The Thrilling Island Adventures of Crete: Days 3 and 4

Crete, Day 3: Samaria

It's pronounced by the Greeks like "San Maria" without the n and with the r rolled.  The longest gorge in all of Europe, a 13k hike from the top at one end to the bottom at the other. Brad and I hadn't really planned out how we were going to get there from our hotel, thinking that we could just grab one of the many public buses to take us the hour-plus to the top of the gorge, where we had been the previous day for lunch. Thankfully, our guide from Thursday, George, had been asking about our plans and hooked us up with a tour group because the only other way we would get there would be by renting a car and driving over the mountains ourselves.  Thank you, George!

The day started with a 5:15 wake-up so we could get the bus outside our hotel at 5:50. It was still pitch black out and the sun started to rise as we made our way up the mountains.  We arrived a little after 7 and the first thought that struck me was how cold it was! It reminded me of the Sky Race, when Sarah and I had dressed for summer running in tanks and shorts but arrived in the mountains way underdressed.  Up at 4000 feet first thing in the morning, it was rather chilly. But as we expected, we warmed up within minutes.

View from the top

Brad and I had been a little uneasy at first about doing the gorge with a group, thinking that we would have to stay as a pack.  Thankfully, this was not the case! The group leader gave us info on how to get to our meeting point in the seaside village beyond the gorge, at 16:30 (that's 4:30 pm for those of you who have trouble subtracting....Sarah). That gave us plenty of time to do the hike at our own pace and then enjoy the beach.

The beauty of hiking the gorge the way we were doing it is that we were starting at the top and working our way to the bottom at the other end...meaning it was all downhill! It started out pretty wide and then narrowed to its slimmest section of about 3 meters. The Samaria Gorge, one of over a hundred gorges in Crete, has been turned into a national park and as a result, is well marked and has water fountains and WCs (restrooms, or whatever you want to call it when the toilet is a hole in the floor).  

 

The narrowest part

Brad practices Pilates

Watch out for the "great anger"

The sights in the gorge were pretty spectacular and the pictures don't do it justice. We passed quite a few people early on and in the second half, barely saw anyone. We stopped for a snack break at one of the designated rest areas and got a good deal of amusement out of all the mountain goats that had gathered around.  One actually jumped up on the bench I was sitting on and mounted my backpack that was next to me, putting its face right up to mine, trying to snatch a few bites of my almond butter sandwich. I told him to watch out, or I'd eat him for lunch so he could join his brother that I ate the previous day.

Not counting our breaks, we finished the entire thing in under 5 hours, arriving at the end of the gorge around 12:30. We then continued on to the beach, an additional mile or two.  At this point, we were on the southern end of Crete, as we had been with Elafonisi Beach, although further east. One of the cool things about the water at the southern coast of Crete is that is is part of the Libyan Sea. I didn't even know such a thing existed. Turns out we are closer to Libya than Athens.  Look how close Crete is to Africa:

Crete is the island in the center of this picture with Chania and Heraklion labeled

And in case you were wondering, Greece doesn't have a good relationship with Libya either. In fact, according to George, Crete has the largest armed forces base in Europe, which obviously helps to keep those Libyans away!

The water at this beach was extremely rough, unlike the calm protected waters of Elafonisi. It felt great after a morning of hiking, and it was nice to have several hours to relax.

Normally I am not one to post photos of myself in a bathing suit. However, I thought it was very cool that I matched the flag (Note: I was in fact, aware of the Greek colors prior to this trip and that knowledge did help me select which bathing suit to bring, because I am just that cool).

At 4:30 we met our leader at a tavern in the tiny village, where he gave us our boat ticket and we grabbed some dinner.  See, here's the interesting thing: the only way to return was to hike back up the entire gorge or to take a boat. I don't know if there were any access roads leading into this village- at any rate, no buses were able to get through. And not only is the boat the only way out, but there is only one boat each day, at 5:30.  So you don't want to miss it!

Due to high winds, our boat took forever to dock, but finally landed and we climbed aboard among the hundreds of other visitors for the hour long journey west. We ended up sitting across from an American couple from Rhode Island, who were very nice to talk to, especially after not meeting an American (not counting our prearranged meetup with Renata and her mom in Rome) since the woman from CT we met our first day in Cinque Terre! 

The bus was waiting for us where the boat landed, and we headed back over the mountains for the return trip home. We didn't get in until 9 pm, making it a very long day, but we couldn't go to bed yet: we had decided to treat ourselves and take advantage of the "Massage in Your Hotel Room" offer at the front desk. The masseur, a former professional basketball player in Greece, normally doesn't do massages so late but understood this was our only opportunity to fit them in and boy, were they welcomed after the day of hiking.  My calves were pretty tight from the downhills but what hurt the most was all of my back, which is fed up with carrying my blue Camelbak backpack.  When getting massages in the past, I've often wished they had a "napping room" so I could stay and sleep after being put in such a relaxed state. Well, here I was able to just climb into bed and pass out, 18 hours after waking that morning.

Day 4: On to Heraklion

So we spent our first three days in the western province of Chania but due to the only ferries to Santorini leaving from Heraklion, 3 hours to the east, we figured we would spend our last night near the port to catch our ferry Sunday morning.  So Saturday was another day of packing up, something I'm getting quite sick of doing!  I left for a run at 8am and it was already scorching out. I had to cut it short and only do 9 miles (instead of 10) because I had gone through all my water and was seriously dehydrated. After downing a liter or two of liquids upon my return, I jumped in the hotel pool, which overlooks the Aegean Sea from up on the cliff. Lovely! Meanwhile, Brad made a trip to the beach in front of the hotel to finally get in the Aegean, as the only water we'd swam in so far was the Libyan Sea.

The pool. Nice view, right?

We got one of the local buses to Chania, a 15 minute ride, where we then caught the 1:30 bus to Heraklion, the biggest city on Crete and still partially enclosed by the medieval wall, just like Lucca (and that I was able to run on this morning)! After checking into our hotel, Brad and I debated our options. It was already after 5 and while there were so many things to do, such as the Minoan Palace just outside the city, the oldest palace in Europe, or the Cretaquarium, a raved-about aquarium filled with Mediterranean Sea life, ultimately we realized we just didn't have the time. We were hungry and tired, so after grabbing a delicious dinner at one of the only places open at 6pm (the majority didn't open until 7), we walked around out on the pier, which is over a mile long and contains an old fort, and then through one of the main pedestrian streets, where we got some Greek frozen yogurt with choose-your-own mix-ins. As with similar places in the states, they charge you by the ounce. It was tasty, but I was not happy to pay 7.20 euro dollars for it!

Fantastic salmon and scrumptious pork medallions

On the pier

So now here we are, Sunday morning, on our ferry to Santorini.  Crete was fantastic.  Great for adventure, relaxation if you want it (we didn't really get much of that though), and fresh food,  I totally see what people mean when they say you need weeks or months to fully experience Crete. The only place that is even a bit similar that I have been to is Maui, on a much smaller scale. 

The hotel we stayed in for our night in Heraklion, the Lato Boutique Hotel, was great. Best of all was their breakfast, which they really went all out for today because of it being a Sunday.  Crepes with whatever fillings you want for them, fresh Cretan cheeses, homemade breads, delicious Greek fried pancake things, organic bacon and sausage...and what I truly marveled at was the fresh-squeezed orange juice machine. You just fill it with whole oranges (grown locally of course), press the button, and it squeezes the juice out of them.  Oh man already I miss it.

So onto Santorini we go, our final destination of this trip, where the theme of the next three days is relaxation. I'm having a blast, and am so thankful for the experiences, but man, I am tired.  The last couple weeks I've had many nights of less than 7 hours of sleep, some less than 6, and if you know me well you know that I aim for 9 hours or more a night. I've been catching little catnaps wherever I can, but it'll be really nice to rest up in Santorini and enjoy the beauty of our final few days in Europe.

Napping while Brad ate some hot dogs after finishing our hike through the gorge