One thing that could, just might be, interesting about travel and about hearing what is going on in another part of the world, is that small things can sound a little bit interesting.

After more years than anyone can remember harvesting olives, the road from Souda to the Chania airport turn has been resurfaced.

How boring! Well not so. Not for the many who have visited or tried to leave Crete after a vacation, who will remember the off-road skills that were needed to stay On the road to or from the airport. The massive bumps and cracked craters seemed like a miniature map of the island’s very mountains. How all those rented cars stayed bolted together after this massive auto-vibro-massage of a road, is hard to understand.

So we toast and welcome the new two lane blacktop, the new smooth velvet-surfaced road and hope that other signs sane signs of progress will appear and will show a new consciousness about welcoming visitors to the fabled island.

At last getting to and from Chania’s airport is a reality that no longer bears comment, and a tired bumpy and disgraceful “myth” is buried forever. Buried under the new surface, the surface of the future!

The lamb, still hot and straight off the hand-cranked spit, cooked by the heat and glowing embers of charcoal, tasted…like lamb should !

It is traditional and it is done. A few people still fast in the 40 days leading up to Easter. For most of those who do this, it is an easy “fast” that allows the eating of shrimp and fish and many other foods that are both healthy and much-desired by those living in many parts of the world outside Greece. Then presto! Lamb is being roasted outdoors everywhere you go and everyone wants to enjoy the – for some – highlight of Easter, which in effect ends the fast, bite into that !

Here in Crete, as the water at sea’s edge gave emeralds a run for their money in the colour stakes, the eggplant salad, the Horiatiki salad with its welcome chunk of Feta cheese, the warm sun challenged by a cooling breeze, all allowed for that taverna-with-a-view to deliver “the experience”. The experience is a blend of food, aromas, people, views, laughter, bright conversation and the spending of time, as chosen, for moments which become the building blocks of cherished memories.

Vegetarians do not despair ! Greece is a country with salads. The salad lives beyond your fresh-produce inspired dreams….and if fried in olive oil, the occasional fired zucchini, mushrooms and vegetables just waiting to be eaten bolster the platter even without relying on fish or meat or poultry.

Happy spring – enjoy the wildflowers – and let the sound of the waves and the fresh-started birds chatter and sing.

In northern Europe and many other delightful points upon the globe, this weekend is Easter.

A chance to relax, visit family, meet your lover, visit a loved one, go to a church (even enter and say a few words) – whatever Easter is to you, yes it has become a holiday for all, enjoy it or be rewarded by it.

Here in Greece we are waiting for next weekend when Orthodox Easter weekend reaches us.

You will search for hidden eggs perhaps. We will go after the far more protein-laden real eggs by knocking them together and seeing who wins by breaking the other person’s red-tinted hard boiled specimen.

Hope the sun is shining where you are in spirit and also as a bonus, with luck, in meteorological fact.

Today – Saturday the 15th day of April 2006 is sunny here in Crete and gently warm, with high temperatures reaching between 19 and 23 degrees. The visitor season has started. Closed cafes, invisible under their winter covers, have sprung back to life…tables are being placed on pavements, roadsides, terraces and sea-edge positions with optimism and delight.

Once in a while that opportunity does pop up.

Now there is a chance to be considered for a full time career in Greece, specifically on the island of Crete.

No mere summer job, a serious possibility of building a world class future with a fast-growing internet publishing and specialist travel company.

Details: http://www.cretetravel.com/Wanted/Careers_Cretetravel.htm