A bit of local help

The neighbour turns out to be a delightful guy, like he might be a computer programmer or a college lecturer or something, very easy to talk to ... His offer is a good bit less than either of the previous prices I've been quoted, one by my travel agent in Sweden, one by the Cretan travel agent via the internet, and it feels like this would be just the thing to bring me back to the land of the living and make the whole venture seem like something positive again ...

So, promising to come back for a cup of coffee whether I took the car or not, I go off down the road to collect that return boat ticket and reflect a bit more.

I've somehow all the while been thinking of the travel agency in Heraklion, where I made my boat booking by internet, as some kind of base, point of reference, the place I would start from with all kinds of helpful tips and a good send-off.

Well, it's nothing like that, of course, just a teenager who's ready to hand over the ticket I've paid for without a question, but who never takes a holiday herself and hasn't the faintest idea what the different parts of Crete might be like for a first-time visitor ...

So having got my return ticket, I look into the car-hire business a bit more seriously, to check a few more prices - just about every third building in northern Crete offers car hire; the computer-programmer's nearest neighbour wants 40% more than he did, and when I say perhaps I would use the bus, she immediately asks me how much I would like to pay ... Herz wanted exactly twice as much as the college lecturer, and Avis two-and-a-half times as much ...