Crete: vacation within a vacation

The past week Anna and I have been traveling from Hania to Rethymnon to Heraklion and stopping to see the main attractions of each. Crete is the largest of Greece's Islands and is really a country within a country. It has its own history, folklore and traditions and was the birthplace of Europe's oldest civilization.

The flight to Crete alone was absolutely breathtaking.  The clouds were perfectly full, the kind you imagine bouncing on as a little kid.  As the afternoon sun beamed through them and reflected off the water, the islands underneath looked picture perfect.  I was still so exhausted from time change and my eyes felt like they had weights on them but I didn't even want to blink since it would take time away from the surreal image below me.


HANIA (nights 1 and 2)

The bus that brought us from the airport to Hania was perfectly stationed only one block from our hostel.  We dropped off our backpacks and walked aimlessly around to find a place to eat.  Having no idea what to look for, we decided on a small tavern on one of the side streets.  We wanted to try Greece's famous pita gyros but we had no idea what to really ask (we didn't know what they were called at the time) and the waiter spoke almost no english.  We pointed to something on the menu that we thought was what we wanted, but instead we each got huge gyros plates that could definitely feed a family. Lets just saw we had lunch for tomorrow.

We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day to catch the bus to Samaria Gorge.  The gorge cuts its way through the Lefka Ori (White Mountains) from the Omalos Plateau to the Libyan Sea.  It is said to be one of Greece's most striking areas of beauty and we definitely agree.  Within the first 200 ft of the hike we had already stopped and probably took 50 pictures, we had to remind ourselves we had 11 more miles to cover.

Peaks soar on both sides of the gorge 4,100 ft above sea level.  Tilting our heads back all the way was required in order to get the full view.  It became hot in the afternoon but the air was so fresh and easy to breathe we were barely even sweating. 

After 4 hours and 20 minutes we complete our journey through the gorge.  But to get to the ferry that will take us to our bus that will take us back to Hania, we must walk another 40 minutes to the little village of Agia Roumeli. The village consists of a string of tavernas and guesthouses spread out along a single street.  We are hungry and our feet are killing us! We find a taverna overlooking the sea and enjoy a well deserved Greek salad for lunch....for how expensive feta is they sure load a lot on!

almost every taverna has their
menu out front and pictures
of their food

entrance as we finally make
it to the cute little village of
Agia Roumeli

       

anna's first ferry ride

view as we take off on our ferry

       

Our bus got into Chania around 8:30. We quickly showered and wandered down by the water to find a good place to eat.  The streets were packed with people and not only were the restaurants open but so were all the shops leading to the water.  After looking at about 10 menus, we finally decided on a place that promoted their fresh sea food.  We noticed however that a whole page had ** next to each piece of fish, this meant that it was frozen and later we realized this was a common thing to do.  I had the swordfish and Anna had the gobius.  Both were fried with some olive oil and some species, and other than a lemon and some slices of tomatoes they were served pretty much on their own.  We ordered a salad for a starter and since we had a greek salad for lunch we wanted to try something different so we got the 'Mountain Salad' - won't be getting that again.

Although every restaurant charges you for water and for bread unless you specifically tell them otherwise, they also give you complementary dessert and raki.  Raki or tsikoudia is a local cretan distilled alcoholic drink almost always served at the end of a meal.  Like Retsina, Raki is an acquired taste, but when served with a nice cretan dessert it didn't taste so bad! The owner and a local came to sit and drink raki with us as we were finishing our meal.  They wanted to 'show us the nightlife' and get a drink at a bar.  Probably harmless, but we took a picture on their motor cycle and then got drinks of our own, on our own.

As we were walking back to our hostel that night we realized there was a lot more to see in Chania then we originally had thought.  Our hostel was tucked away on a small side street with not much around it but the bus station and since we went straight to Samaria that morning we missed Chania in the daylight.  We decided to wake up early and go to the market before we caught the bus to Rethymnon.  

RETHYMNON (night 3)

Our favorite city of the three...our least favorite living arrangement.  A true youth hostel, cost us 8 euros each for one night.  It was a little further from the bus station...you could either say we got lost or took the longest route possible.  Eventually we found it, right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Old Town Rethymnon.