Tales from Crete | 9

When I occasionally look after our business in Hem (and it happens from time to time), customers regularly come in and ask when I moved to Denmark, because they think I speak fairly good Danish. Every time I have to disappoint them with the fact that I was actually both raised and born in Denmark to Danish parents. It always leaves such a small void, because the customers have no idea what to say and it often ends with a; well we thought……

When I walk around Chania in Crete, as I often do, some older Greeks regularly come up to me and ask for directions or anything else. Every time I have to disappoint them with the fact that I am actually Danish, raised and born in Denmark to Danish parents. It also leaves such a small void, after which they like to say; well we thought ……, but then they usually apologize nicely and move on, like with a conversation between themselves that I rarely fully understand, but clearly from their body language and their looks show that they don't quite believe what I say.

In one of the areas of the old town of Chania where I go the most, a few years ago I was stopped in front of a tavern by one of the owners. At first I thought he wanted me to come in and eat or get a drink and that way of shanghaiing customers is very much against me. Especially because he actually went after me and called me. Not by name, but definitely to make me stop, which I reluctantly did. “Sorry,” he said, “I thought you were definitely my father, but the strange thing is that he died several years ago. You really must apologize for that, but you look exactly like him” he repeated. Clever way to try to lure customers in was my first thought, but that was not the case at all. He really meant what he said and was really shocked when he first saw me. Since then, over the years, it has become such a joke, so when I approach him, I like to shout at him to take care and take care of his job, because now his father is coming. I myself thought it was a bit funny the first few times, but I could also see from him that it really affected him every single time and he stood almost schooled when I passed by and he is one of the only ones who has never ever asked me if I didn't want to enter his tavern, so at least that's not why.

I have no idea what to attribute to such experiences myself, but I do know that the first time I landed on Crete I very impulsively and spontaneously exclaimed something to the effect that I had come home. I also know that I know Chania far better than I have ever known Østerbro in Copenhagen, where I was both born and raised and lived the first many years of my life and feel much more at home in Chania.

So maybe I lived before and was a Cretan and maybe deep in my soul I am Greek, but I am now more inclined to find two kinds of people, as of course it was a Greek who said; those who are Greek and those who want to be.