Hospitality of Cretan people is proverbial. It is something we do not know from our home country and it has surprised us many times in many different places but we have enjoyed this specific place the most - not only for the beauty of the sunsets you can observe here but also because we have been welcomed with warm arms during our honeymoon.
That was why we started to read about hospitality on Crete and found in literature one particular story that bears witness of how generous and open-hearted the people here are. The story comes from the book of travels of Erhart Kästner called "Crete, notes from 1943". The author tells the story of how he was welcomed with his two German friends during the war by the family Viglis in the village Samaria which lies in the gorge bearing the same name. All the man in this family were partisans. When the Germans wanted to set off on their way back, the family was trying to talk them into staying with them. The members of the family backed up eventually but sent them to the mayor of Agia Roumeli that very night. The mayor and two Viglis brothers have walked them to the upper end of the gorge near the village of Omalós. After several hours, the group have reached the end. All of a sudden, the Cretans have said their goodbye and right after that the Germans have run across armed German patrol. The lieutenant was asking them, in a great shock, what were they doing down in the gorge, where fights with partisans have taken place during the past few days. It was hard to imagine that this story was true but the family Viglis, which had participated in these fightings, had escorted the Germans - under the protection of the law of guests - out of the fighting space.The escort by the mayor served as a protection of the guests from his fellow fighters.
This is just one of all the stories that speak about the hospitality of Cretan people. The hosts have always granted protection to their guests no matter if they were allies or enemies (you can also hear the story of German archeologist Roland Hampe who was invited to Agia Roumeli for a wedding during the WWII in which two British officers also took part, dressed up as Cretans).
Nowadays, protection is not what we, as guests need, but you can be sure to get some dessert of the house, or home-made rakia and cuisine of the house lady and feel like home houndres of kilometers away from it.
The family of the nearby Haroupia taverna knows about the cache and has agreed to take care of it while we are not there.