I've gotten so used to interpreting Greek letters that I don't even know what's English anymore. Heraklion (Iraklio) and Chania (or Xania, pronounced Han-eeya) are the two cities I visited on the island of Crete.
Now, the travel agent that spent over an hour and half with me (and poor Curtis having to suffer through it all with a terrible sun burn) sorting out my 3 weeks on the islands did a fantastic job, what with all the different hotels and ferries and transfers and whatnot he had to book. Unfortunately he made the wrong call when he was all, "spend 5 days in Iraklio and 3 days in Hania," I wish it had been the other way around.
Heraklion was just another big city all smunched together into a small city, though it was very vibrant with a relaxed vibe and everything was closed between about 2 and 6pm... which is probably good because that's about the hottest time of the day I find.
Nothing to write home about there. Umm I did have a really nice 2 and half hour bus trip along the coast of northern Crete to Hania... some sweet mountains on the left and the beautiful ocean to the right. I wondered what they could possibly produce there though because there doesn't some to be a lot of agricultural prospects. Too much mountain, too little anything else.
Which brings me to a point I discovered: the next time someone attempts to insult the prairie provinces by mentioning their vast flatness, I might take it personally. Really though, when building a city it's more practical and preferable to find some flatlands than to carve a city out of a mountain!
Anyways, I loved Hania! It was adorable and super vibrant, but one does wonder how the permanent residents deal with the off season, I'm sure the population more than halves. Hania did have a sorry excuse for a beach, but I'm from the middle of Canada so a beach is a beach and I'll worship it accordingly! The sea here has dozens of giant protruding rocks so I imagine it's a task to boat around.
My 9 hour ferry ride back to Athens (sans cabin) was even longer than I had anticipated as I was inundated by a group of young Pakistani-turned-Greek men who assumed it should be my task to assist them with their English. Some were funny enough to pass the time and they were very informative and truthful about the shitehole that is their native country.
Though, I had a trying time dealing with one avid gentlemen who couldn't accept my aversion to religion. (FYI they're all Muslim) He proceeded to claim that the only thing preventing the ship from spilling into the ocean was the will of God (and his consistent prayers to Mecca). "No," I said, "it's man's ability to use the awesome powers of his mind to produce." But as theists are prone to do, he hit me with the 'no, God did it' reasoning. This is an irrelevent story, only that it stretched through the span of 2 hours because I'm too tolerant of annoying people. Damn my super swell upbringing that instilled in me a stubborn propriety to grant the courtesy of manners to even the most undeserving of specimens.
So, I still haven't slept in about 30 hours, forgive my likely incoherence.
Back in delightful Athens now where my hostel seems to only serve young Canadian backpackers, but does have an irresistable view of the Acropolis. Oh, you should just see it at night when they have it all lit it up. Beauteous.
