Travels with Metta

Travels with Metta Footloose writer who has lived many years among many people in many countries of the world.

Peripatetic writer with 38 books and monographs, who has lived in Holland 5 years, France 5 years, a medieval castle in Spain 1 year, Sri Lanka 5 years, India 2 years, Malaysia 3 years, Indonesia 1 year, the Philippines 2 years, Hong Kong 1 year, South Africa 13 years.

The Odysseus helming our route tillared no wine-dark sea. He steered a dust-laden red Audi through silver-green olive gr...
15/10/2024

The Odysseus helming our route tillared no wine-dark sea. He steered a dust-laden red Audi through silver-green olive groves. Upwind breezes conjured fantasies of sails plying seas of dread toward isles of thyme. Two little boys hurled honey-colored stones to herd a gaggle of goats. Leaf shadows trembled the ground. The morning painted roadside grasses in pastel hues almost erotic in their contours....

The Odysseus helming our route tillared no wine-dark sea. He steered a dust-laden red Audi through silver-green olive groves. Upwind breezes conjured fantasies of sails plying seas of dread toward …

Mihalis the weaver Mihalis’s red Audi hadn’t been washed in months. Parked on the streets west of the Old City, there wa...
05/10/2024

Mihalis the weaver Mihalis’s red Audi hadn’t been washed in months. Parked on the streets west of the Old City, there was such a layer of dust on it I couldn’t really be sure it was red till I got close. “We’re going to a mountain meadow where I pick herbs to dye wool,” he informed me as we got in....

Mihalis the weaver Mihalis’s red Audi hadn’t been washed in months. Parked on the streets west of the Old City, there was such a layer of dust on it I couldn’t really be sure it was red till I got …

Two kids were playing hide-and-seek amid the cafe chairs and potted palms. They were a study in the energy levels of fac...
27/09/2024

Two kids were playing hide-and-seek amid the cafe chairs and potted palms. They were a study in the energy levels of face and voice that come with one moment horseys and the next moment kitties, the gurgly incantations of tots inventing their personal language, games in which the rules changed according to the mood of the moment, the millionjillion lifescapes of kid play, kid laughter, kid flailing feet and kid akimbo arms, hide-and-seek among the tables and parents and teapots and tabletop flowers and strollers and umbrella-shaded infants, against a background recording of mournful Cretan love songs....

Two kids were playing hide-and-seek amid the cafe chairs and potted palms. They were a study in the energy levels of face and voice that come with one moment horseys and the next moment kitties, th…

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lin...
21/09/2024

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lined with outdoor-table cafes serving coffee and nibbles by day and meals by night. Xania is labyrinthed with threadneedle lanes like Odos Isodion, vertiginous delights to the eye but disasters to the waistline. Cretan food is among the tastiest and healthiest on the planet, albeit so heavily laden with olive oil and tomatoes simmered to the consistency of sour cream that our bathroom scale screams for mercy every time we shower....

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lined with outdoor-table cafes serving coffee and nibbles by day and meals by ni…

This afternoon I ventured to the far end of Xania’s back bay. I was told that was where the local fishers departed at du...
17/09/2024

This afternoon I ventured to the far end of Xania’s back bay. I was told that was where the local fishers departed at dusk. A perfect time to escape the trinkety tourism of the Topanas old Venetian quarter. The sky was tumid with orange-hued sun and murk-hued clouds. Buildings tinged the pastel tones of late sun. Past the upscale cafe waiters concealing their ci******es behind their serving trays....

This afternoon I ventured to the far end of Xania’s back bay. I was told that was where the local fishers departed at dusk. A perfect time to escape the trinkety tourism of the Topanas old Venetian…

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lin...
12/09/2024

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lined with outdoor-table cafes serving coffee and nibbles by day and meals by night. Xania is labyrinthed with threadneedle lanes like Odos Isodion — vertiginous delights to the eye but disasters to the waistline. Cretan food is among the tastiest and healthiest on the planet, albeit so heavily laden with olive oil and tomatoes simmered to the consistency of yoghurt that our bathroom scale screams for mercy after every shower....

The armspan-wide lane that our door opens upon is named Odos Isodion, or as we see it, Οδός Ισωδίων. Odos Isodion is lined with outdoor-table cafes serving coffee and nibbles by day and meals by ni…

By 7:00 in the evening everybody does the volta, that beguiling European custom of promenading up an appetite by checki...
08/09/2024

By 7:00 in the evening everybody does the volta, that beguiling European custom of promenading up an appetite by checking out the restaurant menus. Xania’s 20 metre wide granite-paved esplanade is a volta stroller’s delight as it semicircles the harbour. In the swelter of late day, the town’s sole helium balloon seller galumpfs along the quay. He is a level of slovenliness one would more likely find in an auto dismantler’s yard....

By 7:00 in the evening everybody does the volta, that beguiling European custom of promenading up an appetite by checking out the restaurant menus. Xania’s 20 metre wide granite-paved esplanade is…

Of the twenty-odd eateries that line Xania’s harbor, most employ shills out front whose sole job it is to inveigle peopl...
04/09/2024

Of the twenty-odd eateries that line Xania’s harbor, most employ shills out front whose sole job it is to inveigle people inside for an outrageously overpriced meal. The harbor promenade in the cooling hours of late day is a waylayer’s paradise. Thick columns of strollers blend with irregular cobblestones and menus and lampposts and Gypsy girls hawking flowers, creating a visual obstacle course....

Of the twenty-odd eateries that line Xania’s harbor, most employ shills out front whose sole job it is to inveigle people inside for an outrageously overpriced meal. The harbor promenade in the coo…

Every afternoon and evening the plaza around Chalidon Fountain and the lane below our balcony ring with the clippety-clo...
02/09/2024

Every afternoon and evening the plaza around Chalidon Fountain and the lane below our balcony ring with the clippety-clop of iron horseshoes on stone cobbles. Yet another tourist family or pair of swains courting their girls are enjoying the ride of their lifetime. Sightseeing rides on authentic Gilded Age carriages drawn by gaily caparisoned horses are an hourly staple in the high-style capsule of Xania Tourist Season....

Every afternoon and evening the plaza around Chalidon Fountain and the lane below our balcony ring with the clippety-clop of iron horseshoes on stone cobbles. Yet another tourist family or pair of …

The following dozen or so posts were written while Elysoun and I visited Crete in 2020. They are fond reminisences of th...
01/09/2024

The following dozen or so posts were written while Elysoun and I visited Crete in 2020. They are fond reminisences of the island we have enjoyed following our first date in Xania twenty years before. Hope you enjoy!

The View From Our Balcony In 2020 Elysoun and I returned to the charming town of Xania on the Mediterranean island of Crete. This is the seaport town where we first met in 2000. We wanted to re-cre…

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