Three's Company

Today I woke up, ate a croissant for breakfast and went to the bus station. I waited for a while and the bus finally came (most things in Greece are a little late it seems, except stupid buses on Santorini, haha). While I waited I ran into a guy named Ben (he's that speck in the middle of picture 4). He's from Chicago and we actually met while waiting for a ferry from Mykonos to Santorini. He's 22 and a physical therapist. He has been all around the world and is touring Greece right now before going to wedding in Cyprus. We have run into each other on Mykonos, Santorini (twice), Heraklion, yesterday in Chania, and then today to go to the Gorge. I think God wanted the two of us to hang out, haha. He was traveling with a girl he met on the ferry from Santorini to Heraklion. Her name is Catherine and she's from Quebec. Super cute and really nice (that's her in the bottom left of picture 3 which was right by where we ate lunch). She has a sort of French accented English. The three of us rode the bus together up to the top of the Gorge. We had to pass through some extremely twisty roads that were one lane wide for two lanes of traffic. Insane. The mountains and little towns were beautiful.

We arrived at the top of the Gorge and proceeded on our way down. The whole hike was downhill. Samaria Gorge is the longest gorge in Europe. Don't ask me what the difference between a gorge and a canyon is because I have no clue. The scenery was wonderful and I love hiking. It was a very pleasant hike. I would rate it as moderately difficult. Like I said, the whole thing was downhill and it was only (only being relative here) about 14 or 15 km long or 9 miles. That might sound like a lot to some people but after hiking Half Dome with my mom last summer, this hike was a walk in the park. Ever since that hike I think I have had a different attitude about life. I feel like I can do just about anything I put my mind to (with some help from friends and family). I guess I felt that way before that hike as well but after it, I really adopted that mentality. It has been very successful. For those that don't know, that hike was 17 miles long had over 5000 feet elevation gain. It is probably the hardest day hike in the US, if not the world so accomplishing that was awesome. I am getting WAYYYYY off subject so I will hope back on that subject now, sorry. I just wanted to make sure I said that stuff.

Yeah, so the hike was all downhill and pretty easy but still super beautiful. The wind was blowing lightly most of the hike, the temperature was not too bad, there was a lot of shade from the walls of the gorge and from trees along the path. There weren't too many people hiking it either. Just the bus load that got dropped off at the top basically. Catherine and I talked most of the hike. About family, traveling, school, a bunch of stuff. Ben and I talked about national parks and traveling as well. There was one point where the gorge came to be only about 6 feet wide and about 900 feet high on each side. Super awesome. It reminded me of the Narrows at Zion but we never walked in the water (it was pretty dry) and the gorge for the most part was pretty wide apart. The hike ended at a town called Agia Roumeli which is on the coast of the southern part of Crete. We hung out at the beach for a couple hours waiting for the ferry (picture 6). Ben and Catherine went swimming but I did not. The beach was very pretty. We got on the ferry which stopped in Loutro (picture 7). That's the place that that Canadian family in Florence told me about. The ferry continued on to Hora Sfakion and we took the bus back from there. The sun was setting and all the towns in the mountains were great. The roads were soooo twisty and turny and skinny. Some were under construction as well. The countryside reminded me of California but I can't totally place way. When we got back to Chania, the three of us went to a pasty shop and Catherine and I got this honey wafer thing. It was fantastic. Ben got bakalava which he devoured.

All in all, one of the best days of my time abroad, partly due to the hike (absolutely wonderful) and partly due to the company (really awesome). Tomorrow, Catherine and I are meeting up to hang out during the day while we wait for our ferry to Athens. We happened to be on the same overnight ferry. The coincidences never stop.

Au revoir!

PS I forgot my camera cord so I will try to post some pictures sometime soon. I don't know when but some of my pictures were spectacular. Not too many flowers but loads of pine trees and exposed rock.