t hurt for my co-workers to discover I was aware of that. One of them invited me to meet other family members. During summer around ten of them lived in Stalis, in a three-roomed whitewashed stone dwelling. Dinner was green beans and cooked tomatoes served at a rough table with a few chairs. As each of us finished, we washed our enamel dish and cutlery and handed it on to the next to eat. Meanwhile, if you stepped outside and looked up, you could see the glint of the swimming pool on the roof of the hotel owner’s home. Why he needed a swimming pool when the best beach on Crete lay at his doorstep is anyone’s guess.
Another challenge for the workers was that the compulsory military service took away their young bread-winners – for two years as I recall – and paid them about as much as a packet of cigarettes was worth. Whereas other young men from families with means were able to claim exemption from service . . . one way or another.
It was no co-incidence that one of the first words I learned to read in Greek was the slogan painted on many walls – PASOK – the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, a party that was then on the rise but has since fallen out of favour as a result of the Greek debt crisis. But in 1979, with the kind of inequality I have alluded to, you can imagine how Socialism appeared to be the answer.
My personal budget was challenged when I developed tooth trouble. I visited a dentist in Iraklion. Extraction was the simple and cost-effective solution. But I was an ex dental nurse, so that wasn’t a good option for me. The tooth could be saved with root canal treatment, which in those days involved about six visits. The dentist was both amazed I would consider it – most of his patients not having the money, time nor inclination – and excited at the opportunity to utilise his skills in that area. He let me pay him in instalments, and I crossed my fingers that my travel medical insurance would re-imburse me. Which they did without a hitch.
*****
In my last post I promised to explain more of the tourists who came to Stalis. The tourist season on Crete ran from April to October, with the heaviest concentration of visitors being in July and August – schools and many factories being closed then. Millions of Europeans from colder countries flocked south to defrost. I wrote my mother that it “put migrating birds to shame”.
There were many families who stayed in the hotel, taking advantage of the prepaid “set” price of a holiday that included meals as well as accommodation. One lady from Sweden became a life-long friend, a connection which only ended with her death three years ago.
It was the single women who were notable. They originated mostly from Scandinavia, and came to Stalis on a kind of “schoolies” week, having finished secondary studies and ready to embark on their next life stage. They were invariably tall, blonde, beautiful, and away from home and the prying eyes of their parents. A coach would collect them from the airport and disgorge them outside the hotel reception, thirty or forty girls at a time.
And waiting for them were the local lads, even some who were married. These young girls stepped off the bus, took one look at these gorgeous fit men with olive skin, dark glossy hair and limpid brown eyes, and fell in luuuurv on the spot.
The boys called this game “kamachi” or something that sounded like that; which in this context, literally meant “fishing”. It involved the chasing and wooing of as many female tourists in one summer as possible – girls being changed more frequently than underpants I suspect 🙂
I must confess that for my first two weeks in Stalis I also had a special flame, until I wised up. After that, it was much more comfortable to have a group of both male and female friends with whom I had daily contact for the next months. It enabled me to go further afield with them and taste a more typical Greek life than if I had been an average tourist. More of that in another post.
The Reluctant Retiree 
I was married then. Anyway there was not the same opportunity to get casual work for young men as for women.
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Funny you mention that. I have also observed something similar over the years even in the permanent workforce. I think it is a matter of versatility, adaptability, not being locked into one career mindset – and – not being paid the same as men meant employers would hire women more readily. Also, employers in “our” time were reluctant to hire men into roles that they felt demeaned them. The whole “the man is the
breadwinner” mindset.
As for the kinds of casual work I did in Europe though, since it was mostly in hospitality, there wasn’t actually a gender bias. But you wouldn’t have been able to take the live-in positions with a wife and baby. And since the employer was offering room and food, the cash they paid was really pocket money. It suited my purpose at the time, since I was on my own.
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Way back in the late 1950’s early 60’s even into the 21st century I never had much interest in overseas travel. I don’t know whether or not it was the horror/fun of my 5 week 5 days trip to Australia killed off any ambition
I became interested in Greek history after reading Dr E V Rieu’s mighty translation of the Iliad and Odyssey, (in fact still am I have a different translation of the Iliad beside me now,by Robert Fagles ) and wondered what it would be like to go travel around The Aegean and see all those places Homer wrote about so many centuries ago, but never had the urge. I do not regret it for some odd unaccountable reason.
It wasn’t until 2005 when my children decided that I needed to go around the world and I got pressured into going that I left these sunny shores. I never got to Greece,
I think perhaps that I have seen more of Australia than most people and have never tired of exploring this country of ours, can’t really see the need to go anywhere else.
But then as we all know. I’m odd 😈
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Well you can travel vicariously to Greece by remaining a solid supporter of my stories. Of course, I only experienced a small piece, and it was forty years ago 🙂
Your comment caused me to drag out a childhood book, The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley, about the Greek Legends. Might make that my next read. I was also a member of the Argonauts Club on the radio as a child. I can’t remember what ship name and number I was allocated, but one or two of my contributions were accepted for broadcast.
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I was too old when I came to Australia to get involved with the Argonauts, straight out to earn my keep and pay my board. I recall my mother shoving ten bob note in my hand telling me to get out buy a paper and get a job, and don’t come home without one. I was also instructed that if they wanted me to start straight away I was to do so.
I fixed her though, I was asked to start straight away (remember this is 1951) I told the Chief Clerk who had just hired me that my mother had told me that if I got a job to come straight home and report to her.
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You should be adding all these anecdotes to a journal for your grand-daughter. She might start calling you Naughty Grandpa.
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You said you were having fun with your travels on your blog. Well, Gwen, keep it up. I am having fun reading about your travels..
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So glad you are enjoying them. I have one coming up in a post or two about grape-picking on Crete. That was a great experience!
I’ve only just now realised that the woman in the nightie in the photo on this post has similar bone structure to my profile pic. I best add a rider that it is not me 🙂 My nightie was pastel blue. That makes ALL the difference, LOL.
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How strange to steal your special nightie, especially as you were all sharing a cramped dormitory. Maybe it was one of those times when somebody simply couldn’t resist taking it because it was so beautiful compared to anything she had seen before. I don’t think we realise how much better off most people are these days.
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I think that was the motivation, and can feel nothing but empathy for the girl. When I look at those “then” and “now” aerial views of Stalis, I see there must have been an explosion in wealth in those intervening years, but in 1979 many of the people I knew were doing it tough. Or at least, leading very simple lives constrained by income. You’ll see some of that in a future post. No such thing as credit cards!!!!
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Yes, I think people see the appeal of the ‘simple life’, but often in reality it is, as you say, a tough deal.
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More intrepid reminiscences; loved the phrase in italics 🙂
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Many thanks! And as “they” say – what happens on tour, stays on tour.
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Impressed that you remember this extent of detail from your travels so long ago. I can barely remember experiences in Lisbon April 2017, and it hasn’t even been a year yet! At 22, I was acclimating to a move to San Francisco from the Midwest and do remember how challenging that was – two completely different worlds! Interesting to look back on our experiences of life!
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I do have a good memory, and those things that happen in your formative years tend to stick harder. I’m also assisted by the letters I wrote my mother and the photographs. Since we took so few in the expensive film era, each is more of a highlight than a mass of digital pics. The travel reminiscences started accidentally when another blog led me to discover that Michael’s Nook was for sale, and then it has built up from there. I’m having fun with it.
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