Odysseys in a Parallel Universe 3

My ship left for Rhodos noon the next day. The Kariskakis was really not a ship, just a big boat,  and my fellow passengers were local Greek peasants, not foreign tourists.

We all hunkered down in the hull together, encircling the engine cover for warmth.

It was noisy: the engine was loud enough by itself, but the gregarious Greeks shouted even more loudly to make themselves heard above its clanking and this all made for an even greater cacophony!

No one spoke English. I could only manage a little German with a young girl + that was it for communication.  

For much of the trip, I sat stunned by my quick change of events, but fled a couple times up on deck just to get some breathing-room, both literally and figuratively.

I was at such a loss of how to keep myself occupied that I even bought a pack of cigarettes; but I only smoked a couple and gave the rest away the next day. I was already counting the days till the 22^nd would arrive.

We stopped in 3 other islands along the way: small towns with no marinas or docking facilities, so they had to send even smaller boats out to pick up + drop off passengers.

I watched in amazement as the crew spread a board out between the two vessels, over the choppy waves: people had to literally ‘walk the plank’ as it heaved and hoed + they did too!

Timing was absolutely crucial in the success of these transfers for while one boat was riding the wave’s crest, the other was bottoming out and the walk in between was anything but secured. Even athletic, youthful passenger-types  found it difficult to navigate this tumbling tightrope, but when a couple of seasoned, quite hefty Greek grandmas stepped out, they gave the heaving seas little more than passing notice and fearlessly forged the gap!

The next leg of our passage proved to be even rougher seas, however;and as we huddled more tightly around the engine cover, the grandmas didn’t hide their utter dislike for sailing. They let it all out! Every time our boat heaved, they did too: their voices and stomachs heaved together as one with the boat and pretty soon the stench in our close-quartered hold became unbearable!

It all made for a truly memorable journey!

But we finally made it safely to Rhodes that night. There was no longer any Colossus to greet us; only windmills flapping their sails in the wind! Thankfully, I got a place for the night: Nikos’ Pension: cheap, less than $1/day … but it turned out to be for 5 days!  = 1/9^th of all I had!

Rhodos is a very old, beautiful + intriguing city: Old Town is surrounded entirely by a Crusader castle wall.

Its history has known one wave of conqueror after another. The Knights of St John left the wall; the Turks unfortunately took more than they gave for the following 400 years they were here.

Over my next few days, another wind blew out of Turkey… a very cold wind + with central heating unknown in these parts, we had only Nikos’ space heater to huddle around in the common room + somehow get warm.

Other travelers were waiting for boats too: some wanted to get to Turkey and on further to India+ Kathmandu.

A couple others had heard a boat to Cyprus was coming… just nobody knew when… maybe next week?

I became increasingly suspicious that this ‘coming Cyprus boat’ was a mirage on the horizon + each extra day in Rhodos was only shrinking my $45 cash-stash without getting me any further to Israel!

It seemed impossible to find a reliable and predictable ferry schedule: one Travel Agency promoted sailings which others knew nothing about; still other others countered that no such sailings even existed! 

Prices too conflicted. Some disavowed Student Discounts which their own brochures clearly offered.

Finally, one agency informed me they had a confirmed ticket price for a real boat: $20!

The precise info was good news, but the bad news? …this would eat up over half of my remaining funds!

Neither could anyone give me any information on how much money Cypriot Customs required for a traveler to enter their country.

The whole scenario looked bleaker day by day + getting off Rodos before Christmas seemed an improbable dream , let alone making  it all the way to Israel in time to meet my friend again!

One of the guys in the pension got very sick: a bad cold from traveling without even a jacket; he never left his bed for next few days. I was thankfully spared with only a couple sniffles!

I cooked all my own spaghetti to try + save money. Cats crawled all over the kitchen; one little black monster made his home in the kitchen sink + just about became part of the sauce!

And every day the wind out of Turkey seemed to blow harder + colder + we waited around our heater + froze!

Things were so confusing by the 4^th day, I considered taking any boat available: either back to Athens or Turkey?

A couple travel agents advised via Turkey would be even cheaper, but when it came to details, they gave me only speculations. Greeks apparently did not want to give unnecessary business to Turks?

But when it felt truly hopeless, then hope + good news arrived + was confirmed:  a boat was suddenly departing for Cyprus that very night, with an added plus: the agency gave me a generous $1 student discount!

By that time, every dollar saved was gold!

Sure enough, the Knossos actually showed up that night, sailed for Cyprus and I was on it!

I was finally making forward progress!

When I was last in Rodos-1970, I only had $45 to get me through 2 wks + all way to Israel - henryschmidt.blogspot.com so I didn't have money to see the Old Town's sights. But today I splurged: the Knights of St John Palace of the Grand Master, its narrow streets, wall, moat + feathered neighbours...

+ of course, the BEST ice cream in the world!

Odysseys in a Parallel Universe 2

But we also couldn’t spend the rest of our trip/lives hot-tubbing in our rediscovered Eden: we didn’t have any food!

So we walked back to Kos-town, got supper and a cheap hotel. 

And that’s when my friend decided he needed to return to Athens and straighten out some unfinished business before he could freely keep on traveling.

So we agreed: he would return to Athens, while I continued by myself to Israel by boat.

Then, in a couple weeks, he would fly from Athens to Israel and rejoin me there before Christmas with a new influx of funds. My money hadn’t yet arrived at the bank when we were in Athens, so he gave me some of his: $45US which needed to last me over the next 2 weeks: transport + accommodation + food too! Now that would be an adventure! My plans: get a cheap boat from Kos to Rhodos + then another to Cyprus or even all the way to Israel? Sounded possible; if such boats existed + the $45 would be enough to get me to my destination over 2 long weeks?

It all seemed somewhat ‘iffy’, so I penned this on leaving:

Of Kos

With pain and death in the one hand

And joy and life in the other

He walks amid the valleys of our minds

Seeking meadows to receive His Seed;

Sowing children for love’s growing hope,

Reaping the aged: seeds of springtimes past,

Searching out the youth which sleeps

Within the willows’ grasp,

Unaware of His close passing.

Prisoners of the reeds –

We struggle.

Raised upwards to the sunlight,

Tenderly kissed with rain –

We grow.

And eagerly reaching for a greater part of all,

We strike out on life’s highway

In quest of Elysian Fields

Somewhere in the future,

Oblivious to the warmth of His Presence.

Passing lonely winter hours within canyons of our doubt

Or lengthy summer afternoons in citadels of self-confidence,

We dwell among the feasting and the starved,

       tread upon the clover and the thorns

Feeling their pleasure and there pain,

Inflicting ourselves on those among the grasses

Ignorant of life’s final sting.

Of the stream, we drink its crystal waters,

  Yet think nothing of the life we take.

Of the tree, we eat its golden fruit

  And feel only the void filled within ourselves.

From selfish joy to unknown pains,

Fate blows us from our course.

Our rafts lie wrecked upon islands of ego,

And we, stranded, gaze longingly ‘cross

The Pacific,

Seeking out an albatross to bear our burden

             and an eagle to bear our selves

Homewards to security.

Frightened, we hide

Within fortresses of isolation,

While seas boil ‘round us

And wait…

Till the wall is breached and the tide rushes in

And the blood runs warm from the open wound;

A soul weeps crimson

In pain we pray

Begging trees to wash our sorrow free

And once again reveal the joy which we no longer see.

Clinging to pillars of our past

We are swept up by the waters,

Tossed high from wave to wave

And finally thrown upon shores unknown,

Soft with a mother’s sigh.

And there against the cliff – a new-found land,

We meet

Our selves

Within His eyes –

The image of sense within

Imagination.

From the rocks resound His Word,

Above us are the gifts He holds on high,

Wrapped in love’s rainbows,

Embraced in bonds of truth and understanding.

Life and death

We behold but a breath

Apart,

Within His Hands they are as one:

Natural complements our souls need not fear,

Each the merciful fulfillment of the other

Revealed as history continues to unfold

And men live and die and live again –

Brilliant flowers on the human landscape.

So much imagery about God in this, but I really had no idea what I was expressing?

I did not know the One I was writing about + inside I was a very confused young man!

Lindos has this amazingly beautiful setting for its formidable Acropolis! Every Greek city had one at its centre for protection against its enemies. Imagine storming these walls + gates!

I was going to try Donkey here, but he already looked tired!

Odysseys in a Parallel Universe 1

For travelers, life is meant to be explored, enjoyed… even exhausted to the last drop if need be! 

Therefore, for my fellow traveler-friend + I, knowing our destination beforehand was no significant importance.

The journey itself was the essence; each day in itself held + opened up a new destiny.

For example, we tired of Athens’ gray, smog-filled atmosphere + decided we should go to Kos, one of the easternmost islands right away, so we impulsively decided to take the next ferry.

We’d never even heard of Kos before, but somehow the schedule was right: overnight, we could sleep on board + arrive next morning, hopefully refreshed enough to check out the island in the daylight.

That afternoon we were just lazing around when we encountered a revealing episode beneath the surface of seemingly serene Greek life. While perusing a menu in the window of a rather fancy restaurant + gasping at the prices, a passing young guy called out, ‘Expensive!’ in agreement. 

We looked up, nodded and then joined him + walked along together for the next few blocks.

In that short distance, we learned a lot: he never gave his name, but he was from Kriti and had been looking for a job as a language interpreter for the last 3 months in Athens with no luck.

‘Why no job?’ we wondered.

 ‘I’m too old.’ he said.

Funny, he didn’t look old; so we pressed a step further, ‘How old?’

 ‘30!’

‘That’s not old!’

And then he told us his family history. During the civil war, his father had fought for the partisans and now his name is recorded by the government, as are all his family’s names, and none of them are able to get work under the new military regime.

‘Have a nice trip; Adio!’ and he left us flabbergasted by his story!

It was hard to conceive of a system which did not allow people to work because of a relative’s political involvement so many years before. My friend + I agreed: it had taken a lot of courage for him to build enough trust, overcome his fear and suspicion and confide the truth to us.

We rode the subway to Piraeus, bought tickets, some wine + food + boarded our boat: Knossos.

As we watched from the deck, our ship pulled away from the diamond, emerald, ruby + sapphire necklace that was Athens. Soon her lights disappeared and I wrote a letter home.

Supper was simple: bread, cheese + wine, followed by our 1^st taste of ouzo + a good sleep.

Deck class didn’t look too bad, so we spent the night in airline-type recliner seats. No staterooms for us; we were roughing it! We’re not tourists, we’re travelers!

Next morning, we pulled into Kos harbor. The island was barren: literally, there were no trees! Only a remnant of a ruined Crusader castle amid a few palm trees in the town.

We explored for a while: a few minarets standing along narrow streets; old dried-up Turkish-looking fountains + bunch of Greek ruins with columns just randomly scattered in the fields. We ate our bread + cheese breakfast among the ruins. The people, however, seemed very friendly. There just didn’t seem to be that many around: maybe  it was some kind of holiday?

However, we’d been up all night + hadn’t arrived very refreshed or prepared to go camping, so we went shopping + bought spaghetti, potatoes, onions.

We had sleeping bags + a portable propane burner for cooking food, but what about water?

We asked if there were streams with drinking water on the island; the tourist guy said ‘Sure!’.. but there were none.

We walked south along a dusty road which followed alongside the beach. We thought that was a good lead: we wanted to camp on the beach, maybe go swimming? After all, this was Greece, right?

And we didn’t want to pay for a room every night; we were too cheap + Where’s your sense of adventure?

So we picked the dirt road.

We found + filled an empty pop bottle with tap water to take with us - at least we’d have something to drink!

A short ways and our road became only one-lane, then it devolved into a dirt, wagon-rut path - big enough for only goats + donkeys it seemed;  then further along it became a mere footpath and then led to a  fork with a choice to follow: either along the edge of the cliff or down to the beach.

We decided to forsake the path + go for the beach.

That worked well for a while, until the beach ran into a rock face that jutted out into the sea and prevented any further progress. So… back up the path + a demanding hike up and over the cliff and then back down again.

But after this second descent, we arrived to a beach in a deserted cove-like setting, surrounded by fantastic rock cliffs, with wind-weathered caves. It was just pure beach except for … 1 single building, up against the rock face. 

Well, this looked like an interesting place to camp for the night, eh! After all, we’d tired of walking…

must have walked a couple miles, at least 3 hours from town. Time to set up camp!

We checked out our beach: couldn’t see anyone around; the windows on the building were shuttered.

We called out… no answer.

Most likely our weird English would have scared off anyone around anyways. Probably our Greek would have too!

The beach was bare… no sand, only rocks: small, smooth, black rocks; and no trees on the stark cliff-side.

Our lone building didn’t really resemble a house; it was more like some kind of summertime bodega or Greek cantina: a confectionary beach-house. But now summer was over + it appeared both clientele + proprietors had fled back to the village for winter. I thought: ‘A ‘Magus house’?

It was empty… or was it?

All around us was lots of water… but the Aegean, as beautifully blue and clear as it is, is salt water + though we tried real long and hard, we couldn’t get the water to boil and cook our pasta!

To tell the truth, we couldn’t really even get a steady fire going in the wind either! 

Maybe that house was concealing some leftover goodies which could make up for our uncookable pasta?

Or perhaps there might even be water taps inside + we could get some good water to make good pasta?

All we had to do was get in through one of those very loose shutters.

It didn’t take too long to find one whose hinges weren’t quite holding things together too tightly.

Just a little extra prying and it came off – almost on its own! 

And just like that we found ourselves inside the dark, empty basement of an abandoned restaurant.

Smoking has its advantages sometimes… at least you carry matches. So I scratched one up against the plaster wall and as the paper match briefly burned, I could see there was nothing of value to be had in this large, vacant room: only a couple pots and some firewood.

We used up a couple more matches searching through its dark corners to verify its emptiness, when suddenly a sharp ‘Crack!’ outside shattered the silence.

‘What was that?’

We both looked at each other in shock.

Then somewhat timidly, our matches now burned out, we edged towards the light outside the broken shutter.

I sidled up to our illicit entrance, and now our only exit, and wondered what ominous form might await us.

We peered out the window slit as inconspicuously as possible and up on the cliff behind us stood a dark silhouetted figure, both feet planted solidly atop the rock, looking down on us, holding a rifle across his chest!

We froze!

Not what you want to see in a country ruled by a right-wing, fascist-like, shoot-first + ask questions later military dictatorship. It felt like trouble… deep trouble.

We watched the mysterious figure and felt he was watching us + our every move high from the cliff above.

His eyes seemed to perceive our every shiver, but we were unable to see any of his shadow-covered face.

Five minutes passed like an eternity as he stood there, without moving… and neither did we.

And then suddenly the figure just disappeared! Backed off into the sunset he did; or did he? Was that a gunshot we heard? Was he military? Police?

We definitely were in the wrong:

Was he on his way down to deal with us? Was he the only 1? Were there others? Would we now have to fend off the entire Greek army? What were those whistles in the background?

Other similarly ridiculous thoughts raced through our minds. We both realized that whatever happened, we had to get out of the building, so we hurriedly hoisted one another up through the window out the back and replaced the broken shutter on its broken hinges as well as possible.

By now the shadows had lengthened against the setting sun and we hid ourselves under their cover for a time, waiting to see if our ‘friend’ might reappear.

Cooking supper had quickly become a lesser priority and we eventually settled for a meal of raw carrots + cucumbers = a quickie Greek salad with some very salty and, basically, very raw potatoes.

Time passed slowly but the sun went down quickly: a red ball behind the Turkish mountains. 

The unknown figure did not make himself known any further, so we busied ourselves gathering peace and wood to try and get a fire going. The wind had come up from the water and it was growing chilly. Our boy-scout fire-making skills weren’t very skillful (we hadn’t brought any paper either) and with the wind gusting, our every effort proved futile. So… scratch the fire.

It soon became dark and we were on a deserted beach, but unsure if we were by ourselves?

What to do?

Out came our reserve chocolate bar… an excellent solution for any threadbare meal + fearful situation!

We both felt better instantly! Only ice cream could have made it better!

We talked: shared our concerns about the stranger; and after a while we concluded we were more the strangers here and this was his island! Amazing what a change in perspective does for truth, even in small doses!

Nothing better to do: no movies to watch, no games to play or books to read in the darkness, so we just sat on the beach, gazing out across the water.

The entire scene was lit up by a very bright moon and its reflection made our picture quite idyllic.

We called it a day + climbed into our sleeping bags with a pebble beach mattress and rock pillows.

Surprisingly, we both had quite a good sleep!

We awoke with the sun: groggy but alive.

Our ‘friend’ had not reappeared in the night and the wind had thankfully died down, but not before it had loosened  my sleeping bag stuff-bag  + blown it away! No problem however; my bag was bright blue and I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to find in contrast with the drab, tan-coloured surroundings, so I set out looking for it in the direction the wind had been blowing. It couldn’t have gone very far, for only 100 yards along, the beach ended in a massive cliff that jutted right out into the sea. But I couldn’t locate that bright blue anywhere against all the brown!

Perhaps it had blown around the cliff and was waiting for me on the other side?

By this time, my friend had joined in my search, so we took off our shoes, waded through the sea-water and skirted around the cliff.  

And that’s when we made our amazing discovery!

Walking closer to the cliff, the water immediately felt a lot warmer! And while I did continue looking for my stuff-bag, my attention was drawn even more closely to bubbles rising up from under the rocks at the cliff’s base.

I put my hand up against them: they were hot!  Really hot!

Right away, we got the vision and started pulling the bigger rocks away from the cliff to form a basin; and within minutes, the bubbles became a stream of steaming water and, as we dug more, soon we had a pool quickly filling with hot water! We dammed the pool off from the sea and after a ½ hours’ work, we had it ready for occupancy. Amazingly, our search for my stuff-bag had instead discovered our own secluded hot tub!

We stopped shivering + jumped in! It was wonderful: probably about 110 degrees! and when it got too hot, we simply pulled ourselves over the pool’s edge and cooled off in the chillier Aegean.

What a discovery! We spent the whole sunny morning basking in our own private hot springs.

Some Greek fishermen rode by in a boat; we waved and they shouted + waved their approval!

We were kings in our own private realm!

I forgot about my stuff-bag. Never did find it!

Didn’t really miss it when compared to what we did find! 

During my morning soak, I also realized I no longer needed to watch time pass me by + I left my wristwatch there on the beach.  

PS: In 2004 Erica +I sailed past Kos, right past my (?) beach and… wouldn’t you know it?

someone had opened a HotSprings Resort in our very spot! Guess I have to be more of a developer-entrepreneur!

And again, this morning on March 29, 2018, I sailed by the same spot again on my way to Rodos: even more development! We would have been millionaires!

It seems like my life history is repeating itself: I’m back in the Islands, headed for Israel + facing obstacles. I was single then + now I’m single again, looking for a boat to get to The Promised Land. It all turned out for good eventually then, when I wasn’t even aware of God’s Presence + leading. Join me as we see what story/testimony will unfold in the days ahead.