Crete in October
My wife and I visited Fr. Crete in October, more specifically from 08.10. 2013 to 18.10. 2013. The choice fell on Greece, because the Schengen visa issued for six months for a trip to Spain was still valid. Have not been to Greece yet, there is a visa, the price for 11 days is acceptable ...Why not? After not too long Internet surfing, based on the price and reviews of tourists, the Louis Creta Princess 4 * hotel was chosen. Left in a travel agency 55tyr, all inclusive, Biblioglobus tour operator, Transaero airline. This time I took a pillow from home with me, because I’m not good at sleeping on the squalor that is offered in hotels. The seats on the plane were kindly booked for us by a representative of the travel agency, so we received boarding passes according to our e-tickets. The three-and-a-half-hour flight was easy, the plane was 70 percent full, the children didn’t scream or smell, they fed well, there was enough legroom, there were free games and movies in the monitors built into the backs of the seats.
There were no complaints against Transaero this time. I will try to paint our entire trip by day.
Day 1. Days of arrival and departure, I do not consider days of rest. We flew to the capital airport of the island - Heraklion (center of the island). The bus to our hotel had to cover about 150 km in 3.5 hours, but we knew about this sad fact in advance. Why did the bus take 3.5 hours to cover 150 km? Firstly, there are no motorways in Crete (I found out later), so the maximum speed is 90 km / h, taking into account the fact that speed limit signs are set every few kilometers - 80.70, 60 and 50 km / h; secondly, the bus carried not only us alone, but also about 40 people, who had to be taken to hotels; thirdly, an intermediate green stop for 15 minutes. The bus was really great.
Now a few words about the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 17:00.
At the reception they ringed in champagne-colored bracelets and gave the key 411 with a heavy metal keychain. SeaView was declared in the voucher, but the result did not live up to expectations: 3/4 of the viewing angle from the balcony was occupied by mountains, village houses, two football fields, an abandoned airfield and a road, and the remaining 1/4 was the sea. Football fields, by the way, were located very close (50 meters), and in the evenings, when the temperature dropped, you could see how the local football team was training, encouraged by the unceasing whistle of the coach. I liked the room itself: a rather spacious bedroom with a double (exactly double, not 1 + 1 = a hole in the middle) bed, a clean (it can be seen that it was recently renovated) combined bathroom, a tiny balcony with a table and two chairs, the furniture is all right , LCD TV 32”, hair dryer.
The locked door located next to the bed was a little tense (as I understand it, it leads to the neighboring apartments), but from the reviews on the hotel I knew that such a door could exist, so I was not surprised. There are full-fledged hangers in the closet, and not miserable hotel-type ones (who knows, he will understand), a safe for a separate (rather big) fee of about 6 euros / day. We did not pay for the safe, we kept money and documents in a closed suitcase - everything is ok. Sometimes mobile phones and photographic equipment were left on the dressing table, everything was safe. Pillows, of course, tin! Covered with a blanket, two small, synthetic, elastic rectangular objects lay on the bed. It's good that feathers and 70x70 size came with us from the Russian Federation! It should be noted that I do not sleep well, and sleep for me is a very important component in my life cycle. As a result, I slept badly anyway due to the fact that my feet were hanging from the bed to the ankles, and there was an unbearable stuffiness. My height is 185 cm - not small, not outstanding.
Twice I applied to the reception about a non-working air conditioner, in the end it turned out that they turned off the air conditioning system completely, because it was cold by local standards (30C! ) season - autumn, however. The conder could only work in fan mode, but this did not save much, more precisely, it did not save at all. I refused the proposed additional portable fan. The daily cleaning of the room was satisfactory and quite satisfactory, the towels were changed as needed, and for some reason we did not leave a tip at all this time. Another strange thing is to spread my wife's T-shirts and blouses in the shape of butterflies on the bed, it's good that they didn't sculpt swans out of shorts. Let me now turn to the description of the territory. The hotel is located in the village of Maleme, just west of the city of Chania. The most extreme in the village, further there is an abandoned military airfield and wasteland.
Wilderness ...The area of the hotel is not the smallest by Cretan standards - three main seven-story buildings, a large common restaurant on the ground floor + another Asian restaurant "Mura". Two bars - one in the basement, where animation takes place in the evenings, the other near the pool. There are 4 pools - one large, two for children and one with slides (it could not be counted at all). Peas, frankly, not ah! Five different ones: on 2 they roll on cheesecakes, on one - on the stomach on a litter, and on the remaining 2 they beat back at the junctions of the sections. I liked the animal most of all, it's a pity it's too small. In general, the hotel is clearly focused on holidays with children under 12 years old, for children there is generally a lot of things done there, a whole, one might say, children's town. But there were few children themselves, because it was not the season. And in general there were vacationers when 150 people arrived, and when they left, 20 people in the entire hotel.
Sunbeds by the pools and on the beach are of high quality and free of charge, not plastic, but aluminum with a stretched durable canvas. The territory is medium green, well-groomed. Animation is so-so (2 plus), I don’t even want to describe it, it’s not interesting at all. Now about the bug. Upon arrival, we immediately had a snack in the bar with some fast food. We staggered, went to the sea and went to the main restaurant for dinner. For dinner, the tables are covered with snow-white tablecloths, which cannot but rejoice. The choice of dishes is large, but the taste is mediocre, my overall rating for the food is 4 minus. Dirty wine, powdered juices, local cola, fanta, etc. , Pickwick tea bags, disgusting coffee from the coffee machine. There was also loose green tea and loose sage, I liked the Mythos draft beer. I recommend trying the locally ubiquitous cucumber-yogurt sauce Tzatziki. Tables are located both indoors and on the veranda.
We often preferred to eat on the veranda overlooking the sea and the hotel grounds. Of the exotics, there were only fried cuttlefish. That one more rubbish! Having read laudatory reviews on the quality and choice of Cretan hotel dishes, I, of course, expected more. Slightly better (4 without a minus) fed in Mura: rice, noodles, mediocre rolls, spicy meat. Of course, you had to pre-register. Alcohol in the bar is of poor quality, we even got poisoned once. Cocktails of the day (Cocktail of the day) such as beer + juice, champagne + juice, as well as classic LongIsland, BloodMary, PinaKolada, SanFrancisco, etc.
Day 2. According to the pre-arranged schedule, day 2 was familiarizing with the hotel. On this day, the hotel sea was cold (I don’t know, maybe it’s always like that there), so I didn’t climb into the sea. Here's how it all happened: my wife wet her heels, and from her general appearance, I realized that it was a pipe. The beach is disgusting! Dirty-butt-pebble-sand-algae.
We lay down near the sea, then lay down near the pool (I even swam once), then staggered somewhere else. We were lucky with the weather! During the day it was hot - 28-30C, cloudless bright blue sky, and in the evening we walked in jeans and sweaters. And the sun was so cool - not burning, not exhausting with stuffiness, but warm, caressing. Only at the end of the rest at night there was a strong storm, and the weather deteriorated, the wind blew, and clouds appeared in the sky.
In the afternoon we decided to leave the hotel for a walk around the neighborhood. The plan was to go to the car rental agency where I booked WV Polo in advance in order to clarify the terms of the rental. The fact is that I booked the car in advance with Traffic, but the confirmation of the reservation never came, although they answered my questions sent to the soap. I had to get the car tomorrow at 9:00 am at the hotel reception for 27 euros / day + 3 euros / day nafigator. According to my calculations, it was no more than 30 minutes to go to this office.
So, we went outside the hotel ...Here is the first thing that comes to mind: wilderness, game, boredom, wasteland, wasteland, melancholy, sadness, detachment, sadness, a gas station, a lonely bus stop ...We moved west. At first they walked along a narrow sidewalk, then the sidewalk ended, they went along the road. Doubts that we were going somewhere in the wrong direction intensified. We passed by the local branch of the Airborne Forces, saw an abandoned airfield with dilapidated fighters, young soldiers with machine guns. After 20 minutes and reaching the olive plantations with sheds, dogs and collapsed agricultural equipment, we decided to turn around and go back. We returned to the hotel, decided to go now to the east - civilization was visible there. We walked, walked, walked, walked ...We went to a local supermarket (a supermarket is, of course, a strong word! ), staggered there and went back. Well, it was necessary to call this Traffic. I got through easily, they even spoke to me in Russian.
We agreed that my Foltz + ZHPS will be driven to the hotel by 9:00 tomorrow. He suffered from the heat at night. The most interesting thing is that it is cool outside, but the room is hot and stuffy, because the reinforced concrete structure heats up during the day, and does not have time to cool down by morning. And so the day passed - nothing! Even that day I tried the hotel slides.
Day 3. o. Gramvoussa with Balos + Falassarna beach. After breakfast, at exactly 9:00, we saw a man near the hotel reception, in whose hands was a folder with the inscription Traffic. This man, as it turned out later, is a very pleasant and friendly woman, he wanted to squeeze an extra 27 euros from me for renting a car. We ordered a car for 6 days for 162 euros, and she (the person) convinced me that 6 days would cost 189 euros. It's good that I printed out the answer sent to me by a representative of the Traffic, where it was written that 6 days would really cost us 162 euros.
After I showed this aunt a printout, she began to call her superiors. At the end of the conversation with the authorities, nodding in the affirmative, she took 162 euros for a car + 18 euros for a nafigatr. Nafigatr was a small piece of plastic, completely (with the exception of the display) rewound with adhesive tape, did not support the Russian language and wheezed when approaching turns (later, however, it stopped wheezing). But you have to give him credit! Much due! He worked out his 3 euros / day by 200%. I just poked at the map, clicked “Go! ", and he plotted the route. Sometimes, of course, he was stupid (he drove in a circle, forced him to turn onto an impassable road), but these are trifles compared to the amount of goodness that he brought us.
It is worth saying that in Crete it would be very difficult for me personally to navigate solely by road signs and signs, despite the fact that I do not suffer from spatial cretinism, so without ZHPS we would have lost a lot of time searching for the right road. The junctions there are stupid, the road surface is good, the serpentine is very serpentine, and the road signs are all covered in hooligans. A few words about cars. Red Foltz Polo in the last body, handle, mileage 22500. There were absolutely no complaints, the conder and all other junk worked normally. So ...We moved immediately to the west to the famous beach of Balos (in the same place on the island of Gramvousa). It was not possible to move early in the morning, because we spent some time picking up the car. It turned out somewhere around 10:30, I wanted, of course, to leave early so that there were fewer people on the beach. Respect to the nafigator, I say hello to him!
We drove for 20-30 minutes on an asphalt road, then a rocky dirt road began along the coast, the entrance to the dirt road was 1 euro from the nose (something a la a fee for maintaining the road). We drove along the dirt road for 10-15 minutes, and reached a free parking lot. We parked, took lunch boxes, towels, creams with us and followed the people along the path. Lunch boxes (pre-ordered at the canteen) are a paper bag with a sandwich, a banana, a bottle of water, an apple, cookies and a small bag of orange juice. One lunch box per snout, so to speak. It is not allowed to collect food from the canteen in your eggplants. Here...It was a small digression. We are going, then, along the path ...They immediately offer to drive on a donkey for babos, but there it’s only about 10 minutes to go there!
We go, we go, mountains, bushes, and suddenly a panorama opens up, the same one that is on numerous pictures on the Internet: a symmetrical island with steep banks, a spit, the most beautiful sea of all kinds. Well, this place is just right for photography. We went down to the beach, where the sand is white, clean, sun loungers (paid, we did not take). We settled down on a sandy spit in the middle between about. Crete and about. Gramvousa. Small, pipets! Knee-deep. The water was cool, 22 degrees or so. It was possible, of course, to go further to the islet, it was probably deeper there, but we did not go, floundering in what was. We spent about an hour and a half on the beach. Closer to dinner, I saw a ship on the other side of the estuary. The ship sailed, and a thick dark mass of living organisms began to pour out of it. For 10-15 minutes I watched this stream flowing straight in our direction. Without thinking twice, we collected our clothes and moved to the car.
On the way back, it was funny to watch from above how this huge crowd fills the beach. For those who do not rent a car, there is no other choice but to sail on this vessel for money, along with a cloud of others of the same kind, because Balos is only by land by car, buses do not go there, trains do not go. When we got to the car, we found that there was not enough plug in the bumper on the right side (there are no fogs, there are plugs instead). In short, such a normal hole in the bumper gapes, and from there the radiator sticks out. It fell off somewhere along the way, the latches are obviously frail. The mood deteriorated ...Then suddenly half-wild goats (they are kri-kri) came up to ask to eat. All that was left of our lunch boxes were bananas, which the goats happily destroyed. We drove back slowly, hoping to find a plug. In vain! From Balos, our path lay in the town of Falasarna, or rather, on the beach of Falasarna. I read on the net that it is worth a visit. Hello ZhPS again!
The city of Falasarna is very close there, a maximum of half an hour's journey. We've arrived. Parking near the beach is large and free, the sunbeds on the beach must have been paid (we took a blanket with us and lay on the sand) I really liked the beach - large, wide, clean. The sea is gorgeous - clean, warm, not a pebble at the bottom, the sunset is perfect. We lay around, took pictures, and by 18:30 returned to the hotel to spend the evening in idleness.
Day 4. Hrissoskalitissa + Elafonissi + Chania. On the 4th day, Elafonisi beach was planned with a stop at the Chrysoskalitis Monastery, because on the way. Elafonisi and the monastery are located in the southwest of the island, so it was relatively close to the hotel (less than an hour, probably). At the sign turned to the monastery, the entrance is about 2 euros per person. Persons with open thighs and shoulders are given bathrobes at the entrance. The monastery has a small museum with all sorts of monastery personal belongings, you can enter a real cell where the clergy lived.
The building is located on a hill, right on the cliff, so the view of the bay is normal. Of course, you can’t make an impressive photo panorama there, because you can only walk from one side of the monastery, but still, it’s very picturesque. In short, we loved it!
From Chrysoskalitis to the famous beach of Elafonisi, 10 minutes by car. Parking, again, is free. The sand there along the edge of the sea does have a pinkish tint due to the content of crushed shells of molluscs. You can walk along the sandy spit away from the coast, which we did. In short, you can go even longer, further, there are fewer people and more beautiful views. The sea is clean, refreshing, there was no wind. In general, I recommend to visit. We spent 2-3 hours there, and moved to the city of Chania.
Chania, the former capital of Crete, is one of the 4 administrative centers of the island.
I read the reviews of admiring tourists about the unforgettable color, narrow streets, wonderful restaurants and all that, in view of which it was decided to move directly to the historical center of the city - to the embankment. We arrived in Chania in the late afternoon. With parking pipe! Spinning and spinning, finally, they saw a large sign “Paid parking there! » For the first time in my life, I was so happy about paid parking! Price 2.5 euro/hour. Now about the city. The historic part of the city, yes, beautiful. Everything is focused on tourists: cafes, shops, entertainment, souvenirs. Picturesque embankment in the Venetian style. So it's nice to just walk there.
Day 5. Kournas lake + Preveli monastery + Preveli beach. Lake Kournas (or Kourna, I don't know how to pronounce correctly) is the only freshwater lake on the island. Previously, there was still a freshwater lake near the town of Agios Nikolaos, but it was connected to the sea by a canal so that the boats could float.
We turned off the national highway at the right place, again thanks to the ZHPS. Lake Kournas is quite large and clean, on the one hand there is a well-maintained pebble beach, on the other - bushes and mountains. On the well-maintained side there are cafes, a parking lot, free sunbeds and water bike rentals on the beach. On the opposite side you can meet wild turtles and freshwater crabs. The sunset is sandy, the water is not cold. Semi-wild ducks and geese roam the beach, which tourists like to feed. Here we are, feeding them our lunch box sandwiches. For some reason, they are more willing to eat ham and cheese than bread and apples. We rented a bicycle, fed a turtle with bread, swam in the center of the lake. Before leaving, we sat in a local cafe, drank frapé and ate pizza. The lake was planned for a few hours, but I would have gladly set aside a whole day for it if I knew that my wife and I would enjoy it so much.
We arrived at the beach only at 17 o'clock, so the sun caught only half an hour. It’s a pity that they didn’t allocate a whole day to the lake, then they would normally lie on this beach. We were returning in the dark, weaving for a long time at a speed of 30 km / h along the serpentine behind some small car, which gathered a long tail behind it. Some freaked out and overtook, crossing the solid line on closed corners. I honestly observed everything and did not overtake until the last. Moreover, he always observed and did not violate, because it is known that the amount of fines in Europe is “slightly” different from the sizes in the Russian Federation, and I didn’t want to waste time and nerves on proceedings. We safely arrived at the hotel, where we had previously booked for dinner at the Mura Asian restaurant.
Day 6. Hora Sfakion + Frangokastello Frangokastelo. Hora Sfakion is a city on the south coast.
Based on the reviews of tourists, I decided that I needed to visit the sparsely populated southern coast, to plunge, so to speak, into the local flavor. Someone wrote about how Sfakion ascended from Chora to the villages of Anopoli and Aradena, enjoyed the hospitality of the locals and thus the color. I fell for this song. Go. In an hour and a half we crossed the island from north to south. We drove into Chora Sfakion, but there is no beach in the city. Port! I get out of the car, I ask the locals: “Where is the beach here? “And the beach is there (pointing along the coastline with a finger), you need to go west, ” the local answers. We rolled along the coast. After about 10 minutes on the way, a sign from a cardboard box with the inscription “Beach”, a 90-degree turn and a steep descent down to the sea along the dirt road. We rushed past, had to return about 150 meters. We went down, a normal free parking lot, then a 4-minute descent over the stones on our own two feet.
Before your eyes is a small picturesque bay surrounded by rocks with a pebble beach, 10-12 free sunbeds and umbrellas. We settled down on sunbeds, opened a neatly folded umbrella, plunged into the cool water. Snorkelers have nothing to do there - there are only stones. On opposite sides of the beach there are interesting caves, in the shade of which the locals are located. There are 20 people on the whole beach, no more, of which 4 people, including us, foreigners. I fed part of the sandwiches and fruits from lunch boxes to a local half-wild goat. An elderly fisherwoman standing nearby kindly offered to take a picture of me feeding the goat and pointed out that the goat especially loves bread. We spent a couple of hours there and moved east towards Frangokastello. Frangokastello - an old fortress, now a museum - a unique place. The uniqueness lies in the fact that it is in this place that the anomalous zone is located, a kind of space-time portal.
Rarely, early in the morning in spring, in foggy conditions, you can see images of fighting warriors, and even hear screams, sounds of struggle and edged weapons. Sometimes only images appear, sometimes only sounds, less often both. According to historians, this is a chrono-mirage of the battle with the Turkish invaders in 1828. Chronomirage is a visible and sound, but at the same time ephemeral perception of the events of bygone years. All this crap is called Drossolides (from the Greek. "Droplets of water"). Here is what I found on the net: “No one has ever been able to capture this phenomenon on video or in a photo, but one case received the most publicity. This happened during the 2nd World War. Near the castle of Frangokastello, the Nazis set up a military camp and slept peacefully when they heard the terrible sounds of the approaching army. The soldiers immediately woke up and took up arms, and the sentries, without doubting for a second the reality of what was happening, opened fire.
But how surprised they were when their shots did not cause any harm to the “enemy” army. Only then the discouraged Germans saw that the battle was taking place in the air over the sea, and the uniforms of the soldiers were from a completely different era. This case in the history of chrono-mirage is recorded in documents, it was observed by a huge number of people, which means that you can be sure of its authenticity. ” In the early morning, of course, we didn’t get there in any way, we arrived far after “after dinner”. Rectangular structure with five-meter walls with loopholes and nine-meter towers at the corners. There is free parking near the fortress, the beach, by the way, seems to be quite good, equipped (it was possible not to go to Hora Sfakion). The entrance to the fortress is about one and a half euros / person. It is empty inside, you can climb one of the corner towers, inside it is an extremely frail museum of folk art.
Wind, stones, sun, 3 German tourists, in a word, despondency ...Having received an answer to the question: “Is it worth it to go inside at all? ”, a young imposing couple of our compatriots jumped into the blue Nissn Micra Cabrio and, raising a cloud of dust at lightning speed, disappeared from sight. My wife and I followed them with our eyes and got ready to go back. The time was closer to dusk. It gets dark early (it’s already dark at 18 o’clock), and driving in the dark is not very interesting. We moved… We cut the island again – now from south to north, finally we came to the New National Road (NND). It's dark (lighting on the roads is generally a disaster), dinner at the hotel is already in full swing, two tired and hungry bodies are moving in a red Polo at a speed of about 105-110 km / h to the west. Suddenly, a 50 sign came out of the bushes, I took my foot off the gas pedal, the speedometer needle began to slowly move counterclockwise. In the distance, first I see a traffic police car, then I see a valiant inspector poking me with a stick.
I stop. A young, tanned Greek policeman walks up to the car, hand on the butt of a pistol (just like in the movies) and tells me: "Stop the engine, turn on the emergency alarm, show your driver's license and insurance from the rental company. " Well, I did everything as he said. With a stern look to me: “Mr. Sergey Sergeyev, do you know that the maximum speed limit on this section of the road is 50 km/h? " I say yes. I saw the sign! But he suddenly appeared from behind the bushes and I did not have time to slow down! “But really, that’s how it was! I just had to hit the brakes, and I just, as always, let go of the gas. He again sternly told me: “The radar recorded a speed of 90 km / h. Do you know how much such an offense costs in Greece? I say, “No, I don't know. He: “Sri moping and syksti Yuro. » THREE Hundred and Sixty Euros!
The valiant Cretan policeman, without letting my brain inflame from the information received, immediately added: “Of course, I understand that this is actually completely fucked up. Therefore, I will meet you halfway and write out a fine in the amount of 100 euros. ”This information also did not please me much. I didn’t pretend to be a wise guy (well, or to look like a fool) and to lean on. His partner explained how and where to pay the fine, and that they do not have highways in Crete, and the maximum speed limit is 90 km/h. The mood was spoiled. It was possible, of course, not to pay, but this, I think, in the future is fraught with non-receipt of a Schengen visa. The hotel asked the guide where the post office was [Gr. Elta] (fines are paid only there). It turned out that post offices are located only in large cities, so on the next 7th day of our stay, we had an unplanned trip to Chania.
Summing up the results of the 6th day: I can recommend a trip to Hora Sfakion and the fortress of Frangokastelo only if you still have, say, 30 days left. And since you, dear reader, do not have such time, then it’s not even possible to go there worth it (except on a foggy May morning).
Day 7. Post Office + Oceanarium + Zeus Cave. In the morning, by 10 o'clock, we arrived in the area of Chania, in which, on a tip from the hotel guide, there should have been a post office. I put the car in the same paid parking lot. After 15 minutes of searching, the post office was found and a fine of 50 euros was paid for the promotion “Pay within the first 10 days and get a 50% discount! » Such is the Greek policy of reducing the number of debtors for traffic fines. About this, as well as about the fact that fines are paid at the post office, I already knew from the numerous reviews I read before the trip.
Here, in Chania, we went to a travel agency and bought a ticket to the Samaria Gorge with an English-speaking guide. At the tour operator, by the way, this tour was not much more expensive. Then we moved to Heraklion - to the aquarium. 150 kilometers on the road with a speed limit of up to 50 km / h - this is not Khukhr! By noon we arrived tired and hungry. A few words about the Cretan Underwater World itself...All sorts of different marine reptiles from the Mediterranean sea are collected there. These reptiles, it must be said, cannot be compared in beauty and interestingness with the reptiles of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. But, as they say, you will get up on lack of fish and cancer! What do you remember? Huge aquarium for 60.
000.000 liters with white sharks; demonstration stand with 4 different bottom reliefs, demonstrating the ability of cuttlefish to mimicry; plankton under a magnifying lens; 180 degree view - a hemisphere pressed into the water column, about 50 cm in diameter, made of thick glass; a room with baths with sea cucumbers, clams and stars, which are allowed to be taken in hand. There is also a cafe with fast food, which we refused to visit, deciding to get by with lunch boxes. After lunch we went to the very center of the island - to the cave of Zeus. The caves of Zeus are called 2 caves - Ideon Andron and Dekteon Andron. The latter is more popular due to better transport accessibility. I thought that there was only one cave and I rushed in search of the Ideon Andron. According to legend, the mother of Zeus hid in one of these caves from her husband, who devoured all his sons for fear that they might pressure him in the future.
She gave birth there, and slipped her husband an ellipsoidal stone wrapped in diapers, which was also safely devoured. I found this information online while writing this review. We searched for a long time, we traveled for a long time. A narrow, deserted, steep, serpentine road with a good asphalt surface leads through the mountains inland. We drove for a long time, doubting: whether there at all? Finally, at 17:00, a winding mountain path led us to a house with a cafe and a parking lot, on which an old pickup truck and some other small car were lying. Before the cave it was necessary to go uphill 800 meters peshkoridze. We are in T-shirts and shorts, and there are mountains, it's cold! It’s good that I had my jacket and a beach blanket with me, in which my wife was safely wrapped. And so, two Russian tourists tired of the trip began their ascent to the cave where Zeus was born. The views are normal there, the spaces are wide open to the eye, clean mountain air.
On the way up, we met a couple of colorful foreign characters, just as belated as we are - a young redneck man and a fragile lady. I thought they were Dutch. Overcame, it means, these 800 meters, and there is a house in front of the cave, an iron fence and the gate is closed (something like a checkpoint). It's a shame, damn it! So much driving, so much time, effort spent! The four of us rubbed ourselves there near this fence, like fools, until I opened the gate. Everything looked as if it was closed - a mortise lock, a lattice and no souls. Come on, the Dutch are behind us. We approached the cave. A huge hole in the mountain with steps down and an equipped platform at the bottom of the cave. The depth is small, about 20 meters, but the scale is impressive, there are almost no stalactites and stalagmites. Nice, but dark! The backlight in the cave was not turned on, and it was already getting dark outside. The four of us rubbed there for 15-20 minutes and stomped to our cars.
By the way, as it turned out later, these 800 meters can not be stomped by Peshkoridze, but by driving his car directly to the fence, which the Dutchman did on the way back, quickly going down to the small car and then climbing up on it for his lady. I did not distinguish myself by such a chivalrous act. We went down, jumped into the car, turned on the stove and pulled in the direction of the hotel. The weak Polo drove briskly along the serpentine, with a whistle of rubber on the corners, and the Dutchman, a frisky guy, sat on my tail. By winding paths and wild villages through the darkness we reached the NND, and there it was already an hour and a half, as if on a knurled one. Summing up the 7th day: Heraklion Aquarium only if your hotel is located near Heraklion, maybe the children will like it; the cave of Zeus (the one that Ideon Andron) is far and long.
Day 8. Falasarna beach + Chania one more time. The last day of owning a car was free software.
We sin on low-quality alcohol. Leaving the hotel, we noticed that our car was taken away that same evening. The bus arrived exactly at 5:35. And off we go… From a small bus to a medium one, from a medium one to a big one, to pick up people there, to wait for people there. Everything is as usual. A guide named Lucas, a seventy-year-old grandfather in evil hiking boots and khaki clothes, was able to broadcast in 3 languages: English, German and Greek. After 2 hours, a large tourist bus with several dozen tourists led by Lucas brought us to the starting point of the gorge. Our guide bought each an entrance ticket and handed them out personally. The ticket is marked at the entrance to the gorge and at the exit, so that, supposedly, no one gets lost. The route begins with an ennobled descent into the gorge, which is a stone steps with an impressive fence made of thin logs.
The descent is long and prolonged, and this was felt especially acutely after the last evening. On some sections of the path, a chain-link is stretched over the path, on which large and not very large stones are visible, which periodically fall from the mountains. A seventy-year old guide, leaning on two hiking sticks, walked briskly in the same direction, putting a helmet on his head in places. The mountain range is impressive - tall pine trees, steep slopes, clean air. Along the way there are several, so to speak, checkpoints - a spring and a WC. We replenished our water supply once at the spring, and the public toilets are, of course, hard - many would no doubt prefer to pour directly into the gorge than to plunge into the thick, pungent stench and flies-filled air. We walked at a measured pace (not walking), because Lucas warned that we might not reach the end until the evening if we walked slowly. Having descended into the gorge, they found a small river there.
At one of the halts, some local couple offered us to carry either us or our bags for money, I didn’t make out exactly. We must have looked very tired. This proposal was rejected. Half way there is a wretched village where you can make a halt and refresh yourself with sandwiches. The Kri-Kri met only once. Having reluctantly devoured the banana peel, the goat refused the core. We walked long and exhaustingly, there was no heat, the weather for the trip was ideal, but morale is not high. After 10 kilometers of a rocky mountain path, burning feet were extinguished in a cold river. The road is interesting, the landscape is not monotonous, the views are wonderful. The only caveat - long and physically hard. We, it seems, are athletes - we run in the mornings, go to the pool, to the gym, but there we were completely exhausted. Probably, the vile state of the body affected. At the end of the journey, a glass of sweet freshly squeezed juice was waiting for us for 5 euros.
There was an opportunity to travel the last 2 kilometers by bus for 2 euros / person, which we gladly took advantage of. The minibus stopped right after the finish checkpoint, where tickets are checked, the remaining couple of kilometers is not considered interesting, because there is no longer a path, but a concrete road along the local village. In total (including the last couple of kilometers) we covered 16 kilometers of mountain road from 8 am to 3 pm. The minibus dropped us off at the port village, from where we were supposed to go by ferry to Chora Sfakion, which we already knew. In general, this port village cannot be reached by road, only by water. So, we landed and stomped onto the beach to fall in layers on a two-kilogram blanket that I was carrying with me in my backpack and fall asleep. After 40 minutes I woke up, woke up my wife and we went to a cafe to have a bite to eat. Lucas made an appointment at a certain cafe to distribute ferry tickets.
We got tickets, ate an omelet with ham and drank ice coffee. We boarded the ferry, sailed to Sfakion in an hour, boarded our bus and drove towards the opposite coast. The guide mumbled something in the dark about our valiant hike, about the beautiful nature, about the displacement of tectonic plates and some kind of faults, but I, being tired, understood his English very poorly. Our hotel along the way
