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Published: November 28th 2010
Spectacular
Walking along the riverbed in the gorge while the cliffs either side of you soar into the sky.It was another scenic bus ride from Rethymno to Chania, again following the northern coast of Crete and providing some awesome cliff-side views. Other observations included mountain goats and miniature Orthodox churches that appear on the roadside. Common sense would tell you that they are memorials for people who have perished on those very spots on the road, but I'm not so sure. They have them in people's houses as well, almost as a substitute for going to an actual church.
Standing outside Chania's rather chaotic bus station, I look at my map attempting to establish my location and a route to my accommodation. The Greek Cyrillic on the street signs and the Roman alphabet on my printed Google map don't help, so I resort to asking a local woman where I am on the map. See, guys do ask for directions. As an absolute last resort, of course. At first she tries to sell me accommodation before kindly pointing out that the bus station is not actually on my map after telling her I have already booked somewhere to stay.
I then walk around town for about an hour only to eventually realise I had gone in the wrong
Best Beach Ever?
You'll be pressed to find a better beach than Falassarna. direction away from the bus station and then completely misread the map. As a consolation, I did get a tour of Chania's old town.
Like Rethymno, there is a kind-of Turkish quarter here as well - a slew of art and trinket shops covered by large beige awnings. There isn't much space walking through these markets and I am pissing people of by lugging by bags through it. I passed the Trimartiri Orthodox Cathedral before ending up in Chania's idyllic Venetian Harbour. Again, it is very similar to
Rethymno's Venetian Harbour, lined with restaurants. My detour also took me through the labyrinth of cobblestoned pedestrian streets just behind the harbour that are flanked by cute old buildings either decorated with rectangular pots of blooming flowers or wrapped in ivy. And I thought Rethymno was pretty.
I was finally put right by a restaurant hawker who kindly directs me around the city walls and along the coast to Constantino's Studios.
There are a group of very young girls watching Youtube in the internet cafe on the ground floor, and I ask one of them if if I could check in. She gets on the phone to her father and in
Sea Wall
Looking along Chania's sea wall out towards the lighthouse. about ten minutes he arrives by car while I literally chill out in the cafe, hot from my mission from the bus station. A short, stocky man, Constantino turns out to be the most helpful Cretan I have ever met. He gives me a map and a rundown of everything in the vicinity, all the sights, activities and attractions in the area and what time the buses go to each of them. He then gives me a ride in his car to where I was actually staying - his own house.
Constantino is pretty much a local but has lived in the US for awhile, explaining his American-accented English. He rents out apartments both above the internet cafe and above his own house. I had booked a bed in a "two-bed dorm" meaning I was sharing with another Spanish guy who wasn't in.
The "dorm" was pretty much brand-new with it's own bathroom and kitchenette. Basically a twin motel room. The best part about it though, was
air-conditioning! No more sleepless nights due to the heat!
I spent the rest of the afternoon back at the Venetian Harbour. There are a lot of horse and carriage rides available to
What A View
View of the gorge from the start of the hike trail. take you along the harbour and the place is awfully romantic. As a result, there is some rancid PDA on display here, with pairs of youngsters playing tonsil hockey on the sea wall in full view of everyone.
Thankfully, Chania's sea wall isn't as big as
Heraklion's and walking along the top of it to the lighthouse at the end is quite fun, not to mention picture-perfect, as the waves crash against the wall on one side, while you take snaps of the charming harbour on the other.
I decided to stop at a restaurant recommended to me by Constantino on the beach near the internet cafe, en route back to the apartment. Constantino had said that the places away from the touristy harbour were better and cheaper,as these were the places where the locals came to eat.
My meal was one of the most interesting I have ever had.
Firstly, I ordered a bottle of "Gazoza" - a banana/ammonium-flavoured soft drink. I then started with "staka", very much a local dish which is basically hot, curdled, goat's milk fat with a bit of flour. Yeah, it was pretty rich. Thank God I had complimentary bread.
"How is the
staka?", asked the waiter.
"Errr...it's interesting", was my reply.
The waiter then tells me that eating staka has the same effect as a pill of Viagra. Great.
My main course was octopus in wine sauce. Octopus of course, tastes very fishy, very strong - they really taste like the ocean. My ammonium soft drink was starting to taste real good.
Along with the staka, this was a meal that was very difficult to finish and stomach - but in true Derek style, I did it! Albeit feeling a little sick afterwards.
I didn't need to worry about stomaching my food however, as anything I couldn't stomach was to be obliterated by the complimentary raki I was served - a small glass jug holding the equivalent of three shots, along with a plate of watermelon to take the edge off the raki. The waiting staff had been very nice and friendly so it would've been rude not to drink all the raki - so horny, sick and drunk it is to be tonight then.
I wasn't quite asleep when the Spanish guy came back to the room. We talked briefly and found out that we pretty much had the same
The White Mountains
The mountains within which the gorge lies. plan for the next day - to hike the Samaria Gorge.
Having to get an early bus to get to the gorge, a good night's sleep was essential. While air-conditioning had sorted out the heat problem, the fact my Spanish friend snored the roof off meant I was back at square one.
Jesus was a nice enough guy though and we got to know each other a little better on the rush to the bus station. He was a teacher from Pamplona, a proud Basque. Not that it really matters, but he was a bit camp and seemed to make a drama of things occasionally - so from my observations and past experiences, I suspected that he was most certainly gay.
I was pretty much asleep for the majority of the one-hour trip to the gorge, awaking to find the bus snaking perilously up a narrow, cliff-side road. So imagine the slight horror we all felt when another bus appeared ahead, coming at us from the other direction. It was a slight miracle that the buses managed to pass each other - thank God we were on the inside of the road, scraping against the cliff rather than teetering
The Descent
Moving down from the mountains to the gorge. off the side of it.
Thankfully, the majority of the hike is downhill and was estimated to take about five hours. If it was to be anything like the
Cinque Terre we were going to be in for a treat and I would cane the hike in four hours rather than five.
The first view of the gorge from the starting point was spectacular and there were better views ahead.
As the cool air up in the mountains was replaced the cool shade provided by the trees on our descent, we came across a whole lot of man-made rock towers. It was kind of freaky and reminded me of the Blair Witch Project, all these little idols in the woods. Among the other things we passed were cool rock formations, rivers and ancient buildings built by the people who used to inhabit the place. We took a bit of a break at the old village of Samaria, abandoned since 1962 to make way for the national park in which the gorge lies.
As it was a mainly downhill hike, I actually found it was faster and less tiring to skip from stone-to-stone like a gazelle down the hills rather slowly
The Samaria Gorge
The views are well worth the five hours of walking. stepping down each decline. However, there were a lot of people doing the hike, and combined with having to wait for Jesus, stopping for photos and having the lack of sleep over the last week catch up with me, it meant that I wasn't to cane the hike like I had hoped. At times I was praying for it to end.
Soon after the village we were back under the sun on ground level, on the river bed of the once-mighty river than formed this gorge. It was a breathtaking sight as we looked up at the cliffs on either side, soaring up into the sky. At one point the gorged narrowed to a gap barely a few metres wide as the cliffs towered over us. This part is known as the "Iron Gates".
After passing through the park exit there is still 3km to walk to our destination - the seaside town of Agia Roumeli. There was a truck/bus offering to drive you to Agia Roumeli for a couple of euros, but we had walked this far, so we might as well walk the rest. The last 3km turned out to be just a flat pedestrian path, and I
Cool Rock Formations
Pretty patterns in the rock. felt a huge sense of relief and satisfaction when I finally saw the sea ahead of me. We had walked for almost exactly five hours. It was a wonderful hike, and the sweat and heat generated from five hours of walking was about to be cooled off by the pristine water of the Libyan Sea.
There are only two ways to get to Agia Roumeli - by foot (as we did) or by ferry. There really isn't much to the town, just a couple of restaurants and some houses, but it had what I swear was the clearest water I have ever seen. The water was cool and refreshing and after doing a five hour hike, just keeping my head above water was exhausting as I took a siesta underneath the sun.
We were obviously not going to hike back through the gorge to get back to Chania, so after we had bought our ferry tickets we decided to get some lunch in one of the restaurants. Jesus ordered an ice-coffee which I didn't think was that bad, but he thought it was disgusting and he decided to take it back to complain. He was a bit of a
Agia Roumeli
The clearest water I have ever seen. moaner and I was really hoping at this point that the cook wouldn't spit in my souvlaki.
The souvlaki though, was delicious. A souvlaki is pretty much just a shish kebab - though don't tell a Greek that, as they generally hate the Turks - but what I like about it is the fact that they have pork ones. This is obviously not available in a kebab shop because Muslims don't eat pork. I reckon that souvlaki is probably my favourite Greek food along with Greek salad.
While enjoying my souvlaki, Jesus let me flick through the photos on his camera. He had been to Elafonissi, a beautiful beach on the south-west corner of Crete, where you can walk out to an island in knee-deep water. As I flicked through the photos, I suddenly stumbled upon some pics of Jesus posing naked on the beach! Real Adonis-style poses as well. Now I was convinced he was gay. He kind of laughed it off as I asked him what the hell this was all about, but he didn't seem overly embarrassed about it. Amusing, as I think it was a subtle and slightly creepy come-on - he must've known I would
Loutro
Quaint town accessible only by boat or foot. see the photos.
The ferry made a stop at another ferry-only accessed town called Loutro - except this one was beautiful and quaint. It was the first town I had seen where the buildings were all completely white, as they famously are in the Greek Islands.
Our final destination, Hora Sfakion, was also quite nice.
From Hora Sfakion, we then caught a two-hour bus back to Chania. Driving up the hill from Hora Sfakion revealed a barren landscape typical of much of the island.
Needless to say, I slept well that night - not even Jesus's snoring could keep me up.
I was really not liking the early starts to catch buses every morning.
The distance of Constantino's house to the bus station is a good 15-20 minute walk and we were always in a groggy rush. Once you got to the bus station, you were then greeted with chaos as there were no platforms anywhere and you had to ask a foreman which bus you had to catch. All the buses looked the same, and all had a number identifying it on the front. But with over 50 buses in the station compound, finding the right bus
Falassarna
Overlooking the sea with it's different shades of blue towards the head of the bay. with the right number, just as your bus is scheduled to leave is a frantic mission.
Today our destination was Falassarna, a supposedly beautiful beach. I had seen Elafonissi on Jesus's camera (along with some other things) so I had an idea what Elafonissi was like. Elafonissi was also a two-hour journey away rather than a one-hour one and I was over long bus rides. So I settled for Falassarna, with Jesus heading there anyway.
The bus-ride ended up taking almost two hours - it made about a million stops along the way.
It was just about all worth it though - the beach was one of the best, if not the best beach I have ever been to.
The sand was golden brown, it was relatively uncrowded and the water was a stunning shade of green/blue. There were also some rocks creating mini lagoons for children to play in. For 3€ we hired a couple of chairs and umbrellas and lied the day away. Perfect.
The highlight was definitely the water. With a flat, sandy bottom, the sea was calm but with just enough waves for it to be fun. The water was the perfect temperature too. But the
Creedance Clearwater Revival
Look how clear the water is. amazing thing was how clear it was. With the water up to my midriff, I could still see my feet perfectly. So refreshing was the sea, that one swim lasted a good 30 minutes. This is the life.
There is a bar on the hill overlooking the beach and from there you get the most spectacular view of the beach, the aquamarine of the shallow water contrasting with the royal blue of the deeper water and the azure of the sky, looking out towards the head of the bay.
It was definitely more of a couples and families beach - I was pretty sure Jesus and I were the only single people on that beach. And I don't think Jesus was giving himself much chance of attracting anyone in those budgie smugglers. Ewww.
Alas, four o'clock had come around far to quickly - it was time to catch the last bus back to Chania. But I left with not so heavy a heart, knowing there would be more of these beaches awaiting me in the Cyclades.
Back in Chania, I stopped by at the store just down the road from Constantino's house to buy some supplies. Walking back to
Venetian Harbour From The Sea Wall
View of the harbour from the sea wall. the apartment afterwards, I can't remember exactly why I wasn't looking ahead but something happened and before I knew it, I was on the ground. I literally didn't know what had hit me, but I was on my arse, my shopping and sunglasses on the ground beside me. I looked over at the road and saw a dislodged wing-mirror lying on the ground. My right arm was in pain, a patch of skin on my wrist was white, the skin shorn. There was a tyre mark on my right leg.
I was in shock for a good few seconds before working out what had happened.
A young woman had stopped her motorbike up the road and came rushing towards me. She was in hysterics.
Asking me if I was OK, I told her that I thought I was - I was alive after all - but in my mind I was worried about the damage to my arm. It was shaking, and I couldn't hold it still. The woman took hold of my shaking arm and went into further hysterics.
She apologised and admitted her own stupidity before asking me repeatedly if I was OK. I honestly didn't know, and
Lighthouse
The angle of the sun played havoc with the taking of photos but sometimes it actually worked out. I think. thought about whether I should get my arm checked out at a hospital. She took my number and agreed to call me later, telling me that if needed to go to hospital, she would take me later - but that for now she had something she had to attend in a hurry, so she had to go.
As she took off, I was still in a bit of a daze before picking up my stuff and walking back to the apartment to gather my thoughts.
Back at the apartment, I found that I could still move my arm normally - it just hurt a bit whenever I moved it. I was fine. As I recollected what had happened, I remember that just before I got hit, I saw a motorbike overtaking a bus out the corner of my eye. The woman had driven up onto the footpath to overtake the bus - accidentally taking me out in the process. Pretty damn stupid.
The Cretans certainly didn't strike me as the most law-abiding citizens. An example is an absolute refusal to stop at zebra crossings - they might as well not have them.
My phone started to ring. The woman
Pretty Streets Of Chania
Shades of Rethymno here. who had hit me was calling.
She asked if I was OK and I told her that I was fine, that I wouldn't need to go to a hospital. She apologised profusely again and thanked me for my "attitude" before hanging up. I think I was in too much shock and was too busy feeling relieved to be angry at her. No serious damage had been done - it was just a pain, literally.
By some miracle also, nothing I was carrying at the time, including my brand new watch, brand new Ray Bans and brand new phone, was damaged. Not even a scratch.
Apart from Constantino and a couple of waiters, I generally found Cretans to be pretty unfriendly on the whole. Perhaps it's the economic crisis; it may be an over-saturation of tourists; perhaps I have been disrespectful for not attempting to speak Greek - but the people always seemed grumpy and rude despite living in what is a pretty relaxed environment. Perhaps it's just the nature of their language, but the Cretans always sound angry or pissed off when they talk.
Before catching my plane the next day, I had some final things to do
Chania Market Hall
One of Chania's landmarks built in 1913. in Crete, the first of which would be to sleep-in, before bidding farewell to Jesus who has been a cool travel companion for my time in Chania. Also in our apartment block was Elias, a Belarussian (how many of those do you meet?) who was interesting conversation on the way into town. I told him about my obsession about going to Minsk, and rather than seeming impressed, he couldn't understand why anyone would want to go to his hometown.
Back in town, I visited Chania's market building, one of the city's landmarks. A cross-shaped building opened in 1913, it now houses various vendors selling fish, olive oil, meat, souvenirs, and postcards. Which reminded me to buy a postcard to send back to my jealous colleagues at work.
The last thing I did before catching yet another bus to the airport, was to have one last meal in the harbour.
Having not been overly impressed by Cretan cuisine the other night, I went for a safer option this time and ordered the swordfish. Battered and served with fries, again it was nice but not amazing. Overall, the food in Crete has been fairly average. It was quite expensive too, like I
Venetian Harbour
Lined with restaurants. have found most things in Crete.
Taking off to Athens, I felt kind of sad leaving Crete. I had a wide range of experiences here, and saw some beautiful towns and landscapes. Heraklion (and Knossos), Rethymno and Chania (along with Falassarna and the Samaria Gorge) all felt unique and I won't ever forget Crete. The sadness was tinged with excitement though - I would be meeting up with Gkee and friends in Athens, as a prelude to eight crazy days in the Cyclades. Bring it on.
Andio,
Derek
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The Virgin Backpacker
non-member comment
Love it!
Great post Derek! I spent 3 weeks in Crete (met family in Rethymno I'd never met before!) in August this year. Absolutely loved it...the Samaria Gorge is just incredible and I agree, Falasarna is amazing! The beaches down south are spectacular too!!! - The Virgin Backpacker www.thevirginbackpacker.com