When travelling around a Greek island, the hotel shouldn't be the best thing about the trip. There's so much culture and history to see, and the natural landscape is so beautiful, you'd want to get out and explore it, right? Well, sortof. Truth be told, the highlights of our Crete trip - and lowlights, I suppose - were the hotels we stayed in.
Crete, as the largest of the Greek islands, spans 260 km East to West, and 60 km North to South, thus its sheer vastness is what led us to stay in more than one hotel. The first hotel was paradise, the second was so abominable that it deserves its own post (and will get its own post soon). The third, to which we fled from the second, was such a welcome refuge from the second that it could've been a homeless shelter and we'd've loved it.
Crete is incredibly mountainess. From the airport in Iraklion, we could see snowcapped peaks in the distance. The landscape provides a sharp contrast with that of Corfu, because it's so much drier. As we drove towards our hotel, we could almost constantly smell smoke and see it rising up through the mountains, because Cretans burn their trash. Flocks of sheep and small packs of goats lined the sides of the highways.
Crete's natural landscape is spectacular. The rugged coastline reminded me of Maine, and I was grateful for that. But to really experience the interior of the island's natural landscape, you need to know your way around. And you need to be comfortable driving in Crete, which is a whole other ballgame, even when compared with driving in Athens. Cretan drivers are freakin insane. During my time in Athens, though I've consistently noted how recklessly Greeks drive, I have witnessed a total of two car accidents. In my four days on Crete, I witnessed three. In Chania, a car backed straight into another parked car, leaving a visible dent, and drove screeching away.
We wanted to drive up to the "Lasithi Plateau," a high plateau which apparently affords extraordinary views of numerous windmills and the surrounding mountains. So up the narrow, winding road we went, a road with no signs, no lanes, and no stopping any Greek driver coming down the mountain at 80 mph from blindly slamming his car right into our own. We made it about 1/5th of the way up and then decided to cut our losses and turn around. Just not worth it.
We wanted to go to the Samaria Gorge, but didn't realize that you could only get there by bus. Of course we missed the bus, which departed at 8 am, and it was raining cats and dogs anyways, so.
600,000 people live on Crete. Approximately 42% of them live in the island's main cities. In my humble opinion, Crete's main cities are not very nice. Iraklion and Aghios Nikhios, on the Eastern side of the island, were tacky, touristy, and unkept. Chania, on the Western side, has a reputation for being a quaint sea-side town. It was cute enough, but packed with tourists and tourist junk. In my eyes, it didn't shine a light to Corfu Town. Even Kritsa, a small village with a reputation as a "traditional example of Crete," was a disapointment. It consisted of little more than a few hilltop streets lined with old Greek women selling lace and men selling the traditional Cretan black riding boots. I think my father put it well when he said of the Cretans: "They're not taking advantage of their advantages." This is arguably one of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet, and yet the towns are so unfortunate looking.
During these first two days, what excited me most about Crete was our beautiful hotel. The hotel was very modern, and reminded me of why travelling with parents is a good thing - because they'll pay for you not to stay in a shitty youth hostel! The people at the hotel were incredibly friendly. Through speaking to them I realized that Crete has its own specific dialect of Greek, and a very unique accent, different from the Athenians. The food was delicious, I had my own room and my own pool, and a free massage that left me "greased up" and smelling like heaven. This place was paradise.
Crete was the center of Europe's first advanced civilization, the Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age (2700-1420 BC). The Minoans wrote in Linear A (still undeciphered). Minoan history is the source for the legend of King Minos and the Minotaur. Every year, Minos, the son of Europa and Zeus, chose 7 young boys and 7 young girls to go hang out with the Minotaur in the labrynth. By hang out, I mean wander aimlessly around the labrynth and try to avoid getting eaten by the half-man-half-bull Minotaur. Unfortunately, until Theseus came along with a ball of string to guide him through the maze and slayed the minotaur, the kiddies always got eaten.
We went to visit Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archelogical site, which was "probably" the political center of Minoan civilization. I'm sure it was once a wonderful maze of living spaces, storage spaces, workrooms, etc, but now, it isn't all that impressive. The extensive restoration by archeologist Arthur Evans lends a strange and slightly cheesy air to the site, because the restored parts include many too-colourful wall paintings that look really out of place next to the actual ancient ruins. If I were an archeologist doing restorations, I would try to imagine how what I was restoring would look today, after thousands of years, not as it did in it's original form, because when you put "as it looked then" next to "as it looks now" you get a very odd result. All in all, Knossos doesn't come close to comparison with the resplendent Acropolis.
Minoan civilization is often thought to have collapsed due to the volcano at Thira (Santorini), but this is up for debate.
Parting words: While in Crete, my father, impressed with my Greek, told me, "You should consider joining the foreign service." If you know me at all, you'll understand why this is funny.
Crete, as the largest of the Greek islands, spans 260 km East to West, and 60 km North to South, thus its sheer vastness is what led us to stay in more than one hotel. The first hotel was paradise, the second was so abominable that it deserves its own post (and will get its own post soon). The third, to which we fled from the second, was such a welcome refuge from the second that it could've been a homeless shelter and we'd've loved it.
Crete is incredibly mountainess. From the airport in Iraklion, we could see snowcapped peaks in the distance. The landscape provides a sharp contrast with that of Corfu, because it's so much drier. As we drove towards our hotel, we could almost constantly smell smoke and see it rising up through the mountains, because Cretans burn their trash. Flocks of sheep and small packs of goats lined the sides of the highways.
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| Kinda Looks like Maine |
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| Sheep |
We wanted to drive up to the "Lasithi Plateau," a high plateau which apparently affords extraordinary views of numerous windmills and the surrounding mountains. So up the narrow, winding road we went, a road with no signs, no lanes, and no stopping any Greek driver coming down the mountain at 80 mph from blindly slamming his car right into our own. We made it about 1/5th of the way up and then decided to cut our losses and turn around. Just not worth it.
 |
| Mountains! |
We wanted to go to the Samaria Gorge, but didn't realize that you could only get there by bus. Of course we missed the bus, which departed at 8 am, and it was raining cats and dogs anyways, so.
600,000 people live on Crete. Approximately 42% of them live in the island's main cities. In my humble opinion, Crete's main cities are not very nice. Iraklion and Aghios Nikhios, on the Eastern side of the island, were tacky, touristy, and unkept. Chania, on the Western side, has a reputation for being a quaint sea-side town. It was cute enough, but packed with tourists and tourist junk. In my eyes, it didn't shine a light to Corfu Town. Even Kritsa, a small village with a reputation as a "traditional example of Crete," was a disapointment. It consisted of little more than a few hilltop streets lined with old Greek women selling lace and men selling the traditional Cretan black riding boots. I think my father put it well when he said of the Cretans: "They're not taking advantage of their advantages." This is arguably one of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet, and yet the towns are so unfortunate looking.
 |
| Chania |
During these first two days, what excited me most about Crete was our beautiful hotel. The hotel was very modern, and reminded me of why travelling with parents is a good thing - because they'll pay for you not to stay in a shitty youth hostel! The people at the hotel were incredibly friendly. Through speaking to them I realized that Crete has its own specific dialect of Greek, and a very unique accent, different from the Athenians. The food was delicious, I had my own room and my own pool, and a free massage that left me "greased up" and smelling like heaven. This place was paradise.
 |
| Night view from Room |
Crete was the center of Europe's first advanced civilization, the Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age (2700-1420 BC). The Minoans wrote in Linear A (still undeciphered). Minoan history is the source for the legend of King Minos and the Minotaur. Every year, Minos, the son of Europa and Zeus, chose 7 young boys and 7 young girls to go hang out with the Minotaur in the labrynth. By hang out, I mean wander aimlessly around the labrynth and try to avoid getting eaten by the half-man-half-bull Minotaur. Unfortunately, until Theseus came along with a ball of string to guide him through the maze and slayed the minotaur, the kiddies always got eaten.
We went to visit Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archelogical site, which was "probably" the political center of Minoan civilization. I'm sure it was once a wonderful maze of living spaces, storage spaces, workrooms, etc, but now, it isn't all that impressive. The extensive restoration by archeologist Arthur Evans lends a strange and slightly cheesy air to the site, because the restored parts include many too-colourful wall paintings that look really out of place next to the actual ancient ruins. If I were an archeologist doing restorations, I would try to imagine how what I was restoring would look today, after thousands of years, not as it did in it's original form, because when you put "as it looked then" next to "as it looks now" you get a very odd result. All in all, Knossos doesn't come close to comparison with the resplendent Acropolis.
Minoan civilization is often thought to have collapsed due to the volcano at Thira (Santorini), but this is up for debate.
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| The best part of Knossos - Peacocks |
On our last day we went to the beach. It was a nice beach, but be forewarned if you're ever thinking of travelling to Greek islands - if you want a real "island" experience, come in the summer. Crete, even as the southernmost island, is not warm in late April. It was windy and particularly freezing that day, and there was no chance I was going in the water.
Parting words: While in Crete, my father, impressed with my Greek, told me, "You should consider joining the foreign service." If you know me at all, you'll understand why this is funny.
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