Myrtos Waves

The long white waves that break upon this greek island shore seem to scrape away every inch of city grime from your pink little toes as you playfully dip your feet deeper into the sand. The sun casually waves goodbye and you wink at the final hours of sunlight. There seems to be no season here that doesn't totally touch your soul and carry you away to far off flights of fancy. Myrtos is a coastal village in the west of the municipality of Ierapetra, in the prefecture of Lasithi on the island of Crete in Greece. The area surrounding Myrtos was already inhabited in the Minoan period, but the current village dates from the first half of the twentieth century. Before that it was the location of a small port, where inhabitants from higher surroundings traded for local products, which they shipped to Ierapetra. Only when threats from piracy along the Cretan coast diminished and it became safer to live there did the village of Myrtos develop. On September 15, 1944, during the Second World War, the occupants of Myrtos were ordered by the German occupiers to leave the village. Many refused to do so, resulting in the massacre of eighteen inhabitants as a reprisal, and the almost complete destruction of the village by fire. In the central square of Myrtos there is a monument to commemorate that event. Near this monument, every year on October 28, Ohi Day is commemorated.