MORE GREECE - Four Nights and Three Days in Crete

It's me! Chris! It's MORE GREECE!

Jen, Otis and I are getting so close to the present day! I'm going to tell you about our brief adventures on Crete, which will put us only a week behind the bleeding edge. It'll be interesting to see what we write about when we're all out of recaps.

SO, CRETE!

When we were looking at where to go in the Greek Islands, and knowing we'd be doing it in mid-October, we chose Santorini and Crete (well, Jen was set on Santorini come hell or high water) because they're the furthest south islands in Greece. If our choice in islands could gain us even a couple of degrees celsius, it would be welcome.

Crete sits about 100 miles south of Santorini, and maybe 300 miles north of Libya, with basically nothing in between. Crete is also freaking BIG. Well, big for a greek island; at 3,200 square miles, it's in the same size ballpark as Connecticut. But when you get there, you'll understand that the three days (four nights) we had there was not enough to get a feel for it.

Crete has mountains which supposedly have snow year-round - I'm not sure I believe it, but its tallest mountain is over 8,000 feet; Connecticut's tallest mountain is the side of a mountain whose peak is in Massachusetts (take that Connecticut). Samaria Gorge in southwest Crete is ostensibly the longest gorge in Europe and attracts thousands of in-season visitors a day; the Mianus River gorge in Connecticut has a pretty cool rope swing and attracted some of my high school friends who wanted a convenient place to swim and experiment with marijuana in a parentally consequence free environment. Crete has the ruins of a 3,000 year old palace, the remains of Europe's oldest city; Connecticut has the Stamford Mall, featured in the ruinous 1991 Woody Allen/Bette Midler vehicle "Scenes from a Mall." Crete has some of the best beaches in Greece and therefore Europe; judging from the Westport beach we used to go to in my childhood, Connecticut doesn't even have the best beaches in Connecticut.

Compo Beach, Westport Connecticut

Balos Beach & Lagoon, Chania Greece

So, three days isn't enough for Crete. We meant to spend a week, but we got squeezed by travel windows on both ends so three full days were all we would get. We booked one night in Heraklion, the capital of Crete and fourth largest city in Greece, and three nights in Chania town (Chania is both a city and, effectively, a state and we stayed in the downtown).

Proprietor of the Kronos Hotel, for those into Art/Mythology jokes

ARRIVAL DAY - Arrive on fast ferry from Fira. Note to travelers: If the ferry says 03:38 or whatever, then yes, this means the ferry leaves at 3:38 AM. You may be like me and not realize this, and then you'll be out a bunch of dough and feel silly. Don't be like me. We stayed at the Kronos hotel, which was adequate (and glory hallelujah, had a REAL SHOWER!!!) and Otis and I had a nice dinner out at  Amalias Kitchen, which I recommend.

Walking through Heraklion from our Ferry to the Hotel

DAY ONE - First, I walked to the Airport to get our rental car from Enterprise. The car wasn't ready (my bad again), so we had to wait an extra hour. While I was out, Jen and Otis decided we should definitely go to Zeus's birthplace (natch), so that's where we headed, a very twisty hour and a quarter south and east of Heraklion. Once we dug the cave where Rhea hid from Chronos, we headed way west to Knossos, the fantastically old Minoan ruins near Heraklion (which showed no signs of labyrinths or minotaurs), and then two hours more to our Airbnb in Chania. Recommend the cave, Meh on Knossos, the Chevy Aveo and our Airbnb.

Not very impressive Chevy Aveo from Enterprise, but way more impressive than the Peugeot 107 we had on Santorini. Island miles are tough miles.

100% Replicant Free Village

Jen hiking into Zeus's childhood home, which, jokes aside, was an important pilgrimage cite for ancient Greeks, and the cave was full of important artifacts when it was rediscovered

Psychro Cave looks a lot like Gollum's Cave from the 70s cartoon version of The Hobbit.

See?

Down, down to Goblin Town

TFW you're hungry enough to order a terrible lunch from a tourist trap café that doesn't have most of its menu and doesn't tell you it lacks a credit card machine

Otis wanted to do a short hike up a mountain, and we saw these beautiful flowers

Otis on the Mountain Peak, observe the poor choice in footwear

A lot of Konosos was rebuilt by the English archaeologist who discovered it and didn't know any better. Here's a Throne Room, he supposed

Jen in the ancient and rebuilt ruins

DAY TWO - Since Samaria Gorge had just closed for the year, we contented ourselves with Elafonisi Beach, one of many highly recommended beaches in western Crete. It was the furthest one away, but Jen and Otis' research revealed that it was the best one and worth the trip (Those clicking links above know that Trip Advisor says its the second best beach in Europe). The weather looked REAL dire, but an hour and a half drive through crazy mountain canyons brought us to the North Africa biome (see you later, Mediterranean Biome!) and stunningly lovely weather. Highly recommend Elafonisi Beach.

Elafonisi (some say Elafonissi or Elafonossis) is known for its pink sand

The pink sand is only where the waves hit. The sand is perfect, the water is perfect. This is a perfect beach.

Good thing we didn't stay in the cold rain back in Chania

It turns out if you walk past where all the people sit, there's more perfect beaches with no people at all 

Would happily sit here a long time

Sorry, I'm going to have to show you a lot of pictures of sunsets

Jen wanted to leave before the sun set, because the drive back was long and scary, but I was glad we were late in leaving

Got to get the reflected sun set two; this picture counts twice

If you stare at this picture long enough, you see a green flash!

Walking back to the car

This guy lives with his human in a pickup truck

DAY THREE - Tour the scenic downtown of Chania, but then get into a pointless argument with Otis that makes everyone mad and disinterested in further sight-seeing or fun-having. Recommend Chania, Highly Recommend AGAINST pointless arguments with Otis.

This is how I saw a lot of Chania, out late at night, scouting for food

It would have been nice to see more of Chania, which has a charming downtown, and was a Venetian port, and has old churches and mosques

On our last day, the water was very high, and we all got our feet wet

Waves crashing against the lighthouse jetty

DEPARTURE DAY - Wake up, get coffee, walk to internet café to print boarding passes (Ryan Air doesn't accept your phone as a boarding pass? Let me introduce you to the 21st Century Ryan Air!) and fly to Athens. Easy and Peasy, but too short in Crete!