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| Pulling into Crete on the ferry Wednesday morning |
Lisa and I hopped off the ferry, flagged down a cab, and arrived at the hotel at 8 am: Reneiris Hotel, on the northern coast of Crete in the western part of the island. The receptionist was no where to be found. While we were waiting for him, I happened to notice an advertisement on the desk, saying there was an Elafonisi beach trip on Wednesday mornings. Elafonisi Beach was one of the top things on our list to do, but was a good distance from our hotel. We really lucked out: the hotel gave us our room early and offered us breakfast while the receptionist inquired to the tour company if we could join in on the trip. We started to get our things together when the receptionist called and told us the bus would be there in five minutes. We gathered what needed from our room and hurried to the breakfast pavilion to snatch some food, then ran down the flight of exterior stairs. Yes more stairs! The bus was waiting for us. We were on our way, hitting the ground running in Crete.
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| Our hotel up on the cliff |
Elafonisi Beach is in the far southwest corner of Crete, and is recommended as one of the top beaches to visit. The roads to get there are single lanes through the mountains. The western side of Crete is called the Chania region (Hanya). It's mountainous, remote, and sparsely populated, with many dirt
roads and no highways. The roughly 65km trip was going to take about an hour and a half. Just like
in Italy, there are churches everywhere we go.
Now we thought we were on a bus just headed to the beach. However we soon discovered we had a tour guide and a few planned stops along the way. One stop was this place called the Cave of Angels. Our tour guide says that when the stalegmites and stalegtites meet time will end. We got to go into the cave and explore, with no restrictions. Climb, touch, see as much as you like! Then we continued on to the beach.
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| Cave of Angels |
Elafonisi beach has a tiny island off the coast separated by some very shallow water. The island is only about a kilometer long and has sand, rocks, and some caves. There is a bit of sad history here. In 1824 on the day before Easter Sunday, the Turks invaded Crete at Elafonisi beach. During the
invasion, 600 women and children fled Crete and hid inside the cave on the island off Elafonisi Beach. They were only discovered when a donkey was heard on the island. The women and children were captured Saturday. On Sunday morning, yes Easter morning, the Turks slaughtered all of them by slitting their throats. To this day, people believe that is why the sand is pink: it's their blood still washing ashore.
invasion, 600 women and children fled Crete and hid inside the cave on the island off Elafonisi Beach. They were only discovered when a donkey was heard on the island. The women and children were captured Saturday. On Sunday morning, yes Easter morning, the Turks slaughtered all of them by slitting their throats. To this day, people believe that is why the sand is pink: it's their blood still washing ashore.
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| The cave |
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| "This is the place where 600 women and children were slaughtered by Turks and their Egyptian allies on Easter Sunday the 24th April 1824 |
Day 2: The Safari
We had reserved this tour ahead of time, through toursincrete.com, choosing the Land Rover Safari Tour, thinking it would be a good way to see parts of the island we otherwise would not be able to. The tour would take us to some of the most remote parts of the Chania region. Our driver, George arrived a half hour late, so late we were already thinking of alternative plans for the day, but we quickly forgave him after discovering his extremely amiable personality.
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| Meet our friendly guide, George |
Lisa and I soon found out, George was full of energy and a bit of a risk taker. He told us Greeks were
extremely sharing and giving. He just pulled over at one point early on and picked us figs off a farmer's tree (delicious!) He did this several times with all different types of nuts and fruits. He went on an on about how everything in crete is organic and pure with no chemicals. Then, in a touch of irony, he pulled out his cigarettes at one of our break stops.
extremely sharing and giving. He just pulled over at one point early on and picked us figs off a farmer's tree (delicious!) He did this several times with all different types of nuts and fruits. He went on an on about how everything in crete is organic and pure with no chemicals. Then, in a touch of irony, he pulled out his cigarettes at one of our break stops.
Our first stop was at the oldest olive tree in the world, the olive tree of Vouves, approximately 3000 years old. This is the tree that supplied the olive leaves/branches for the Greek Olympic Games and each Olympics it supplies Greece's flag barrer with the olive leaves. They had a tiny museum at the stop, an old olive press and mill. The mill had three large round stone wheels that rolled to crush the olives. George said some English boys came to visit once and after seeing the mill decided to call themselves the Rolling Stones. We chuckled at that.
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| The Rolling Stones |
One of the places we stopped was the entrance to the Samaria Gorge, the largest gorge in all of
Europe. We were planning on hiking the gorge the following day, and George was trying to talk us out of it. But he soon gave up and said with a huge smile, "ah, you're gonna love it!" So we saw the gorge from high above and had an amazing Greek lunch at the rustic restaurant perched over the gorge. All morning, George had been raving about his favorite dish: goat in a lemon sauce. Lisa decided to give it a try while I had moussaka. I really enjoyed it, and Lisa thought the goat had pretty good flavoring, although it took a lot of work to get to the meat.
Europe. We were planning on hiking the gorge the following day, and George was trying to talk us out of it. But he soon gave up and said with a huge smile, "ah, you're gonna love it!" So we saw the gorge from high above and had an amazing Greek lunch at the rustic restaurant perched over the gorge. All morning, George had been raving about his favorite dish: goat in a lemon sauce. Lisa decided to give it a try while I had moussaka. I really enjoyed it, and Lisa thought the goat had pretty good flavoring, although it took a lot of work to get to the meat.
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| Goat |
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| Moussaka |
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| Greek salad |
Throughout the seven hour tour, we learned a ton from George, who on multiple occasions called Crete "paradise." Lots of hometown pride here! Some interesting facts:
- no chemicals are used at all for farming. It's all organic!
-trees and power poles are painted with calcium to protect them from insects
- old tires are used as bee hives. The tires give off smell the repels the snakes that are predators.
-all beaches are free
-teachers get almost 4 months off in the summer due to the heat
-oranges and lemons are harvested twice a year on Crete
-green energy is very well accepted in Greece. Lots of windmills.
-Apple season is the same time of year in crete as in New York: September and October
-olive trees must be trimmed every seven years to keep them producing olives. A huge task considering there are 35 million olive trees on crete.
- olive trees only produce olives every other year.
-the one road leading to the Samari Gorge is paved every 5 years due to the harsh winters.
-some mountain roads are not allowed to be paved
-there are walking trails all over and even remote huts for over night stays
-3 meters of snow falls in the white mountains of crete in January and February, but down at the coast in some areas it never drops below 12 degrees Celsius (53 degrees Fahrenheit)
-no cows on Crete. The main animals raised for food are pig, chickens, and goat!
-very large white goats are endangered. Kill one and you get a very hefty fine and two days in prison.
-Italians and Greeks feel a bond to each other. George even told us about how letters were found from WW II, written by Italians who, as part of the Axis powers, were occupying Greece. The letters had statements such as "why am I here, fighting my brothers?"
-tips for determining the quality of olive oil: you should not only be able to see the green tint, but a gold one as well. Unfortunately, manufacturers know this trick and started using bottles that aren't clear, so you can't tell. The other way is to turn the bottle upside down. You should've see many bubbles in the liquid if it's good quality.
-honey is the main sweetener on Greece and the best honey, according to George, comes from nectar from thyme leaves. Some honey producers will add sugar to the honey, which quickly crystallizes and gathers on the top. So you want to get honey that doesn't have sugar crystals forming on the surface.
-Italians and Greeks feel a bond to each other. George even told us about how letters were found from WW II, written by Italians who, as part of the Axis powers, were occupying Greece. The letters had statements such as "why am I here, fighting my brothers?"
-tips for determining the quality of olive oil: you should not only be able to see the green tint, but a gold one as well. Unfortunately, manufacturers know this trick and started using bottles that aren't clear, so you can't tell. The other way is to turn the bottle upside down. You should've see many bubbles in the liquid if it's good quality.
-honey is the main sweetener on Greece and the best honey, according to George, comes from nectar from thyme leaves. Some honey producers will add sugar to the honey, which quickly crystallizes and gathers on the top. So you want to get honey that doesn't have sugar crystals forming on the surface.
- All over Crete you can hear these noisy insects that sound a bit like crickets. George caught one and demonstrated how it can also be used as an electric toothbrush due to its fast moving legs.
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| The "chee chee " bug acting like an electric toothbrush (Side note from Lisa: Brad should be commended for being the only one from our tour group daring enough to try this. However, his first comment after sticking the bug in his mouth was, "I wish it hadn't been in George's mouth first [for the demonstration]!" Really Brad, that's what you were most concerned about?? |
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| Goat traffic jam. They weren't happy that Lisa ate their brother. |
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