Forts and moussaka

Yay sleeping in! The sheets are really soft here at the Astali Hotel and they also gave us soft candies with the towels yesterday. I am a fan. Also the breakfast – comes included with the room – was pretty awesome as hotel breakfasts go! There was bread, blackberry and peach jams, honey, yogurt, cheese, hardboiled eggs, cereals, and milk that was actually cold…a good start to the day for sure.

Then it was time for walkin! After a brief stop at the apparently overhyped Archeology Museum (we weren’t impressed) we got to the Fortezza, where our student cards got us in for freeee. We’re back in a country that gives students a break, thank goodness. I also got a pamphlet guide this time that described all the sights within the fort walls, which was helpful. Peter insisted that we hit all the sights, and we saw a lot of things I hadn’t seen in the winter. There were some underground caves and storage rooms, some ready for exhibitions and some with fragments of old stones with Arabic carved onto them. That was cool. We found a little nook behind some out-of-control bamboo (I took a picture for you, Dad) and ate the second little tin of baklava that we bought yesterday. It was quite nice, and the breeze coming off the ocean was much appreciated. As dead as the grass is, the place is still really interesting for me, especially since some parts look rather Myst-like. So, a success.

After we checked off everything we descended back down to the old town once more. I got a spice set and Peter found a cheap Sudoku book – hooray! Then we got gyros to test the difference between cities (more tzatziki here, different spices) as Kostas had recommended, an idea that Peter really embraced. Then we headed back, intending to change to go to the beach. The hotel proved too comfy, though – Peter fell asleep and I didn’t really want to strike out on my own. Plus I seem to have a little sunburn so I just took it easy and looked up Chania stuff and balanced some expenses. Woo hoo. Fortunately Peter woke up just in time for us to get out and see the sunset at the harbor, which was very nice! Then we started walking towards some recommended restaurant destinations but in taking some back streets we found a place offering salad, wine, and 2 moussaka for 15E – not bad, so we stopped. The moussaka wasn’t fantastic but it was steaming hot and very filling. The salad was as good as ever – I’m so glad sad lettuce is a problem that has been eliminated here – and it was a good little place. I think we have evolved to the point that we can at least detect bad wine by now. It was homemade but not very exciting at all. But an okay meal, and we returned pretty sleepy!