My four-day trip to Crete was short but epic. It was the continuation of a journey I started in high school when I first became a Womantraveler.
That summer I was a foreign exchange student, living with a family in Norway. Tomorrow we meet up in Crete, where my now “Norwegian sister” has a home.
This time I dress for the airplane far differently – instead of a proper suit and pumps, I’m wearing a jeans jacket and lightweight but sturdy trail shoes. My bags have a new “look” too – all carry-on for a week! At my age now, I’m also proud to pass the “lift test” which occurred at the beginning of my trip in the Charlotte, NC airport – carrying up a steep flight of 20 airport steps when the escalator is broken and then managing to situation my suitcase in the crowded overhead bins.Â
A friend says that travel is my “happy place.” I was always an explorer before I was a traveler. Over the years, near or far, in life and in work, the two have merged. Manhattan seems to agree – offering a clear morning sendoff from Newark International Airport over Manhattan and via Athens, Greece to Chania, Crete.
I agree with author Robert Kaplan: “Travel…is the ultimate compression of life – in which a week on the road can be a short epic.” Robert D. Kaplan, Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age,” 2022
