By Popular Demand: The Santorini Story

Picture it: 1986. I was in Athens checking out some things, writing--or trying to write--my dissertation. I always wanted to see the dramatically lovely island of Santorini, and so decided to spend a couple of days there.

I should mention at this juncture, Reagan and Gaddafi over in Libya were at odds, and it was a little bit sketchy for Americans traveling in Europe. In my travels, I befriended a Canadian travel agent who had a supply of Canadian flag lapel pins she was handing out. I wore one to forestall any unnecessary unpleasantness. The hotel I was staying it had a popular bar, and since I was still drinking at the time, I hung out there in the evening.

 

Now Santorini is just north of Crete, and the US has a large airbase there in the capital. Crete is just north of Libya. You begin to get the picture. One night, 3 late-20's Greek guys were in the bar, clearly looking for trouble. For some reason they fixed on me, a rather unlikely prospect, and started insisting that I was an American soldier from the base in Crete. (It's an easy hop to get from Crete to Santorini for the weekend.) I told them I wasn't a soldier and they kept on riding me. I then pointed to my lapel pin and said I was a Canadian from Toronto. I knew enough about Canada and Toronto to make a credible case. Still they got more and more agitated and, it seemed were spoiling for a fight; they did appear to have had a bit too much to drink. Now, in such a situation, the last thing you want to do is flash any sort of ID, so producing any such thing - US or Canadian - was out of the question. So I said "You want proof?" and began to sing "O Canada," in French thank you, which produced some shouts of approval from a couple of real Canadians in the bar. With that, the Greeks backed off, realizing perhaps that said Canadians might well come to my aid should they cause trouble.  With that, the Greeks left.

 

A couple of days later, I flew an island-hopper to Crete to see the the site at Knossos:

We landed at Heraklion, the site of the aforementioned American base, which Gadaffi said he would attack and land his private plane in triumph... the morning after Reagan bombed Libya. And so the adventure continued...

 

(PS: My life is much less eventful these days.)