Greek mysteries

That’s the thing about travelling: you come along all different kind of situations. Some good, some more challenging, but most of them are good.

My dad always used to warn me of all possible ways there exist of how things can turn out wrong or problematic. It is quite a mystery to myself how I became such an optimistic person. But of course some of his “recommendations” rubbed off on me. That’s why, for example, when going by car, I put everything there is inside the trunk. So nobody can tell that I am round and about travelling with things of value or interest. These rules apply for everything except really valuable and personal items such as passport and wallett. My dad’s golden rule is to keep one’s passport always on you while being abroad. Funny enough, that’s the way I honestly always do it.

And that’s it at least from my side of the story. Other people might not have had access to these parental guidance information or simply just handle things differently. That must be the reason why things happened the way they did in Greece.

Together with my italian friend Alessandra we flew to Crete and there we got ourselves a rental car to drive around. On one of the most beautiful beaches, Falassarna, we parked our car on the common parking lot and went swimming. After a beautiful day and a couple of hours later we returned to the car just to put our swimming gear inside and head further up the road to a typical and very charming greek tavern. From there we overlooked the beach as well as our car.

Before sunset and with full bellies we decided to head back home. Alessandra opened the trunk to get her backpack out but could not find it. Our first thought was that she must have forgotten it on the beach. After a quick check there we took a more thorough look at our car and found a tiny drilled hole right next to the trunk lock. Someone broke into our car and stole Ale’s backback together with her cellphone and wallet including 50€ in cash and her credit card. This all must have happened with us sitting only a couple of meters away and always facing the beach and parking lot.We did not have another choice as to drive to the nearest police station in the next town. The policeman on duty was either Prince Valium in person or he was used to stories like ours. He veeeery sloooowly filled out the police report never asking much.

Just when finishing the report one of his colleagues came in our room carrying Ale’s backpack! Someone found it in a ditch next to the road and just now dropped it off at the police station. We could not believe our eyes, even less as inside we found Ale’s wallet (only missing the cash but still containing her credit card). Her cellphone was gone but whoever did this removed the SIM card and was kind enough to put it back inside.

Ale’s face was beaming with joy as she said “I always land on the sunny side of life!” and we both started laughing with relief.

This story showed me once more that it’s good to be careful while travelling but the main thing is to ALWAYS keep a positive attitude!