The first to welcome us almost straight off the plane is Stelios, showing the very prevalent and very genuine Cretan friendliness and hospitality, at the Cactus Bar, which is also a creditable restaurant.
Continuing the bar crawl, Epimenidis (known as Epi) and his sister Alex at Epi's bar, who are Cretans, but who spent some of their younger years in Canada. Their brand of hospitality is legion, and is extrovert and North American.
Epi's team again, this time with David, second right, who is from England and who is Alex's husband.
Below, ah, here's the genuine Cretan man, pictured in his taverna halfway up the mountain side towards the church of Aghia Sofia. By the way, it seems the done thing to ask permission before photographing anybody like this, and be prepared for them to say No, as happened with a very old Greek lady subsequently.
Here's the non-English tour group with whom we went to Elafonissi. With red hair in the centre is Petroulla, who is Cretan but with one German parent, who has lived in Germany, but guess what, came back. With her are some Scandinavians, and on that bus were also Eastern Europeans, Australians, Germans, and some English whom we hadn't met at the apartments.
