Wednesday, September 05

Heading up into the mountains – Tuesday and Wednesday


Portia and I hopped a bus and headed out of town, up into the mountains to visit the small town where her mother-in-law was from. We passed olive trees galore and vineyard patches recently harvested. It’s too soon for the olives. It was a picturesque little town and we walked around. Our timing was off however, because of our visit to Knossos. We arrived about 3, just the time when her cousin’s family was settling down for a siesta. The town was very quiet. We walked by the house but no sight of anyone so we didn’t disturb. We walked by a restaurant from a clipping we both had seen in Blue magazine, the Aegean airline magazine, about great restaurants. This one was mentioned but it was only open for dinner. We went back to the town square and had a lovely lunch. I tried the moussaka (Portia had ordered) and liked it! Eggplant, zucchini, meat (ground beef, I think) in a cream sauce, baked.


We came back to town and headed for Desmones and Demitri’s apartment/condo. It is lovely! They were there, just getting up from siesta. They plied us with drinks and more food – fruit, ice cream, cakes. Too much food! We visited for quite awhile on their balcony right in the city. They’ve lived there for 26 years. It was very modern and nice! Portia said she had owned two nearby and had sold them. In Greece, any inheritance of property is evenly divided among spouse and children. So Nuela, Christina and John all agreed with Portia to sell them a few years ago (good call! What with the way things have gone here!) and divided it up. Portia still owns like a basement of one of the buildings but would like to get rid of it.


Portia was very brave and borrowed her nephew’s car and drove me back. Quite an experience driving here! Stop signs are optional! It’s kind of similar to China! I wouldn’t like to drive in either place. We stopped by Stefano’s travel agency as I hadn’t heard back if he’d found me a place to stay in Chania for one night in the Old Town. Poor Portia just pulled over; it took quite awhile for S. to find something. He hadn’t looked but said now that I’m there, he would do it! So I stayed. I heard an ambulance siren and looked out at Portia trying to move out of the way! She managed! I finally got my reservation and he said to just pay for it when I got there. Good thing I had him write down the name and address, as well as let me look at the picture of the building on the internet. It was a real labyrinth of streets and I got lost going and coming and repeatedly had to show my paper to people!




BTW, I’m back here for my last evening in Crete, sitting out on the balcony (2nd floor) overlooking the pool and in the distance, the beach and gorgeous Aegean Sea! I’m so lucky!!! I left my suitcase and computer and just went overnight with my backpack. Everything was here when I returned and they gave me the same room back. I had a moment’s nervousness when I arrived in Chania and realized I had NOT picked up my passport (they had been keeping it at the desk) before I left. Fortunately, I was coming back the next day and the hotel in Chania never asked for it. They just took my E30 and I never saw them again. I was right on the street with a door leading into my single bed room. It was perfect except, as I said, when I left there to walk around and go to dinner, I got lost coming back. Then this morning at 5:00 a.m. I got lost getting out of the maze to head to the bus station. But I made it in plenty of time for my 5:30 bus to Rethymos.


The bus ride was along the water on the north shore of Crete, about 2 hours past Rethymos, to Chania. Gorgeous views along the way. 50% of Cretans live near Heraklion and most of the people live on the north shore. This is mainly where the tourists go. I arrived in Chania about noon and immediately bought a fresh squeezed orange juice! Had one about every day! Right outside was the hop on/hop off bus so I purchased a ticket, and asked the guy which stop I should get off to get to my hotel. I was able to ride almost the entire route around before he ended up down by the harbor and the Venetian wall (those Venetians really knew how to build!). It was a scenic ride, including high over the city to visit Venezelos’s grave (I had NO idea who he was; the recording was a bit garbled and I heard something about a politician. Turns out, I had to buy a new book – it’s called The Thread about Thessolonika around First World War. And there he is mentioned!! Love to get my history from historical fiction! It’s so painless!)


The town has mosque leftovers from the Turks, churches from the Venetians (Crete was given as a reward to one of the crusaders, I guess from Venice) and then the Greek Orthodox churches. The driver left me off and pointed the way to my street. About 4 asking-for-directions stops through the labyrinth (this idea and word, BTW, came from the Minoan civilization in Knossos), I found my A. Euginia little hotel with the guy who showed me to my room. It had AC which was great because the window was RIGHT on the street! I was hot and sweaty so I took my shower and siesta before heading out to walk along the harbor. It was lined with restaurants and I stopped at one that advertised it was in Lonely Planet, no pressure, and had a pile of Crete guides right next to my table that I perused during my dinner. I had a Greek medley from the menu with salad, snapper (had to have a fresh fish! – they list on the menu ones that are fresh and the frozen ones. I was drawn to the shrimp wrapped in bacon but it said they were frozen!) They gave me a glass of white wine instead of the coffee when I told him I don’t drink coffee! Even Doug was drinking that very thick Italian/Greek coffee in a small demitasse cup! Eeuw!!


It was a great people watching place! Lots of German tourists. (just took another picture off my balcony – planes down low to land – I swear one is landing every 5-10 minutes! That’s why I keep my door shut at night and AC on, as well as from mosquitos, and a cruise ship going by. Could also be the ferry that I’m taking tomorrow to Santorini.) I keep getting distracted, sitting out here on the balcony. I moved to the public one as it’s in the shade and my balcony is baking in the sun with my laundry drying!! Anyone reading this is probably getting nauseous from my hopping around in this narrative! Sorry! But this blog is mostly for me anyway!


I bought a shirt, a new book, a picture book of Greek myths for J and S, and the ubiquitous gelato!! After a great night’s sleep, I woke at 4:30 (my phone alarm didn’t work!) and found my way back to the bus station. I headed back to Rethimno to just change buses south for Agios Galini, over the center of the island on the Libyan Gulf (Liviko Pelagos). The driver would stop along the way, if people had their arm out, palm down (that means stop) to pick up and drop off people. One side trip he took went up a very windy switchback road that I sometimes had to shut my eyes! And then, of course, he came back down the same road! I was annoyed with the driver as he left Rethimno as he was driving this huge Mercedes Benz bus one handed and chatting on his cell! He finally hung up just as I was going to pantomime keeping BOTH hands on the wheel!! The other driver was talking but he had a handless bud in his ear and could talk that way!


I got off at A. Galini, very again picturesque on a hillside by the water. I walked around the harbor to where I could see umbrellas and beach chairs. I had a little breakfast – fresh OJ and a cheese/ham/tomato pie (I think it’s puff pastry stuffed – very popular snack here – we had a cheese one the other day) and asked the proprietess how much the chairs were. She said E6 for the day. I said I only wanted like an hour. She came back and said I could sit if I wanted! I hadn’t brought a swimming suit but looked in a nearby shop and thought about staying. But they don’t print any bus schedules. When I got back to the little booth, the bus to Heraklion was leaving shortly so I just got on and came back over the mountains to H. They dropped me at a different bus station than the one I had left from so I wandered a bit but finally made it to Morisini Fountain, the only place I really know in town. Then I was able to figure out the bus ticket machine and wait for the #7 bus back.


My stuff was all safely here when I arrived and I immediately paid my bill and got my PASSPORT!! They gave me back the same room and I went for a swim in the pool! The beach here is rocky and really hurts my feet so it wasn’t worth walking the 10 minutes to swim in the ocean. The pool refreshed me! I wrapped up in my pareo and went across to the patisserie and got a beer, seltzer another o.j. and CHOCOLATE CAKE to tide me over until dinner! The food is quite good at the taverna here and the waitress is so friendly and helpful! But it doesn’t open until 5:30 so I’ll have to wait.


Of course, after laundry there was the siesta (it’s just too HOT to do anything midday!). And now, I’ll have dinner, upload some pictures to Flickr and pack up for tomorrow. They called a cab for me to take me right to the correct boat at the port for 7:30 a.m. My ferry leaves at 8:40 but I need to be early!! It’s not worth trying to do the bus and finding it myself while dragging all my stuff. I think I’m going to try one of the hostels in Athens for one night. If it’s okay, I’ll stay the 4 nights. If not, maybe I’ll find something better. So I will make that reservation either tonight or on Santorini.


Bye for now!