Crete
Chania– After a rough night’s sleep on the night ferry, we arrived in the city Chania at 5:30am. We hopped on the local bus and ended up somewhere in the city center. It was still dark out and much of the city was still asleep. After some confusion (Andy’s sense of direction and me humoring him) we ended up in a cute strip of buildings around a cove near the lighthouse. We walked around a bit and noticed that all of the hotel’s, pensions, etc. were still closed. We went to turn around to sit at a cafe and wait when I heard some lady calling, “maam, maam are you looking for a room?” We said yes and she led us to this cute room situated a cute back alley. It was a nice place, and she offered it to us for 35 euro so we said yes. This by far the easiest way of getting a good place.
The main attraction here was to see the light house at the Old Port. However, we ventured through the other part of town checking out the little shops and other areas. It was a decent little town to visit.
Heraklion– The next morning we jumped on a bus to visit Heraklion. Our main goal of visiting this city was to see the Minoan Palace of Knossos. We arrived by bus and quickly found out that there was a political event going on and all of the very few hotels here were full. After wandering the streets for about an hour with our packs on we came across the Hellas Rent Rooms. It was a hostel style place with the bathroom in the hall and was actually quiet nice. Every room even had a balcony.
Once we were settled we decided to walk to Knossos. This is the site of an ancient Minoan culture and the origins of the Theseus and Minotaur myth. Also, we discoved that in one of the largest volcanic eruptions on earth, half of the island of Santorini exploded in an volcano hundreds of years ago. In fact, Santorini may have been where the Atlantis myths began in Egyptian historical accounts. This eruption may caused a tsunami that devastated this Minoan culture over in Crete, hundreds of miles away.
Anyway I read from our Greece book that it was 5K from the city center and thought that walking would be no biggie. I think the book was lying because after walking about 3 miles we saw a sign that said 6K to Knossos. We finally arrived and decided to take a tour per the books suggestion. We realized this was a bad decision when a gypsy lady stepped out as our guide. She was kind of a joke and I think everyone else on the tour would agree. Overall we were disappointed with Knossos and the city of Heraklion. Knossos was described as a labyrinth which makes me think of an excellent 80’s movie. It was nothing like that and David Bowie would have been a better tour guide.
Santorini
After a two hour speed boat ride from Crete we were in Santorini (which we were conned into taking). We had heard so many great things about the island and were a little nervous that our expectations were set too high and we would be disapointed. Luckily this was not the case and was a favorite of the places we visited in Greece. We stayed in the capital city of Fira which is built on the edge of a 400 mile high cliff. The buildings are whitewashed with colorful doors and accents. We ended up staying here for three nights, our longest stay of the trip.
Two of the nights we took the bus to the city of Oia to watch the famous sunsets. We actually thought that the sunsets in Reno are way better, but what’s really fascinating is the amount of people that come each night to watch. You have to get there early to get a spot because every street, step, cafe, etc. is crowded with people.
Other things to do here are to go to the Volcano at the Caldera and sit in the hot (warm) springs, go to the back beach (which is really a grey beach), go to the white beach or even the red beach. What you should do it just relax in the city, meander in the streets and enjoy watching the donkeys that go by.The only thing that sucks about the island is the food, which is overpriced and not very good. We even got sick one night. Our staple here was a crepe place called NRG. Delicious!
Next stop, Athens to go home, blah!
