Like many before us, the first travel adventure we tackled on our new journey was Europe. With an idea of the places we wanted to go and the things we wanted to see we headed out. Each of us armed with a backpack and a Eurail pass, we operated with no pre-set itinerary nor reservations for either lodging or travel. While we ultimately had a marvelous time, our trip required flexibility, a light load, and a dash of adventure.
Our decision to fly to Europe via a military Space-Available flight necessitated we have a flexible mindset from the start. Service members and their families can fly around the country and the world at very little cost using Space-A. Flights are often operated on an irregular schedule, but for those with flexible plans and little funds it can be a perfect travel option. Space-A travel proved to be the perfect fit for our needs on this first trip.
For more information about Space-A travel see: Military Space Available Travel- Just Do It!
We began our journey at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, and eventually made our way via three different flights to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay which is located on a Hellenic Air Force Base on the Greek island of Crete. Needless to say, the trip was long but we were rewarded with luscious Mediterranean views and warm hospitality from the moment we arrived.
Our first night was spent with a fellow passenger who graciously took us home with her after a very late night arrival. Honestly, had she not come to our rescue we may have found ourselves in a predicament. When we took off from New Jersey our plane was headed to Naval Station Rota, Spain. It wasn’t until we were on the ground in Rota that we were able to secure seats on another flight headed almost immediately to Greece via a brief stop in Italy. We had expected, and loosely sketched, our itinerary to begin our travels in Spain. We were honestly and woefully unprepared for what we should expect to find in Souda Bay, Greece.
I sketched the loose outline for our trip from a suggested itinerary in Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring which would have had us start in Spain then skirt along the southern parts of France and Italy before moving onto Croatia and then on to Greece. The suggested timeline for this itinerary was six weeks. While we had hoped to make it to Greece during our travels, time and money was potentially going to be our issue. Our trip was loosely open-ended, but we didn’t know what would pique our interests along the way, making us linger longer and ultimately spend more of our money in one place before moving on. While our available time was flexible, the same could not necessarily be said for our budget.
Before leaving on the trip I had thoroughly studied options and read travel tips about what we could expect in Spain, France, and Italy. I honestly had really only skimmed the information about options in Greece. I guess I figured that if we made it that far in our travels, I would have time to make myself smarter along the way as we got closer. I didn’t even contact our cell phone provider about adding a calling and data plan for Greece until we were in the Rota, Spain terminal waiting for our flight. We may have been woefully unprepared to travel to Greece that day, but we seized the opportunity presented to us and went with it. It was the best decision we could have made that day.
While I was busy in the Rota terminal contacting our provider about our cell phones, Todd was chatting up a fellow traveler who was on her way home to Souda Bay where her husband worked as a civilian for the US Navy. She was sharing places to see and things to do around the island and in Chania, Crete, but honestly I was not paying much attention. I was frustrated and having trouble connecting with Sprint’s customer service department. As Todd’s conversation ended and we got up to begin the boarding process, our new friend asked if we had reserved a room for the night. We said “no,” but we planned to work on the situation while we where on the ground in Italy. If nothing else we figured we would just go to the guesthouse on base upon arrival and see if they had any rooms. Or if we had to, we would walk out the main gate into town and find a place to stay for the night. She mentioned that she’d be happy to take us home with her if we needed a place to stay for the night. She was going home to an empty house as her husband had stayed behind in Rota for the last day of a conference he was attending and she had plenty of space for us. Now I know that to many folks her offer could seem very surprising. Taking a couple you just met home with you for the night? But I remember not being too taken aback by her offer. In military culture, you just take care of each other, particularly when you are stationed oversees and family support systems are far away. We politely murmured our thanks and appreciation for the offer while making no commitments. I do remember at the time thinking that Todd would NEVER go for such an arrangement.
On the ground at NSA Naples in Italy the internet system was completely overwhelmed by the 100+ passengers who disembarked and descended on the small terminal. We didn’t happen to see our new friend anywhere around, and Todd chatted up folks nearby while I repeatedly tried to connect with the guesthouse on the base in Souda Bay without success. As we boarded the plane for the final leg of the journey we were still not too terribly concerned. After all, if worse came to worse we would just walk out into town and find accommodations for the night. I do remember mentioning to Todd that if our new friend’s offer in Rota wasn’t genuine, she certainly wouldn’t have spoken up and invited us. I could imagine myself making the same offer and truly meaning what I said. I told him maybe we shouldn’t dismiss her offer out of hand, and maybe we should find her once we landed in Greece? It would make things so much easier. Todd was not necessarily on board. He gave me that kind of non-committal, non-answer that he’s perfected and employs when he doesn’t agree with me, but doesn’t feel like arguing his point of view either.
That last leg of our journey to Greece felt long. While we had napped as best we could on the planes, we were nearing almost 20+ hours of total travel time. Exhaustion was hitting both of us hard. Once the plane finally came to a halt on the tarmac, we deplaned and looked around. We both looked at each other and began to realize our predicament. It was well past midnight local time. As they bussed us from the flight line to the terminal we realized how small the American portion of the Hellenic Air Force Base is. It really only occupies one street. The guesthouse distance is walk-able, but it, along with all the other US Naval activities on the base, is a very small facility. The most disconcerting hurdle was that the base is located several miles from the nearest town. There would be no “walking out the main gate into town” as we had envisioned.
At the terminal we sat ourselves down and listened to a couple of required briefings before being released. As we were gathering our things, a terminal employee approached us and asked us if we needed a ride to the guesthouse and perhaps into town if need be. We immediately took him up on the offer and sat ourselves back down to wait for him to finish his duties for the evening. While we were not finding ourselves in any kind of perilous situation, our total exhaustion was certainly magnifying our perceptions. We were thrilled to have finally arrived and ready to get our long-awaited adventure started. Yet we were uneasy about the immediate need to find a place to sleep that night. At that moment our friend from Rota was crossing the terminal with her luggage. She waved to us and started walking in our direction. I really don’t remember how her final offer to accommodate us was conveyed. I just remember that when I saw her, I wanted to sprint across the terminal, drop to my knees, and plead with her to take us home with her. I hope I didn’t actually do that, but I don’t know for sure. And by this time, Todd was more than ready to go straight to a bed – even to one in a complete stranger’s home.
I do have to confess that on the very dark drive to her house I did have a brief moment of doubt about what we were doing. I texted our children letting them know that we had landed safely and were headed home with a lady we’d met on the plane for the night. I figured with this information the authorities would know the flight manifest was a good starting point if we were never seen, nor heard from, again. Of course my daughter-in-law replied that we were clearly crazy people, but we assured her that “really, it was fine”.
The next morning after a restful night our new friend fed us a much appreciated breakfast while we marveled at the unbelievably beautiful and sweeping sea views her house enjoyed from every direction. It was truly a stunning location that we had been unable to appreciate in the dead of night. Midday she dropped us off in the historic center of Chania near the Old Venetian Harbour. There were beautiful sights to see in every direction… yet – our first lesson learned – we immediately sat down to start working on finding the place where we would sleep that night.
