Sunday, June 14, 2009

BACK TO CRETE: PART TWO

Dear Friends,

It is now official: I am returning to Crete for my second time in as many years for another three month visit! I have purchased my airline tickets and I have once again reserved an apartment in the small seaside village of Amoudara, just 6 kilometers to the west of Heraklion.

I am scheduled to depart Nashville, Tennessee on August 1, 2009 at 11:40 A.M. on Delta Airlines and will land at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia at 1:54 P.M. At the Atlanta Airport I will change planes and board a Delta international flight at 4:30 P.M. bound for Athens, Greece. I am scheduled to land in Athens at 10:35 A.M. on the following morning of August 2, 2009. After I have passed through Greek Customs, I will board an Aegean Airlines flight at 1:30 P.M., and will land at 2:20 P.M. at the Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport on Heraklion, Crete.

Once I have secured my luggage, I will make my way to the area where the local buses depart for Heraklion and other nearby villages. I will board the #6 bus that is bound for the little village of Amoudara. Once in Amoudara, I will exit the bus at the bus stop that is alongside the Dionysos Taverna, which is part of the Marirena Hotel complex. With my one piece of luggage in tow behind me, and my camera backpack slung over one shoulder and my laptop computer over my other shoulder, I will turn off A. Papandreou Street and make my way down Naxou Street until I am standing in front of the La Stella Apartments, just half a block from the beach! As my son, Robin, would say, “Ahhhhh...life is good!”

I will make additional posts to my blog in the coming days and weeks as I continue to prepare for my departure.

As always, take care, stay well, and let me hear from you.

Your Friend and Fellow “Silent Warrior”,

Bob Armistead