http://www.crete-holiday.org/hersonissos-crete-excursions/
Dear David, a series of letters to an old friend in April 2008
Hersonissos
Crete
April 2008
Dear David,
A Trip to Ierapetra, the cave Dikteon, onions, food output, the extension ladder, a village of Las Nubes, Easter fireworks, and Gay Tourists!
Yes, of course, you are right, this month is my birthday and I was nineteen years old, again. It is also three years Steve passed away and since you asked, I do miss sometimes follows it. I think this is normal after 22 years with the same person, right?
I'm glad you think it would be a good idea to publish these letters as a monthly travelogue, and they seem to have done their homework on what Crete has to provide for gay travelers or lesbian! Most gay travel sites only send visitors to Mykonos, which is fine if you just want to party all night and sleep all day, but if you come to Crete as a tourist, gay and see the sights and walks, then you have to "do it yourself." Any gay travel agencies that have housing in a hotel in Crete usually only their faces 'gay friendly' (supposedly) hotels on offer, rather than cheaper apartments or lodging rooms breakfast.
With the arrival of April so we have the arrival of the first tourists, even though many places are still not open and the parts of the port look like a lunar landscape with piles of rubble and builders of wood where the desperate attempts being made to rebuild and renew before Easter which is the last weekend of the month.
As the construction work reaches its peak, so does my popularity among the people, to paraphrase a well-known British comedy show 'I'm the only gay in the villa ge aluminum ladder with a triple extension that reaches 7 meters. This is for you can apparently only a small thing, but if you have ever seen a Greek ladder you'll know what I mean, since they usually consist of two pieces of 3×2 with boards nailed to like the steps through, not evenly spaced, or level I might add. Why a scale should be so expensive here I do not know, mine came in any case B and Q of England in the back of a truck, courtesy of King Philip itinerant rabbi.
Around the house the birds nest in all places available, and a dove is trying to build a nest in a large pot on the balcony above, but at least this year I have not a pair of daredevils, pilots child of heaven, the swallows. Why is that swallows seem to have only two speeds, very fast and stop? Mind and raids aerobatics and spins about are really something to see. Dog not so much like them because they used to swoop down almost on top of it. And I like to go home too, I have been once in the door input, make two circuits of the room at breakneck speed and fly back again!
You will please know that onions are in and they are doing well, not only mine but that of George, I planted of course. The first tomatoes are forming on the vines, and my peppers and other vegetables for salads soon ready for planting out. I am also growing lupins this year but without really knowing why!
Now I said that there would be no travel more, but as I mentioned a couple of British guys staying here with a friend in Elounda more along the coast and asked if I wanted to drive around a couple of days, so he hired a suitable vehicle in Orion Hand Car Rental, I jogged to Elounda to pick a sunny morning. Elounda takes about 40 minutes my place, along Agios Nikolaos to avoid traffic, especially in what was on Wednesday, which is market day. Every time I think the film Elounda Hayley Mills, in the '60s, The Spinners Moon, which was filmed around this area. In the opening scenes that are on a bus that is complementary to a corner and in front them and downhill is a small town, these days the view is considerably altered course with 5-star hotels and a host of other development in the hills opposite.
Find my tourists at the bus stop was easy and went to Knossos, which had never been despite coming here several times. This meant also, of course, that really pushed back beyond my own home!
The trip to Knossos takes about half an hour from my house, where traffic not too heavy, and there is a new access road off the main road, which I missed, so I had to go to the order of rotation and back again! The road works are nearly complete on the road to Knossos with the addition of a bunch of mini roundabouts, no one seems to know what to do with, but it was the usual chaos as we approached the hospital.
I refused the offer of a free ticket to Knossos walk with them as I have been there six times and sat in a café across the road with my crossword puzzle.
Two hours later I returned to my charges appear to suffer from overload of Knossos! It is a large site with many interesting features and you really have to limit what you try to see at any one visit! Back in the city was found to be better car parking, which it is much easier to pay € 3 to drive round for ages trying to find a place free!
The museum is currently undergoing renovation mass so it is a small screen and open a building in the rear of the old museum, why not simply build a whole new museum Knossos I do not know. The visitors had a ticket to Knossos and the museum. I had to pay 4 €. The sample contains the best of the finds from around the island, including the "Phaistos Disk. Some of the paintings are also on the agenda, unfortunately not my favorite, the Blue Dolphins, "which have become a symbol of Crete.
Our Next stop was a Dikteon Cave where Zeus was born, on top of the Lassithi plateau, where there are no windmills, even though some of the guides yet insist on printing a picture of them.
Back from the east along the new road take the turning to Lassithi and headed for the hills to Potamia, from the way the earthworks for the new tank, although there are doubts about the amount of water will collect. I hope you will take the opportunity for utlilise as a tourist attraction either for bird-watchers or for navigation or maybe both!
I prefer this route to the plateau and the road twists and turns as it climbs ever higher and detract from passengers has no end, as if looking at right there is often a downward spiral! Stopping for lunch in Kera proved to be a mistake for us but a voucher for the restaurant shortly after we sat down two more buses also stopped. Stop for lunch at normal Kera is the monastery, but we tried a small family place called Ilias, roadside, fair enough it was too!
As we completed the final ascent stopped where the road passes through a cut, since it is a parking place that makes a good photo stop, as you can look back through the people who have just passed through and see out to sea. Unfortunately a reinforced steel fence has been erected along the crash barrier to the eye is a bit spoiled. On each side of the cut is a row of windmills ruined stone standing like sentinels, they must have looked quite impressive when they had their white sails still connected, but of course in this modern age to use electric power instead of wind, so we wind turbines but not everywhere. What would be good if you could re-use those stone mills for the same purpose!
After all that often surprises visitors to move up through of the court and there before that is the plateau, which then have to drive down to! As we reached the plateau that we take the right turn and passes through a few small towns like Metochi (where you can get, as I have said, a very good lunch Meze) and did not take long to reach and the Cave Dikteon Psichro outside the village and up the hill. There is a large car park and a couple of cafes, this place becomes a bit busy, so I sat with a Greek coffee, while visitors went to the cave, returning soon after, as it closes at 3pm! Hence the above error, we should have gone straight to the cave and had a late lunch! More recent visits I have been told of the cave is still closing at 3 pm, and it would be useful if you put a sign on the bottom of the hill before the climb to the cave.
Without stopping, we continued our journey around the plateau and descends into the eastern end of a liquidation, winding road that rejoined to the main road near Neapolis, and then back to Elounda.
My second day of impromptu tour guide started early again as I feel it is always good to walk around quietly and see the landscape.
The route today was Kritsa to the church of Panagia Kera, famous for its rich decorations, a short trip to the ancient village Lato Hill, Gournia archaeological site and then to Ierapetra, in time for lunch, of course!
Kritsa is just a short drive from Agios Nikolaos (I resisted the temptation to stop at Lidl in the past year) and the Church of Our Lady of Kera has many Byzantine frescoes, I think this was probably the model for the church uses for 'The Moon Spinners "as I do not think the church was used as a filming set. Visitors do not spend much time in and although I have never been I left in my own visit to a future time!
Therefore, the time and the time for coffee, we take in Kritsa a village populated by many foreign residents. The place is quite nice, with an abundance of cafes and tourist shops, but of course at this time of year that has just opened so it was a good wait for the coffee while the cups are kept last year I think!
On the way back to Agios divert us to the site at Lato, for out anyway. My guests did not like this idea which leads back to the main road in the direction of Ierapetra. This is really the way to Sitia, I mentioned to you before, so I will not go into too much detail, suffice it to say that in the previous trip I passed the site Gournia. This time I stopped, but sat in the car with a crossword puzzle while the visitors made the archeology. I found something more interesting, however, some of our native orchids in all its glory!
From here there is a long run of Ierapetra, which is the main commercial city of the area is surrounded by agricultural fields and greenhouses, and the southernmost city in Europe. The city itself seems to be more of a city of Heraklion, but with more lights that seem to take forever to change! On the positive side Nice is a local museum, a Venetian fortress and a small harbor with fishing boats, this is also the place where the ferry leaves the island of Chrissi. As usual here The beachfront has many places to eat with "shops" actually on the beach a few meters of water, then one way and then the buildings housing the kitchens, etc. I do not list the name, but we have an excellent lunch for four including drinks Meze less than € 50!
Now you know me, always ready to a journey into the unknown, and one visitor had expressed his desire to visit a nearby village called Agios Ioannis, about 20 km east of Ierapetra. The purpose of the visit was to verify in a house belonging to one of his friends in England, just to make sure everything was safe and so on. This proved to be quite an interesting tour so after leaving the main coastal road we took a small winding road that rose sharply in the hills and far above to cling to the hillside of the mountain we could see occasional glimpses of the people, that if there would have been higher at the top of the mountain, as it was, was almost in the clouds.
As we left the car on the outskirts of town, the only sound you could hear the soft moaning of the wind and spring water running on your way down the steep mountain (probably why people are here as running water is rare in Crete). We stopped to admire the view down the valley and across the Libyan Sea.
Entering the village we realized that not everything was as it should be and as we walked the narrow streets of the mountain was very strange atmosphere as we realized the place was deserted and so far seemed to be a typical hill village of Crete, was in the main ruins.
So we will use the constant hum humanity that seemed absolutely no noise, yet we pass through the open doors and windows blind gave new life to the surroundings and the echoes of conversation moderate perhaps we could imagine that you could hear the laughter of children, the baby's crying unruly rapid click of the dice and counters as tavli the men played the golden light of afternoon, the clatter of dishes, the trill of caged canaries, and somewhere nearby, the cry of the widow in mourning.
It suffices to say that we found the house we were looking, and walk further that some of the larger properties, originally home to the richest, have been restored and used as holiday homes, many of them by the Italians who may find similarities with their own hill villages. As people we can work only appeared to be a couple who ran the kafenion, and the only activity we saw was in the cemetery as a grave was being prepared to receive another son or daughter of the village perhaps long absent, but eventually return home.
For my part I felt a little faint on the way back to Ierapetra, and the conversation probably not shine as it is expected that four gay men in the car! Very 'Englishly' visitors decided it was time for tea and cakes that depression lifted slight that I think we all feel.
Although here I would have liked to visitors to the memory of the Slaughter of Crete and then inland through the mountains passing one of the few large bodies of water in Crete, the weather was against us, however, and so we headed back to the base of how it had arrived, so that there are two things that make a day!
I regret to say that this is almost certainly going to be the last of the monthly travel accounts as I want to be too Meze, and FINE DINING restaurant!
As always, I have some links with pictures and a little more information for you.
Some pictures can be find here http://www.villaralfa.com/ierap.html
And a gay blog is here in Crete http://gaycretegreece.blogspot.com/
Yours as ever,
About the Author
Born in England (in spite of the name!), in the last half of the last century when Sussex was Miss Marple country and you could leave yours door unlocked for days, the author is unashamedly gay and everyone seems to know in spite of the fact that he never ‘came out’He moved to Crete in February 2004 and opened Villa Ralfa as Crete’s first gay accommodation and lodgings in June 2004. You can find his web site at http://www.villaralfa.com
Korifi Suites Boutique Htl – Piskopiano Chersonissos of Heraklion Crete