Two Days in Chania

After our little excursion to Anogia, Avery and I were on a “let’s get out of here” kick. We scoured her Lonely Planet guide book with the boys and settled on Golden Beach in Agio Nikolas, about an hour away from where we were staying. It had everything Star Beach in Hersonissos didn’t: white sand, turquoise water, a secluded cove, no signs or flashing lights. I was in heaven. There isn’t much I can say about our afternoon; we just sat by the water and relaxed. It wasn’t until we were on our way to the center of Agio Nicolas that things got interesting.

Golden Beach, Agio Nikolas


Avery was navigating the roads in our neon green Fiat Panda when we heard another car aggressively honking it’s horn. The two cars in front of us suddenly stop and turn off their engines and the driver of the first car jumps out and starts cursing her head off. She runs up to the window of the car behind her (and directly in front of us) and smacks the other driver right across the face. Now, Lady #1 (the smacker) is about 65 years old and has her two baby grandkids in the back seat. Lady #2 (the smacked, 25 year old girl) jumps out and goes after #1 and a full-blown cat fight breaks out in the middle of the road. In a matter of minutes a dress is ripped, hair is pulled, and #1’s glasses are snapped in half. Finally a police man breaks up the scene, but while this was going on a passerby peeks her head into our car window and mutters “Sometimes, this is just the Greek way.” (This is the Greek way? Really? I have a hard time believing her).

Agio Nikolaus Harbor

(I am not really into the transitions on this blog… basically the day after Agio Nikolas we left Hersonissos for good. We drove 3 hours to Chania and that is where I’ll pick up).

As I’ve mentioned before, I came on to this trip with an idealistic picture of Greece. I thought Greece was ancient and charming, but a lot of the buildings and cities we saw were more modern than I expected. When we got to Chania we were pleasantly surprised. The seaside village was absolutely adorable with its cobblestone streets, old buildings, and a lighthouse in it's center. We were staying in an old Turkish guesthouse right in the center of town that was owned by Lena, a middle aged lady whose uniform was strictly mini-skirts and high heels. She wasn’t the friendliest person we met, but she did offer a couple of restaurant suggestions.

The Old Quarter in Chania

On the first night we followed Lena’s lead and ate at Doloma. The restaurant was an actual hole in the wall; we walked past the place a few times before realizing it was tucked behind a seedy looking parking lot. As soon as we sat down, the hostess ushered us into the kitchen where the chef stood proudly in front of his pots and pans. One by one he lifted the lids to show us what was on the menu that night: rabbit stew, a green bean casserole, homemade mousakka, some sort of cod, etc. I settled on the rabbit (when have I ever ordered rabbit??) and it was amazing. Everyone enjoyed their meals, but the wine was gross.

Side note: the chef wasn't too keen on me snapping pictures,and tried to explain this in broken English, but I couldn't help myself. As a result, I got this poor picture of the appetizers.

(I’m going to take a moment to rant about the wine. Rumor has it that Santorini has some of the best wine around and since most of the Greek islands harvest grapes, I figured that the wine on all of the islands would be amazing. Absolutely not. Cretan wine--both red and white--tastes like nail polish remover with a hint of grape juice. It’s undrinkable.)

Seth, Avery, Me, and Jordan in Chania

I spent the few days in Chania wandering through art galleries, window shopping, and ordering Starbucks iced soy chai lattes. Greece isn’t exactly dairy-free friendly, so I gave in and went to Starbucks multiple times a day. I was even tempted to buy a jug of soy milk off of the barista, but figured that request was probably crossing some line.

The public transportation in Crete isn't the world's finest, which caused some problems when we were trying to leave Chania for Santorini. When we asked a travel agent how to get from point A to point B, we were fed something along the lines of, "The ferry system only runs from certain ports on certain days, but not on Wednesdays after 5, and never from Chania to Santorini, and the high-speed boats are 30 Euro more, but only at peak times, and we can book three of you, but not the fourth..." and so on and so forth. Basically, it was confusing and we had to backtrack to Hersonissos at midnight, sleep in the port, and catch an 8AM ferry to Santorini. Unbeknownst to us, the port closes at midnight and reopens at 6AM, forcing us to sleep outside like this:

Avery, on chairs in the outdoor cafe at the port.

The boys took turns guarding our stuff:


Seth and Jordan, being brave

We made it safe and sound onto the ferry and tomorrow I'll try and update with tales from Santorini, Naxos, and Mykonos.