Travel (II) - Europe 6 - Crete, Greece

I was amazed when I learned that about 2600 years ago, Greeks in Thira were already enjoying multi-storied apartments, equipped with flushing toilets and in-wall heating system, which did not appear in Europe until 18th century. Imagine that Thira did not get destroyed by volcanic eruption - Julius Caesar might be watching 3D HDTV already.


So when the chance came for me to visit Greece, I had to see Thira (Santorini) - it's kind of funny that I was attracted to Santorini for a different reason than its beautiful sceneries.


Well, then I discovered the existence of Knossos in Crete.  Knossos was the Minoan Palace, the center of the Minoan civilization, and the second most important archeological site in Greece only after the Acropolis in Athens.  Given limited time, I decided to skip the "ancient Thira" site in Santorini and visit Knossos instead.


Luckily the ferry from Santorini to Crete was easy and I did not suffer sea-sickness.  Again we booked a family hotel due to the very positive experience we had in Santorini.  It's located in Heraklio, the capital in Crete.  Dinner was home made and customized by us in the hotel.  We only wanted some light and cooked vegetables and that was delicious.


I decided to take it easy the first day after we arrived.  One because it was the Easter and it's said all the streets would be deserted and many siteseeing places would be closed.  And second I would mind relaxing for a day after all a long journey.  And lastly, the family was hosting an Easter party home and we were invited (with a very moderate fee) - we thought it might be fun to participate the festive celebration.


The host family started roasting a whole lamb since early morning.  After my super long morning nap, the feast was about to begin.  Athena and I, as well as a few college students from Canada, lazed around the pool in the backyard.  It was very relaxing sipping the special mountain tea first and then the home made red wine, without thinking of anything.

Over the next couple of hours, we were drinking, eating, and chatting.  For record keeping purpose, I wrote down the name of some special Greek dishes : magiritsa , satziki, taramosalata, kadaifi, ekmek ice cream; and I also had a few shots of raki and limoncello snaps (lemon with grapa).  

Dimitri, who ran the hotel together with his mom, was an educated young man at his mid 30s.  He shared much interesting info and views.

We were informed that Easter is the most important holiday in Greece.  Greeks call it Greek Easter as Greeks started the tradition of celebrating Easter.  Greeks will spend the entire week celebrating it and most of the organizations and stores will be closed.  Many people will fast for about 40 days before that without eating any meat.  So most families will roast a whole lamb on Easter and invite friends who do not.

He also shared his views about the Greek economy which had been in trouble for a while.  He thought that easy money (for construction etc) from EU changed the characters of population. Their parents generation were hard working, unlike the current generation.  Dimitri himself did not want to take a government job when he graduated from college in early 90s as there was less money in public sector.  He took a sales job instead.  Well, in recent years, corruption in public sector is terrible.  One civil servant might get away with claiming 3-5 salaries by simply adding his family members' names to the payroll.

He seemed quite angry with the current situation Greece is in.  He said his ancestors created something outstanding yet Greek people could not continue the glory.  Running the tourist business, he noticed that these days there are more and more Chinese and Indian tourists.  With a heavy sigh, he said "The world development is like a giant wheel moving forward, some going up, some going down, it's unstoppable.  Greek people learn from this lesson."  

After the feast we took a walk on the beach, which was only couple of blocks away from the hotel.  Rows of straw umbrellas and beach benches were already in place, however, it was still too chilly for real beach activities.

Monday, my last full day in Greece.  Our plan was to visit Knossos and downtown Heraklio.  

Knossos was amazing.  It was burnt down and rebuilt three times after its first erection during 2000-1750BC.  There one can see the residuals of staircase structure, the flushing toilets, the aqueduct system which was used to collect mountain water 20 miles away, the giant jars that were used to store olive oil and other agriculture produces, the clay tablets that carried one of the earliest written languages, many art pieces such as mural and statues... the tour guide blended the tour with some Greek mythological stories about Zeus, Minotaur, Labyrinth, and all.  It was fascinating.

Downtown Heraklio was not much fun as almost everything was still closed for Easter.  Following some guide book we were in search of some places of interest.  However nothing turned out to be impressive although I believe we were not being too critical.

Crete is a huge island with four sections.  Chania, the west most section is said to be the most interesting but we did not have time to visit more than the center of Heraklio.  And we were a bit frustrated by the lack of English signs around too, especially taking a bus became such a difficult task without clear instruction at all.

Late afternoon when we arrived at the hotel, the party was still on, and people were half drunk and happy.  With warm invitations, we sat down at the table again, eating, drinking, listening to the music, and dancing.  It was a lot of fun.

Early morning we set out for the flight from Heraklio to Athens, and then I flew to JFK while Athena stayed in Athens for business.  In the Athens airport at the entrance to the waiting room for the flight, I was questioned senseless by a security woman.  Regardless I was happy as I could hear most people speaking English finally.  After I landed in New York, for the first time in my life I felt "oh I am home" about New York.  Isn't it amazing?  And for the first time I discovered my dependency on Chinese food - I had Szechuan food 4 lunches out of 5 the following week which had never ever happened before. 

Sometimes distance makes the heart fonder :-)

Travel (II) - Europe 6 - Santorini, Greece

Afternoon on April 20th, I took a ferry boat from the port of Piraeus in Athens to Santorini, officially Thira, arguably the most extraordinary island in Aegean Sea, located at about 120 miles south east to Athens.  The departure was delayed by 1.5 hours, the arrival was delayed by 3.5 hours.  The waves were violent that day and the small boat was dancing most of the time.  Many people on the boat were suffering, including myself.  I threw up 5 times, I guess.  Athena was kindly taking care of me.

The host from the family hotel we booked was waiting to pick us up even though that was past mid-night already.  I gave him a box of Belgian chocolates to express my gratitude.  I felt instantly better once we got off from the boat.  Driving through the night in Santorini made me even more relaxed - the dim image that I could see suggested a very promising stay for us there.  When we pulled the luggage in front of the hotel, Athena and I exclaimed - so, so beautiful!  The hotel was on a hill in Fira, the capital of Santorini.  Down from there we could see Greek white houses with pink tops, scattering near and far.  At the end of the land there was the warmly dreamed Mediterranean/Aegean Sea (although our boat sailed through it, I was too sick to remember my dream and appreciate it).  I almost could see the rolling and breaking of the waves and the romantic deep blue.  The ocean breeze gently caressing my face and the fresh ionic smell filling every pore of my body, all the hardship on the journey was dissipated and I became excited and ... touched!

The host brought some spring water, hot tea, and some home-made cookies.  Savoring everything, Athena and I could not believe that was real :-)

Morning of the first day, at the appointed hour the hostess knocked at our door and delivered the home-made breakfast.  We moved to the sun-deck facing the ocean.  It was a brilliant day, hard for me to keep my eyes open without shades.  Now we could have a good look of the views.  It was beyond words.  

Aegean sea has a special spot in Chinese pop culture.  Most likely because the pronunciation of Aegean resembles "love" in Chinese, apart from the fact that it's the cradle for one of the most ancient civilizations.  There are beautiful love stories and love songs around Aegean sea.  I, as a romantic Chinese who adores history, no doubt worships Aegean.  Can you imagine my feelings then when I was at such a proximity to it?

Our plan was to lead a relaxing and "hedonistic" life on the island - well, only relative to the rest of the trip.

Shopping, donkey ride, caldera, sunset view in Oia - that's first day.  Red Beach, Perissa, Pirgos, grilled octopus, Eastern celebration - that's second day.  More shopping - that's the third day before ferry took us to Crete.

Santorini has much to do with volcano.  It is itself a caldera, at an ancient rim of a still active volcano.  The eruption of the volcano is considered responsible for the destruction of the Minoan Crete.  Nowadays beautiful white houses on the caldera cliff form one of the most pictures on earth.    The beaches on the island are in turn very different from most other places, it can be white, red, or black.  The sands are not very fine.  The glittering feature led me to guess that the sands are rich in minerals.  All three colors can be seen in Red Beach, while Perissa is known for the best black beach.  Sitting in one of the many restaurants on the cliff side, an all black volcano island can be seen very close by, and another island a bit further away is known for hot spring.  

Watching sunset in Oia is one of the rituals that must be done.  We arrived at around 4pm while sunset was not to start until 7pm.  Surprisingly when we reached the good spot, many tourists were already waiting.  We found a table in one of the small cafes.  Needless to say they charge a premium due to the location.  There was not even much choice on the menu.  More and more people joined us gradually.  By 6ish, every space was occupied, steps, roofs, random rocks, walls, and patch of grounds.  It was truly stunning when the soft orange sunshine painted the white houses, the whole cliff, the bell tower casts a long and slanted shadow, and the sun looked like a fire ball hanging in the colorful sky right above the twinkly water.  However, I was not sure why sunset in Oia is so special.  Heather said it was because of sulfur element.

The most amazing event we came across was the Easter celebration in Pirgos on Friday night.  Pirgos is one of the 15 villages on this small island.  When we first arrived the host pointed it to us on our way from the port to hotel and said that Friday night it's going to be most splendid and a huge amount of people would come there.  As he only spoke limited English, we did not know what to expect.  Again we arrived early, found a good spot in the restaurant which turned down many late comers during our dinner.  BTW, I had the most delicious grilled octopus there, which inspired me to order grilled octopus later in the trip whenever I saw it on the menu.  After dinner we followed the visitor flow to walk up to the top of the hill.  Then we settled on a roof right next to the church.  By then we finally learned that there would be a lot of fixated torches lit up and after that there would be a parade walking through the village.  We waited with thousands of other people.  We got a little impatient after the sunset and the sky turned purple.  Standing on the roof on top of the hill, we could see clearly that an ocean of cars were still coming towards this direction.  Nothing happened until the last stray of sunlight disappeared.  From multiple locations, the torches started to light up one after another.  Soon, we were surrounded by flames and the scope was expanding continuously.  People got excited.  It was quite unique to experience such a ritual.  After lingering a bit we headed out to catch a bus.  Only when we walked further away to the streets did we notice that actually the entire hill was lit up by flames.  It was stunning.  And it indeed felt holy.

Road was closed by the police, and we had to walk a lot more to reach the bus station.  We waited for a few minutes and no bus came in sight.  We were not sure if the bus was to come at all.  And certainly no way for us to grab a cab.  Well, then I had my first hitchhike experience.  A gentleman and a lady picked us up and sent us to Fira even that was out of their way.  Knowing nothing about them, I really want to thank them for the kind help.

Santorini is nowhere like Athens.  It's beautiful, clean, orderly, and tons of cute stores.  Buses are ready to take you from Fira to most other scenic spots.  It was still off-peak season when we visited so it was not crowded, and the hotel price was very low.  Of course sitting on beach was not quite enjoyable as it was windy and a bit too chilly.  Athena and I laid on beach benches under straw umbrellas and enjoyed tremendously anyway.