Monday, May 23, 2011
Weather: sunny with veil clouds and 28 degrees
Today the alarm clock rings at 9:00 a.m. We shower quietly and then have breakfast on the balcony. Around 10:30 we are ready to go out by car. Today we are doing a short drive. We drive to Zoniana, just past Anogia and go to see the Sfendoni cave. This is the largest cave in Crete.
It can only be viewed in groups with the help of a guide. And you have to buy a ticket for €4. But the cave is beautiful. Many formations are beautifully lit with different colors of light. And the guide explains well how they found things, how big the different halls are. How old everything is, and so on.
After viewing the cave we go right back via the same route. We also want to lie by the pool for a while today. I think my feet would like that too. They have been completely stung by mosquitoes and a few of them have become infected. My left foot is all swollen and glowing. And fluid keeps coming out of the wounds. Oh well, it will work itself out. I immediately take off my walking shoes and socks at the apartment so that the spots can dry in the sun. And indeed it does get better. At the pool we both take a big ice cream. We almost never do, but they have so many delicious kinds that we cannot resist the temptation. We read for a while and then around 16:30 we call it a day. This is enough sun for us. We go back to the room, where I immediately update the report. We go down a little earlier today. The foursome from Brabant is picked up by the bus at 19:05 for departure. And we want to see them off. At a quarter to seven everyone is downstairs at the bar. The bus is also this time a little bit too early. Only 5 minutes difference but still. Lazarus puts the suitcases on the bus and they say goodbye to everyone and then get on. They are the first ones. After waving goodbye, we head straight for the restaurant, but first we stop at the supermarkets along the way. I am out of band-aids and the spots on my feet keep getting damp. Finally we buy them but in the last one before the taverna. It’s still not ideal, but it doesn’t get any better for a while. I put them on right away in the taverna. Irini, meanwhile, reads what is written on the boxes and knows exactly which ones I should have had, but they didn’t have them. Only in the center at the big supermarkets probably. I’ll have another look tomorrow. For the time being I can manage for a while. I am not having my evening anyway, because during dinner the strap of my shoes snapped. It just so happens to be the same shoe whose foot is a bit thicker now, so it will stay on. I’ll try to fix it later with a safety pin or something. Yorgos has joined us and asks what we want for dinner. I order chicken breast a la crème and René orders Souvlaki. All evening Yorgos has been playing traditional music and when he asks after dinner if there are any request songs, I know what his intention is. Earlier this week I had asked him if he and Kostas were going to play Pali Pali by Michalis Tzouganakis and that is what he wants to do now. So I shout that I want to hear Pali Pali and Aristo gets all happy. Turns out it is not only Yorgos’ and my favorite song, but also his. He immediately brings Yorgos’ Laout and comes and sits at our table waiting. But Kostas unfortunately doesn’t have his head for singing, his son is very sick and he can’t bring himself to do it. Very understandable. Yorgos is a bit annoyed, but ends up playing only the melody. Aristo and I both feel that something is better than nothing at all. We make do with it. After dinner we have coffee and then we go right back to the apartment as well. We get the whiskey from the restaurant because there is still no Chivas at the apartment. We walk back and this time we count two geckos. This brings the total count to 7. At the apartment we wait at the bar for Yorgos. After most of the guests have gone to bed, we finally get down to business. We discuss the various possibilities for the site. Then again we talk about all sorts of things. At 2:15 we wrap things up together and go to bed.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Weather: on the south coast occasional splashes of rain and 29 degrees, on the north coast considerably more rain and 26 degrees
Today we get up around 9:00 am. We decide not to make our own breakfast but have some downstairs. We immediately take the stuff for the road. But downstairs we find out that the bar is still closed. So we go directly on the road. In the village we find out that pinning without an ATM card is not easy, so first we go back to the apartment. Then we drive towards the ATM, but there is a traffic jam. We drive on to the SPAR and withdraw money there. Inside we get some drinks, “fresh” sandwiches and the right plasters. Then we really hit the road. I tape the wounds on the way and then we are really ready to go. Today we drive to a very unusual monastery, Agia Nikita. Its little church is hidden in the cliff. But to get there we first have to go to Heraklion again, then again the exit “Industrial area” and then this time really to Pyrgos. We stop in Tefeli to fill up, but seeing the prices here we decide not to go for full, but throw in €70. The price here is €1.87 per liter!!! Yesterday we drove somewhere and there it was €1.69. Now that we have enough fuel we can really hit the road. At Pyrgos we stick to the direction of Ierapetra for a while, but at Mesochori we turn off to Ahentrias. The road goes up through many hairpin bends, we stop at a nice point to take some pictures and to eat some of the bread.
Then we move on again. At Ahentrias we turn off to Tsoutsouros, where the road becomes unpaved and will remain so until we reach the monastery. Over 20 kilometers. Some parts look more like a riverbed than a road, but eventually after a few unusual turns, with signs, we arrive at the monastery.
I put on my hiking boots and fasten the legs of my zip-off pants. It is an active monastery, and as a woman you are not allowed to enter there with bare knees and bare shoulders. I already have a polo shirt on, so that’s not a problem. But my zip-off pants are really too short without the legs. It’s just over 29 degrees here on the south coast and bloody hot. So those legs don’t make it more comfortable. Then we have to wait a while, as it is raining a little, but enough to get wet. After the shower, which actually evaporates before it hits the ground, we head toward the monastery. We walk through the gate and close it neatly behind us.
We walk around the grounds until we reach the little church in the wall. There we take some nice pictures. There is 1 monk sitting on a bench and he looks in amazement at the two strangers who are now suddenly walking in front of him. We greet him and then walk on to the other side of the monastery. There is also a gate here and it leads to a staircase that leads to the beach at the bottom of the cliff. We struggle to get the gate open, but unfortunately we can no longer close it. It is far too rusty and the pin is stuck. René tries everything but to no avail.
We walk down and enjoy the view of the monastery and the beach. Then we go back again.
By now it has become so muggy and hot that I almost give up walking back up. I am completely out of breath. We walk back through the monastery. The man sitting next to the monk asks in Greek if we closed the gate. We did push it shut, but not on the latch, but we can’t tell. Oh well, they will find out and no one else comes here anyway. We continue upstairs and I just manage to climb the last flight of stairs. René has walked a little ahead and comes to me with the car and the very welcome water. In the car I slowly catch my breath. Soaking wet with sweat, and exhausted, we start the journey back. We don’t drive back exactly the same route. Halfway back there was a turnoff to Tsoutsouros, which we now follow. We arrive in the middle of the village on the coast. This is a much livelier village. There are tavernas and stores and several apartments. It also has a nice little harbor. However, we drive on; we have our own drinks and bread. From here the road is paved again and we find a nice place to eat and drink. There we get a few splashes again, but it should have no name. Then we drive from Tsoutsouros towards Kato Kasteliana, where we turn right towards Skinias and Viannos. At Martha we turn left, towards Arkalochori. There is a beautiful new road here, so my map is wrong. It does not know this road. So we arrive in the middle of town and have to find the right road to Kastelli. Meanwhile, the rain is getting harder and harder. Only just before Kastelli does it ease up. From Kastelli we drive towards Chersonissos and just before that we take the main road to Malia. We drive via Stalis along the coast back to the apartment. In the room we transfer the photos to the laptop and I immediately update the report. All this while enjoying a well-deserved beer and a glass of retzina. Delicious. On the balcony we are dry and that is a good thing, because now and then it splashes again. But the temperature is not bad. It is about 26 degrees here. After we finish our drinks, we lay down for a while. I am still tired from climbing this afternoon. At our regular time we get up again and head toward the restaurant. On the way, Aristo almost runs us over and asks for the third day in a row if we want to ride along. So this time we get in, but we don’t mind walking at all. We arrive at the taverna and walked in through the grill. This makes Yorgos think we are with our own car, but we are not. We sit down and after a while Eddy also finds out that we are already there. He quickly brings us our drinks. Tonight René is having Bifteki and I am going for the Souvlaki. I’ll see how far I get with it. One piece is a bit very fatty and I give it to the cat who has been waiting beside me all evening. I finish the rest, except for two small pieces. Rene has more trouble with his Bifteki. After a ball and a half, he calls it a day. After dinner we have a drink and then Axbak. Then a sexy ouzo after all. Then we pay. Yesterday Yorgos couldn’t give us back 20 euros and he had made a too-good coupon. But when we give it to Aristo he says it is not valid. He rips it in two like this. Then when we checkout at Yorgos’ place it goes okay. Then we walk back. This time we see 2 geckos again. We are already at 9. And that despite the fact that it had not been very nice weather here today. At the bar we sit for a while and René has to play pool with Yorgos again. At 1:00 a.m. I can’t take it anymore. My eyes keep closing and I go upstairs. René stays put, he wants to help me close up. At 2:30 a.m. the rest have finally gone to bed and he comes upstairs. He enjoys his whiskey on the balcony for a while and then also comes to bed.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Weather: light rain in the forest and 19 degrees, quite a lot of rain in Malia and 25 degrees
Today we get up again around 9:00 am. We have breakfast in our room and around 10:30 we are ready for our last big ride of this vacation. We go one more time unpaved. Today is the forest and the gorge of Rouvas on the program. For this we first drive to Heraklion and take the exit Mires. In Agia Varvara we fill up the tank again, this time €1.67 per liter! You don’t understand anything about fuel prices here. In Agia Varvara is also our exit to Gergeri. At the junction a Greek woman stops us and asks if we are going to Gergeri and if she can ride along. At least that is what we suspect, because she speaks nothing but Greek. We agree and let her get in. In Gergeri we drop her off in the center and after thanking us endlessly she continues on foot. We now have to find the right road up here. A road leads from Gergeri to the Nida plateau. After some searching and one wrong turn, we are on the right road. In the beginning this road is asphalt. Through many hairpin bends we go up very quickly. Then the road becomes unpaved and not long after that we arrive at a somewhat unusual junction. There are Mitatos (shepherds’ houses) and a church that is under construction. The rightmost road goes to the Nida plateau. We won’t take that one this time. The leftmost one goes toward a little church on top of the mountain, we shouldn’t take that one either. We take the middle one and it does indeed go to Rouvas. After descending a bit, we are in the middle of the forest.
It is incredibly green here. Every now and then we come across a goat or sheep. And a René sees something flying that at first he thinks is a pigeon. But when I look more closely, I see that it is a bird of prey. It sits quietly and even looks right into René’s lens.
Then we drive on. At the end of the road, there is a small church and a large picnic area. Here a shepherd is resting with his two sheepdogs, and as soon as he sees us he quickly puts his T-shirt back on. We park the car and I put on my walking shoes. There are a few information boards near the little church about what can be seen here. Griffon vultures, bearded vultures, wild cats and a few unusual plants, including one that is very rare. When you find these, they like to know exactly where you found them.
We can already see the little river that runs through the gorge and head in that direction on foot. And we see a few hikers coming our way right away. The gorge is not very well known, but is not difficult to walk. We walk down with the water. It is beautifully green in the gorge. Many trees and moss is everywhere. Wild cyclamen are also growing everywhere.
We don’t want to walk the whole gorge, but about an hour there and an hour back. After half an hour it begins to rain very gently. Not hard enough to take shelter, so we just walk on. But after an hour it does start to rain a little harder. We arrive at a rest area and decide to wait out the worst of the downpour.
We don’t walk further into the gorge after all, but return to the car in a moment. While waiting, my eye catches a small plant growing under a rock. I take a closer look and see that this is the plant they meant on the information board. We take a picture of it to compare it with the information board.
It is now raining a little less and we decide to go back. We now know why it is so green here. Although we do our best to photograph everything as much as possible, it is impossible to capture the atmosphere in this gorge. So much natural beauty and tranquility, very special! During the walk back we see the special plant a few more times and once back at the information board it indeed turns out to be that plant. But the sign says nothing other than that you must report it to the municipality of Rouvas. But how and where is not mentioned. Since we have come across several and also right next to the path, we leave it at that. Someone else, preferably a Greek, will be able to find the plant as well. Anyway, we get back in and drive the same route back. As we get closer to civilization, it starts raining harder and harder. The temperature here may be higher than in the gorge (19 degrees), but it is also wetter here. When we arrive in Malia, it is 25 degrees there, but it is raining quite a bit. We sit on the balcony for a while and I quickly prepare some cheese sandwiches. It’s already 4:30 and after our breakfast we haven’t eaten anything again. I transfer the pictures of mine back to the laptop and update the report again. Then it is almost 5:30 and we close our eyes anyway. At our regular time we get moving again and go to the taverna. I order Chicken Souvlaki again today and Rene takes pork chops. There are no Greek potatoes today, but there are hot vegetables in tomato sauce. I take those with it. Since we both have some space left after dinner, we do have dessert this time. Fresh strawberries with whipped cream. Those strawberries are soooooo good here. Very dark red in color and very sweet by themselves. Aristo says we should take ouzo and sugar like this next time, it’s even tastier. After the strawberries we take Axbak and then Metaxa and a sexy ouzo. Then we checkout and walk back. Halfway back this time we are almost run over by Makis. He wants to take us back, but first he has to go to Philipidis in the center to pick up someone else. But he is not there yet, so he brings us back first. I always thought René drove pretty fast, but Makis drives much faster, especially in the dark. But when someone is walking along the road he does slow down. At the bar we have another drink and talk for a while and Makis shows up there too. While we are sitting at the bar I suddenly see a live weasel or ermine walking on the street. Until now we only saw the flattened versions of these. At the end of the evening we close things up again. Makis and Yorgos go home, and we go to bed. It is already 2:15 a.m. by then.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Weather: partly cloudy and very oppressive with 26 degrees
We get up at 9:30 a.m. today. We don’t have to have breakfast because we are going to Katerina’s for coffee. She always has all kinds of things with coffee, and no is no answer. We had asked Yorgos what time approximately and at 10:00 he still pulled an odd face, so we had agreed to come around 11:00. But Yorgos turned out to have told Katerina that we would be there at 10:00. So for a moment she thought we weren’t coming. Of course we did. We just managed to park the car upstairs and René put it in the right direction. This way we can get away more easily. Katerina comes to meet us. We drink an espresso with cookies and cakes and talk about everything. Irini is also there and joins us. You can tell that she is getting older. Yorgos is not there, he had to go to Hersonissos on business. We talk about everything and I finally understand why the mosquito bites were so huge. Katerina saw the spots and it turns out that I was not stung by ordinary mosquitoes, but by tiger mosquitoes. That not only explains the big ones, but also the inflammation and fluid. Katerina is terrified of them. At home I will look up exactly what kind of beast it is. At 12:30 we say goodbye and first stop by the apartment for the camera and then we drive back downtown. We go to Ariadne for Pomegranate syrup and then we walk through Old Malia. There is a group from Malia that has been busy fixing everything up. They will continue again next winter, but you can really see that many homes and properties have been refurbished.
We walk back to the car and then drive it to the SPAR. There we leave it for a while. Today we do some shopping in Malia. We walk to our regular clothing store Attraction. Rene sees nice things again, this time a blouse and a polo shirt. For me there is nothing special this time. Better luck another time. Then we go to Revolution where we order a sandwich (with chips) and espresso and tea. We find a nice spot near the sidewalk and enjoy all the activity outside on the street. Then we continue walking by the stores. I had seen some nice glass pendants earlier this week and I want to pick up a few of those. At another store we come across some lighters and rolling papers. And I try again to find books by Nikos Kazantzakis. But the only book they have at the bookstore is Alexi Zorba and I already have that one. I do see the book ” the island” here. This is currently being aired in Greece as a series and is called ” to nisi”. It is about Spinalonga, but then with all the sad things. I follow the series via YouTube, but I still wanted to read the book as well. Then we walk back towards the car, we come across another calendar on the way and then we are back.