The story of Martin in Vlatos is one of those quiet, unfolding journeys that the mountains seem to wait for—patient, without hurry, until the right soul arrives and recognizes home.Born in the flat, watery landscapes of Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, Martin grew up surrounded by the ordered rhythm of Dutch life: canals, bicycles, precise horizons. He trained in graphic design and audiovisual arts, skills that soon carried him into the world of IT—building digital bridges for big businesses, state offices, local governments. Screens, deadlines, the steady hum of servers. It was meaningful work, yet something in him kept listening for a different sound, one that didn’t echo in conference rooms.That sound found him in 1996.
He first stepped into the Cretan mountains seeking silence, and the path led him to Milia—a restored 16th-century settlement clinging to the hillside like a memory the forest refused to forget. Milia was still raw then, just awakening from decades of abandonment. Martin felt the pull immediately: the scent of resin-warmed pine, the low murmur of wind through chestnut leaves, fires crackling in stone hearths at night. He returned every winter for a month, suitcase in hand, to read by the fire, let books and woodsmoke fill the long evenings. Time slowed here in a way it never had back home. The world outside grew distant; the mountain held him gently.
In those quiet seasons he helped bring Milia into the digital age—registering their domain and crafting the first website in 1997. It was a small act, but it felt like planting a seed in fertile earth.
Life, though, has its own seasons. In 2009 Martin married a doctor from nearby Elos. They hoped to root together in this land of olive and stone, but the marriage, tender at first, could not weather the deeper differences. Four years later they parted with respect and sadness.
Rather than leave Crete, Martin chose to stay. The island had already claimed a piece of his heart; he would not uproot it again.He found a piece of land above Vlatos—steep, sun-drenched, cradled by ancient olive trees of the rare Tsunata variety. Those trees, with their silver-green leaves whispering in the breeze, became his companions. He began to tend them, learning their language of root and fruit. From their harvest came Tsunata olive oil, golden and fragrant, a quiet testament to patience and care.In 2016 the village itself called louder. Vlatos—small, unassuming, wrapped in thyme-scented hills—needed a voice online. Martin built vlatos.gr from the ground up, pouring into it the same devotion he gave the olives.
Year after year he has tended the site like a garden: updating pages with the rhythm of the seasons, sharing stories of the Park of Peace, the Folklore Museum in the old schoolhouse, the candlelit hush of the jazz evenings. The website became a window through which the world could glimpse this place of peace.
And then, in the way the Cretan mountains often arrange such things, love returned.In 2021 Martin married Johanna, a beautiful Dutch woman whose warmth matched the sun on stone. They said their vows surrounded by the village that had become family. George Makrakis, then president of the Cultural Society “New Horizons,” and Pantelis Vaidakis stood as witnesses—two men whose lives had long been woven into Vlatos’ heartbeat. Under the open sky, with goat bells drifting from distant slopes, the ceremony felt less like a wedding and more like a homecoming for everyone present.Through all these years, Martin’s deepest collaboration has been with the soul of the village itself.
Together with George Makrakis and the world-renowned violinist Maria Manousaki—born in South Africa, shaped by New York stages and Cretan roots—he helped birth the Vlatos Jazz Festival. What began as an intimate dream has grown into Season 9 in 2026: unplugged acoustic sets every Sunday in the 150-year-old stone church, candles flickering, mountain air carrying each note like a prayer. Maria’s curation brings global voices into this tiny sacred space; George’s steady leadership and the volunteers of “New Horizons” make it possible; Martin ensures the story reaches beyond the hills.
The Hermitage Villa rose on his land as the natural next chapter—an off-grid eco-haven with its private infinity pool gazing over olive groves and distant sea. Solar-powered, simple in its luxury, it offers guests the same gift Martin once found in Milia: solitude that is never lonely, because the mountain listens back.
Today, as February’s crisp air carries the promise of spring, Martin walks the paths he helped shape. He tends the Tsunata trees, updates vlatos.gr with fresh images of the coming festival, shares raki and stories with neighbors. Johanna is beside him, their life together a quiet harmony.
He never set out to become a founder, an organizer, a guardian of this place. He simply arrived one winter, listened, and stayed. In doing so, he became part of Vlatos’ own quiet heroism—the kind that doesn’t shout, but endures, plants seeds, tends fires, and welcomes the next wanderer who needs to slow down and remember what home feels like.If you come to Vlatos, you may meet Martin on a trail or see his name on the website that first drew you here. More likely, though, you’ll simply feel his presence: in the flicker of candles during a jazz set, in the golden pour of Tsunata oil on village bread, in the way time slows until your own heart can catch up.Welcome. The mountain has been waiting.
