Escape from the City...

Post-Athens, we hopped a hydroplane speedboat to Crete - Athens' port (Pireaus) was surprisingly easy to navigate, contrary to various reports such as Globetrekker

[sidenote: if you don't watch Globetrekker on BBC, then you should. That's the entire reason we went to Tunisia in the first place...]

We were in Chania in less than 4 hours and found a great little pension in the heart of the old town, grabbed some dinner and the next morning slept in (finally!) rising to drink real british tea on our grapevine shaded terrace before heading to the beach. We met another New Yorker staying with us at the pension, and spent a few days hanging out together - the next day tackling the famed Samarian Gorge hike: 13 km from the crest of the mountains to the Libyan Sea on the south coast of Crete, passing through a steep stone gorge that is at the narrowest point only 3.5 meters wide. We meandered down the trail early in the morning in hopes of escaping the worst of the day's heat, and managed to reach the sea in less than 4.5 hrs - the trail taking us through switchbacks, then dry riverbeds and even through portions of the river where we had to hop stones to cross. We spent the night in the sleepy town of Agio Roumeli before heading back the next day to Chania and then to Iraklion (not much to see here...) where we will catch the ferry tomorrow to the island of Paros.

Today was really hot, but we had to hit up the Minoan palace of Knossos, featured in our 10th grade lit book: the King Must Die. What can I say, we're dorks.