Day 16 Samaria Gorge – or there are plenty of spaces for Starbucks in Nature.

We awoke bright and early to be sure to catch our 6 am bus to the Gorge. It was about a 1 hour bus ride to the Gorge, with a stop for breakfast along the way. Our 40 person bus drove on a twisty-curvy-road that was about a wide as a small alley in some places. I don’t know how that guy makes his turns, it’s pretty amazing. Most people slept. I had some coffee so I was good to go.
I suppose I should point out that we opted for the all day trip. Let’s let that sink in. I am going to hike, all day, in nature. There was not a café, starbucks, peets, or any other coffee shop along the way for me to re-hydrate. And, I am going to be doing this for an entire day. I can’t do anything for over an hour, much less hike in nature for a day. What am I going to go when I get bored about an hour into the hike? These are the thoughts that are going through my head as we head up the cliff. Fortunately, my mind is off this when we arrived. The view was pretty amazing. Then we start the hike.
The way the hike works is
1. You start at the top, hike down on a steep path that has steps in some parts. This is when the knees and ankles get their workout. Constant turning on slippery rocks. You sort of lose sight of the top of the Gorge, because there are lots of trees.
2. then walk along for a while at sort of a mid level for about hour. But you walk up and down hills. Lots of up and down. At this point a group of French teenagers literally sprints past us. I felt it unnecessary for them to flaunt their age so blatantly.
3. I think at this point you reach alittle village where people actually lived. Not sure what you’re supposed to do here. I guess you sit and rest. I don’t know. It’s a blur. I do remember that there were goats there. I wasn’t amused. I did take a scary picture of a goat.
4. After the village, you are effectively on the bottom. You walk in the middle of the gorge for a long while. On lots of rocks. You also start crossing a creek, that apparently sprouts up out of nowhere. NOTE TO STARBUCKS: lots of great opportunities for a café here. There is lots of space, you have a captured audience (literally – there is no place for them to go). It’s a nice scene and I am sure you can get squatters rights on the land. Or, buy it from the people that used to live in the village. Either way, great place for a starbucks. I took video footage of some key starbucks locations.
5. You get to another resting point. My initial understanding was there was supposed to be food here. I was wrong. No food. You just sort of sit and drink your bottled water. Some people were going up to a fountain getting water. I am certainly not going to drink water from a fountain in the middle of nature. That’s a bit disgusting.
6.Finally you get to the Gorge. I was told that you could touch both sides of the Gorge if you stand in the middle. You can’t. Partially because I am short, but I think Michael Jordan would struggle. Also, there are tons of people there, some walking, some taking pictures, some just hanging out. It was actually pretty cool…with the exception of all the people there. Where did all these people come from? Well, they took the short route; a bus drops you off right outside the cool part, you walk through and walk back to your bus. At the point I get angry. Not only are all those people upsetting this pretty cool experience, especially for Nature, but they don’t deserve. The did not go through steps 1-5 to get there.
7. After the Gorge ending you can stop at a place to get food and water and orange juice. We did. It wasn’t good. I was ready to move on.
8. You have to walk about 5 miles to the Sea. We don’t know what Sea it was, but I think you could see Lybia. I decided to call it the Sea of John, but Lybia might object.
9. You are supposed to swim in the sea. There are a number of problems: 1. there isn’t a place to change, 2. it’s a rocky, pebble beach, 3. the rocks were hot. So here’s what happens:
1. We change in the back of the beach somewhere. Lots of people saw me naked. I lost my boxer briefs.
2. We burned our feed getting into the water
3. It hurt while in the water, because it was all rocks and pebbles
10. You take a 2 hour bus ride home. A kid booted on the way. It was awesome.
We had dinner at a cool place called Eli. It was authentic. They had people playing guitar, the food was good.
We wake up tomorrow for a relaxing drive back to the airport and then a massive travel situation. Chania-Heriklion-Athens-Istanbul-Kayeri

Day 15 Traveling to Hania (Chania) – or driving the minivan through crete

On the drive to Chania
The beach town
Chania Harbor
Joanna and I shooting the horrible tasting post-dinner drink

We got on the road rather early to head to Chania. A cool town on the other side of Crete. We got lost trying to get out of Heriklion (see above for reasons why). We finally got on the right track when we stopped at a gas station and were told that we need to go, “500 miles, then turn left.” “500…miles?” “yes, miles.” Given that 500 meters equals 3.75 miles, we decided that 500 miles = .75 kilometers. Once on our way, we had absolutely gorgeous views along the mountains and sea. Even if the town isn’t that great, the drive there was pretty much worth it. We stopped in a crazy town along the way, “rath…something” it was a nice enough beach town and we bought some beach clothes and had some dinner. Mostly just a bunch of touristy stuff.
Once in Chania, we drove around about 2 hours trying to get to our hotel. Our hotel (the Palazzo) was nice enough and had air-conditioning. The girls decide they want to check out a beach about 45 minutes away. I wasn’t as interested in beaches, so Joanna and I went to explore the town. While we were exploring the town we started to think about our plans to go visit the Samaria Gorge. The front desk clerk told us in broken English that we just needed to go to the bus station and catch a bus and everything would be fine. Our guide book had a different story. They suggested we go through a tourist agency. We opted for the tour agency. The tour agency told us we needed to be back at 6. That’s early.
Joanna and I grabbed dinner on our own. It took us a while to find the restaurant (Antigone) because a) it was wasn’t where it was supposed to be. And b) There was a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in its place and the owner tried to convince us to go there. He tried a three pronged approach to persuading us. 1. He charged the same amount in the winter and summer, 2. his dad started the restaurant and its been in the family for a while, 3. he would give us our food for free if we didn’t like it. All very tempting; except it smelled really badly there. So, we kept searching. After a while we found our place. It looked ok. The waiter/owner told us the freshest fish was swordfish. It didn’t matter because it didn’t taste very good. We were saved by the fact that we had to do about 4 shots of the crappy after dinner drink that tastes similar to the home-made spirits in Hvar town. Off to bed to prepare for a day of nature and hiking.