The problem with travel books
Apr 10th, 2007 by Oana
… and especially the Lonely Planet (which we use in preference to the Rough Guide or Eyewitness Guide whenever possible/available) is that there will not be just 2 of you at your romantic birthday dinner. No no no. The supposedly secret, frequented-by-locals-only, back alley restaurant in Herakleion, Crete will not be so secret indeed. You will walk in to the restaurant just behind a middle aged man, who upon hearing you speak English will turn around and ask whether he can join you for dinner!
Yes, this really happened, for what was supposed to be Ian’s romantic birthday dinner. We were a bit flabbergasted. The restaurant was almost empty and the guy didn’t look like an axe murderer and said he was from Vancouver … so we said ok. Let me tell you, the company of a 50-something recently out of the closet solo traveler (from the West End, no less) with quirky political views, does not add up to romance or fun. He had found the restaurant, and as it turned out the hotel as well, in the Lonely Planet – as did we.
To make things even more fun, he was on our ferry the next morning to Santorini! We put on our sunglasses and ducked behind our books … he didn’t notice us until we all got off the ferry. He followed us to the bus station and proceeded to turn a yucky shade of green and wonder aloud about how many people had died in bus accidents all the way up the windy road to Thira. We managed to lose him after that.
We recounted the story of our dinner date later in our trip to one of our Greek hosts who laughed at our Canadian politeness. What do you think – were we overly polite? Or did we do the right thing?
[...] It’s difficult to imagine that actual people lived at Knossos over 3,600 years ago – not a very easily grasped number or amount of time. I’ve already recounted our dinner (mis)adventure, so I won’t repeat that story now. The next day, we left Iraklio for Santorini (where we were to hear more about the Minoans) on the fast catamaran.Technorati Tags: Iraklio, Chania, Crete, Minoans, Knossos, labyrinth, Minotaur [...]
IMO, You did the right thing. Absolutely. Nothing matters more in this world than how we treat others and relationships, relationships, relationships. He probably needed that night more than you guys could ever imagine and you gave him an extra special blessing.