Crete, a travelogue

I am more of a couch potato and my favorite time pass is tucking my Sennheiser onto my ears and listen to John Denver/ Pink Floyd / ABBA / some random Bollywood numbers while browsing aimlessly. Being, on a short term VISA to Germany, securing a Phd position was my first priority and going to Crete for holidays was probably the last thing in my mind. It just happened more of due to profuse recommendation by a Greek national who happens to be a colleague of my brother. I was not convinced by him and at some point even thought of going to Santorini but in the end scrapped these thoughts and so it was decided, Crete from 14-18 September 2013.

The plan did not go down well with many and questions like “Greece is going through a crisis will it be safe going there?” were raised. We were not a bit skeptical about these things since we had the perception that living more than two decades in India makes you feel safe almost anywhere in Europe.
Initially, there were 4 persons in the plan, me, my brother and an Indian couple.  Accommodating the Indian couple into our plan was more of a necessity since none of us knew how to drive a car but had booked one for sightseeing around Crete. Just two weeks before the plan, they chickened out and we had to cancel the car (without any refund of course) and book a scooter instead.

Day 0

The day of our journey was nothing sort of exciting since we had a night long waiting period ahead of us. We took the evening train to Frankfurt Hbf (train station) and then had to take a bus to reach Frankfurt Hahn airport.

We reached Frankfurt Hbf ( Train Station ) at around 10 PM on 14-09-2013

The bus that took us from Frankfurt train station to the airport

This airport is not the main Frankfurt airport and in fact 80 km away from Frankfurt city. The flight for Chania airport was on the next morning i.e. on 15th. We reached the airport at around midnight and then started our seemingly never ending waiting period. Inside the airport, we bumped into three guys from Pakistan who were on holidays to Germany. Though they were Pakistani nationals but they have been living and working in Italy for quite some time. Me being always inquisitive regarding photography asked them to show some pictures from their trip. The pictures were no good in any photographic sense and mostly were clichéd posing snaps but one particular picture was a bit different. It was a snap of our Indian national flag that they took probably while passing by the Indian embassy which reminded of the differences our politicians highlight so often. I have always felt that probably common men from both the countries do not have the bitterness that get highlighted in the news. In this context I remember  an anecdote by Sourav Ganguly where he went for a test series in a Pakistan and while on one occasion in Lahore, a shopkeeper had refused to take money from him telling “You are our guest, how can we accept money from you?”.

Arriving at the airport. Loved the color combination of the logo

 In spite of the company of the guys from Pakistan, seconds seemed minutes and minutes seemed hours. We made a futile attempt to sleep through the remaining time lying down to the floor of the airport, only to find it too cold to lie down.
So after a couple of visits to the washroom we settled down. From this time onward, I was feeling some kind of tingle inside me as the flight take off time was approaching.

 Day 1

It was still dark when we boarded the flight and I had to use high ISO to click this picture while boarding the flight.

...had to use high ISO for click this picture

Being a very cheap flight it was completely full and everything had to be paid for. Luggage was limited to just one cabin luggage and anyone carrying more had to pay for it. The same was true for inflight food. Initially I had thought of taking my tripod along with me to have long exposure shot of the sea waves but later on scraped the idea in the fear of paying more. The flight was as boring as anything could be and I slept most part of it to overcome previous nights exhaustion. We reached there at around 11 am and then waited there for the person with whom scooter had been booked to arrive. 15 minutes passed and he did not turn up and so my brother tried to call him to which he said of sending someone to pick us. I got an opportunity and ventured out of the airport to take some shots.

....ventured out of the airport to take some shots

20 minutes later, the driver arrived and took us to place where we got the scooter we had booked. The distance was around 30 km and some part of the road meandered through the coast of the Mediterranean. The view was breathtaking and for the first time I was missing my wife.

The driver was quite jolly and chatted with us the whole way. He was from Tunisia and started talking about Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan & Kareena Kapoor the moment we revealed our nationality. We discussed diverse topics like olive cultivation of Greece and Tunisia and also regarding the tourist season of Crete that remains open from April to October. This car ride at 180 km/h is the maximum speed I have ridden till date. The driver took us to Chania city where we got our scooter. We took the scooter for another 15 Km ride to the hotel. Finding the hotel was not easy and had to rely on some local help to do this. The hotel seemed awesome and even had swimming pool. The best part, it was just beside the beach.

The hotel seemed awesome....

The room

After checking into the hotel and having some lunch we went out to have some fun in the beach. The beach was really good and probably the best beach I had seen till then. It was also the first gravel beach I had seen.

....the first gravel beach I had seen.

We jumped into the water to swam for sometime. After, returning to the hotel we spent some time in the swimming pool to wash off saline water. The hotel had good connectivity of Wi-fi and I was able to check my emails, facebook  and had a skype conversation with home. For the first time, a recently bought Samsung tab was getting some serious utility. After taking some rest and downloading the map to the tab we headed towards Phalasarna beach to witness an amazing sunset. The distance to Phalasarna being only 36 km we stopped at couple of places just to snap some pictures or to take rest. I would drive while my brother would look up the driving directions from the downloaded map. In spite of being equipped with downloaded map and GPS, I took a wrong turn and got diverted from the highway leading to Phalsarna. When we realized our mistake, we had gone about 3-4 km. There was no point in going back. We looked up the map to find a junction between our road and the highway and we drove on through a dilapidated road infested with olive trees on both sides.  After driving for three more kilometers we reached the junction we saw on the map only to find the highway being a overpass there and there was no way we could take the scooter to the highway. I was getting nervous and feared about our prospects of reaching Phalasarna before sunset. Nevertheless, we looked up the map again to find another junction some distance ahead. This time it was for real and so, on reaching the highway, we decided to take a break and shoot some pictures.

...decided take a break

A shot of the olive fields we have been driving through

So, after finding the highway we set off for the rest of the journey. The road being good, I was now driving with decent speed. The road was meandering along the coast of the Mediterranean and it was treat to our eyes. After, some time of driving, we decided to take another break on reaching a beautiful port.

....another break on reaching a beautiful port

view near the port

on the way we stopped for refueling. View from the roof of the gas station

Our hotel room had kitchen and cooking utensils and on the way we stopped for some eggs and bread. I took the following picture while waiting for my brother outside the supermarket. The weather was really warm and in spite of that, my brother forgot to buy any drinks from supermarket. When we were really thirsty, we stopped again just to grab a coke.

waiting outside of the super market.

...and now for coke.

 After quenching our thirst, we headed forward. After going some distance, we realized that I have missed a turn. Luckily, this time I had not gone too far. After 10-15 mins of driving we could see the beach and rest of the path was downhill. We discussed about dinner and decided to stop to inquire this on a roadside restaurant. While, my brother went inside the restaurant I took few shots.

..we could see the beach and rest of the path was downhill.

We could see the sun quite high up in the sky and knew we still have some time before sunset. After some distance downhill, we took another stop. It was a nice vantage point for the beach and as usual, I took more snaps from there.

...a beautiful vantage point for the beach.

Well, now we were at the beach. There were only few cars parked there and our scooter was probably the only two wheeler there. The rented scooter had no handle lock and I was bit skeptical about leaving the unlocked scooter there. But we had no choice :-).  The beach was not very crowded. On one side were a group playing beach volleyball while the other side was crowded with empty loungers. And one more thing, contrary to the previous, this was a sand beach. I sat down on the lounger and looked at a couple enjoying themselves and for the second time I was missing my wife.

On one side were a group playing beach volleyball.

The other side was crowded with empty loungers.

I sat down on a lounger to feel as relaxed as I could.

Sitting there, I saw a girl strolling along the beach. I tried walking barefooted on the gravel beach in the afternoon and it was very painful. This being a sand beach, I could just imagine her heavenly feeling walking along the beach with waves gently kissing her feet. Me having full shoes on could only imagine.

The girl

I decided to take some different angle shots of the beach and ventured out of the crowded loungers. Now, the sun was really low in the sky and there was not much time for sunset. I saw a part of rock going into the sea and thought that the ledge could be a really good vantage point for sunset. After witnessing a spectacular sunset, we headed home.

...ventured out of the crowded loungers.

...good vantage point.

Spectacular sunset.

On the way we stopped at a road side restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was being run by an old couple and we savoured ourselves with fish fry & lamb with okra curry. It is customary in Greek restaurants to get bread complimentary but we got something more, two pints of home brewed wine and a bottle of raki. My brother was not in a mood to drink and had only a sip of the wine & I finished the rest. The wine tasted awesome and probably the best among any alcohols I have tasted so far. Given the high alcohol content of Raki 45% in comparison to beer that has more or less 5%, my brother asked me to sit back while he drove the rest of journey back to our hotel.

The beach from the restaurant.

Fish fry, okra lamb curry, complimentary bread and wine....Raki is yet to arrive

The old couple running the restaurant....loved their hospitality

On returning back to hotel while my brother was busy making next days breakfast, I looked up the map, bus route etc. for our next day excursion and thus concluded our eventful day 1.

Day 2

While there was not much planning involved for our three day trip, we roughly discussed something like this Day 1 beach, Day 2 Samaria gorge, Day 3 beach again. So, evidently the only planned day was Day 2. I woke up to the sound of mobile phone alarm. Got, ready quickly, packed everything and set off. I resorted to my driver status while my brother was again the navigator, We were headed towards the 30 KM far bus stand to catch the bus that will take us to the entry point of samaria gorge. Yet again, I took a wrong turn and were driving on a road parallel to the highway. After some driving, we reached a place that the GPS pointed out as the bus stand but buses were no where to be found. After taking some help from locals, breaking few traffic rules we finally reached the bus stand. Initially we were bit skeptical about leaving our scooter at the bus stand but on finding a number of bikes already parked we decided otherwise.

The bus terminus.

We booked ticket and boarded the bus. It was quite a bit of ride as the bus took us through roads embracing mountains. It was around 9 in the morning when we reached the fantastic white mountain. It was from here we will start our descent of 18Km. There was a small shop where you could buy snacks and drinks. Since we happen to bring food, we only bought two local oranges and a bottle of water. Stickers on the door advertising Kodak film suggested that the shop has existed for some time.

The bus and the fantastic white mountain

Tourists preparing for the descent 

My brother got the entry ticket for the park while tried to absorb the moment. We started our walk downhill. Occasionally accidents do happen and the park authority have an ambulance service for such incidents. Initially, the terrain was a bit hard to tackle. It was a steep downhill, but had steps and is fenced. It is one of these moments when you realize even walking downhill is not that easy.

The ambulance ready with it's driver.

....steep downhill, but had steps and is fenced.

The park is extremely well maintained and a pipeline runs along the way. There is no scarcity of water and you can find tap every couple of kilometers. There is a stream with clear water that runs through the park. The stream is very well maintained and park authorities do not let tourists dip their legs into the water. In short you may drink the water. On the way, few places have wire fencing over them to keep falling rocks at bay.

wire fencing.

clear stream.

The picturesque walk was simply mesmerising. There were few places where tourists have taken some time off and have stacked small stones.

stacked...

After around 3000ft descent from where we started, we reached the old village of Samaria. The village has been abandoned since the inception of the National park. The village is located beside a dry tavern and a bridge runs across it. The temperature was around 35 degree celsius and after walking more than 8 KM we were very tired and took 15-20 minutes break. During the break, we munched few sandwiches.  We had read about not taking too much break for the legs could become stiff for the rest of the walk.

The old village of Samaria

We started our next part of the journey. The narrowest part of the gorge was ahead of us. Looking up from the narrowest part of the gorge is a different feeling altogether. Walking through, we could almost touch both the sides. The rest of walk was similar picturesque and had a river flowing along through most part. At the end of the park, we were greeted by the most beautiful beach I have seen in my lifetime. Maybe due to heat as well sore feet, I was waiting to jump into the blue Mediterranean. We swam for some time, took some rest laying on the pebble beach and took the evening ferry to the place where our buses were waiting to take us back to the bus terminus.

Looking up is a different feeling altogether..

the most beautiful beach 

took some rest laying on the pebble beach..

evening ferry....

On the ferry, we meet a couple who were globetrotting. The guy was from Peru and the girl from Czech Republic. We listened to some wonderful stories about how they met in Paris and then later how they saved money from their jobs to travel around the world. Both of us got inspired from their stories and I decided maybe some years later, if I am able to save enough money I too will set out on a journey like this. We also enquired about their plans to travel to India and invited them to visit our village. In February they came to India but we could not meet since they did visit Kolkata and travelled to Nepal directly from Varanasi.
We reached our destination and there were many buses standing there, we could choose any one of them. They did even ask for any ticket. I guess the whole bus journey was paid for in the bus terminus of Chania.

The ferry took us to the place where a number of buses were waiting to pick us up for Chania bus terminus. We picked the bus closest to us. The sun was yet to set. The bus started from the sea level meandering up the hill and again down. I had the GPS in my possession and was constantly monitoring the altitude we were gaining. It was real fun. I was playing a guessing game with my brother regarding the altitude. We were also savouring our eyes with the sun getting slowly disappeared in the blue Mediterranean.

We reached Chania bus terminus and it had started to rain heavily. We had to wait for sometime before we could come out. We searched for a supermarket to buy breakfast for the next morning. There we asked a lady to give us some recommendation of good Greek restaurant. Based on her recommendation we had our dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant. The rest of the night was uneventful as we drove back to our hotel and had a good night of sleep.

Day 3

It was tough to get up next morning as our legs were not feeling our own. This being the last day at Crete, we had to get up. We did not have any particular plan for this day and had asked our hotel owner for a recommendation. He recommended us Balos. We took bath, got ready and set out for Balos. We followed the same road we had taken on Day 1.  Today we were bit lazy and stopped at many places on the way. The first place was chapel carved out under a boulder. The next stop was a port where ventured into the rocky beach and took few snaps. Here the water was crystal clear. We next stopped near a village in order to absorb the local style of living. There was nothing there to absorb, except the blue Mediterranean and concrete houses.

blue Mediterranean and concrete houses.

On finding a small animal farm, I took few shots. Next we had to stop to pay toll. The road beyond the toll stop was under construction had steep up and down slopes and was a very difficult ride. Throughout the way two things were common, one being the spectacular view of the Mediterranean and the other being Kirikiri.

Kirikiri

It was quite early in the day when we reached Balos beach but the parking lot was already quite full and more vehicles were yet to arrive. We found a good parking place for our scooter. The best part was that the parking was free of cost.
The beach was around 3 Km from the parking place and we started our walk. Mules could also be hired for this part of the walk but we did not find any tourist taking Mule. After walking for a kilometre, we could see the beach. It’s difficult to explain how beautiful it was, better see the picture that is touted to speak thousand words.

beautiful

The walk was not easy for our exhausted and tired legs. But for these kind of walks, all you need is mental strength which we had plenty. We checked our urge to jump into water and only roamed around the beach for a while. As always, the going back part was really difficult. I took a deep breath and covered almost half of the steepest climb in one go. I knew, this is the only way I can make it. We took a couple minutes rest and resumed our ascent. We took few more halts before reaching the top. Now, we could see the parking lot and decided to venture to around a bit. Probably the uphill climb had boosted our confidence.
Our next aim was to reach Falsarana and grab some lunch on the way. Maybe our aim was a bit overoptimistic with the clock ticking towards 3 PM and Falsarna being more than 70KM away. Nevertheless, this being our final day, we had to take a shot. On the way, we stopped at few more places. First, to get myself photograph with the Mediterranean in the backdrop, the next was to interact with a local farmer and finally to grab lunch. The last one failed miserably for the previous stops we took, it was quite past lunch time. No worries, at least I could photograph the hotel.
Since, it was getting late, we decided to not take any more stop and go directly to our destination. I speed for more than half an hour. There were many roads leading to Falsarna and till now GPS was our only friend. I do not know what happened on finding a lady, I asked her about the direction. She pointed us to a direction somewhat divergent to what google map asked us to believe. I voted for supporting local cognizance. The way lead us to an exquisite downhill journey. After, driving for more half hour we hit a roadblock. The road ahead of us was closed due to repair work. I realized Google was probably right.
Now, it was too late. There was no way we could reach there by sunset-Falsarnas main attraction. Dejected, we traced our journey back and on the way forayed into a wine factory. We returned back to the hotel and spent rest of the time roaming around the local market.
There is nothing to write about the next morning for we took the morning flight back to Frankfurt.