Crete, Greece: Former Backpackers Return to Gap Year Island

Of course, many of the long-haired travelers, sleeping on ferry decks with only one ticket and with a budget of a few drachmas a day, now work as accountants, lawyers, journalists, doctors, and diplomats. Longing to return, often with teenagers of their own, to the places they remember from their youth with the unique tastes and smells of the island is still fresh in memory, even after 25 or 30 years.
  What, then, these travelers can be expected? How has the island, the atmosphere changed? Like Odysseus returning to Ithaca, they will recognize the city they left so many years ago?
  A recent visitor, now a well-known journalist, was astonished, high-quality restaurants, apartments, resorts and a cafe-bar culture in the town of Agios Nikolaos in eastern Crete. His memories of the city in the 1970s were 18-30 road with tourists, packed bar crawls and cheap studios. Desperate young people would even pay to sleep on the roof of a hotel at this time to only that part of the "Ag Nik" scene for a week, "he said. "The difference in space is almost unbelievable." Chic café-bars have been replaced with the cheap booze and skinny latte fredo capuccinos and the way burger joints have given some of the best cuisine in the eastern Mediterranean. A local restaurateur, Manolis, described the trip as a "traditional Cretan dishes with a modern twist, a mix of meze and nouvelle cuisine". The success of the operation in a neoclassical building, proving that the visit clientelle have changed dramatically and require far more food than simple tavern.
  Elounda, only 10 km north of Agios Nikolaos, has been renewed recently achieved fame because of the global bestseller "The Iceland", by Victoria Hislop. Despite new developments and luxury hotels on the coast opposite the island of Spinalonga, the former Venetian fortress and the last leper colony in Europe, the small village of Plaka is still their charms. Fresh fish tavernas now line the small area that was used to supply in time, unfortunately, the lepers with food and medical supplies to. The main resort of Elounda, properly called schism hugs, around the old port, where fishermen still repair their nets and evaluate the day's catch. Back to Agios Nikolaos, the luxury hotel sector, in which the Elounda Beach, Elounda Bay, Elounda Mare, Elounda Peninsular Elounda Gulf and Porto Elounda. Some of the most exclusive hotels in the world are found along the narrow strip of coast. Private yachts and helicopters regularly bring guests from the world of music and theater, politicians, business moguls, athletes and other celebrities.
  The current interest in Ago-tourism and eco-tourism has also seen movement in the direction of the interior of the island. Production of fine organic wines and officially, the best olive oil in the world, has benefited from Crete investment from the European Union to develop an awareness of traditional crafts and produce on the island. Cities like Archanes, only 20 minutes from the main airport in Heraklion, have invested heavily in the rehabilitation of traditional huts and the creation of a "green tourism" option, far away from the coast and beaches that have always been the goal of the major tour operators . Small independent winemakers to build a reputation among wine merchants throughout the world, while the larger cooperatives and producers are experimenting with new varieties on their future secure and expand into a larger market. New paths now link the main East-West National Highway and the south of the island, not only opening up export routes, but also access to the Libyan Sea coast, with tamarisk-fringed beaches and coves. There you will find Matala, where the hippies lived in caves in the rock and Joni Mitchell wrote about the cut the icon "Carey".
  Despite the changes, the Cretan concept of "Filoxenia" is still there. Vistors are welcome and spoon of candied fruit accompany strong black coffee or glass of raki, the local spirit distilled from grapes, if you have a house. It is frowned upon in the local culture, to bid for the hospitality and how this breach of etiquette is dealt with firmly, usually pay the man the house. It is said that you can never starve to death in Crete, because people did not allow anyone to starve, but seen as part of their own shares without having to take someone. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned for the "advanced" cultures there? The older Cretans have changed little over the past 50 years, but led the younger generation, fueled by access to TV, magazines and a consumer society are to be treated in many respects to the Western view of the world. Most young people now have new cars or motorcycles, where exactly 15 years ago, they were happy if they could borrow her father's 20 years old pickup truck for a visit to the city. Brides are now demanding a new house, with double glazing, dishwasher, microwave and central heating, where mothers were provided the content to inherit the family home, complete with in-laws. The young people are better educated, many went to universities in other countries to complete their studies. It is difficult to convince a 25 year old doctor, who studied in London or New York to return to a village where the average age of the population over 80 and less than half the wages of other countries.
  The tourism still makes a considerable proportion of income for the island. Some of the younger generation have to persuade their parents and grandparents to look into the future, but it's hard to explain that the needs of tourists since the early days when a bed was all that was necessary to have changed. Produced with approximately 70% of incoming tourism through Internet postings are those who have adopted the new technology and the changing pattern adapted to harvest the fruits of tourism. It is a process of evolution, which will leave some Cretans behind. Large complexes of all-inclusive hotels are the destruction of trade in the local taverns and bars that have traditionally paid their employees on a commission basis. Less casual employees each year to fill unskilled positions, and with rising fuel, social security and taxation, the costs are, the little cafes and traditional tavernas would find it difficult. How much more the old style kafenions and souvlaki shops are to survive, one can only guess, but the resilience of the owner can just pull it through.
  So what will find these former backpackers when they are in Crete? The visitors will surely be noticed some dramatic changes, but many of the core values and attitudes, it was in earlier times still remain fundamental in the hearts of the Cretans. They are proud, generous, stubborn and hard regardless. You can off the cuff, condescending, kind, caring and crude, almost simultaneously. That is what they Crete. And it is precisely these people who make Crete what it is. The Great Iceland.