Crete is a revelation. I found the people among the most feisty and passionate Greeks I met. They're heroic and dramatic and very charismatic. Up in the mountains I met a chap called Father Andreas, a bear of a man and the local priest. He's also a trained bodyguard and president of the local gun club.

Crete is an island obsessed with weapons. There are tens of thousands of weapons there because it was a smuggling route during the Balkan Wars and locals, on Crete Island at least, often whip out their handguns and fire them off in to the air at any given opportunity to celebrate.

During my time in Greece I didn't see nor hear a single plate smashed; the Greeks have clearly moved on from that and now prefer to empty a magazine of bullets into the air, which is a bit more exciting. read next here >>