Left at 4 o'clock this morning to go to the airport. Husband is sick with fever, chest congestion, sore throat, vomiting and diarrhea. Great start to our vacation! Actually we were going to get up at 3:15 but overslept. Luckily we woke up when Irene came in. She took us to the airport and is borrowing the car. We made good time. The roads are deserted so early in the morning. Plenty of bustle at the airport, though. Seems that 5am is when things start taking off there (ha ha, no pun intended)
Wonderful arriving in Crete with 80 degrees and sun! The hills around the airport all dry and brown, dotted with the occasional tree. After retrieving our bags we sat on the buss for 45 minutes to Georgioupolis, once a sleepy little fishing village, now a pleasant tourist village. Our hotel is 50 yrds from the beach, and our room is on the 3rd floor overlooking the village and mountains behind.
Spent the afternoon exploring. Found Anna's market where I used to shop when I visited here 10 years ago. Now she sells olive oil and honey from her own farm and local sheeps cheese. We stocked up on basics for breakfast and lunch, like yogurt, honey, fruit (peaches, grapes and oranges seem to be in season and are incredibly sweet and juicy!). We also found a bakery that carries our favorite greek pastries: galactoburetico and baklava.
We walked along the beach and the harbor, looked into different shops selling gold and silver, leather, herbs, and clothes.
Had the best dinner of the whole week this first night: tuna salad with a tropical sauce, and a plate of broiled octopus pieces. A bunch of sweet golden grapes for desert.
Saturday
Varying weather today: partly cloudy, showers, gusts of wind that toppled the parasols by the pool right over the wall, and knocked down the stands outside of shops. This morning we walked the entire lenght of the beach, about 6 miles and back. Took us 2 hrs and 20 minutes. Finished off with a swim in the ocean which is nice and warm, about 80 degrees. Had to cross a couple of streams where they empty into the sea. The water was much colder there. Spent much of the day napping. Husband still has fever and I feel like I'm coming down with a cold now too.
It was raining when we went to have dinner so we ate at the hotel restaurant's buffet. Inexpensive, food ok.
Sunday
It was sunny this morning. We walked up to Kournas Lake, a 2 1/2 mile walk along the road. As soon as we crossed the highway the surroundings became quite rural. We passed olive groves and vineyards, saw chickens, sheep and goats in farmyards. The lake itself is surrounded by tavernas on the one side, and paddleboats to rent. On the other the wild hills rise straight up towards the mountains with brush and grazing sheep. We walked along the edge, as far as you can get (the guide books say that you can walk around the lake, which is blatently untrue. Possibly you could wade around but the bottom is very muddy. Not at all pleasant. Still we saw some of the turtles that live in the lake. Husband had a swim. He is almost well now, whereas I have a horrible cold with couph and runny nose, so am staying out of the water. Had our lunch of bread and cheese, sharing some with the geese who hang out on the taverna side of the lake hoping for handouts.
It was clouding over as we made ready to leave and the first drops of rain began falling as we walked back down toward the village. When we got back we napped while a veritable downpour was going on outside. Otherwise the afternoon was cloudy. I felt like shit. The bus trip we had signed up for tomorrow got cancelled due to more rain on the forecast. We went to eat at cheaper seafood place but it wasn't as good. The salad was drowned in a sharp mustard sauce that almost disguised the fact that the cucumbers tasted of nothing. The shrimp (boiled then grilled) were served with the shells on. Now what is the point of grilling boiled shrimp in the shell? Tried giving the restaurant cat the heads (every restaurant seems to have a cat, but she deserted us for another guest who had brought whiskas!
Monday
Rented a car, a little citroen. I was still feeling lousy, so we decided to drop visiting beaches and head up into the hills. Unfortunatly we got all the cloudy weather. I had the feeling that it was sunny on the coast. For some reason all the roads seem to run north-south. Even in the lowlands it is virtually impossible to go from east to west without zigzagging north and south, looking for the connecting roads that exist here and there. Even so you end up having to get onto the "New Road", and ugly highway that runs the length of the north coast from east to west, now and then. We had gotten a map with the car. In the hills, the roads are very curvy even where the map shows straight lines. Where the map shows sqiggles you have the most horrendous hairpin turns. We had a bit of a scare once when the brakes locked the wheels in the middle of one of these and we went skidding into the opposite lane. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic just then.
Anyway, we drove around in the hills for a while, through small villages with narrow streets between the houses, and with sheep, goats, donkeys, and vegetable patches in fenced terraces in between them. Ended up in Argiroupolis, where an elderly couple took us into their shop/home and explained how the present day village is superimposed upon the ancient Roman town of Lappa. Walking around the village you can find an ancient roman arch here, a doorway there, a mosaic, an excavation, and a church from the 13th century with some beautifull icons. The elderly couple spoke german, having lived in Germany for a number of years. They served us greek coffee, thick and sweet, with a plate of grapes, and showed us the cards and letters from German and Norwegian tourists that they had gotten over the years. We bought a piece of embroidery and a liter of olive oil from them.
Next we drove to the central mountains of Crete to visit a famous cave near the village of Zonania. The cave is 270 m long, and 150 m are open to the public, where you can see the most fantastic stalagtites and stalagmites that glitter. The cave is also home to several species of bat, though these live in the isolated part of the cave where it is dark.
Tuesday
Sunny this morning. Husband went running on the beach this morning, I sat reading, then watched the sunrise. It was fairly cool so that the water seemed deliciously warm when we took our sunrise swim. You can rent paddleboats or kayaks to take up the river that empties into Georgioupolis harbor. We took the kayaks and paddled up the river. Almost immediatly all sight and sound of civilization died away, and we were surrounded by tall reeds, and the branches of trees hanging low over the water and colored dragonflies flitting about. The stream was very clear and quite deep, but not too fast. We saw an egret or heron, I'm not sure which, and also a kingfisher and several turtles. It was one of the nicest things we did during this week. So peacefull and quiet!
Later in the day it clouded over. We went shopping. I had managed to lose my sunhat and had to but a new one. Husband bought me a silver necklace with a blue opal in it. I bought him a new wallet and a pair of shorts. We also bought presents for the kids and for Husband's niece and nephew.
In the evening we found a family restaurant where the food was delicious and relatively inexpensive, also they take VISA, which is important as we are running out of cash. The cucumbers and tomatoes in the salad were filled with flavor, and we were served a whole broiled octopus. Cool!
For desert we had a traditional cheese filled pancake with honey, something Husband had read about and wanted to try. The atmosphere was nice as well. It is fun to sit and watch the greek way of life. When there are lot's of customers they work hard, but when it is quiet, they don't go around doing make-work, but rather sit and pass the time of day over a beer. The take-out driver would get on his motorbike (no helmet of course) with the bag of food in one hand, and driving with the other. The waitress stood in the middle of the intersection to talk with a friend in a passing car. Cars behind did not get irritated and honk because of the conversation in the middle of the road. They just carefully edged past and around them.Wednesday
Totally fantastic day, with clear sunny skies all day! We went hiking in Samaria Gorge today. The bus ride over the Lefka Ori Mountains was amazing. That a bus can even negotioate the switchbacks! It can become problematic when meeting an oncoming bus, but somehow they seem to coordinate and get past each other.
The hike is 16 km and can be described in 4 stages:
1. The path zig-zags down through pine, cypress, and cedar forest from 1200 m to the riverbed below. Through the trees the chalk cliffs gleam white.
2. The path follows the river bed, which was mostly dry. There are 2 major rest areas. At the first there is a little church built near the site of a Roman place of worship. The second is at the site of Samaria Village from which the inhabitants were forced to move when the area became a national park. You still see olive and fig trees, plots surrounded by stone walls. A few buildings are not ruined. The medical station is here. The gorge is entirely inaccessible to motor vehicles. We saw workmenn building restbuildings and around about stood several donkeys, some loaded with equipment, some saddled. Donkeys are the only mode of transportation in the gorge other than walking.
3. Entering the gorge itself. The walls are now perpendicular, hundreds of meters high, the path goes in the dry riverbed itself, which is why the gorge is closed during the rainy season. At the narrowest the cliffs are only 3m apart. The water that pours through the gorge in winter can be so violent that one year it swept away a village at it's end.
4. When you come out of the gorge you meet a few tavernas, rebuilt from the washed out village. There are still barns for sheep and goats here, but the people have moved a mile or so down to the coast and built the new village of Agia Roumeli.
In Agia Roumeli we treated ourselves to an ice-cream first, and then to a swim in the Lybian sea. The sand is black and course.
The village is tiny, but has a few hotels and tavernas. We had our dinner while waiting for the boat: tuna salad, and grilled rabbit. Agia Roumeli is landlocked, without any roads. There are boats from April 1 to Oct 31. A dozen or so people stay there over the winter. There is a helipad for emergencies. It would be really interesting to spend the winter there some time! Anyway, at 6pm we took the boat to another coastal town from which the bus took us back over the mountains to the northern shore. About riding the bus on the mountain roads of Crete all I can say is: who needs a roller coaster.Thursday
Our last day in Crete. It was cloudy this morning. I had an appointment to get my hair cut (only 12 Euro, compared to 30 in Norway) at 9:30. At 9:20 the shop was still closed. At 9:25 a swedish woman came with her little boy and joined me on the front steps. She also had an appointment for 9:30. We talked while we waited. She has been living in Crete for 7 years. Works as a real estate agent. At 9:40 the owner of the store showed up. Still nothing happened until her assistant came at 10am. We talked while she cut my hair. She says the weather this week has been unusual for september, and told me about the time in february 2004 when it snowed for 24 hrs leaving 3' of snow lying on the beach followed by a 3 day power outage. No one could remember snow actually lying on the ground. I told her we had been to Samaria. She said she would never do that, because she has to be on her feet all day. She did once do a long walk though, she told me. She had promised the virgin Mary to walk 24 km up to a church if a friend of hers who had been in a car crash survived. The friend survived, and the lady did the walk. It took her 8 hrs, and she said the next day she wasn't at all tired. So maybe it is a question of motivation.
By the time I was done with my hair the sun was out, so we packed up our snorkling gear and found a sheltered cove by the rocks where we could float in the water watching the fish. We saw several different kinds, as well as sea urchins and snails.
Tired this afternoon. Legs aching from yesterday's hike. I can hardly walk down stairs. Took a hot bath, and a nap which helped tremendously.
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