Greece

Just finished a great 6 days in Greece and am now safe and sound in one of the best cities in the world: Istanbul. Before Istanbul begins to do its number on me, I feel that I need to take a moment to reminisce on the great experience that was Crete and Athens.

One section of Chania Old Harbor

I arrived in Chania (Crete) last Tuesday morning after my 12 hour stint in Rome yet again. Naturally, being Greece, it was hot as hell as soon as I got off the plane so I was in a hurry to get to my hotel and take a shower/relax since I'd only slept for less than 2 hours the night before. Grabbed the city bus into town and start heading out to the Old Harbor where my hostel was situated--a beautiful private room overlooking the old venetian lighthouse. The Old Harbor wasn't hard to find, and neither was my hotel--perfect location right among all of the cute little cafes. Walk up to the door and...locked.

Now I'm trying not to panic. My first thought was that the hotel had a lock-out I was unaware of, which many hostels do so they can clean rooms in the afternoon. After knocking several times, I then ask a woman at a restaraunt right next door if there is another entrance into the hotel since I've booked a room and I'd like to check in. She gives me a pitiful look and says "I was told that the owners took all of the money, closed the hotel, and left town. This hotel is no longer open and you should call the police." 

Life made so much more sense after this

I. Was. Done. 

Looking back, I'm really glad that I had the fogginess of sleep deprivation to help me cope with this news, as I think fully capacitated I would have been a hot mess. As it was, I was outside of my mind hungry and headed right next door and sat myself down for some food so I could think properly about the next course of action. Ordered a delicious chicken bacon gyro and a traditional greek mythos beer. 

After kicking back, enjoying my food and the beautiful view in the harbor I then set off the old fashioned way to cross compare hotel prices since I had no internet access. After asking around 5-6 different places, I finally felt drawn to stay at this cute little Hotel Morfeas in a side alley off of the main strip. A bed/bathroom to myself was 25 euros a night which was about the same price as my last hotel, though there was no free breakfast. At this point I didn't even care--I just wanted a place to put my things and sleep. Since it was only around 3 in the afternoon I asked the girl receptionist downstairs what I should eat while in Crete and then headed out to see the city, deciding I would come back in a few hours and head to bed early. Walked around the harbor, bought some post cards, and had a lovely mousaka dinner with shots of raki after before calling it a night and staying in that hotel room for the next 15 hours to sleep/lounge.

Our guide in the freezing greek water

The next morning I woke up and continued to explore out by the lighthouse/many of the little shops around Chania. I had wanted to go and hike the famous samarian gorge or go to one of the other popular beached in greece, but my finances were not very happy that it would cost 35 euros to go on a 7 hour hike by myself or to go lay on a beach 2 hours away, so I decided to stay around town. Around midday I indulged in a little glass bottom boat tour out to this island off the coast where our english guide got in his wetsuit and brought different fish under the glass for us to see. We had the opportunity to snorkel as well, but the water was wayyyy to cold for that so I stayed warm inside the boat. 

 After the boat trip I just continued to walk around the city, exploring different places and trying to decide whether or not I should indulge in an actual meal or go for the cheap gyro place again. I would have probably gone for the cheaper option had I not run into the most romantic restaurant ever.

Try not to fall in love here, I dare you

With lovely fragrant violet flowers strewed around the ground and sensual open beams letting in the cool cretan air, I was smitten. I was straight up falling in love. Without further question I sat down and ordered myself some more traditional greek food (boureki) and people watched. It's taken a long time for me to feel comfortable eating by myself since there is such a huge negative bias towards it in the US (and I'm still working on re-writing this narrative), but this meal was too delicious and the atmosphere too perfect to bother with what people thought. Any pictures I tried to take did it complete injustice.

This entire trip has been a battle with technology to try and capture the beautiful scenery and feeling of these places--something that so often just can't be done when you are traveling in the Mediterranean. 

I headed in for another early evening since I wanted to leave pretty early the next day to explore Rethymno and Heraklion before my overnight ferry to Athens.

The ride to Rethymno was pretty uneventful, just one short hour by public bus. I should note that Crete has THE most comfortable transportation--straight up Greyhound buses taking you all around the island for only 6-7 euros. Really really great for sitting back and enjoying the natural scenery of Crete. 

I was surprised by how unimpressive Rethymno was, only spending about an hour and a half total there where I had planned to spend 4. Walked around the weekly thursday market where they sold lots of cheap clothes--which I almost indulged in, but then last minute decided I would wait until Turkey. Back on the bus for another hour and a half journey to Heraklion where the ferries leave for mainland Greece.

Angry Greek Santa in the throws of the argument

This ride was quite a different story. Besides the fact that it was a completely packed bus, I also had the pleasure of sitting next to Greek Santa for the duration of the journey, which I was ecstatic about since his beard was so glorious. 

Little did I know that he was a fighter, and within 10 minutes of being on the bus he is in absolute BEDLUM with these two other people on the bus talking only god knows what about (though I have a feeling it was about the turks to be honest...did hear them mention turkey several times). This continued on for about 40 minutes, as the woman assisting with collecting tickets tried to subdue him but most other passengers just laughed at his passionate argument. I actually ended up recording a part of his yelling, just to illustrate how much my peace was disturbed on this bus trip by angry greek Santa. 

One of the main things I've come to understand while in Greece is the old phrase "I don't know, it all looks greek to me" when people don't understand something. This. is. too. true. So much truth behind this statement, as Greek neither looks or sounds like ANYTHING resembling any language I've heard while traveling in the Mediterranean. There are so many different letters they have that I honestly have no idea how they are correlated with different sounds, and as such I spent a lot of time silently nodding and drifting off when I'd hear people going off in Greek. Such was my experience with angry greek Santa's rantings as well as my travels within Greece itself. And so many things were in strictly Greek too, whereas other countries will usually have english and their mother language side by side. Needless to say, I was confused 80% of the time with what things meant/where to go because of the strict language barrier.

Minoan Lines: my first fancy ferry experience

Tried walking around Heraklion for a few hours before it started to rain buckets down, so I walked back to the port and got on the ferry early. I don't know exactly what I had been expecting for this ferry, but I was absolutely blown away. This was my first real time being on a ship for more than an hour or two journey, and it was glorious. Straight up restaurants, night clubs, televisions, swimming pools--the works. My poor ass felt like I was on the goddamn titanic, walking around starstruck by all of the different options of what to do ON A BOAT. 

My sentiments exactly Meryl. Shattered.

After exploring around the ship for an hour I soon staked my place in the economy seating area I had booked, following other people's lead and laying my stuff across an entire aisle so I could lay down to sleep. As soon as the ship took off, I got a bought of laziness and decided to settle in for a movie. What else do you watch in Greece as an ignorant American but: Mama Mia. Movies like this and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants greatly skewed my experience of what I thought Greece would be like, and I'm not going to lie---I was very upset that I didn't have a sexy greek boyfriend within 48 hours of entering the island. You got me this time, Hollywood.

Arrived in Piraeus the next morning, the port city just outside of Athens. Followed the throng of people to the metro and hopped on to continue the journey into Athens. Since it was only 8am by the time I stepped off the metro at Monastiraki Station in downtown Athens, everything was closed. I knew my hostel was pretty centrally located since that was my main reason for booking it, so with directions in hand I headed out to find it. After 15 minutes of walking I arrived, set down my bags with the receptionist guy, and soon after went on the free walking tour to get better acquainted with the city. 

How lucky was I?

The gods must have favored me because I found myself face to face with 4 beautiful gingers, two of which were literally from Ireland (stereo-typically running from shadow to shadow as to avoid being sunburned since they forgot their sunscreen...seriously). We headed up past the ancient greek and roman agoras, stopping along the way as he filled us in on greek history and modern culture/politics. We talked a lot about the state of Greece within the EU to be honest, and the level of corruption within the government that makes the country so economically depressed. Our guide was half Greek-half English, so he kind of had a dual perspective on the whole issue. Very insightful.

 

Standing on the sacred rock under the acropolis

Finally we arrived near the top of the acropolis overlooking the city where the ancient apostle Paul gave his sermon to the Greeks about Jesus Christ. It was also used to be a kind of courthouse where they would try the most serious of crimes, as they thought they higher you got to the gods the more likely you were to be honest and the gods were to intervene to bring about justice. Kind of a smart idea. Anyways, the rock has amazing views and is often used today as a hang out/romantic spot for friends and more-than-friends to come and relax after work. It's also very slippery from the leftover marble remnants.

We stopped soon after to get some delicious greek frozen yogurt--unlike anything I've ever tasted. So fresh and natural with lots of different options for toppings. Continued our tour through many archaeological sites before parting way at the Parliament building, at which point I headed home for a nap. Athens is such a hilly city that after a few hours of walking up and down and around all of these sites I needed to just...relax. Spent the rest of the day exploring around the hostel, visiting the National Library of Athens and Athens University before grabbing another gyro and turning in early.

Temple of Hephaestus

Though the tour was informational, we didn't actually enter any of the sites. On Saturday then I woke up early so I could head out and revisit a lot of the monuments to explore and take pictures. Started out at the ancient Greek agora which is like the old market place. At the museum there they also have the only fully-intact Spartan shield, which was actually kind of anti-climactic. My favorite was personally the Temple of Hephaestus which is much more impressive and in better condition than the Parthenon up on the acropolis. Its just incredible to think that Plato and Socrates walked these grounds debating ideas and teaching others philosophy...seriously crazy history here. 

Afterwards, by recommendation of my tour guide, I started with the Acropolis museum to see a lot of the artifacts recovered from the acropolis above. Personally, though many of the statues and other pieces were impressive, I thought the museum itself was amazing. Built as a working archaeological site, the bottom level floor is made of glass so you can look below and see the ruins as they continue to explore more of these old historic grounds. 

The Parthenon!

After putting off the acropolis as long as possible, I finally gave in and made the hellish trek up the hill. Hearing from many people that the monuments weren't that impressive I have to say....they were completely right. The view from up there is amazing, but with all of the destruction from war and religious pillaging there's not much in the way of impressive intact structures. Took the required photos, appreciated the view, and then returned to the hostel for another nap. Ever since I started traveling with Daniel in Barcelona and Sicily (an old lazy man, to be sure), I've been in love with naps while traveling. 

That night I got to know the two other girls in my hostel from Holland (Lisanne and Nicky) who were speaking so fast in dutch and would then interject with a "true story" that I couldn't stop laughing. Their knowledge of american slang and culture was impressive, not to mention their fluency in English  which made for a good time. That night I showed them the cheap 2 euro gyro place I'd been living off of since arriving in Athens. The next day we opted for a chilled out day at the beach to take advantage of the good weather and to  recover from all of our walking around Athens.

The beach itself wasn't particularly amazing, very rocky and small, but the weather was perfect. Hot, but with just the perfect amount of wind that every hour or so you could take a dip and be perfect lounging out. We spent a few hours there tanning and being harassed by Indian immigrants trying to sell us stolen goods before heading back to the hostel. Grabbed some more frozen greek yogurt, and indulged in a ladies-night Magic Mike fest back at the hostel.

Frankly, nothing too exciting near the end. Athens is really a 2-day city, and being there 4 days I started to get a little bored there at the end. Not unlike Istanbul--day 2 here and I'm re-smitten. Though I just know my english will be absolute shit by the end. So many hand gestures, broken words and phrases, and a mixture of very bad turkish--they'll have to re-teach me my own language! So excited to be back though with Brandon in Burakhan's lovely home! It's going to be a great 2 weeks now :)