Dispatch 4: A picture's worth a thousand words
Ben Clark blogs about his adventures in the Himalayas....
Ben Clark blogs about his adventures in the Himalayas....
Telluride Inside... and Out headed out of town at 4:30 a.m., the dark time when Rethymnon turns its streets over to cats stalking scraps from bags of garbage put out for collection, and a few stragglers, mostly guy gangs, done stalking women, ready to turn in just ahead of their alarm clocks.
Clint and I made our way quickly through the narrow, winding path leading to the car park, grateful, in the absence of string, that we had rehearsed the route, reminding ourselves what our guide Joanna Kalypso Glyptis, had told us about what the town planners had in mind. Rethymnon's variation on the theme of labyrinth was intentional, designed so that its denizens with local knowledge could easily elude invaders or pirates in hot pursuit.
Joanna feels most guidebooks and guides talk the party line, not the facts. For example, Knossos was never a palace. Palaces have kitchens. No places to prepare meals were ever found on the site. The dolphins in the queen's room, the ones our guide told us signified music and harmony? The illustrious Welshman Arthur Evans who excavated the place did some redecorating. The dolphins were transplants from another location. Heresy?
On the road in Greece, Telluride Inside... and Out has found the good far outweighs the bad. And even the bad tends to be not so bad in the end.
It wasn't easy, but we finally managed to extricate ourselves from the womb of Casa Delfino and head for the next big town on the north central coast of Crete, Rhethymnon. En route, Jenny, our ever helpful concierge, suggested a stop at Aptera, an ancient site not even mentioned in any of our guide books.
Aptera lies at the top of the Palaiokastro hill overlooking Souda Bay, the site of a major military base, which Clint visited in his Marine Corps days.
Ruffles and fringe and tulle, oh my! The frillier the better and this season’s trends are all about bringing out the feminine and flirty side of fashion. Ruffles, fringe and tulle are what you need to keep a look out for this season and whether you like it or not, it’s time for that inner girly-girl to shine.
Ruffles have become one of fashion’s mainstream trends this fall. They are romantic and simplistic. Ruffles are welcome anywhere and are right for a woman at any age. Ruffles can be found on blouses, skirts, sweaters, jackets, shoes, and bags. Ruffled tanks that you bought for the summer can easily be turned into underpinnings this fall and winter season; layer a ruffled tank under a belted cashmere sweater and you have a sophisticated look that can be worn day or night. Go big and try a Marc Jacobs tiered ruffled skirt—or start small, and with a ruffled blouse by Bell.
"They're closing down the hangout, the air is turning cool...
... I come down to talk to me, When the coast is clear..."
Jimmy Buffet, "When the Coast is Clear"
Some days Telluride Inside... and Out focuses on the "inside." Those days are museum, gallery, church, monastery, etc. intensives, total immersions in history for grounding. But not today. Today was all about "out."
On days like today, Telluride Inside... and Out hits the road with the sole intention of having no fixed intention, just inhaling the views from random stops on surrounding highways and byways. We are still in Crete. The weather, gods, kismet, something has gotten in the way of our leaving this Eden, so we gave in (willingly) to fate. Our hotel in Chania, Casa Delfino, became a home away from home and a launching pad for yet another Cretan adventure. Today was all about exploring the island's far west coast. First stop: Falasarna.
After eight years in the field, Lacrosse in Telluride is going legit: This will be the first year that the boys and girls teams will be entering the CHSAA (Colorado High School Activities Association) Mountain Division. New players are welcome, and there will be an informational meeting Thursday, Oct. 28 (today!) at 5:30 p.m. at the high school cafeteria. Pizza will be served.
Lacrosse in Telluride started out eight years ago with just 15-18 high school boys and has grown into a girls and boys program with high school and middle school teams, and TYLA (Telluride Youth Lacrosse Association) anticipates more than 80 athletes will play this season. In the last few years the boys team has had a number of second and third place finishes in tournament play, and the girls (which started just four years ago) took second place at the Edwards LAX Jam in their first season. Playing for CHSAA is bound to help the players improve. “This will test our skills against much bigger schools with more established programs,” says Frank Hensen, president of the TYLA board.
Telluride Inside... and Out's travels are as much about the people we meet as the places we see. And among the most interesting of the interesting we've encountered so far on our Greek adventure is Nikos Stavroulakis.
Jenny, the concierge at our hotel, Casa Delfino – fabulous, but more on that later – suggested Etz-Hayyim Synagogue and the old Jewish quarter as interesting stops on our tour of Chania's Old Town. She also mentioned that since her husband Alex worked at Etz Hayyim, perhaps he could arrange a meeting with the man responsible for Phoenix-like resurrection of the former house of worship. The interview with Nikos was scheduled for 5 p.m. yesterday.
Editor's note: The following is the second weekly column from new TIO contributor Lisa Barlow. Barlow is a writer and photographer who divides her time between New York, Telluride and San Pancho, Mexico. An enthusiastic omnivore, she specializes in stories about food.
It was only after I’d gotten home from our local Green Market that I realized that the large bunch of purslane I’d bought was the very same weed I’d been so vigorously deracinating from my garden all summer.
Living in Telluride is about adventure. Readers of Telluride Inside... and Out know that Ben Clark and friends, including Erik and Chris Dalton, are in Nepal. David Byars will be corresponding from Ghana. Susan and I are currently on the island of Crete. There are plenty of adventures available in our backyard in Telluride, but Telluriders seem to be a wandering clan.
One of the reasons Susan and I travel is for the opportunity to meet new friends. Our first morning in Heraklion, Crete, we met 27-month-old Odysseas Pavlides, and through him his parents, Dr. Lefteris Pavlides and his wife Stephanie, both architects in Rhode Island.
Telluride Inside.... and Out continues to explore the Edenic island of Crete.