Greece, Part III: Crete and Athens

We finally arrive on Crete, after a two day delay. Our plane leaves early (!), but our rental car is not there when we land. It arrives, running on fumes, and we circle around the city, searching for an open gas station. We finally arrive at our villa after 1 in the morning. But, it is definitely worth it. The house is straight off the pages of Architectural Digest. It is not a house that you would want to live in, (no comfortable places to read indoors, gorgeous, but hard to climb out of showers, etc) but to rent it for a week was wonderful.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is an ancient palace that figures prominently in a number of Greek myths. This is where the Minotaur was kept captive, in a labyrinth and fed the young people of Athens. The Minotaur was finally slain by Theseus, who escaped from the labyrinth using an unwound ball of thread to find his way out (kind of like Hansel and Gretel). The word “labyrinth” actually came from here—the symbol of the palace is a double-headed axe, which is what “labyrinth” means in ancient Greek. This is also the palace from which Dedalus (the architect of the palace) and his son Icarus escaped by building wings made of feathers and wax. It is critical that the young people following the blog understand that the son perished during the escape because he failed to listen to his parent. Don’t let this happen to you… This is Knossos. The civilization that lived here, known as the Minoans, were incredibly advanced. Like the houses in Delos, they had flush toilets and indoor hot and cold running water. To put this in perspective, when France’s Palace of Versailles was built, 3000 years later, the most glorious palace of its age, neither running water nor indoor toilets were installed.

It is interesting to come here right after Santorini. As you may recall from my posting on Santorini, many historians believe that the catastrophic eruption on Santorini caused a tsunami to destroy the palace here on Crete. The 50 meter high tsunami actually traveled faster than the plane we took to travel between the two islands. And, there wasn’t a two day delay, either!

I know it is juvenile, but we snicker every time we see a restaurant proudly stating they serve Cretan food, sell Cretan products, or a typical Cretan village. Can’t they come up with a better adjective for themselves??? But, Crete itself is fabulous. There are so many olive trees here. We learn that the Cretans (heh, heh) consume 1/3 of their daily calories from olive oil. The roads are tortuous, winding up into the mountains and along the cliffs that line most of the coast. The Cretans are known for being scrappy and independent, fighting off the Turks, the Nazis and their enemies. They have a reputation for revenge bordering on brutality, but everyone we met was friendly and welcoming. There are countless caves and gorges in this rugged island. One day, we hike down one of the narrowest. The walls rise above us 100 meters straight up, barely 2 meters apart. The trail closes during periods of heavy rain, and we can see why. Being at the bottom of the ravine would be deadly if water were to funnel down here.

In addition to olive trees, grapevines cover the arable land. The wine is spotty. They serve this special local wine, that to us tasted like cheap sherry. Other wines were great. It was a bit of a crapshoot when you ordered it. Prices for beer and wine are moderate here. I should mention the liquor. The first house we rented had a homemade bottle of ouzo. Now, I’m not usually a fan of ouzo, as I loathe licorice, but this didn’t taste like licorice at all. It was fabulous! Our attempts at purchasing the stuff were less successful, as all the store bought ouzo tasted like black licorice. Yech. We also tried what we thought was an after dinner drink called Raki. It was brought to our table after a meal at a small taverna. The aroma and initial taste were of rubbing alcohol, but, by the third glass, we all quite liked it, kind of like sake that way. The reason I said we thought it was an after dinner drink, is they gave my parents shots of it after breakfast one day as well. As my friend Peter would paraphrase, when tippling early, the sun’s over the forearm!

There are sheep and goat everywhere on Crete. When hiking through the gorge, we are amazed by where the goats can get. Shear rock faces seem to be no obstacle, and the ringing of the bells the animals wear around their necks makes us search the rocks for their location. The weather is still wonderfully warm. Siena and I swim in the Libyan Sea, on the south shore. We see land in the distance, and believe that it is Africa. After looking at the maps later, we realize this is impossible (250 kilometers away).

Our last two days in Greece are spent in Athens. We stay at a small hotel in the Plaka, hike between the various archeological sites, and take a day trip to this spot. The Temple of Poseidon is on an awesome location, jutting out into the Aegean Sea, on a promontory a hundred meters high. This is where legend has it King Aegeus, for whom the sea is named, threw himself to his death when he thought his son Theseus had been killed by the Minotaur, (see above).

Ethan is standing in front of the old Olympic Stadium, from 1896, the first year the modern Olympics was held. They used this stadium during the 2004 Olympics, too. This is where the marathon ended. We loved that the hedges surrounding the area was made of laurel bushes. You could make your own wreath even if you were unable to win one…

We bid farewell to my parents at the airport, to fly to Italy. Unfortunately, our flight does not exist. Instead of flying to Bari (southeastern coast), we fly to Milan (northwestern mainland). Luckily, while we had sketched out an itinerary, we’ve made no reservations. When you fly il cheapo budget airline, it isn’t like flying Lufthansa. Wish us luck!

Yamas,
The Beattie Clan