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We're back! Last week, we travelled to Greece, revisiting the country's largest island, Crete. We stayed in Chania, one of the longest continually habitated cities in the world and regarded by the island's residents as the spiritual capital even though the title was passed over to Heraklion in 1971. This was to be our eleventh trip to Greece and Tony's first, it was Jon's second visit to Crete & my third.
Back in September 2020, we'd spent three nights in Chania and were spellbound by the shimmering waterfront, crumbling masonry and web of alleys that made up the old town but, revisiting in Spring, with the snow-capped peaks of the White Mountains hovering over the red tiled rooftops, we were almost rendered speechless by its beauty.
Surrounding the harbour is a jumble of Venetian streets, a maze-like mediaeval old town contained by ancient city walls and littered with Ottoman, Byzantine and Minoan ruins.
Our base for our seven night stay was Eleonora, a quirky Venetian-era three-storey corner house in the old town, a minute's walk from the harbour, which we'd booked via Booking.com. The owner was Sophia, a glamorous Greek widow with a penchant for leopard print and Spandex.
Despite only having booked rooms, Sophia insisted on cooking for us every day, bringing trays laden with spanokopita (spinach & cheese pies), prasopita (feta & leek pie), yemista (stuffed peppers, aubergines and tomatoes), dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), tzatziki (cucumber & yogurt dip), lemon roasted potatoes, melopita (honey pie), galaktoboureko (custard pie) along with juice made from the oranges she grew in her garden. If you think Greek cuisine is amazing - food freshly-cooked by a Greek housewife will blow your mind!
Our flight landed at 9pm on Tuesday and, with Chania only a short hop away, we'd checked into our rooms, dumped our bags and were tucking into mezes washed down with Mythos on the harbour less than forty minutes later. After years of long-haul travel & the subsequent jet lag and exhaustion, a four hour flight across Europe is an absolute breeze and, after a couple more beers in another harbour bar, we were amazed to discover that it was gone 1am.
On Wednesday morning we breakfasted at a hip seafront cafe with a sensational view, ordering poached eggs with goats cheese for me, the same with prosciutto for Tony and an omelette for Jon.
Afterwards we cracked open a book of Chania city walks I'd bought online, exploring the old town and stopping off at the Folklore Museum which had been closed last time we'd visited.
I was delighted to discover that the tales I'd heard tell of the abundance of beautiful Spring wildflowers weren't a Greek myth.
This hill, said to have one of the finest views over Chania, was in a somewhat edgy part of town, flanked by derelict buildings daubed in anarchist graffiti and a favoured hangout of dreadlocked young men with large dogs and even larger sound systems. After taking a few photos we'd headed to a bar back in the labyrinthine old town for iced coffees when Tony realised he'd lost his phone and, even worse, his bank card was tucked away inside the case. Jon tried ringing it in the hope that it was in the depths of his bag but it wasn't to be. We retraced our steps back up the hill where a young chap came running towards us. He'd found Tony's phone and was waiting for us to come back. Although he was reluctant to accept, Tony insisted on handing him a generous reward. God bless the Greeks!
I'm wearing the £2 Free People jumpsuit I'd scored in a charity shop a few days previously, it was the perfect thing for scrambling across the rocks of the Venetian harbour (built in 1579).
By 2pm we'd worked up an appetite so we headed to Platinas 1821, a shady square named after the year a priest was dragged out of the nearby church by a rebellious mob and hung from the plane tree which still stands in the centre. We'd eaten here twice before, declaring the Cretan salad, along with the complimentary watermelon raki and homemade chocolate brownies that followed, to be one of the finest lunches we'd ever eaten. Our third visit didn't disappoint.
Cretan salad isn't to be confused with Greek salad, in addition to tomatoes, peppers, olives, onions and cucumbers it also includes dakos (rusks soaked in tomato sauce), capers and, instead of Feta, it is topped with tangy mizithra - freshly-made ewes milk cheese.
Next stop was a visit to The National Football Museum, which consistently wins Trip Advisor's prestigious Travellers Choice Award. Admission is free and the young guide an absolute joy, his passion for football really shining through. We gasped at seeing shirts worn and signed by legends such as Pele, Johan Cruyff and Maradona but the pinnacle of the trip for the boys was being allowed to handle the actual European Cup, won by Greece in 2004 (and possibly the closest any Englishman has ever got to it!)
We strolled around the shops, Jon treated himself to a denim bucket hat, Tony bought a tee shirt and I remained mesmerised by the mountain view.
I posed in the same spot the last time I visited, although it was a lot quieter so I didn't impede any tourists back then.
Cretan wine is fantastic. We shared a carafe of the local red (£4) at one of the harbour bars before returning to Eleonora for piping hot solar-powered showers.
Is there anything more beautiful than a Mediterranean sunset? Even the locals never tire of it.
After a few beers in Mammoth, a hip and happening rock bar which specialised in playing bands from Birmingham and the Black Country (Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest) - they must have known we were coming- we ate at the bombed out ruin To Adespoto, one of the locations where The Two Faces of January, the Hollywood movie based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, was filmed.
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Thursday started with another harbourside breakfast after which we wandered to The Maritime Museum of Chania. Jon & I had visited in 2020 but we'd had a gallon of watermelon raki and it was 37°C so we'd not fully given it the attention it deserved.
The museum is housed in the former Revellino del Porto, the fortification built by the Venetians in 1467 to protect the harbour from invasion.
It's rare for me to wear shorts outside of the garden but these American Apparel zip-sided ones, which I'd bought for a couple of quid earlier in the month seemed like the perfect accompaniment to the hand-embroidered blouse I'd bought in Lindos last Autumn (I nicked the vintage straw hat from the Kinky Shed).
After a cultural hour or so we walked along the seafront towards Nea Chora, the city's Green Flag beach pausing at the monument commemorating the ferry disaster of 8th December, 1966 which claimed the lives of all 200 passengers.
The majority of foreign tourists base themselves at the resorts further down the coast from Chania so the beach is mainly used by Greeks.
After a couple of hours of relaxing in the sunshine we adjourned to a nearby taverna for lunch, chicken and tuna salads for the boys and a traditional Greek one for me, accompanied by a local craft ale. As with everything else we'd eaten so far, the meal included freshly baked bread, a jug of tap water (perfectly safe to drink) and a carafe of raki.
After a few more hours in the sunshine we walked back to Eleonora where Sophia was again waiting with a huge tray of food. Although the temperature was around 24°C on Wednesday and Thursday, after sunset it fell to 14°C so I was glad I'd taken a couple of long sleeved dresses and my denim jacket.
After beers on the roof top (yes, just like in Alicante, we had our own prime sunset spot) we spent the evening in the old town, staggering home in the early hours after copious pints of Alpha beer, mountains of Greek food, endless glasses of free raki and complimentary olives, honey cakes and baklava.
Yammas!
See you very soon for the next instalment.
