Greece Part I - Crete

The end of school at AES inevitably is filled with tears - of middle school girls and boys leaving AES, India and their friends; of kids watching those same friends leave them behind; of seniors and their parents celebrating graduation to a new stage of life; and of teachers moving on and saying goodbye.

Fortunately, that doesn't last long as AES wheels out a banquet the minute the kids are gone and soon the faculty is celebrating another year. And within 12 hours, half the staff flees the oppressive Dehli heat for cooler climates to see friends and family, and to embark on a glutinous but glorious summer.

Twelve hours after the last student left, Becky and I were standing in Indira Gandhi Airport waiting to board a plane to London with about 20 other AESers. And a short 24 hours later, we reached our final destination - Crete. We hopped on a bus (we love the environment and saving money) and cruised down the rocky coast through small towns, tattered windmills and 5000 year old Mycenaean ruins. Crete is a huge island that couldn't possibly be explored in the three days we spent there, so we focused on Agios Nikolaos. With the weight of months of school lifted, and a long journey from India, it was all we could do to find a small cafe, drink some delicious wine and fall asleep in our room overlooking the infamously deep lake in the town.

We were awoken a few hours later to knocking on our door - our friends, Melissa and Jeff had arrived! Traveling with your spouse is amazing, but there are only so many games of cribbage two people can play before a new voice in the conversation becomes a welcome addition. Melissa and Jeff flew in from Texas for our Greece adventure. The next morning, we were off.

After a late wakeup, a lazy breakfast, and a stroll around town, we decided on a hike through the Richtis Gorge, one of many on the island. We laced up our hiking shoes and loaded a bus that 45 minutes later zipped right through the town we needed to stop in and kept on going. Flustered, I made my to the front of the bus to ask the bus driver to stop. The conversation went a little like this:

Isaac: Hey, that was our stop. Can you let us off now.
Bus Driver: [Silence]
I imagine his thoughts to be, "If I just stare ahead, maybe this guy will go sit down.
Isaac: Uh, can you stop the bus. Anywhere will work.
Bus Driver: [Silence] starring straight ahead - safety first.
Helpful Greek Lady: Αυτό ηλίθιος πρέπει έχασε στάση του.
Bus Driver: Γιατί δεν το βλάκας πατήστε το κουμπί;
Helpful Greek Lady: Έχει ένα απλό μυαλό. Μπορείς να σταματήσει το λεωφορείο;
Bus Driver: Όχι.
Helpful Greek Lady: He cannot stop the bus. Do you want to stop at the next place or go to the next city and get the return bus.
Isaac: I want him to stop now so we can walk back.
Helpful Greek Lady: He can only stop the bus at a stop.
Isaac: [Sigh] OK, we will get off and walk back.
Helpful Greek Lady: Οι ανόητοι θέλουν να περπατήσουν ξανά.

 Google Translate

And thus began our hike. A short one and a half hour pre-hike hike back to the start of the hike. We tried to make the most of it.

We did finally make it to the hike and it was beautiful. The Richtis Gorge:

Jeff braved the icy cold waterfall. 

        

 

The final day on Crete presented a couple of options. Four hours of travel to see the the centrepiece of the Minoan civilisation, The Palace at Knossos, or go to the beach and explore a medieval island fort. We opted for the fort.

Elounda

 Just a short drive from Agios Nikolaos is the town of Elounda with white sand beaches and the island of Spinalonga just off the mainland. The island was first fortified in the 1500's by the Venetians and later conquered by the Ottoman Turks, albeit 45 years after the rest of Crete fell. The Turks stayed there until 1903, again years after the Cretan revolt ended Ottoman rule, when it was turned into a leper colony. It was the last leper colony in Europe when it closed in 1957.

Looking back towards Elounda from Spinalonga. *Photo by Melissa*

*Photo by Melissa*

The lake in Agios Nikolaos is said to be bottomless. One taxi driver explained that there is one other lake like this one outside of Athens and that the two lakes are connected. Whatever the truth is (Wikipedia says it is 64m deep) it is quite stunning.

And, of course, what would a vacation be without games?

It would take weeks to really explore Crete, but our couple of days was enough to get a taste of the beautiful island. The next morning we work early and drove to Heraklion to take a ferry to Santorini, but that will have to wait for the next blog.