Greece is the Word

Hello my lovelies.

For all my insisting that this not be a travel blog, it looks like it is mostly a travel blog. Do I continue to say that it is a blog on the wonderful and insightful musings of one particularly average canuck in Manchester, or do I just admit we've been doing so much travelling around that it is a glorified travel blog?

I think I'll just ignore the issue because I can. Plus, labels are boring. I'll just say my blog is the Radiohead of blogs, without the creativity, skill, beauty, or imagination.

So we spent the entire month of August in Greece touring around the islands. I just went through my photos and picked out a good selection of activities, events, and beaches. I ended up with 119 photos, which would probably take me until we are back in Canada to upload. I decided to edit them down by taking out all the pics that show us on a nude beach, drinking wine or beer, or getting into fistfights. I only ended up with this one:

I went through all the pics again and came up with some appropriate good ones. I might keep the stories short---awww, who am I kidding, they will be long and poorly written, but hopefully enjoyable.

I figure going to Greece before it collapses is kind of like going to Cuba before Castro dies- things are about to change. We were in Portugal last year when the government there was basically broke, but building continued and the (older) people seemed to still be living a regular life. Things are not like that in Greece. You can not only see the effects of unemployment and poverty on the streets, but you can feel it in almost all the interactions you have with people in Athens. It's not that they weren't nice, but when dealing with people in the tourist or service industry, you could tell their minds were elsewhere. There is also tension on the streets. (I tried to get Heather involved in a few riots, but she just wanted to watch TV at the hotel. Oh well, there is always next year's Stanley Cup riot to look forward too!)

We had heard that Athens itself was a big, dirty, unappealing city and we should go to the Parthenon and then get to the islands as soon as possible. Well, Athens is dirty and it is HUGE, but we really liked it. For all its edginess, it is also beautiful. The Acropolis is fantastic, the Plaka is too touristy, but there are other sections of the city that are hip and bustling (but only after sundown as it was too freakin hot to do anything in the day except drink water).

I've wanted to see the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis since I was in grade six and we did a section on ancient Greeks in Social Studies. Our school librarian came in with an actual piece of one of the columns because her father was an engineer who came up with some new way that stabilized the columns and made them not fall over, and he was given a piece. I never realized how important that engineer must have been for some Greeks to chip off a piece, but I always thought it was super cool, and it was.

I think it was 37 or 38 degrees out that day.
As an ex-archaeologist I've always tried to have a greater appreciation of prehistory/history everywhere around us and especially the 'lesser' types of sites, artifacts, or places. It was hard, though, in Athens not to get swept up by the world's greatest ancient treasures and just ogle at them in their glorious splendor. Actually, it was impossible not to ogle.

Example one of ogling: A huge solid gold chalice with giant oxen. Take that Lil John.

Example two of ogling: A bronze statue excavated from a shipwreck.

Example three of ogling: The mother-truckin' Mask of Agamemnon. Seriously?

Let's just say it was a good time.

The rest of Athens was cool. Our hotel was reasonably priced and it was located in a 'real' greek neighborhood, which was unexpected and nice. I had no idea that Greek bakers were so skilled! I don't have a picture of it, but my favorite was a giant bagel-type pastry filled with a soft cheese and covered in sesame seeds. It served for many breakfasts across the month.

We ended up eating dinner at an out of way place that was recommend to us by our hotel. The food was pretty good, but really the view was bananas.

We started off to the islands by heading back to the airport for a short, sweat-filled, fist-clenching, gut-wrenching flight to Chania in Crete. I wish I could have swam to Crete---it really would have made me happier than flying.
We took the bus to a small town an hour and a half away called Kissamosis. The first thing we did was jump in Mediterranean. I've said it before and I'll say it again---it is the best water I have ever been in. Hands down.

The next day we took a ferry to a 'secret' beach. Turns out it wasn't a ferry, rather a tour boat, and the beach is not a secret, rather it has no bus access. We were packed onto this boat with a whole bunch of Russian tourists, but it was kind of fun. We stopped at two beaches.

The first one:

The second one:

It's a crappy picture, but you can see how the water is shallow. It was about 12 inches deep and bathtub hot. It was really nice.

We then headed south by bus to one of our favorite stops of the month, a town called Paleochora. It is one of the most southern cities of Europe. It was quite disconcerting that you could hear the warplanes flying missions in Libya. The city is built on a big spit and divided into two parts with two beaches, a pebble beach and sand beach and they are only about 10 blocks apart from each other.
The sandy beach:

Paleohora has an abundance of really great restaurants. This was an old church that has a collapsed roof so they turned it into a restaurant. I had chicken stifano and it was unreal good. Oh yeah, our wine was 2.50 for a half litre.

One night we went to the outdoor movie theater and watched Zorba the Greek, which was filmed in Crete. The movie itself was not that good (although Anthony Quinn was great as Zorba), but the outdoor theater was fantastic. I ordered a beer and a popcorn and played with cats and sat outside in the warm evening heat.

After a very relaxed four nights in Paleochora we went back up to Chania for a night. It used to be a ship building stronghold/factory for the Venetian empire and the old harbour was beautiful. We were lucky enough to get a hotel right in town. It had the craziest stairs of any hotel I have ever stayed.

Our room was the top left pink one.

Great dinner that night. I had lemon chicken meatballs and Heather had a sea bream cooked in parchment paper and fresh herbs. Yum!

We left Chania for Heraklion (the capital of Crete). It was as to be expected, less quaint and more functional. It still had a giant Venetian old port and great vistas.

We took the ferry from Heraklion to Santorini. We ended up taking the fast ferry and had to go in first class. It was a catamaran jet ferry. It was a fast boat--I mean we were going very, very fast. I don't know the exact speed, but when we hit 88 I thought Doc Brown was going to push the flux capacitor into high gear.

Santorini is completely unique and stunning and magnificent. And busy. Really busy. Especially coming from the small towns of Crete, I was not prepared for that level of tourism. There were three to four cruise ships docking per day in Thira and the road was bumper to bumper with cars, scooters, and quads. There is a reason why so many people come to the island though: it is gorgeous.

It was expensive to stay in any of the hotels in Thira or Oia on the rim of the volcano, so we decided to stay in an smaller town close to Thira. It wasn't more than a 20 minute walk to town and we received great value and had a kitchenette and flowery balcony (and great pool).

We were in Santorini for five days---maybe it was one day too long, but there is a lot to do on such a small island. By a lot to do, I kinda just mean go to the beach.

We rented a scooter one day and explored Oia and the island.

Santorini is the quintessential picture of the Greek Islands and it really didn't matter there were so many people around with us, it just looked fantastic.

The sunsets are famed in Santorini and for good reason.

Can you believe I asked my sweet wife for a bite and she just stabbed me with her fork and squirted lemon juice in my eyes? Just plain mean.

One of my favorite beaches of the trip was called Red Beach on Santorini. Again busy, but worth it.

We also hiked up to a monastery at the top of the island (and by hiked, I mean drove to the entrance and walked up 8 flights of stairs to the top. It's too bloody hot to hike!)

I wanted to rent a donkey instead of a scooter, but I'm allergic.

We ended up going to see another outdoor Greek themed movie--Mama Mia! It was fun. This theater was even nicer, with food and mixed drinks, but we just ate a mammoth platter of Greek delicacies before heading to the show.

Well, I think this is a good place to end part one. It also happens to be the mid-point of our month too. So far, W-O-W.

Stay tuned for Part 2 and the continuing saga of Heather squirting lemon juice in my eyes and stabbing me with a fork.

Blast-er from the Past-er

Our old city, soon to be our new city. Again.

Cats! Cats! Cats!

There were soooo many cats in Greece. I actually thought most of them were going to be house cats, but they were just strays and that made me really sad. There were some real beauties, though, and this was the best pic. Not the nicest cat, just pic. I'll call him, Handsome Heath. What a looker! You could get a mug made of this guy!

Later,

CC