Dear Everyone,
I am a bit jet-lagged, but I need to start writing now
before I forget everything about our trip to Greece, Unlike days gone by when I
would have had a notebook and pen to take notes, I carried only a cell phone,
and so a lot of my memories are bound up by photographs (at least, the ones I
did not delete because my pesky fingertips were in the frame).
I am going to write this in the normal time sequence, but I
am going to post some other blogs that will concentrate on a few other
subjects, like food and drink, flora and fauna, and ancient arts. So, there
will be a limited number of photos (if any) in this document; you’ll have to
refer to the links below for images (and scant text). Otherwise this blog would be pages and pages
long.
Links to picture blogs from this trip, not in any particular order:
The flight going over to Germany was a bit uncomfortable for
both of us. I was (am still) getting
over a cold I caught at our annual aikido instructor’s seminar (I taught a
class on timing and body positioning for behind-the-back attacks) so, I was
coughing on the overnight flight.
Meanwhile, Cindy was sitting next to a couple, the husband of which
seemed to have never flown before. He
couldn’t get the overhead luggage bin to close, he complained loudly about the
food and accommodations, and he kept getting up out of his middle chair, forcing
Cindy to move, so he could go to the bathroom, or whatever. Also, Cindy’s
in-flight entertainment screen was broken, her chair would not recline, and the
person in front of her went all the way back.
At least we had a good vegetarian Indian style meal.
There are no direct flights to or back from Greece from
Chicago (I don’t know if there ever have been any), so we changed planes in
Frankfurt, and waited a few hours in the airport there for our direct flight to
Heraklion, Crete. The Frankfort airport
is very large, but not served by many jet ways; we had to take a bus to and from
the terminal. I don’t know what they do
in bad weather. Our flight to Crete on
Aegean Air was very pleasant. The
airport in Heraklion has a bit of a modern third world feel to it, especially
the checked baggage area. We met Cheryl
Jenner, Cindy’s younger sister, in the airport; she had just arrived from her
Washington-Dulles – Munich flight.
It was a pretty quick drive west over a medium sized
mountain ridge into Heraklion
proper and our rooms at the Hotel Lato (near
the NE corner of the city on Epimenidou Street MAP).
This is a boutique hotel in a great location. The woman who checks us in, Katerina,
is very funny, and is pretty helpful to us throughout our stay in
Heraklion. The Lato is actually two
buildings, because the hotel bought a separate building across the street to
increase capacity. Cindy and I were
across the street in the annex. It has a
nice little balcony that looks out into the harbor and a very adequate bathroom
by European standards. We take a short
rest, and then meet in the lobby for a quick exploration.
Crete has a population of about 600,000, and about ¼ of this
lives in Heraklion. The island is doing
a bit better than the rest of the country.
Its main products are tourism and agriculture, and other than oil and
gas is pretty self-sufficient. We walked
about three blocks west on narrow streets to 25th August Street,
where we stop to have a snack and some fluids at a seaside café. 25th August is a big pedestrian
walkway that leads south past the church of St. Titus, the church of St Mark,
the town hall, and a nice Venetian fountain. It is crowded with tourists - French, German, and Greek. Beyond the souvenir shops are many crowded cafes and restaurants with abundant
outdoor seating. We head back east and
turn north at the archeology museum, making a confused square trail - - none of
the streets are straight, and some dead-end.
We’re glad that we aren’t driving around; most of the streets are one
way (they are too narrow for two way traffic), and there are clearly a lot of
confused tourists driving about.
Back at the hotel we go up to visit Cheryl’s room (a bit larger
than ours, with a smaller bed and an exceptionally nice balcony), and then up
to the roof top garden to have some Greek beers. By the time we are done, it’s
about 8:30, and we are too tired to brave the streets. They make room for us in the adjoining
rooftop restaurant, Cindy has a ‘Cretan pie” (a very thin crispy pizza with
smoked pork and tomato) and we go to bed.
Day 2
We have a nice included breakfast on the 1st
floor of the hotel, and then at 11:00 we meet Panos Kritikos, our tour guide
for today and day 4. Panos is originally
from Corfu (which I know of from having devoured Gerald Durrell’s My Family and
Other Animals repeatedly as a teenager), but he married a Cretan
woman. The wedding was him and his
father, plus hundreds of assorted Cretan relatives and villagers. His Dad and his father-in-law had to
announce/invite the wedding in several prominent social venues in his wife’s
village (e.g. the main barbershop, etc), to find out how many people were
coming, so they could rent adequate transportation to the party. Panos and his wife both trained in
archeology/anthropology, I think, and then they went to guide school as
well. He has a couple of kids. Panos is bit surprised that we aren't going to Santorini, which is a ferry day trip from Crete, and a pretty popular tourist destination, but with meeting up with Lucas, and seeing things on Crete, we don't have the time. Maybe on our next trip.
Panos takes us more-or-less to the same areas we walked past
the previous day (Heraklion is not very big), but this is both a history and
food tasting tour. We first stop at St Titus’ church, which
holds the skull of Saint Titus, who was one of Paul’s first disciples. St Mark’s church is smaller, plainer, and is
now deconsecrated, and used as an art gallery for locals. Both churches were built by the Venetians,
who controlled Crete from 1200-1650. They were cognizant enough of Cretan
sensibilities that St Titus’ church is larger and more elaborate. Just south of St Mark’s we stop in front of
the lion fountain. There is a portion of the fountain floor that
has been replaced by Plexiglas. There is
a big reservoir under the fountain rediscovered after a recent rehab that
extends an entire block north; it must have held billions of gallons of
water. It was replenished by far off
hidden springs that the Ottomans could never find, and helps to answer how the
citizens of Candia (as Heraklion was called at the time) held out for over 20
years.
We make our first food stop right in the lion fountain
plaza, where we have two typical breakfast pies. Both are constructed with phyllo dough. One has a local savory feta-like cheese, myzithra (softer and less
salty); the other has sweet custard with cinnamon and powdered sugar (bougatsa). We wander further south, reaching the
cathedral of St
Minas, stopping at a honey store, a bakery, a cheese shop - - at each Panos
buys us some products for later - - natural floral honey, a variety of cheese
pies (kalitsounia), and a large slice of a local hard cheese. We walk past a ‘giving’ or ‘wishing’ wall,
were people post up requests for charitable items, and anonymous donors might
put these items out. I didn’t see either
requests or donations, though.
We walk through the small fish market, and then stop at a
local restaurant favorite under large shady fig trees where we have delicious
local foods. One that stands out is apaki,
pork that has been vinegar cured for several days, and then smoked with spices;
I never had anything like it before - a real explosion of flavor in your mouth. We
also had a Cretan salad with rusks,
a Cretan omelet (heavy on potatoes), and tomato fritters. Sometimes the Cretans make a meal called Dakos, which is a large dried
rusk with olive oil and tomatoes on it to soften the bread, sort of a cold
pizza/salad like thing.
Our tour over, we went back to the hotel, rested up a bit,
and then went back to the harbor to see the remains of the Venetian sea fortress. This reminded Cindy and me a bit of the Bourtzi fortress at
Napflio. The sea fortress had a collection of a few old cannon, cannonballs,
as well as some ancient amphora. Most of
the written materials; however, were about the long siege, and the tragedy of
abandoning the city to the ottomans (the escaping Venetian ships foundered, and
a lot of people were lost at sea).
Apparently also, the city was holding out until betrayed from within. The war over Crete really sapped the strength
of the Venetians, and when the ottoman forced them out, it was the beginning of
the end of their eastern Mediterranean commercial hegemony. We had a long walk
up the breakwater and back, passing by some trawlers.
For dinner we snacked on the goods of our earlier tour on
Cheryl’s balcony while we watched multiple huge ferries dock at the port. These boats were so large that multiple
18-wheelers were off-loading from them.
I also found out more about Cheryl’s job - - she works for a company
that makes cell phone accessories like external batteries, charging docks and
USB cables. She goes to China (the
industrial area outside of Hong Kong) 3-4 times a year for 10-12 days at a
time. It was pretty late when we were done, and we just went to rooftop lounge
for some beer before bed.
Day 3
This was a day we did things on our own. Again after a relatively late start, we went
to the Heraklion
archeology museum. The museum started
over 100 years ago, but it was damaged during an earthquake in the 1930s, so a
new Bauhaus style, earthquake proof building was built. This was rehabbed some time in the last ten
years, and the museum looks great. The first floor and parts of the second
floor are devoted to Minoan
artifacts, while the rest of the museum has some material from Mycenaean and
Roman times. The Minoans had a long
history, of which you can question Lucas about, as he was working at an
important site, Mochlos,
this summer, but it lasted from around 2500 BC to 1200 BC. They were big traders with Egypt, Asia Minor,
and the Greek mainland. They had really
sophisticated and beautiful architecture and pottery - - maybe not to the
standards of classical Greek arts, but certainly nicer, to my eye, than the comparatively
crude Mycenaean
(the people all the Greek myths are about: Agamemnon, Odysseus, etc, basically
Greek Vikings).
After the museum we had a late lunch at a nearby outdoor
café (not that everything in central Heraklion isn’t nearby), where we had
gyros and salad. The gyros are very different
from the States, where the meat is some kind of processed spiced meat
product. Here it is clearly slices of
meat that have been arranged on a vertical spit and grilled. When we try to
leave, they bring us fruit and raki.
After a bit of a rest to beat the heat, we walk down to the
central bus station and get rides on the special Knossos bus (the route goes
through the central part of the city and then turns around at Knossos, which is
only a few miles past the outskirts of town).
Knossos is a huge site, around 5 square miles, and the palace is about
15,000 square yards. A lot of the
archeology was done by Arthur Evans, who was mostly interested in the ‘palatial
period’ of about 1500 BC. He was so
interested in putting Knossos on the ‘map’ that he destroyed a lot of the
earlier and later eras, as well as ‘reconstructing’ the palace, sometimes using
concrete. This has wrecked a lot of the
knowledge we might have gained about Minoan civilization at that site. His methods were strongly questioned by
Italian archeologists who were at work at other Minoan sites in Crete at the
same time. Still, the ruins are
amazing. In some areas there are shafts
where you can see the palace extended three or more stories down. I think there were over one thousand separate
rooms - - who knows what they were all for. In fact, no one is that sure what
Knossos was for. Maybe a religious or
administrative center, but it didn’t seem to have a significant military
presence located there. Lucas may know,
but I would guess that everyone in Crete at that time was part of the social
system, and there may not have been much social unrest, so a big military would have been unneeded.
We ate at a restaurant near to our hotel; I had a sea bass.
Day 4
We were picked up at 9:30 by Panos, who drove us south to
see more of central Crete (we don't go west to see Chania, which might be Crete's big tourist town, and also the birthplace of temenia soda. First, we stopped at Gortyn, a small
site that had been settled by the Minoans, but really came into its own during
the Roman occupation, when tens of thousands lived in the area. There is not a
lot left now, mostly the remains of a temple converted to a church, and an old
theater. It was hot out, and the cicadas
were sometimes deafening. Then we drove
further south to Phaestos,
a Minoan ruin in more scientific shape than Knossos. Archeologists have discovered two palaces on
the site, one built crosswise on top of the other. Although maybe a little less ‘exciting’ than Knossos,
I liked it more. Of course, we were
walking through with Panos, who was able to explain small details about Minoan
life, such as the placement of gutters and cisterns (Crete was dry even back
then).
We continued to drive south until we reached Matala beach. We had lunch in a rooftop restaurant, and
then considered going into the water across the hot sands. This town is famous for having cliff caves. These were used as Roman tombs, and in the
sixties, had hippie
inhabitants, most famously Joni Mitchell.
The area is a ghost town come winter.
Lucas finished his dig that day and, after a several hour
bus trip from Mochlos, had arrived while we were gone. We finished up our snacks from our food tour,
and then cruised the streets of Heraklion.
We sat down for some drinks, and then ice cream. Lucas had a mushroom
pastry on the way back to the hotel.
Day 5
This is August 15th, which is the second biggest
holiday in Greece, after Easter. This
date celebrates the death of the Virgin Mary.
Cretans take the day to visit with their family. They go to church and have bread blessed by a
priest. Anyway, this holy day is the
reason Lucas left his site one day early (he didn’t know if he would be able to
get to Heraklion of the 15th, plus some of the other summer
volunteers had to leave early). In any case, we had been planning on having an
olive and wine tasting tour, but the trip was altered since many places were
closed.
We (all of us but Lucas) met with our tour guide, Pierre, at
9 am. Pierre is a transplanted Belgian
who fell in love with Crete, and has been living here with his wife for several
years. He also runs a food blog. Also on the tour are a retired Australian
couple (he used to own an electronics store, and ‘lost money slowly’), and an
Australian/Brazilian couple with their three year old son, Jason, who is ‘from
London’.
We drive about 30 minutes south east of town to the Koronekes olive mill in Archanes [this
is a really nice website that has a lot more details than I can possibly
manage]. We are greeted by the lovely Kiara
Kououlakis, the seven month pregnant daughter-in-law of the owner. Her husband,
George, never makes it to the tour, because he was freeing a vulture that
somehow got tangled up in a tree on the estate. If you interested in this
topic, Kiara also mentioned the Olive
Oil Times as a good internet resource.
The mill owns about 2000 trees (there are about 30 million
olive trees on Crete, or about 50 per person; apparently most people, if they have
the land and can afford it, will plant 20-50 trees for each of their children
as part of a birthright plan), which it organically farms. We looked at some trees near the mill; they
had been sprayed with a kaolin mixture to prevent infestation by the olive fly. There were also some plastic bottles with a
water/ammonia mixture in them hanging from the trees to act as insect
traps. The farm mulches all of their
waste, and also intercrops (grows other stuff) in between the trees.
The olives are picked in October (earlier than most other
farms). Vibrating rakes are used to pull the olives off the trees. The olives
are sorted and pressed into oil that day. A lot of effort is made to reduce
exposure to oxygen (in fact they are going to make a trial with the nearby
university to try pressing the olives in a vacuum chamber). Actually, this mill is unusual in that it is
only one of three remaining Greek olive mills that actually presses the olive
paste. They had to buy a lot of their
equipment in France, where older methods are still sometimes used. Most
commercial olive oil mills grind the paste in a similar way, but then used
chilled high speed centrifuges to extract the oil. One of the large plants in Spain can make as
much oil in an hour as the old fashioned mill can do in a year! If you read EU olive oil labels carefully,
they actually have to indicate whether the oil was pressed, or whether cold
extraction was used (by the way, the EU labels have a lot more information
about the olive oil than American labels do).
Anyway, the typical small Greek homesteader would probably take his crop
to a cold extraction mill, and be in and out in with his oil that day.
Olives have a number of chemical characteristics necessary
to be declared extra virgin, and also must pass a taste teste. We taste a variety of different oils. There are three flavors professional tasters
look for: floral accents and aroma in your nose, bitterness which you taste at
the back of your mouth, and then spiciness which you feel in your throat. Kiara
pours us small samples of oil, and all of these flavors are apparent. We also try a selection of flavored oils
(lemon, orange, rosemary, and apple).
Then we try some products that they don’t make themselves – boiled grape
syrup that reminds me of pomegranate molasses, and a grape syrup/balsamic
vinegar concoction. Last, we sample some
olives. Everything is delicious!
Next, we drove to the Boutari
vineyard for a quick tour of the winery and a wine tasting. This is one of their seven vineyards
throughout Greece. We have a quick tour
through their fermentation area, the cask area, and then watch a professional
film about wine and Greece. Then go
upstairs to the wine tasting room. We
have two whites, two reds, and a dessert wine.
I liked the dessert wine the best.
One of the whites has a lot of Chardonnay, which I don’t care for very
much. Pierre would not normally take us
to this winery, since it is a big commercial endeavor and is normally set up
for large tour groups, but it is pretty empty because of the holiday. I don’t
think too much of the wines presented.
Next, we go to a very long lunch in Archanes at Bakaliko, a grocery/restaurant. Archanes itself appears to be
a prosperous town built around farming, but maybe also populated by richer Cretans who work in Heraklion? Our lunch lasts over three hours, and we
sample 10 wines paired with different Greek dishes. It’s a good thing we have Pierre driving,
because we are pretty boozed up by the end of our meal. I wish I could describe what we had, but much
is lost to memory. I remember cheese and
olives, and some kind of Cretan pie made with fava bean flour, but that is
about it.
We came back to the hotel, and then had a late dinner with
Lucas in the hotel roof top restaurant.
We had been smart enough to make reservations, knowing it would be
difficult because of the holiday.
Day 5
We had a long morning of packing and then went back to the
August 25 Street for a lunch prior to going to the airport for a quick flight
to Athens. The new Athens airport is
about 30 minutes outside of the city, but our luggage came out quickly and we
soon were at our hotel, the Athens Gate. The rooms are a little larger than those in
Crete, but the bathrooms are inferior - - there is no shower door, and if you
aren’t careful, the bathroom floor will get wet. We unpacked, and then took a
stroll across the street to the Temple of
the Olympian Zeus. There were
abundant cicadas!
This is a colossal
temple started 600 BC by Athenian tyrants (before classical times), but
incomplete until the Roman emperor Hadrian 600 years later. The Athenian democracy thought the super
large temple was presumptuous, and did not work on it. The temple was sacked
within a century of its completion.
After this visit, we walked up the pedestrian walkway that encircles the
Acropolis, and then had dinner in the Plaka at Diogenes
Tavern
Day 6
We got up quite early to meet up with Tolis. He is a driver for Paul, who runs a small
tour company Cindy and Owen have used before.
We have scheduled a tour to go to Aegina, the largish island
about an hour by boat from Athens. I visited Aegina 39 years ago with Michael
Smerling (we were there in the winter, and the weather was rainy and cold), and
briefly 27 years ago with Cindy, when we went on a three islands in one day
(Aegina, Poros, Hydra) tour - - so we were in Aegina for about 1 hour. Aegina was one of Athens' big commercial rivals around 600 BC, until the Athenians destroyed them.
There is little traffic, and we get to the ferry at Piraeus
with plenty of time. The ferry doesn’t
leave until 8:30. The water is calm, and it is interesting to see all the boats
sitting at anchor outside of the harbor.
Gulls and shearwaters follow the boat as we get closer to the
island.
We drive off the ferry, and the first stop is the temple of Aphaea, who appears
to be a locally worshipped deity, at least no other temples dedicated to her
are known. Was she an Artemis analog, or
Athena? It’s a very pretty classical
Greek temple with a small museum attached. I can’t recall if I went here with
Michael Smerling or not; we certainly didn’t have time on the ‘one day tour’.
We drove down to the monastery/cathedral of St
Nektarios. This is a large and seemingly
new structure. Where are they getting
the money? There is a state religion, so
not only do these church institutions pay no taxes, they are supported by the
government, with additional ‘donations’ by the (not so) credulous public. You need to pay off the church for baptisms,
weddings, funerals, even though the priests get a government salary. I think a lot of Greeks would like to see the
account books! The cathedral is
beautiful, as are the surrounding grounds.
We have lunch at a beach town, Agia (Saint) Marina. The beach is beautiful, but there has been a
recent national strike in garbage collecting, and it appears that Aegina is a
bit behind on catching up.
After lunch
we drive back to the port, and go to the Temple
of Apollo, of which only a single standing column remains. It was also the site of an ancient
synagogue. There is a nice museum
detailing the settlement of this area in Neolithic times. This site was continuously occupied for at
least 2000 years, and archeologists detailed the growth of fortifications as
the town grew.
Tolis then takes us to a
small beach in Marathonas
where we settle on for some beer, and a quick dip in the ocean. We stop in the port to get some money, and to
shop some of the local pistachio stands (Aegina is famous for them). We try pistachio brittle, pistachio cannoli,
pistachio Nutella, ice cream, etc. It’s
all delicious, and we buy some brittle and cannoli.
Then it’s the ferry trip
home. There are a lot more dogs on the
ferry going back. We look for a
restaurant recommended by Tolis, but we are not too sure where it is, so we end
up eating at God’s
Restaurant after pretty active street side solicitation "As reviewed by Rick Steves! In the Lonely Planet!". We were promised an outdoor table (one will
be available in 3 minute—it was closer to 5) and ouzo, but ended up staying inside (it was air conditioned) with some horrible raki. The food was
good though.
Day 7
After a relatively late start, we made our way to the Acropolis museum in the first
stop of our circumnavigation of the Acropolis.
This had yet to open when Cindy visited with Lucas 8 years ago, and so
was one of the highlight of the trip. Of
course there are some monumental sculptural artifacts here, but the Greeks
would still like the return of a lot of stuff from England and Germany. There are a lot of very large tour groups
(over twenty people) that you have to avoid.
The museum is ok, but I think I liked the one in Heraklion, or the one
in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos (later) more.
We have a lunch/snack in the
museum, where I finally have an espresso freddo (iced espresso that you see
Greeks drinking everywhere), and then walk to the Roman Agora, the Tower of the Winds (which
was a complex water clock), through the t-shirt shops of the Plaka, and onto the Temple of Hephaestus/Greek Agora/Stoa complex. The Stoa
is in use as a museum now, with a good collection of Archaic and Classical
Greek ceramics. It also had ancient cooking instruments, coins, weights and measures, and water clocks (pots with small holes in the bottom - - I regret that I did not photograph this, but the wiki link has a picture of the selfsame object in the museum). Apparently, political speakers were given a limited amount of time to talk; the water clock on display was timed to about six minutes, and good speakers would try to end on the last drop. There were larger clocks for important politicians to give longer talks on important subjects
Last, we walk up the hill to the Acropolis. It is still the same as it has been for
hundreds of years - - the Venetians,
particularly Morosini,
have a lot to answer for. Despite years
of rehabbing, I have yet to ever see anyone actually working on the site. Lucas thinks it probably all happens in the
off season. On the way downhill we pass
the Roman
Odeon, and the Theater
of Dionysus. Our walking trail, plus
all the archeological sites was over 7 miles by Cheryl’s fitbit, with a lot of
up and down.
After a bit of a rest, we go to the restaurant Tolis
recommended, Balcony. I would describe this as Greek Nouvelle
cuisine. Some of the food was delicious,
all was very interesting, but I think the chef was still feeling his way
through spices - - some of the dishes had very strong, not necessarily pleasant
flavors. Cheryl has a seafood risotto
with a lot of mint, I had lamb with cashews which was also rather strange. For dessert, instead of raki, we are given
little shots of mastic liquor. A bit sweet for me, but good.
Day 8
This day was devoted to air travel. We only had a one hour stopover in Munich
(and our plane was late leaving Athens), which made transferring to another
plane pretty stressful. Apparently this
is a common occurrence, and we made our flight with plenty of time, in fact they held our flight for some connecting passengers from Romania. We had premium economy class home, which was
less uncomfortable than typical. We
waited on the tarmac in Chicago for over an hour before getting released!
I feel I do need to write something about the Greek economy,
since its abrupt downfall and practical bankruptcy over the recent years. I didn’t really see any problems. Perhaps not so surprising in Athens, where we
stuck around the Acropolis area, and you’d imagine the police would keep undesirables
out, but I didn’t see signs of poverty in Aegina or Crete. Unemployment is supposed to be around 25%,
but I think that there has been an exodus of Greek workers to other EU
countries - - the streets did not seem to have a lot vehicular traffic. Statistics I have read indicate that the Greeks
work longer average hours than other EU countries (including Germany!), but my
experience, as well as talking to Greeks on our trip, make me think that Greek
workers take a 15 minute coffee/cigarette break for each 2 hours of work! However, our two tour guides, Panos and
Tolis, seemed to work long hard hours. A lot of the jobs that disappeared were
government (or church) Chicago-style nepotism jobs, and because (I think) so
many people are out of the country, government pensions and other liabilities
that require income taxes for viability are failing. On the other hand, Greeks seem to do what
they can to avoid taxation (the VAT is currently 24%!). Trying to get out of their financial hole
seems like a real Catch-22 situation; I think it will take generations for them
to recover.
Love, H.
1 comment:
So why would Cindy want to boil children in the cauldron? (Is there a classical allusion I should know?)
also, the cicada video links did not work.
great trip report!
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