Mainland to island

After a breakfast of a Subway sandwich and a coffee roll from a street vendor we tried to say goodbye to Athens, but it took us a little more effort than we thought. As we walked towards the bus stop we could hear megaphone shouting and there were police everywhere…I have no idea what was up, but the bus stop street was blocked off so we were informed that it wouldn’t be coming through this morning. Fantastic. So we got to experience the metro of yet another city in order to get to another bus stop. Protip: the Athens metro is really nice! And hopefully by the time we come back, if we come back, you’ll be able to ride it straight to the airport (under construction now). But for now we stopped a ways away and got on another sardine-can bus. Thankfully we got on early enough that we grabbed seats, what a luxury. After that, check-in and security went smoothly, although I realized I hadn’t written down the address of our Iraklion hotel. Ooops. I guess Peter isn’t the only one who does that. Fortunately the information desk when we landed in Iraklion was able to look up the address and give us a map – hooray!

After the bus ride into town we were at Eleytheria’s Square (freedom square), but it took a while for me to reorient myself. Therefore it took a while to figure out how to get to our hotel…we took a lot of back roads trying to go the shortest route that we later found out were unnecessary if you took a few easier main streets. Oh well! But our hotel is pretty … budget this time. It may be the least we’ve paid per night but it also feels that way. There’s no AC, just a fan, but we’re on the ground floor – almost eye level – so we can’t keep our window open overnight. Aaand it’s pretty hot in here. Foo. Also there isn’t a shower curtain or even any sort of door for the stall – the ‘shower’ is just a raised part of the bathroom, more of a suggestion of a place for your water to go than any real demarcation. Good thing I hadn’t yet booked our last night in Iraklion before the plane home…the next three nights will be interesting enough, I don’t think we will be back.

The decision was made to spend as little time as possible in the room, so we headed out so I could find some of my old stomping grounds. I found the old hotel and a few key restaurants pretty easily, eventually found the supermarket and laundromat, and most importantly, Four Lions Square. Peter was superhungry so we got some gyros – hooray! Then we crossed over to the boughatsa place and started with one serving, but Peter liked it so much that we got another. Greek food nomnomnom. A lot of the places we’ve crossed look about the same – lots of half-finished construction of course, just some in different places now – although the fountain is done and the square with awesome graffiti has been painted over. It’s nice to have a small sense of ‘returning’ or at least familiarity with where we are…plus it’s warmer now that it isn’t winter!

After some wandering we met up with Kostas in front of the old hotel Irini. A familiar face! He showed us where to get the bus out of town before stopping for a very Greek thing – coffee. We all got things to sip at a café and we talked our way through them for the next hour or two. He’s just as funny as ever and I’m glad this worked out, although I wish I had known he had a bit more free time from his army duty on the weekends so I could have planned the excursions better. Oh well! Maybe we just have to come back. =) I think we are going to the beach with him tomorrow afternoon which would be nice! My goal for the Greek leg of the trip is to just relax… I think we are pretty museum’ed out, and I know my feet hurt, so perhaps some chilling is in order.

Dinner involved a return to Veggera, the restaurant that served me baked feta last time. We ordered it again this time and it didn’t seem to be the same kind of cheese, but it was still good. On Kostas’ recommendation we also got eggplant/bacon/cheese rolls, which were baked and very good as well. And of course raki came with the check, welcome to Crete! Now it is time to sleep, although I am a bit worried about all the street noise here. Oh boy budget hotel. PS our advertised free internet is pretty crappy so we will see about the regularity of updates.