Crete: A Tiny ‘Ferry” Tale About A Sunday Sail

The Place: The Libyan Sea. . .

The Backdrop: . . .blue sky . . .blue sea. . .

The Time: . . .a laid-back Sunday afternoon. . .

That’s the setting for this week’s Greek ‘ferry’ tale - the tale of a trip from one of the tiniest villages on the southern coast of Crete to another tiniest of villages . . .

Both of the villages we traveled between in this ‘ferry’ tale are accessible by boat or on foot. We opted for the easier option and traveled on the sea.

The Libyan Sea, as a matter of fact, is the sea on which we sailed. It is the rather exotic sounding  portion of the Mediterranean Sea, that lies north of the African coast (eastern Libya and western Egypt) and the southern coast of Crete.

It is the same sea that St. Paul is believed to have sailed (landing somewhere in between the two villages – a place still marked by a small chapel and spring.)

Our trip between two tiny villages was aboard one of the tiniest of Greek ferries, the Neptune.

We left Loutro on a warm spring Sunday afternoon. It was that time just after mid-day when the intensity of the heat has slowed the pace to near standstill. The only things stirring are the ferries that serve the villages and those who, like us, were waiting to board them.

On this small ferry we shared deck space with the supplies and every seat guaranteed a non-obstructed view.

Our journey of an hour and a half took us along a section of Crete’s rugged, uninhabited southern coast.

It also allowed us to look back on a route we’ve walked so many times that links Loutro to Phoenix, an even smaller hamlet on the coast. How interesting it was to see our pathway from the sea and the little chapel where we’ve so often stopped to rest – a quiet place disturbed only by the sound of distant goat bells.

For miles the coastline entertained us with its peaks and valleys and then off in the distance we caught a glimpse of our destination:

We docked next to the larger ferry that alternates with our small boat, serving the small towns on this route and we set out to explore.  Where had we landed?

Well, you’ll just have to come back next Thursday and we’ll give you a walking tour of Agia Roumeli and part of Crete’s famous Samaria Gorge.

If You Go: 

Loutro and Agia Roumeli are on Crete's southwestern coast.  We traveled by car to Hora Sfakia, parking there and catching the ferry to explore these villages.

That’s it for Travel Photo Thursday, so head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for a bit more armchair travel! If you’ve not signed up to receive our posts regularly or haven’t added your photo to the Google friend section (both on the right hand column) we hope you’ll do so today. Happy Travels ~

‘Wind-blown’ Crete: And for 25-euros a night. . .

Some are uncomfortable with our ‘go where the winds blow us’ approach to travel.  They say that a reservation in hand gives them security and structure – they want to know where they will spend the next night and the direction they are headed when they set out on that long stretch of empty road. 

We like to throw structure to the same winds that set our direction. We don’t want to know when we set out each morning what our destination will be, instead, wanting the option to stay at some enchanting place that we’ve happened upon along the way. That’s why our off-season travels work so well– availability is high, rates are low. 

One such day in Crete comes to mind. . .a day the winds blew us along a route that followed the island's southern coast. And at a point between the tiny villages of Mirthios and Mariou, both on a sweeping hillside above the larger coastal town of Plakias (pictured below) we found our destination.



We’d stopped at a taverna to check the menu ‘for later’ just in case we stayed in the area and while there, asked about nearby accommodations. The employee didn’t miss a beat, saying, “Stay at my mom’s place just down the road.”  Off we went, brochure in hand, headed to one of the most delightful stays of our month-long trip. . .



His mom’s place, Gallinas Apartments, sat like an iconic -- but lonesome, in this early spring season -- blue and white palace on a hillside, about five minutes from the villages, a few minutes  further from Plakias.



Our room was spotless – and enormous! And it cost 25-euros or about $32USD a night.

The kitchen, had microwave, fridge, coffee pot (coffee, filters and sugar provided) as well as hot water pot and tea bags. Coffee mug, tea cups, cutlery, cookware and table settings – everything we could possibly need. And our hostess left a plate of cookies, another of candy, fresh flowers and a bottle of raki on the table to welcome us.





But it was the wraparound deck and the view that stretched from it out over the olive groves to the sea that had us fantasizing about staying for a month or more:

But sadly we were at the end of our Greek travels so had but a night to spend at this fittingly, wind-swept hillside, location. We didn’t stay long enough to use that nicely appointed kitchen because . . .we ‘had’ to return to that restaurant we’d stopped at earlier.

It was the Taverna Panorama in Mirthios where we feasted on live music and good food (that’s a veggie meze plate to the left and apple slices drizzled with honey to the right). One of the best Greek tavernas we’ve visited – and one worth another visit one day.



Once again those winds had set our direction and blown us straight into another great experience.

That’s it for this week’s Travel Photo Thursday. Head on over to Nancie’s Budget Travelers Sandbox for more armchair travels today.

If You Go:

Travel Tip Tuesday: Do-It-Yourself Room Service

There is nothing we like better when traveling than to sip that first cup of morning coffee in bed or while sitting on the deck enjoying the view from our room.  Just grabbing a few more minutes of lazy relaxation is a perfect start to a day.



On our recent trip to Greece that’s how we pretty much started each day. At the Hotel Manessi in Poros, Greece we were up early to watch the waterfront come to life each morning – cup of coffee in hand.

Most of the places we stayed in didn’t have room service options but they had something even better: a pot in which to boil water, cups, saucers and spoons.

We were at the Corelli Suites in Elounda, Crete when I took the photo below and to the right.

Not only was this do-it-yourself room service convenient, it also saved us a couple hundred dollars over the course of our month-long stay.

Good coffee – no longer just the Nescafe powered stuff – can be found in upscale coffee bars throughout Greece. In the places we visited, the cost was about $2US a cup for coffee and  $3US for a cappuccino.

Don’t get me wrong, we did visit any number of those coffee houses for a java jolt in the afternoon, like the one pictured above in Heraklion, Crete, but morning was the time for ‘home brew’.


Doing Do-It-Yourself Room Service

We brought a pound of Starbucks ground coffee, the individual filter holder and filters in our suitcase.  As we used the coffee and filters, it made room in the suitcase for souvenirs like honey and spices. We did replenish the Starbucks (yes, Starbucks has come to some places in Greece) but bought a smaller quantity to use up before our return.

Note:  When we take road trips that begin in Kirkland, I always stick our hotpot and two cups into the car.  Two years ago, while staying at an upscale Vegas hotel, that didn’t offer in-room coffee, we saved having to dress and go to the coffee shop (where two coffees were $10US) by simply using our do-it-yourself room service pack.
 
Do you use do-it-yourself room service?  If so, what tips do you have for us on this Travel Tip Tuesday?  Please add a comment below or shoot us an email and we will make sure we publish them in a future post.

Heaven ‘Scent’: Our Greek Orange Odyssey

Sometimes it was soft;  a feather tickling our noses with a hint of sweetness. . .

illusive and fleeting. . .

Sometimes the air was thick with the heavenly scent of 

~ orange blossoms ~

When we planned our Greek travels we didn’t realize that both  our destinations - the Peloponnese and Crete -- are two of the country’s major orange producing areas.  Greece, in fact,  is the European Union’s third largest orange producer, just behind Spain and Italy, respectively, and just above Portugal and Cyprus.

Our Orange Odyssey began with the first whiff of the tiny, but pungent, blossoms on the island of Poros, a stone’s throw from the  Peloponnese. 

The Odyssey sent all our our senses into overdrive.  We saw, smelled, touched, and tasted oranges; from those tiny little white blossoms to the end product. (We drank orange juice by the gallons it seemed, sometimes each glass seemed gallon sized.)

Born and raised in Pacific Northwest agricultural areas, we are conditioned to think of fruit harvest as taking place in the fall.  In Greece, we learned, Valencia, the thin-skinned ‘summer orange’  is harvested between February and October with peak harvest falling in May – July. 

While in Nafplion, that Venetian-style city in the Peloponnese, we bought a bag – filled with a dozen oranges for one euro ($1.30US) – from the display pictured below – one of many at the city’s  street market.

As we wound our way up and down, over and under the Peloponnese hillsides, we  traveled through the Laconia prefecture’s Evrotas River valley – one of the largest citrus growing regions in Greece.  Here we rolled down the car windows so we could enjoy the area’s aromatherapy.

We continued our Orange Odyssey in Crete, where we restocked our citrus supply from this selection at Elounda’s street market.

Elounda, on Crete’s northeastern shore, is where we spent several days revisiting favorite places. We ‘deck dined’  at our studio apartment feasting on breakfasts of Greek honey, fresh strawberries, home-canned cherries and, of course, oranges.

In Hora Sfakia, on Crete’s southwestern coast, we watched the orange vendor as he parked his truck, announcing his arrival and product for sale using the horn mounted  on the cab.

His oranges were likely the ones that the owners of nearby Delfini’s Restaurant used in their display to lure tourists and visiting hikers – it worked on us each day of our stay.

That is our contribution to Travel Photo Thursday, an armchair travel event hosted by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox each week.  Head over there and take a few more trips  today.  

Nancie McKinnon, a Canadian, who created both the BTS blog and the weekly photo event, lives and works in South Korea. . .she’s heading home to Halifax next week for a visit.

And guess what? 

She and I will meet for the first time ‘out of the blogosphere’ on Monday and you’ll never guess where. . .come back next week and I'll tell you!

Crete: Sunday Morning at - not 'in' - Church

On a Sunday morning in Elounda, on Crete’s northeastern shore we were reminded that sometimes the message can be as powerful outside the church as inside . . .

 

The small Church of Agios Loukas (Saint Luke)  hadn’t changed since we last visited three years ago. From Elounda, we’d crossed a narrow causeway to Kolokytha Peninsula, where it sits on a knoll overlooking the turquoise waters of Mirabella Bay. 

On this morning, as had been the case on our previous visit, we were alone – our arrival announced only by the birds whom we’d disturbed.



The bell rested in its tower, ready to call the faithful.






The intricately carved and polished wooden doors were locked, but it really didn’t matter . . .

. . .because sometimes you don’t need to be in a church . . .

Thanks for spending a moment or two with us in Greece. Hope to see you back here soon! It's Travel Photo Thursday. Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox and do a bit more armchair traveling.

Greece: Coffee and Computer Culture

Po Po Po!!!*  There’s been a cultural revolution (the good kind) taking place in Greece the last few years and so focused has mainstream media been on the country’s economic crisis, they’ve failed to tell us about it.

Perhaps coffee and computers are so common-place in newsrooms that reporters didn’t recognize it, however, the change has been dramatic in areas we recently revisited.

So let us -- who hail from Seattle (The Land of Starbucks) and Microsoft (Bill Gates and Gang) –  tell you:

Greeks are wired (the state of being resulting from ingestion of large amounts of caffeine) and at the same time unwired (by Wi-Fi.)

Based on our previous trip’s experiences, we arrived with our pound of coffee and filters, prepared to use the hot pots provided in our rooms to ‘brew’ our java. Being of the Starbucks habit, we weren’t fond their mild, instant Nescafe – served everywhere as coffee three years ago. (Okay, it is still popular and used in drinks such as chilled Frappe's.) 

Lattes and cappuccinos had been rather exotic and hard to find.  That's all changed as coffee shops now line the streets. In Iraklion, Crete, for example, (above) we found so many chic, upbeat coffee shops (including Starbucks) that was hard to choose between them.

The same was true in city after city we visited.  On a Sunday at the Ministry Music Bar in Sparti, the heart of the Peloponnese, tables were packed long into the night with caffeine-consuming patrons – all of whom seemed to be checking their computers and mobile devices because. . .

Wi-Fi has come to Greece.  Signals sometimes can’t compete with centuries old stone walls of which many structures are made, but generally it is available everywhere.   Our jewelry-making friend George Chalkoutsis, living in the tiny hamlet of Kastri on Crete’s southern coast exemplifies the change.  At the time we met, he didn't have a computer because. . .

Three years ago there was no computer access in Kastri. We traveled up a  looping road to a village perched high on a hill above and then sought out its sole internet café to check our emails.

I expressed surprise during this visit to see that George had a laptop in his studio.  “But, of course,” he replied. “Computers have come. I am on Facebook – and Skype. Are you on Skype? We could chat after you get home.”

Po Po Po! I had to admit we don’t yet have Skype – nor the skills to use it if we did.
~~~~~
*Po Po Po!  The phrase is a popular one in Greek.  It is a multi-purpose sort of exclamation covering surprise, wariness, disapproval or approval – depending on the tone, the accompanying look and the situation in which it is used.

Hope to see you back again later this week when we take you to one of Greece’s most beautiful beaches.  To receive our posts in your inbox, just sign up on our home page, www.TravelnWrite.com