Hippie Memories

In 1966 I was living in one of the Roman tombs carved out of the sandstone of this cliff in Matala, a Mediterranean fishing village on the south shore of Crete (part of Greece). I used to sleep in one of the crypts where a body had been buried almost 2,000 years ago; a bit spooky but I got used to it. Others had decorated the front of their tomb with the skull and bones of a skeleton they found. Besides us hippies in the tombs, there were a few fishermen and a bar/restaurant on the other side of the cove. No tourists.

This was a very romantic part of my life, so I felt a little tingle when I saw Matala featured in the Saturday Globe and Mail travel section. Someone wrote about having been there on a tour. Matala now has hotels and apartment buildings. As for the hippies who were driven out 35 years ago, they are mentioned as a quaint detail of the history of the place.