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.

Money, Money, Money

That snoring guy was back last night. This time he rolled over to his side at 6 am instead of around 2 am the night before, thus making the snoring longer. It wasn't so bad. I finished Portrait of the Artist at a Young Age by James Joyce last night before going to bed. It was pretty good. Kind of a tough read. I had to work at it but that was good for me. I started a book called The Narrows by Micheal Connelly. It is a crime thriller. It is soooooo good. It is 400 pages and I am already almost done with it. Anyway, I woke up and ate fried eggs, bread, oj, and tea on the roof garden again. Yum yum. Then I got packed and left. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I stayed at a place called Rent A Room Hellas. It was ok. Not that good but also not that bad. I met two couples in my dorm room while I was there who were nice. One was from Canada and the other from Australia but living in London (like all Australians it seems). So I left the hostel and walked over to the bus station. I bought my ticket and waited to leave. There were two guys from Montreal (they were talking to some other people) and they had the most veiny, muscular calves I had ever seen. The bus ride was nice. The sea on the right and some beautiful mountains on the left. I will admit I barely looked out the window because I was reading that crime book, The Narrows, so much. I love books that make you forget how much has passed while you read them. There was probably the biggest guy I had ever seen sitting in front and to the right of me. He was traveling with his mom who was one of the smallest women I had ever seen. They made a funny couple. The guy snored but I hardly noticed.

Chania was ruled by Turks and Venetians for a long time. The town looks a lot like Venice. There is an old harbor that is surrounded by touristy restaurants (picture 1). The Old Town is quiet and peaceful. The place really reminds me of Venice and Turkey combined (like the old mosque at one end of the harbor picture 2). The streets and houses look like Venice but the INSANE number of tourist shops remind me of Turkey. I got to my hotel/pension place and checked in. It is run by an older Greek guy. He was nice. I originally thought I was going to only stay one night, hike Samaria Gorge tomorrow and then take a ferry to Athens tomorrow night. After getting settled, I walked around and saw some of the sights. It was fun to just walk around and look at the stores. I had a pastry with bacon, ham, cheese, and cream cheese in it. Superb. I bought some supplies for tomorrow, snacks and stuff to eat. I sat by the harbor and read my book for a while. I was getting cold so I started to head back to my hotel when James and Jessica, the two people I met waiting for the ferry to Santorini called me over to their table! What a coincidence to run into them again!! We ran into each other in Heraklion as well on Friday night. For those that don't remember (or maybe I never said), Jessica is from Buffalo, NY and James is from Wales. They have been traveling around Greece for the last week or so. We met waiting for the ferry from Santorini (the one that got delayed, we started talking while we waited for it). Anyway, today we talked for an hour or two and just sort of hung out at a cafe. It was really nice to just sit and chat. I made sure to get my picture taken with them this time though (picture 5). We parted ways for what, for sure, will be the last time, at least for a while. They are headed to Athens tonight and then back home tomorrow. They were awesome people and I was really glad I met them.

I changed my mind about my plan so I paid for another night of accommodation. The ferry to Athens is at 9 pm from a town 20 minutes away and the bus back from the Gorge doesn't get back until around 8:30 pm so I wouldn't be able to make the ferry and hike the Gorge. I had to change my ferry ticket and I bought the bus ticket to the Gorge for tomorrow. The bus is at 8:30 am. I will take the bus to the top, hike down, take a ferry over a couple towns, and then take a bus back to Chania. It will be a long day but I am really looking forward to it!

I remembered seeing a really small place in the Old Town while I was walking so I went there for dinner. Quite possibly my best dining experience of the trip so far (except Kusadasi maybe). It is run by a family and the restaurant is really just a few tables with an open kitchen that you can see into (picture 6). It is run by a mom, dad, and their two daughters who are in their twenties. I had tzatziki (cucumber and other stuff with bread) as an appetizer. It was really delicious. I had meatballs for the main course (after eating most of them picture 7). They were spicier than the normal meatballs I have had before. There were also tomatoes and a lemon slice. The meatballs were hot from being warmed and spicy, the tomatoes were cool and fresh, and the lemon juice was sweet and sour. The combination was awesome. The kitchen was open to see in and it was fun watching the family work to make the meals. The kitchen was your basic family kitchen as well. One of the daughters hummed or sang sometimes. It was perfectly quiet out in the street. An extremely memorable experience. All of it (and water) was only 7 euros. I walked over to a cafe and got a crepe with walnuts and nutella. MMMM mmm good. Then I came on this computer. When I left, the harbor was all lit up (picture 8).

I titled the post that way because I bought a bunch of stuff today in preperation for the next couple days. I spent kind of a lot of money but it will all pay off tomorrow while I am hiking and for the ferry on Tuesday night. I wrote a lot for this post because the keyboard I am using is actually good, not a piece of crap like the ones in Heraklion. Also, I feel like I haven't done a good, long post for a while so here ya go. Tomorrow the Gorge. Woo!

One other thing, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who read this! If this blog kept going over Father's Day, I would say the same so don't feel left out dads!! Moms are very special people and I hope all you moms had a great day.

Bye!!

The Heat in Crete

We got woken up at 4:30 am (SO EARLY!!) and herded back onto the buses down to the port. The boat was fixed and left soon after. I slept the whole ride. I got to Heraklion, Crete and did my usual routine of asking a tourist office where my hotel is. I got there and ate breakfast. I walked around Heraklion and saw all the sights. I did a little siesta and then came to this internet cafe. Hopefully I can update this entry more tomorrow. My time is running low. Tomorrow I am going to Knossos, one of the best archaeological sites in the world. Till then, bye!

Miss and love everyone!!!

Good and Bad

You'll see why I wasn't able to get online last night and do this post when you get done reading. I got up and tried to make the bus to Akrotiri and I missed it for the second day in a row. My watch was late and I saw the bus pulling away when I got to the station. Annoying. I was pretty angry with myself and didn't know what to do so I all the way down the cliff to the old port where a cruise ship was unloading. The path had donkey doo doo alllllll over it. Smelly. Oh well. I sat in a chair and updated my journal thing. As I was writing I saw three really cute girls get off a boat and the blond turned around. It was Alyssa!! So joke!! What a freaking coincidence. Through facebook I knew she was going on a cruise of Greece but I didn't think there was anyway that we would be in the same place at the same time (the odds are off the charts, as you can imagine). So we said hi and talked for a couple minutes but her tour or whatever was leaving so we parted ways. That totally made my day. It was so nice to see someone from home. After a while, it started raining. Yes, rain on a Greek island. I was undercover so it wasn't so bad. I walked back up smelling donkey... Yuck. It rained some more.

The rest of my day was spent doing random things to take up time. I was very antsy for the ferry to Crete. On the bright side, the rain cleared away so it was sunny. I went into a bunch of souvenir stores (only bought two things though). I walked down some streets like 8 times. I would sit for 5 minutes and then think, "I can go to the bathroom, that will take 10 minutes!!" After that was done, I would sit for another 5 minutes and then think of another stupid little thing to do. I just wanted to go which makes it sound like I didn't like Santorini or something which is completely not true. I loved it. I just get antsy when I know I am going to leave a place (I have discussed this ad nauseum). It was finally time to get my backpack from the hotel and the guy asked for money for breakfast!!! It wasn't even free!! What a freaking ripoff. No one EVER told me it costs money. He told me someone did. I assured him that that was not the case. Whatever. I just paid him the money (it was only 15 euros for the three breakfasts) and left without smiling. So annoying. I did not like that place very much, no real dorm, breakfast was a ripoff, and no free internet. None of those things are on their hostelworld.com page.

I took the bus down to the port. A girl walked by and said the ferry I was riding was broken. I asked the guy at the office and he said it was being fixed and was "90% sure it would leave today". Yeah, that didn't happen. Apparently the hull was damaged but when they fixed that, the equivalent to the "check engine" light came on and they didn't know why. I ended up talking to two people, Jessica and James, while we waited to see what would happen. James is from Wales and Jessica is from Buffalo. They were really nice. We ended up sitting down at the port for over 6 hours (from 5 pm until after 11 pm) before they finally decided they weren't going to get it fixed until morning. We all got on buses and they took us to a hotel somewhere. I didn't get into a room until after 12 because they had to arrange and find rooms for over 70 people. I had no access to internet which sucked too. What a crazy, and for the most part, bad day. Not every day can be good so it's not a big deal really. I was actually kind of happy to get a free nights rest. Haha.

Ciao!