Then and Now

After college graduation,

Oh, so many years ago,

I traveled throughout Europe,

All my youthful seeds to sow.

 

With my friends, I took a ferry

To a popular Greek isle

Which had very few hotels,

A hostel being more our style.

 

But instead, some local women

Met the ferries at the dock,

Where they beckoned so we’d follow

As they eyed us, taking stock.

 

We were ushered to a bedroom,

Passing family looking on,

Where we dropped our knapsacks, surely

A tradition that’s long gone.

 

Handing drachmas to a stranger,

Much less sleeping in her bed,

Is a far, far cry from Greece today,

From articles I’ve read.

 

There are hotels by the hundreds

Being built on isles in Greece

And, despite the locals’ protests,

This construction will not cease.

 

How much cooler to be greeted,

From a dark and choppy sea,

By a smiling native grandma

Speaking what was Greek to me!