Heraklion

For our last day in Crete, we had planned to travel to another two Minoan sites, Phaestos and Gortyna. Though our guidebook said that 8 buses a day went to Phaestos (stopping in Gortyna on the way), apparently that is true only during the tourist season, which begins in June. The public bus website did not have any buses listed to Phaestos. We decided to ask at the hotel front desk for the attendant to check to make sure we read the bus schedule correctly.

The hotel staff could not have been kinder—however, they are Greek. So when I told the man at the desk I wanted to take a bus to Phaestos, he immediately launched into a ten minute explanation for why I should rent a car rather than take a bus. However, he was Greek, so it seemed more like he was debating passionately with me because he was right in my face and loudly detailing his argument. It was hilarious—just like a movie stereotype.

It's hard to do it justice in writing, but his main points were that the bus was slow, and if I had a car I had the freedom to do whatever I want to do. I also could go on to Matala, which is a coastal town nearby with caves where hippies including Joan Baez used to hang out in the late 60's and early 70's. There is a nice beach, so we could go for a swim, get something to eat, and have some drinks. By the time we did all of that it would probably cost us only 10 Euros more than taking a bus, and what is 10 Euros for a good time?

On several occasions we had a Greek person tell us it would cost "almost the same" if we took a tour or a taxi rather than take the bus. Their definition of "almost" is quite different than mine. In actuality, most of the time it was about half the price to take the bus. Apparently, Greeks are not very good at comparing prices. Plus, their attitude is, "What is a little more for a better time?" This may explain their current financial situation.

I actually read an Athens Times article about people struggling with the government austerity package. An elementary school teacher was very upset because with her pay cut she would no longer be able to go out for drinks after work with her friends. What she meant by that was that she could only go out for drinks once a week and not every night. That was funny to me, since most middle class workers in the United States cannot afford to go out for drinks every night either.

We were not feeling adventuresome enough to drive. The roads are typically poorly marked on Crete, people drive pretty crazy, and it can be difficult to rent a car for one day (they want to give you a weekly package). In any event, we decided we would use the day to rest and explore Heraklion, the city we were staying in while on Crete. Heraklion is a port town and the 5th largest city in Greece. I would not call it a particularly pretty city, but it does have its charms. It is surrounded by a large wall and a fortification that extends out into the sea. For most of its history, Crete and Heraklion were fought over. Crete was part of the Roman empire and easily passed to the administration of the Byzantine empire once Rome fell. In the 10th century it was captured by Spanish muslims and turned into a pirate state. Eventually it fell back under the control of Byzantium, until the 4th Crusade when it was acquired by Venice in 1204.

The Venetians tried to impose Roman Catholicism on the Greek Orthodox believers of Crete with poor results. There was a lot of dissent until the Venetians and Cretans united to fight their common enemy, the Turks. The Turks took most of the island but could not breach Heraklion's defenses. They besieged Heraklion for 22 years. This was the longest seige in history. The walls and the fortified harbor are remains of the Venetian defenses. Some of the stones used in the walls were gathered by the Venetians from the ruins of the town (not the palace) of Minoan Knossos nearby. Eventually, the Turks prevailed and would rule, beginning in the 1700s, amid much dissent until the Cretans finally won their independence in 1898. It is a long and bloody history full of pointlessness and great atrocities committed over and over again in the name of religion. Unfortunately, too much of history is the same story—Crete is just a particularly good example.

We learned a lot of the history of Crete at a local museum. It inspired me to write a novel about the history of Crete during the time of the siege. There are so many themes here—the conflict between religions, the use of religion as a justification for power, the conflict between Christianity's denial of empire (well, in its original teaching) but also its duty to stand against evil. Unfortunately, I cannot write, so my novel will go unfinished.

At night we went out into the town. We enjoyed eating in Heraklion—lots of fresh seafood. A study in the 1960s found that Cretans lived a long time and the study attributed this increased lifespan to the diet. Cretans eat a lot of seafood, vegetables (particularly wild greens and olives), whole grains, olive oil, nuts, red wine, honey, and very little red meat. They do not eat much processed food—which is really true of most of Greece. You can go to a bus station or a gas station and you will not see things like twinkies, but you can get awesome homemade pastries. Greeks won't put up with inferior pastries.

Most cities in Greece really come alive at night. Greeks do not usually eat until 10 PM or so, and they stay out until midnight or later. The town centers are always hopping. Heraklion was one big party, even on weeknights after 9 or so. Every Cretan within 50 miles was there along with a smattering of German and English tourists. People mostly walk around, smoke, and drink coffee, wine, or ouzo. Quite a few people play backgammon while waiting for the food or drinks at restaurants. No one eats inside—but the temperature is in the mid 70s, so you cannot blame them.

They have a type of restaurant called an ouzeri. Basically, it is the equivalent to our beer and wing joints. You can get ouzo and other alcoholic drinks along with appetizers and grilled food. The picture on the left is in front of an ouzeri. They had this great charcoal grill set up. Beside the grill you can see a bowl filled with octopus tentacles. They grill the food for the customers right there. The night before, the guys working the grill had a hooka pipe set up. It was pretty cool. The guys running the grill assured me that he had the best grilled octopus tentacle in all of Greece.

That is another peculiarity of Greece. The restaurant employees practically yell at you to come in. They could have every table packed, but they are still trying to convince everyone that walks by that they need to come in and eat. Usually, they tell you they have the best the food in all of Greece. We walked by so many places that had the best (fill in the blank), that it was like Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average. It's kind of threatening at first when you are not used to it, but they usually drop it fairly quickly. A couple of times I said I had already had something to eat, and they gave me a card and said, "Maybe tomorrow for lunch."

Crime is rare in Crete, and much of it is perpetrated by tourists. People frequently hike safely around Crete and even do it alone. We saw one lady get her purse stolen at a restaurant. She had it hanging on the back of her chair and a guy in a scooter drove by and snatched it. Judging by everyone's reaction at the restaurant (and we were the only non-Greeks there), this was quite unusual. Despite that incident, we always felt safe in Greece, even at night. I can honestly say that if someone was messing with us, I am pretty sure a group of angry Greek men would quickly beat that person down. The Greeks have got your back.