Crete: A very short Odyssey

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Flying all the way from London to Crete on the other side of Europe for a four day solo holiday was admittedly on odd choice, but fate dealt me that hand, and despite the late notice and strange circumstances I ended up having a great time and a very adventurous few days.

I was determined not to try too hard to prepare, because when I'm travelling by myself being too organised kills my buzz. So it's fair to say I didn't deserve much of the good fortune I had. After arriving in Hania in Western Crete in a public bus a tall gentleman floated in my direction and asked if I needed a room to stay. Central, en suite bathroom, rooftop terrace and ridiculously under-priced? "Yes, thanks!" I liked it so much I stayed there the entire trip.

I had been strongly recommended Hania: a pretty Venetian port town with crumbling ramparts, a lighthouse, jauntily-coloured stone houses and al fresco restaurants. Even in May when it was warm enough to sunbathe there was a back-drop of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Unfortunately when I woke to greet my first morning in this stunning place, it was cool and rainy with choppy seas. I hadn't banked on mediocre weather, and despite the fact that the Greek invented stoicism I was struggling very hard not to sulk. It didn't help that my ever-helpful Blackberry was telling me that at this moment it was seven degrees warmer in London. Still, the resourceful Odysseus had had to confront numerous such crises on his way home from Troy so I looked to him for inspiration. I reasoned that with the weather coming from the north and me being on the North coast, a bus trip over yonder mountain range might fix the problem. It did: Paleahora on the south coast was in a rain shadow with not so much as a single cloud in the sky. Take note on the beach shot I took here: notice the strangely unclear line between sand and sea? The beach was windy enough to be in a perpetual mini sand-storm. Still, I hadn't come all this way not to have a swim... I was pelted relentlessly as I entered and exited the Mediterranean. I regret nothing.

Dining out in Greece (or at least Crete) did involve quite a lot of pressure to drink a lot. If the waiter liked me, at the end of the meal I would be given a complementary sorbet and some of the local gutrot, "raki". Not a shot glass of raki, oh no, but a bottle of raki. When I asked the waiter whether I was obliged to drink the whole thing he wasn't going to say "no" and instead just suggested I drink it slowly and see how far I get. Drinking it slowly unfortunately entailed tasting it, but I still managed pretty well.

The centre-piece of my stay in Crete was a 14km trek down the Samaria Gorge. I had had to delay this hike until the weather improved, as the trek starts right in the mountains. Even as it was, the air was extremely fresh. The walk starts at the edge of a precipice with a gigantic gulley running sideways and plunging downwards with the much higher Mount Gingilos on the other side. It took me some minutes to stop saying "Oh my God." I was even irritating myself. The walk was almost purely downhill - to sea level in fact - and passed pristine mountain streams, an abandoned mountain village, an explosion of wild flowers, wild goats and wild women. OK, not so many wild women - just a single sad-looking donkey instead. Rough Guide Crete came into its own when it warned in its characteristically clinical manner that the last two kilometres were dull - somehow you don't feel so bad when you are officially not supposed to be having a good time. That said, the first 12kms were truly awe-inspiring and the eventual destination involved cold beer, a beach and a ferry ride, so that is a pretty top-notch day out in my book.

In the rest of my trip I managed to pack in several stunning beaches, a sacred cave, a vineyard and Crete's most famous architectural site, Knossos. This was home to the Minoans that pre-dated even the ancient Greeks... we're talking 1700BC here! In Greek legend this was home to the labyrinth and the Minotaur.

All in all my visit to Crete was a remarkably complete touristic experience... it turns out that Greek Islands can be about more then munching on feta and getting sunburned!

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