One of the oldest cities on the planet, Athens covers a large area with a high population. The home-on-wheels rolled all the way to Piraeus at the Aegean Sea without locating the day’s destination—the home of their friend Aris, who expected their arrival and had invited the trio beforehand to stay at his parents’ house, where he also lived. Sometime previously, Aris had lived in Frankfurt while attending a hotel-management school. He met Hilde’s sister, and became friends with all three of the travelers. Hilde called Aris, who directed them to a nice area of town with single-family homes and estates. His parents owned a two-story building, plus a guest cottage in the garden.
Aris immediately made it unquestionably certain that the visitors could stay as long as they wanted. Irene moved into a room in the main house, and Hilde and Walter chose the cottage, where they made unrestricted love and then fell asleep. They woke up refreshed to enjoy their first Greek dolmades, spanakopites, tzatziki, and the obligatory Greek salad. Aris was a customer-service professional and a man who knew how to treat, entertain visitors, and act as a tourist guide. As a bonus, he revealed that he had opened his own business as a yacht broker in Piraeus. He indicated there might be opportunities in the near future when all four of them could use one of the hundred-foot vessels for a few days by returning one from an island to the harbor in Piraeus or delivering one to an island in the Aegean.
All four took the ferryboat to the island of Mykonos for a week in that beautiful place. The weather played along for the boat ride, as if summer had arrived; the sea looked azure blue and clear with a breeze that caused a few small waves to crest on the surface. Within twelve hours, they had reached the island, where they rented a shared room in a small private guesthouse on one of the numerous narrow paths running through Mykonos town.
Aris attended to business while the Germans hiked over a rocky area toward the beaches. Two beaches lay next to each other; one attracted nudists and was separated by a high dune. Walter purchased snorkel gear. He enjoyed viewing the seabed with an occasional piece of coral or a shoal of small fish floating in the water. The vacationers, lying on towels, made sure their sunburns stayed under control. In the late afternoons, in a small bar on the veranda, they watched the sunset and relished ouzo with dried octopus pieces or had a glass of Retsina, the wine infused with pine resin.
After their return from Mykonos and throughout the next couple of weeks, Aris needed to deliver or pick up boats with sails and power drives to or from the islands of Páros, Santoríni, and Patmos. His German friends sailed with him. Sometimes the job was done in one day, other times with sleepovers in small island hotels.
Hilde and Walter wanted to visit Crete, and Irene came along with them—without the mobile home. For the journey to the big, faraway island by sea, they took a huge ferryboat that carried vehicles as well and sailed overnight. Like many backpack travelers, the three were equipped with sleeping bags, which had to be spread out on deck. All of them slept under the stars on the Aegean Sea. Next morning, the ferry arrived in Heraklion. They searched for and found the next bus connection to their planned destination, the small village of Vai at the eastern tip of Crete. Here existed the only palm-tree forest in Europe.
At night, they had to be fast in finding camp spots between rocks and palm trees. The road through the palm-tree forest ended at a small beach area where local fishermen anchored their boats and two establishments served the backpacking tourists who camped out in the forest or between the rocky hills. The actual village of Vai stood a couple of miles inland. The trio enjoyed hiking around the eastern part of the island. They relaxed at the beach, observed the activities of fishermen and tourists, who complained frequently about the rats crawling in the palm trees. At night, they gazed at the firmament above, which contained glimmering stars, the Milky Way, shooting stars, and galaxies viewable for free.
After roughly a week, Walter remembered the reason they had left Frankfurt and asked Hilde “Wouldn’t you like to go on to Turkey now?”
She thought about it for a moment and said, “OK, let’s do it.”
The difficult moment came when they said good-bye to Irene, who had decided to stay a little longer on the island. For some nights already, she had rented a room in town and enjoyed the tourist scene, especially one American man with whom she had become intimate.