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Blistering Driving and Bountiful Hospitality Hersonissos, Crete -- There are two things that Greeks are particularly known for: their harrowing driving habits and their bounteous hospitality. The University of Cincinnati team working in Crete this summer now knows about both firsthand.
"What's the hardest to get used to is driving on the berms," said Judith Bogart, a communication consultant who is part of the
UC team. She is on hand to examine citizen participation issues in Hersonissos, Crete. Greek motorists drive on the shoulder of the highway to allow room for motorists who wish to pass on the left -- and they will pass at top speed, often crossing the center line even when faced with oncoming traffic. Bogart has been the designated driver for colleagues Maria Kreppel and Mary Ellen Ashley.
Speed seems to be the main goal of Greek drivers, and traffic signs are routinely ignored. Pedestrians are expected to make way for the vehicles. Adding to the challenge are narrow and twisting village streets.
Students on the team have been tracking student vs. faculty accidents. So far the faculty are losing, but perhaps that's because they are doing most of the driving.
"When I get back to the States, I will have to unlearn everything -- all my Greek tactics," said Bill Colgan, an
engineering technology major who works with the citizen participation team. He has more driving experience than most of his fellow students because he visited Greece once before. Even so, a couple weekends ago, he drove a van down an alley in the nearby city of Heraklion and soon found that the alley got narrower and narrower until toward the end, the van would not fit through. Colgan had to back the van out.
Ashley recounts that her most harrowing Greek car trip so far has been riding as a passenger as Bogart drove back from the Lassithi Plateau, known for its spectacular array of 300 historic windmills standing 900 meters above sea level, now motionless against the cloudless Cretan sky. Kreppel had recommended a
short-cut back to the valley of Hersonissos and it ended up taking twice as long along a stretch of snaking road through the mountains. "I hated being near the edges of those sheer drop offs. I had to keep shifting from one side to the other," said Ashley, vice president of enrollment management and student services at Northern Essex Community College in Boston and a former UC administrator.
The university journalist and photographer spending time with the team helped to navigate as UC biologist Frank Wray tried to maneuver a van through a narrow space on a village street. Wray first stopped and honked to let the owners of the cars blocking him to come move them. Within seconds, a woman came out
and moved her car a couple of inches forward. Wray squeezed through with fractions of an inch on either side to spare.
"There is no real rule of law here when it comes to driving," says assistant professor of planning Mahyar Arefi, explaining why he at first was not willing to drive in Crete. "You have to be extra careful and expect the unexpected."
The hospitality awaiting at the end of the terrifying drive makes it easy to forget the anxiety, the UC team has learned. The generous spirit of Cretans is also what makes all the late nights team members have been putting in worth it. Some of the late nights have been required as the locals treat the team to dinner
after dinner; gatherings that last till well after midnight. However, as the project nears completion there is little time for late-night dining because the nights are often filled with hard work.
One of Wray's most memorable experiences of Cretan warmth toward strangers happened in the village of Gonies. An old man who escorted Wray and student assistant Elizabeth Wolfe on a hike through the Gorge of Rosas was at first uncharacteristically grouchy to the Americans. But after the hike, the man invited them to the local taverna, where he got them coffee, and then, he took them back to his house. There, he showed them his "raki" distillery. He poured them several glasses of raki (at 1 p.m.), showed them photos of his kids and then fed them fresh cucumbers and fruit. "You can't
say no to this kind of hospitality," said Wray. When the two got ready to leave, the man filled up a plastic bottle with plenty of raki and handed it to Wray.
For student Michael Brachat, it will be hard to forget the gestures of hospitality he experienced as he, adjunct assistant professor in architecture David Scheer and student Sean Bender went into the village of Gonies to take
measurements of two public spaces. Setting out at 7:30 a.m.
before the morning's work was completed, they were interrupted by
two villagers offering them raki and a third villager went to
the local store to buy Coke and beer for them. "Almost every time
we've gone to the villages they've treated us that way," said
Brachat.
Judith Bogart's favorite instance of Cretan hospitality came
during her orientation tour of villages when she first arrived in
Crete in June. "We saw a beautiful garden in Gonies and stopped
to admire it. A retired man who had directed traffic in Athens
came out and picked oranges off the trees and brought them to us.
He sat us down and brought us water as his wife was shelling
peas outside," Bogart said.
"People here really want to be hospitable, and it always
involves food," she continued. "I have not encountered anything
but pure hospitality the whole time I've been here."
Another UC team stopped briefly on a farm road to figure out
which way to drive next and a passing motorist handed them sliced
cucumbers to use to cool off.
Colgan said when he first arrived he expected to be treated
like a stranger by the local citizens. "If I were them, I would
wonder why people are wandering through my yard or outside
my front door. But they are very welcoming. At one place, they
gave us pears from their garden and raki."
The opportunities to enjoy the offerings of drink, food and
friendship have allowed team members the chance to practice a few
of the Greek words they are learning with the help of translators
(students from local universities). "Yasu" (hello), "Yamas" (to
our health), "efharisto" (thank you), "kalimera" (good morning)
and "kalispera" (good evening).
UC's team are expected to return some of their debt to Cretan
warmth and generosity by hosting a party sometime after their
public presentation, which is scheduled for July 20. But the
Cretans will also host one last party before the group returns to
Cincinnati on July 24.
For a complete list of stories related to UC reserch in Crete, go to http://www.uc.edu/crete/credef.htm.
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