Julie’s father, John, went to Crete several decades ago and somehow located the extended family of his father, Nikolaos Migiakis.In honor of John Megas (name shortened at Ellis Island) visiting from America, the village of cousins slaughtered a goat for a feast.
At every family get-together for the last twenty years, my sister-in-law Cheryl has suggested we follow in their father’s footsteps and go to Crete to see Grandpa Nick’s hillside village near the small town of Chania, from where he legally immigrated to the United States in 1912.
School schedules with different holiday breaks limited the opportunities to summer, despite knowing summers would be hot in Greece.Discussions about spending an entire vacation in Crete unraveled rapidly, as no one thought there would be enough to do, and mainstream cruises seemed to only devote about four hours to Crete.
When Royal Caribbean announced their schedule for 2007, a special 8-night cruise that spent a full day in Crete caught my eye.
I held some group space and floated the idea.
Julie said we would definitely be going, and that firm commitment encouraged others to sign on, although not with 100% participation of which Cheryl dreamed.
We hoped their father’s siblings might join, but Aunt Myrtle feared seasickness, and Uncle George wasn’t up for the long voyage this time.Kids and grand kids from that branch of the family all eschewed the trip.
Julie’s brother, a usually voracious traveler himself, didn’t want to travel without his three young children, and paying for five air tickets didn’t seem worth it to him.
Besides, he would really rather hang out in Maui than in Europe, even if the prices were the same.
Julie’s sister Jacque signed on with her two oldest daughters, but her husband and two younger children didn’t want to stray that far from the golf courses and high school fields of San Diego.
While my mother and my sister’s family really have no direct link to Greece, I had hoped they would come along for what I felt confident would be a very special adventure, but none signed on, despite the fact that our oldest daughter and her new husband, who now live in New York, had decided to join us on vacation this year.Nonetheless, the ship sailed with twelve family members onboard. Despite a year of planning and correspondence designed to help locate the cousins in Crete, we arrived in Crete without successfully contacting any of them.
When the time came to head to the village near Chania where life started for Nick, four of us opted to stay in Heraklion rather than search the countryside for distant relatives who were not expecting us and don't speak the same language.Our son-in-law ventured out on his own, while my brother-in-law, oldest daughter and I set out to find Knossos, the Palace of King Minos and a hub of Minoan Civilization, for the per person price of 2.3 Euros roundtrip bus fare and 6 Euros admission.
The other eight piled into two taxis for their date with destiny, agreeing to pay 180 Euros for each of the cabs.
