Hania Town

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Those of us that chose not to tackle the Samaria Gorge had a free day in Hania. We decided to start with the Agora which is a fabulous flea market type building full of little stalls selling everything you can imagine from meat and vegetables to tourist souvenirs. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to where they are set up and you can have a souvenir shop next to a butcher. There were several leather shops with some nice purses and wallets, spice shops with packets of local spice for souvlaki or salad, bakeries, butchers, fish shops, clothing stores with t-shirts and the typical Greek shirts, everything was available. It was cute at the fish shop as there was a skinny cat hiding behind a bucket waiting for the little fish to fall to the ground so it could scoop it up and devour it.

After the market we headed for the old harbour but got sucked into an alley that had all kinds of shops and sidewalk stalls (except there were no sidewalks) with jewellery and other stuff. I bought some interesting silver earrings for a very reasonable price. We followed the street around and popped out in a square in front of the Cathedral so we promptly went inside to have a look around. It was immense and impressive as are all the Orthodox churches we have seen so far with murals above the iconoclast, huge gilt chandeliers and a lot of other art work. The church is obviously well used as there were tons of silver votives suspended from the paintings. On the other side of the street from the Cathedral was the Catholic church, tucked into a little garden behind a house (the Folklore Museum). It was shockingly plain in comparison to the Orthodox churches especially after having viewed one such a short time before. It was all pink plaster inside with a very effective use of the bare stone-brick to frame the paintings of the saints.

We then set out to find the Synagogue for further comparison but never could find it. We had a map and were definitely in the right area as we found the island created by the Venetian walls but no joy. We wended our way through the little alleys in that area but the Synagogue was too well hidden for us to discover. We then went into the Archaeological Museum which was quite interesting as it had some mosaics on the floors and a fascinating collection of sarcophagi, some really quite small and some quite large, almost coffin dimensions. We carried on around the harbour which is quite a beautiful little area with Venetian walls encircling the harbour and a lighthouse that looks like a minaret at the end of a kilometer long breakwater/wall. The harbourfront area is lined with cafes interpersed erratically with the occasional tourist shop or internet cafe. We went into a bookstore that was quite fun, the shopkeeper was well read and did not hesitate to express his opinion of the materials he had for sale. My companion was looking at a couple of books by Nikos Kazantzakis and he told her to buy 'Zorba the Greek' as it was fun rather than the 'Last Testament' that wasn't so entertaining and uplifting. He also suggested that after reading the book she watch the movie with Anthony Quinn. I picked up a book listing 15 ancient sites in Greece which I thought would help me understand the locations we are visiting better.

We went to the Patari Taverna for lunch which we had started calling George's as we had met him the night before. I had tabouleh and kibbeh and my companion had falafel and half an avocado salad since George had said a whole one was quite large and she didn't think she could eat it all. She asked if he had fresh lemon juice and he indicated he didn't normally but would make it for us if we wanted, which we did. We were there quite late and he needed to go home to change so he was very apologetic about asking us to pay before we asked for the bill so he could leave. George is quite a character and a very savvy businessman as we met him the night before when we were wandering the harbourfront killing time waiting for the live music at the Cafe Kriti to begin. He invited us in, like everyone else on the waterfront, but we said we had already eaten. He coaxed us in anyway and gave us a delicious drink he called "sex on the rocks" a pink drink with ouzo, grenadine, orange juice and water and then convinced us to look at the menu. One of my companions hadn't had dinner so she ordered some falafel while the other gal and I split a Sfakia Pie, a delicious dessert consisting of a crepe with some honey and feta cheese. He then gave us some squares of cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a scoop of chocolate ice cream and some raki.

Some other members of our group had been to George's for lunch and were told that he would put on a meze for us if we had more than four people so 15 of us decided to go there for dinner. We had a great meal with cheese balls (to die for), meat balls, Greek salad, not hummus (a chick pea paste without garlic), tzatziki, a delicious local bean dish, moussaka, tortellini (because one of the girls asked for it), superb kalamari, whitebait (giant fried sardines), lightly battered shrimp fried with the shells on, finishing the meal with cake, ice cream and raki, all for 8.50-9.00 euro each. It was a fabulous meal and even though we only had a bit of each item, most of us were stuffed by the end.

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