Crete

After Corinth, we grabbed our stuff and headed to Piraeus, the port a few kilometers south of Athens. It was insane there. We got out of the metro and were in a small plaza with an escalator going up to a pedestrian bridge to cross the busy road between the metro and the water. We found our company’s office and went to pick up our tickets. We were leaving from dock three, and there were about a dozen docking areas. Cars and people were everywhere because there were at least six ferries (almost all are car ferries) leaving that night. When we returned, early in the morning a few days later, nothing had changed: there were tons of early-morning ferries leaving and people rushing in all directions. It was like being at a really busy airport during the holiday rush except this was outdoors and it involved cars and trucks. We grabbed some dinner and headed for dock three.

The boat itself was nice. It wasn’t the nicest ferry I have been on, but it wasn’t the worst. Cars were downstairs and we boarded along the side, taking escalators up to the sixth or seventh deck. We had booked airplane-style, “Pullman” seats. We wanted to get there early to pick our seats. The Pullman section was already crowded with families and people spread out everywhere. There were seats left, but a lot of the floor space had been claimed. We saw a few other backpackers, but many of the people were Roma and a lot looked pretty sketchy. I went to the bathroom to brush and floss. The other women in the bathroom basically stared me down as I did this. I slept on the floor because it was more comfortable than sleeping in a chair. My floor space was actually in a row, so people couldn’t really bother me. Getting to the bathroom during the night proved challenging because I had to dodge people and climb over chairs. When I woke up, the sun was rising and we were arriving in Crete.

Friday morning, we were given fresh-squeezed orange juice as we disembarked from the boat. It was reasonably warm in Iraklio/Heraklion, but not hot (it was 6:30am). It took us a few minutes to find the hostel. When we got there, we were allowed to check in and sleep for a bit. That day, we went to Knossos, the ruins of the Minoan palace. This is where the legendary Minotaur, half-man half-bull, lived in a labyrinth. The palace was huge. We started on one side of it and from that point couldn’t see many ruins. I figured, “okay, this will be a relatively-small palace, a few rocks, nothing major.” Boy, was I wrong. We started on the higher side and didn’t realize how far down the hill the palace extended. There were various smaller areas and reproductiosn of frescoes found at the site. Many parts of the palace had been reconstructed by Arther Evans, who uncovered the ruins in 1900. In my opinion, he was too liberal with his reconstruction. Many of the rooms were named based on the functions he prescribed to them, rather than carefully studying the objects he found. For example, he found a chair near one room, so it immediately became the throne room. One interesting tidbit about Knossos is that the oldest stairs in Europe are here. The 3700-year-old staircase goes down the back of the palace. People are not allowed to walk on it, but we could see it from above and below. The stairs are not particularly impressive, but their age certainly is.

That night we ate at a restaurant on the central plaza. Jess had chicken stuffed with cheese and in a date sauce. I had a salad with avocado and smoked salmon. We also tried oozo which was similar to raki, but came pre-mixed.

Saturday we took a bus to Chania, another port city on the northern coast of the island. We walked around the Venician port to the lighthouse at the end of it. Then we got homemade ice cream at an Italian gelateria. I had dark chocolate and banana. We walked out the other end of the port towards the newer harbor and the beach. Luckily I had brought my bathing suit. The water was really clear and warm. We didn’t stay too long because we hadn’t brought towels and Jess didn’t have her swimsuit. Then we walked back towards town. Along the way we saw octopus hanging on a string near a restaurant. Then I had another Greek salad for dinner and more ice cream. The bus ride took almost three hours because of the windy, mountain roads. Along the way, we passed five separate weddings going on. Back at the hostel, there were new people in our room. One woman decided she did not want the fan on during the night. She kept turning it off and we kept trying to explain that there were too many of us and there was no way anyone would get any sleep if the fan was not on. Finally, after three passive-aggressive, silent fan battles, she got up and had the hostel change her room. I had tried pointing out that she should either get another sheet or put some pants on to sleep in. In all the hostels I’ve stayed at, I’ve never actually seen anyone switch rooms during the night.

Sunday morning we slept late and then walked around Heraklion, which was basically dead. We walked dorn the old Venician harbor and then climbed up the ramp at the fort to see it all from above. We also sat and read at café for a while. I had a strawberry juice, which was somewhat like a smoothie. There wasn’t much to do, so we walked around a bit more and ate lunch at fast food place right across the street form the water. I had yet another Greek salad and we watched mTV for a bit. Then we used the internet and went back to the hostel and finished our books. We tried to read in town, but got sick of the people bothering us. One man approached us and put a magnet in my book. I took it out and place it next to me on the bench. When I did this, he began to hit my book to try to get my attention. I liked Crete, but I was getting seriously tired of the attention paid to us. I’ve traveled many places, but have never felt this bothered by people. That evening we took the ferry back to Athens, leaving behind Heraklion and its three Starbucks. This was probably the highest concentration of Starbucks we had seen on our entire trip. The town wasn’t that large and you could easily walk between the three. The ferry ride back was much emptier. It was, however, much more difficult to sleep because it was freezing cold. The air conditioner was up way too high and I had trouble falling asleep.