Crete to Athens

Just a quick update: I am flying from Crete to Athens today.  Our hotel does not have free internet.  I know this for a fact.  Hopefully I can work something out.  After our day in Athens, we begin a sort of tour around the mainland.  I am not 100% on the internet there either.  We shall see.  . .

A long drive . . .

Today involved a lot of driving around Crete . . . Some better than others. Our first stop was on the far end of a peninsula. We went on a hike down a gorge, passed some abandoned monasteries, and eventually made it to the sea. I liked this hike quite a bit because there was always something to look at. There were caves, goats, ruins, and the occasional Russian tourist.

The hike began outside a real monastery, which had posted signs saying not to take pictures anywhere along the hike. I found this to be a bit extreme. After I took my first shot and wasn't struck by lightning, I figured that there probably wasn't some hidden bible passage about Jesus being anti-photography. After all, the scenery was too impressive to ignore.

After our hike, we continued southwest toward an elusive beach called Elafonisi. I say elusive because there is no good way to get there. We had maps, but the roads that were depicted in bold yellow (and implied a major road) ended up being a single track dirt road through the mountains. One knows they are not on the best road, when they have to yield to goats.

After a couple hours, we finally arrived at Elafonisi. It is a unique area of pink sand under shallow, clear waters. I strolled out to an offshore island with water barely reaching my knees. It was really an impressive site. The water was warm and blue like a travel promotion.

Sadly, we were a long way from our hotel, and we had about a 3 hr drive ahead of us. Driving on Greek roads is no picnic. Their rules are a little different than those in the U.S. Since there are typically no passing lanes, it is standard procedure to drive on the shoulder to allow the car behind to get around. If you're passing, you're putting your trust in the person who just pulled over to the shoulder, and the oncoming car to pull over to its shoulder. People pass on curves, mountain switchbacks, or whenever they feel like it, so there were some hairy moments. I can honestly say that today was the first time I thought it was a good idea to pass a Fiat on a downhill curve over a double white line. When in Rome, . . .
We had dinner at the same place as last night and same amount of free food. This was actually factored in to our menu choices. We were banking on getting dessert and drinks for free. What is up with that? And to think that it is such a production just to get free bread at California Pizza Kitchen. Shame.

Location:Λαβύρινθου,Heraklion,Greece

Crete is Neat

I was able to catch sunset from out hotel window. Not too shabby. After sunset, we went to find dinner. We ended up at an informal place by the water. I had some gyros and a glass of ouzo. When we were finished, the waiter brought out glasses of raki for us to try. It's a very strong drink . . . on par with what I bought in a plastic water bottle from a Vietnamese man last year. We were served a similar drink (for free) at lunch that was called Rakomelo and had honey in it.

Ah, but for dinner, it didn't end after the Raki. Then the waiter came out with fresh fruit, and then . . . Greek donuts and ice cream!




This spread was entirely free of charge. This has to be some sort of Greek cultural thing. I've received an absurd amount of free food and drink here. At first I thought it was my charm and good looks, but I'm beginning to think its just the Greek way of doing business. Well, no wonder the country's broke.

Location:Λαβύρινθου,Heraklion,Greece

Vomit, a Minotaur, and a Beach

Perhaps you are wondering where that title comes from. Refer to the picture of the Megajet aka Vomit Cruiser. The boat that was docked before ours had its gang plank sheared off when it kept banging against the dock. At first, I kept telling myself that the waves were only bad in the port area, and would get better once the engines were going. I was terribly, terribly wrong. Once we started pitching and rolling, I tried to take deep breaths and tell myself that I was going to be ok. This seemed to be working up to the moment that the crew (falling over themselves due to the rocking) came rushing through the cabin distributing puke bags. Almost instantly, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were extracted from my body. This continued for the next 3 hours. Everyone else on the boat was either lying down or holding a puke bag. It was eerily silent. As the boat approached the dock in Crete, two Russian women shared a flask. I don't make the stereotypes, I simply observe them.

Fortunately, today has been much better. We started off by seeing Knossos, an ancient Minoan palace. This was where the legend of the Minotaur was born. Parts of the palace have been restored, while the rest remains as it was found. There were too many tourists there for my taste, though. Especially those Russians. They can't be trusted.

Then we drove to a port town called Rethymno. Our car is now an Opel Astra. It doesn't have much get up and go, but it is infinitely better than that Micra. Rethymno is just a quaint, Venetian style town. There wasn't really much to do there, however. I had a big lunch to compensate for my losses yesterday. The waiter gave us a round of something that tasted like a combination of whiskey and cider. It gave me a bit of a twitch on the way down.

After Rethymno, we drove to a place called Bali Beach. Water was a little cold, but very clear and blue. Unfortunately, I didn't see much in terms of wildlife except for a couple fish.

Overall, however, a much better day than yesterday. Our plans for the evening call for laundry. This will be very exciting indeed. Tomorrow, we will be driving the Cretan roads once more in hopes of finding an abandoned monastery in a gorge, and a beach, where one can walk to an offshore island. Greek roads are terribly marked, laid out, and impossible to navigate, so hopefully we can find these places.

Location:Λαβύρινθου,Heraklion,Greece

The Zombocalypse!

It would seem that the cruise ships unloaded everyone today. It was chaos. It was like dealing with French and German speaking zombies. They were slow moving and looked very confused. The picture here was taken in a large square area, so imagine how it would look when these masses get funneled into the narrow alleyways of the town of Thira. Also, no one gets out of the way when they approach head on. The idea of giving way and respecting personal space seems to be a uniquely American concept. I had my feet stepped on with no apology. The worst.

There are way too many people here right now. We were so flustered by the invasion, that we decided to kill time at the hotel. Our boat seems to have been sorted out, but we don't leave until 5 ish. As you can see by the map, this is a much larger island than where we have been thus far. Maybe we will get another Micra to drive around the island!

*Update*




Our entire day can be summarized by waiting for something to happen. It has been a bit of a waste. Right now we are at a port in Santorini waiting for our boat, which was delayed more than 2 hours. Before waiting here, we spent some quality time at the hotel pool area - bundled up in our jackets along with some sunbathers . . . who were fully clothed.


I was lied to! The movies make everything in Greece look hot and sweaty. Every day, I check the forecast and every day it is wrong. Clouds form over our heads. The winds last night were so bad, I thought I might blow away.




When our boat does finally arrive, we will be on that for another two hours. The waves look a little rough. I deserve a drink when we get to Crete . . . or at least some kind of medal. It has been a long day of nothing, and I've got a lot to say about it.

Location:Προς Όρμο Αθηνιό,Thira,Greece

Last night on Santorini

After dropping off the car, we grabbed some gyros. Parting with the Micra was like that moment you walk out of IKEA and say to yourself, "I made it out alive!".




We took some sunset pictures in Thira. Oia is known as the sunset town, but I beg to differ. Even if the sun had been good yesterday, the only place you can see the sun from is at the edge of the crater. That means my photos could be from Greece, or Hawaii, or Long Beach for that matter. The sun looks like the sun. It's nice to get part of your surrounding in the foreground and you can only do that in Thira.

We found out from the guy that rented us the Micra, that tourism is down about 50%. That's pretty crazy. He also said the weather has been unusual. Maybe they're still recovering from the coldest winter ever recorded. While watching the sunset, we were facing gale force winds. This is evidently not normal. It feels like it could be February sometimes.




Tomorrow we take a ferry to Crete . . . I think. Rumor has it there is something wrong with the boat. With winds the way they've been, the seas may be a bit rough. That's not fun for anybody. Maybe the bartender sensed our concern. She just gave us Ouzo . . . on the house.




On that note, the Greeks have been very friendly so far. One can speculate that it has to do with the economic situation and they're trying to put their best face forward, but they obviously don't have to. Everywhere we've been, someone has gone out of their way to help us. Maybe we are less obnoxious than those European tourists . . . and dress more fashionably. Those capri pants with hiking boots can't impress anyone.

Location:Θήρας-Μεγαλοχωρίου,Thira,Greece

A ruinous day

We woke up somewhat early this morning and drove to ancient Thira. This required driving up about 20 switchbacks in the ol' Micra. I have GoPro footage of it, but the iPad simply cannot handle trimming a video and preparing it for upload. As far as ruins go, Ancient Thira was truly ruined. There was nothing very identifiable about it. It's as if the residents of Delos paid a few extra drachma for sturdy building materials and the ancient Thirans settled for IKEA furnishings.




After going down all the switchbacks again, we went to Akrotiri, another ancient city in ruins. This just very recently opened to the public. This is the site, where some of the famous frescoes of ancient Greece were discovered. They are now, however, at museums, so the site itself only had a few artifacts like pottery and wash basins that remained.

Near Akrotiri is a place called Red Beach, named presumably for the red cliffs that tower above it. We had to do a little bit of hiking from the parking lot to the beach. One has to earn everything on this island.


This time I actually went into the water. It was a little chilly, but manageable. Just like the big island of Hawaii, it is popular to write out graffiti with white rocks. I tried to do my part with a reference to everyone's favorite celebrity couple: Bricole!




That summarized most of our day. Soon we will have to return our beloved Nissan Micra to the rental place. A shame really . . . that someone else will have to drive such a terrible car.

It was sunny this morning, but is now overcast and windy again. Can't win. I was going to check out sunset from Thira town, but it doesn't look like its going to happen tonight. This is our last night on Santorini. I have mixed feelings about it. It's attractive in some areas, but overly touristy. If DisneyWorld added Greece to its world showcase, it would look like Santorini. You could get an autograph from toga-wearing Mickey there.

Location:Θήρας-Μεγαλοχωρίου,Thira,Greece