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| Cyclist Scott Smoot enters virtually into a cave above Matala, Crete |
He was a young American in Crete working at a café. She was a singer-songwriter getting away from the pressures of stardom. When she cleared a messy table and presented him with a tray of empty glasses, he took this passive-aggressive indictment out of her hands and smashed it at her feet. Thus began a beautiful love affair.
It could be a full length romcom, but Joni Mitchell packs all you need to know in the song "Carey" from her superlative 1970 album Blue. Her song is an upbeat celebration of their affair on the eve of her departure. She's leaving because she misses her California lifestyle with "clean white linen / and that fancy French cologne." (Read my appreciation of Blue (07/2020).)
This happened in Matala, a tourist town nestled between a scenic beach and high white cliffs pocked with caves, a hippie haven and celebrity magnet at the time.
Because of that song, I've included Matala in my virtual bike tour of places I've lived or loved. Throughout the worst part of the pandemic, when restaurants served only take-out meals, my friend Susan and I, eating outside on her patio six feet apart, would stop talking when her Blue CD reached "Carey" : you couldn't be anxious or discouraged hearing it.
I've never known Greece or romance, but through Joni I've experienced both -- vicariously.
Miles YTD 761 || 2nd World Tour Total 16,618 miles since June 2020 || Next Stop: Jerusalem
←← | ← || Use the arrows to follow the entire tour from the start.
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