Crete! (...finally)

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**Sorry this has taken so long to get up, I feel like I've been playing catch up ever since we got back from the trip and just haven't had the time!

Tuesday Sept. 23, 2008

After a day made long by anticipation, we finally boarded the CYA busses at 6:30pm to head to the port of Piraeus. Although I had expected a ferry resembling that which we took to Santorini, I was pleasantly surprised by Minoan Line’s “Knossos Palace.” Not only was it much larger and nicer than the Santorini ferry, it had a bunch of cafes, shops and movie theater to keep us entertained. After the initial clusterfuck - excuse my French, but there really is no other way to describe it - of all 161 of us waiting in the reception hall for our room assignments, we found our sleeper cabins.
As I opened the door to mine, I was greeted by the sight of two of my room mates already starting to drink the multiple bottles of wine they’d brought with them despite repeated warnings by all of the staff that drinking was not allowed on the boat, in hotel rooms or on the busses during the trip - as for restaurants and public places we were free to “enjoy responsibly.” Long story short, these room mates were among many who eventually got caught that night, one of whom even got sent back to Athens. Glad to see the trip was off to a uneventful start haha.

Wednesday Sept. 24, 2008
Around 6am our boat docked and we all met up for a rather scant, but luckily free, breakfast in the main cabin. Once we had disembarked and found our bus assignments, each bus headed off on its own adventure. While at this point I was still intimidated by not knowing anyone on my bus - let alone my room mates - by the end of the trip I could not have been happier with my fellow Bus E-ers.
Our first stop was the ancient palace of Knossos, just outside of Heraklion. I guess my anticipation had gotten the best of me, and I was actually rather disappointed by the ruins. Like many other archaeological sites, it was simply a large grouping of really old stones, with bits of walls and room outlines accented by a couple of remaining columns. I think my disinterest was shared by the others in my group because we quickly became far more enthralled by a family of puppies inhabiting the site.
While on the site, I also had a chance to talk with my room mates for the trip, Hilary and Shoshana, both of whom I hit it off with right away. Hilary is from a town just outside of Chicago and goes to school at The University of Wisconsin - who, I found out today, our football team beat yesterday! - and Shoshana is from Seattle, Washington and goes to school at Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia. Not only is she a music minor but she is also signed up to run the Athens marathon in November; needless to say, we found quite a bit to talk about.
After Knossos, we were brought to Heraklion to walk the Venetian walls surrounding the city. As we walked up one of the staircases, we noticed a bunch of hypodermic needles scattered among what we determined to be human excrement…glad our professors seemed to have a good sense of where to bring us, yikes!
We then checked into our hotel and, not having eaten since breakfast that morning, immediately went to find lunch. Greek salad and a chicken souvlaki for less than 5 Euro at the place just beside our hotel = awesomeness. Wandering around the city, we stopped for frappes and browsed the souvenir shops until we had to meet for a city tour at 2. We got to see the Venetian fountain of Morosini - Modern Greek class people will appreciate this haha - and the other highly Venetian-influenced architecture of the city. We were supposed to go inside what appeared to be a gorgeous Byzantine church, but, as would soon be a continuing trend on our trip, it was closed. This left us with the rest of the afternoon free.
Our lunch crew - Hilary, Shoshana, George (in my Greek class), Luke, John and I - quickly headed over to the archaeological museum. This, thankfully, was far more exciting than Knossos, which I guess is rather sad seeming as many of the artifacts there came from the palace. I think my exclamation at seeing the Phaistos Disk pretty much explains my time at the museum, “Oh my God, I think I just had an archaeological orgasm!” Afterwards, the girls and I ventured out to go shopping, but were sadly disappointed to find that the majority of the shops were closed being Wednesday afternoon - Greek stores are weird like that. So instead we headed back to the hotel for much needed showers and napping.
We met back up with the boys at 8pm for dinner at a pizza place. George, being a far more fluent Greek speaker than myself, chatted up our waiter, Taso, to see where the “hot spots” in town were for the night. Along with his recommendation of beach clubs, Taso also gave us a couple of free bottles of Raki - essentially Cretan moonshine - to finish our meal. We had been given a heads up that this was Cretan custom, and decided it would be rude to refuse…right… On our way to find the clubs, we girls stopped for gelato. AMAZING! Mine combined vanilla gelato with the awesomeness that is (are?) Greek cookies. Which, on a side note, I recommend everyone must try once in their lives; they make Oreos seem like amateurs. Anyways, we ended up discovering that clubs in Greece operate on a much later schedule than any of us were willing to adhere to. After stopping at a sports bar to watch soccer while the boys played a couple games of pool, we were ready to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008
Up at 7am for breakfast at the hotel and on the road by 8 to drive through the countryside to a monastery known by many as a sort of Cretan Alamo. It was absolutely gorgeous - definitely check out the pictures. Strangely, though, while exploring the monastery, we came across a family of kittens almost as cute as the puppies, however, along with their mother they seemed to be gnawing on the carcass of a less fortune comrade, perhaps their dad? Soooo gross.
We continued our drive and arrived at Rethymnos around 12:30pm. After checking in and another much needed lunch, we were off for a tour of the city and fortress overlooking the ocean. The fortress, as Roz said it would be, was pretty cool, although apparently despite the huge investment made to build it, it had fallen within only a few days of being attacked. We had intentions on going to the Rethymnos folk museum, but, surprise, it was closed. So, once again we had free time for the rest of the night.
After lounging by the hotel pool for a while, drinking frappes and playing cards, Shoshana and I decided we were both in need of some maintenance miles. Asking the front desk their recommendation of places to go running, we were directed to the municipal gardens. Here we found a great path circling the perimeter of the gardens and got in a few laps. A quick shower and we met up for dinner at 8 with the rest of our crew.
We ate at a taverna overlooking the Rethymnos coast line, which was absolutely beautiful. For 12 Euros, I feasted on a Greek salad, fresh grilled shrimp, and a significant glass of red wine, an incredible deal if you ask me! After another round of free Raki, we all headed back into town to see what other Bus E-ers were up to. We ended up simply sitting on the beach for an hour or so, talking and enjoying the view. I had a long conversation with Blake, a boy from Orange County, CA who goes to Valparaiso in Indiana, is on their swim team and is about as obsessed with archaeology/art history as I am haha. Getting antsy, a group of us decided to take a walk around the port and stumbled across a pirate ship that entertained us for quite a while. Again, we also discovered that the clubs didn’t even open until 12:30am. With another 7am wake-up call waiting us in the morning, we decided not to wait and headed back to the hotel.

Friday, Sept. 26, 2008
After another good hotel breakfast at 8am, we headed to the folk art museum that we were supposed to have seen the day before. Arriving before it opened - once again, our amazing luck with timing - we had to wait outside for 15 minutes. The museum wasn’t overly remarkable, and Shoshana and I were far more fascinated by the rude messages people had written in the guest book.
We then hopped back on the bus and were off to our final destination, Chania where Roz stayed during her visit in April. After checking in, we took a walking tour of the harbor, a Jewish synagogue and another archaeological museum - all of which were open! What luck! The harbor was quite gorgeous but the rest of the town was very touristy. Luckily though, I think we were there at the very end of the tourist season, so it was not too crowded.
Around 2pm our stomachs were growling voraciously, so we decided to pick a place on the harbor to eat lunch at. The boys were determined to have waffles and ice cream for lunch and found a small café promising these at a cheap price. Unfortunately, the service at the café was essentially non-existent. So, after sitting for 10 minutes without our table even being cleared, Shoshana and I gave up and walked a few restaurants down where we ended up being served and finishing before the boys haha.
After lunch we poked around the souvenir shops, amazed by how much cheaper the prices were than those in Athens. Instead of going for frappes, I decided to head back to the hotel for a much needed nap before we all had to meet up for a CYA-wide meeting about the hike on Saturday.
The meeting ended up being a bit of a reunion of sorts, many of us not having seen our room mates and friends not on our buses for quite a few days. Our guides for the hike down Agia Irini Gorge the following day gave us a brief overview of the trail and its difficulty. In retrospect, I’d say they greatly downplayed the difficulty…
After the meeting, we went back to a restaurant on the harbor for dinner. I ordered my first moussaka yet, and it was quite delicious. Once again, dinner ended with a couple rounds of free raki - a tradition I feel should be imported to the states! haha Being ridiculously tired from a long couple days of traveling and sightseeing, Shoshana, George and I did not really have the ambition to find a bar or club to go to this night, and so we ended up sitting at a café - also on the harbor - watching soccer matches and sipping cocktails. Another first, I had an Alabama Slammer, which was actually quite good. Around midnight the three of us were ready to call it a night and headed back to the hotel where I quickly crashed into bed.

Saturday September 27, 2008
Our last day in Crete  We woke up to our best hotel breakfast yet: a spread of various cereals, fruits, honey, yogurt, nuts, pastries and realllllllllly good coffee. At 8 we departed for Agia Irini. Filled with the wonderful hotel coffee from breakfast, my bladder almost burst by the end of the 1 hour bus ride. When we arrived two other girls and I quickly asked where the nearest bathroom was. Apparently our “guides” didn’t know the trail as well as they claimed, because they pointed us in the exact opposite of the trail/bathrooms. Wandering into a tiny village of goat farms, I asked an old woman in my broken Greek if there were perhaps bathrooms near by. She pointed us back down the road we had just come from. Unable to wander any farther, the three of us decided to “pop-a-squat” behind an abandoned truck near a goat pasture - talk about roughing it! When we had joined back up with the group and walked down the correct trail for about 3 minutes, we came by the bathrooms I believe the guide meant to direct us to, complete with toilets and paper…awesome. haha
The gorge hike itself was a little over 3 miles, the majority of which was all steeply downhill. I also wasn’t able to take pictures because I was far more concerned with making sure I wouldn’t trip and kill myself than enjoying the scenery. From my occasional glance up though, it was quite beautiful. (Again, I was not too impressed by the judgment of our “guides.”)
When we finished our trek, the busses brought us to a small beach for lunch and lounging. After a much needed lunch, Shoshana and I decided against swimming - knowing we’d be unable to shower until we would arrive back in Athens - and explored the town and shops. As small as the town was, this didn’t take very long and we ended up sitting at a café sipping frappes while we waited to depart.
At 5pm, we all loaded the busses for the last time for the drive back to Chania and our awaiting ferry. Sadly, our return ferry was a far cry from the “Knossos Palace” that had brought us to Crete. Not finding much to do on board and quite exhausted, I headed to bed after dinner.

Sunday September 28, 2008
Our ferry arrived in Piraeus at about 5:30 in the morning. Sadly, we were not served breakfast this morning but at least we had busses waiting to bring us back to the CYA campus - saving us the 1+ mile walk from the dock to the metro station and hour metro ride that we had made after our Santorini ferry.
Arriving back to our apartment at around 7am, I wolfed down a bowl of cereal and collapsed into bed, not waking until 10. After that, all I really accomplished for the day was discovering free internet at our local Starbucks and forcing myself to do the homework I had put off all week.

I must say that I really did enjoy the Crete trip, although towards the end the lack of sleep and constant traveling did catch up with me. The scenery was incredible, the food quite delicious and the company even better. I was glad to have met people outside of my apartment and classes, and am looking forward to having broadened my social horizons haha. I don’t think I will be returning to Crete during the rest of my stay in Greece this time - I’ve had my fill of ferry travel for quite a while - but would definitely like to get back someday in the future. It was definitely a great mini-vacation but I was certainly grateful to be back “home” on Sunday.

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