Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: The Cretin Hop, Part 2

Monday, December 16

This morning we headed east to Crete's second largest city, Chania (pop. 54,000). The drive lasted about two hours and took us across the northern coast of the island and over a series of mountain ranges. This was our longest drive since renting the car and the first that took us exclusively along the main highway, which is less interesting than the smaller regional roads. As a result, we were both happy to finally reach Chania just after noon.

Port of Chania

Once parked, I took Leah for her first authentic Greek gyro (pronounced 'hiro'), complete with fries stuffed inside. We then stolled the old town and the port, exploring side-streets and small shops. Unfortunately, Leah was quite under the weather and I was not feeling super energentic myself, so by 3:00 we decided to make our way back to Heralkion. It turns out that our timing was perfect, as it rained for the entire drive home.

That night, we went for a traditional Greek dinner of stuffed peppers and tomoatoes, meat balls and roasted potatoes, raki and, of course, Greek salad. Poli nostimo!

Tuesday, December 17

Leah left this morning for Paris. After dropping her off at the airport I visited the Heraklion Archeological Museum, which features an excellent collection of frescoes, jewellery, coins and many other objects from the Minoan civilization that inhabited Crete over 3,000 years ago.

The rest of the day was spent f'ing around at home, feeding the wood stove and drinking raki.

Wednesday, December 18

Knossos

My plan today was to tour the region around Mount Idi, an hour drive southwest of Heraklion. There I hoped to visit the historic village of Anogia and tour a cave in another nearby the village. Unfortunately, the weather turned out to be pretty rainy and even got quite foggy as I drove farther up into the mountains, so most of my time was spent in the car. But there's something to be said about driving stick shift through winding mountain roads and exploring new territory. Give me that and some good tunes and we're golden.

On my way back to Heralkion, I stopped by the ancient archaeological site of Knossos, considered to be the oldest city in Europe. One of the positive things of touring Greece in the winter is that you can find yourself alone at major tourist attractions, as I did in Knossos. The place is pretty incredible. (Tip: skip the rushed guided tour - even if the guide offers it to you at half price.)

Knosses was followed by more f'ing around at home, which I'm doing as I write this. I'm happy to enjoy the tranquility before an activity-filled Christmas in Poland and then India!

Some photos: