Observations from Crete

We're fast approaching the end of our second week in Crete, and I must admit that being unemployed and homeless has agreed with me so far.

We've not been up to a heck of a lot, but I thought I'd record some memories of a few of the things we've done and some general observations of Crete so far:

Souda Bay War Cemetery

We went to the Souda Bay war cemetery last week, where 2000 soldiers (500 of which are New Zealanders) who died in the Battle of Crete are buried. The cemetery was immaculately kept, graves all in rows with freshly cut grass and ach grave having individual plantings. Most of the graves are unmarked, with the inscription: "A soldier of the 1939-1945 war - known unto God"... All very sobering.

Today we indadvertedly retraced the route that allied forces took when retreating when the Germans started to overwhelm them on the north coast, from Chania to Hora Sfakion. An amazing drive that quickly climbed 1000m into the white mountains before descending down to the coast on the other side. The roads were fairly decent, albiet very windy - but it's hard to imagine making the same journey on foot 70 years ago, with the Germans in hot pursuit.

Knossos Palace

Earlier this week we too a trip east to Knossos Palace, a 4000 year old Minoan palace built by King Minos - probably most famous (at least to me) for being the setting of the minotaur in the labyrinth story.

The site was discovered 100 years ago by an English archaeologist called Arthur Evans, who excavated it, and then went about restoring it - including adding whole floors to building, painting frescos, and generally making it easier to appreciate the scale and grandeur of the complex.

I'm sure that some creative license would have been used, and I'm not sure that you'd get away with reconstructing a site like this these days - but in my opinion it made the visit interesting on two fronts - firstly, it offered some insight into this fascinating ancient civilisation, and secondly told the tale of when archeology was really in it's hey day - in my mind I imagine the Evans bloke probably being a bit like Indiana Jones - hopefully with a whip and everything - all very interesting.

Cretan Fire Water

The LPG (lonely planet bible, as it was disparagingly referred to by a disaffected hotel owner in Turkey once) has a whole section dedicated to Ouzo; where it comes from, how it's made, how you should drink it etc. It also briefly mentions that you won't see much of it in Crete, where they drink Raki instead - the only description they offer Raki is three words: cretan fire water.

As it happens, I've managed to drink my fair share of Raki whilst being here - as it is common practice to deliver a small bottle filled with the stuff along with the bill when you've had a meal out (dinner and lunch, doesn't seem to happen with lunch for some reason? I might write a letter).

The drink itself is probably an acquired taste, but I quite like it - it's peppery, a little like tequila, and is definitely best sipped. I'm not sure that I'd go as far as to recommend it, but definitely worth a try if you ever find yourself eating out in this part of the world.

Greek Drivers

I'd read online that greek drivers were the worst in Europe, and having now spent over 2 weeks driving amongst them - I'm happy to report that this isn't the case.

Having said that, they do seem to operate under slightly different rules to the rest of the motoring world, I'm not sure if they're officially the road rules, but everyone seems to abide by them.

On the open road, the verge is used almost as if it was an additional lane for slow traffic. If you are going slow (or at least slower than the car behind you) it is common practice to pull over onto the verge (without slowing down) and allow the car behind to pass without having to stray too much into oncoming traffic.

Unfortunately, it's not always possible to completey stay out of the oncoming lane, so conversely when driving along not only do you need to be prepared to pull over to allow faster traffic past, you also need to be able to get out of the way of oncoming traffic who are overtaking in places where they really shouldn't be.

It all sounds quite chaotic, but it seems to work - I'm doing my fair share of overtaking as well as being overtaken - and have taken to driving like a Greek with gusto.

Jet Fighters and Submarines

We've seen some fairly impressive military equipment whilst being here, we've seen one submarine, one aircraft carrier, and the frigate in the picture above - which appeared to be carrying two smaller boats on it - all sail in and out of Souda bay.

In addition to this, there seems to be an airstrip on the opposite side of the bay which is constantly in use - with fighter planes taking off and landing all throughout the day.

We've questioned a few locals as to what all the activity is in aid off, and it turns out there is a NATO base in Souda bay, and it's where they're flying the planes that are bombing Libya from.

Ironic that the airstrip must be only a couple of miles from the cemetery mentioned in the start of this blog - will we ever learn?