Day 12, Friday - Krete, Hania, Rethymnon
The following day we left for Krete. We made quite sure the taxi to the airport didn't overcharge us. At the airport, we found our flight had been delayed for an hour, so we drank coffee and wrote post cards.
The plane went to Hania on the northwestern coast. The western half of the island gets fewer tourists and is less commercial. A major highway runs along the northern coast connecting Hania, Rethymnon, Heracleon, and Ayios Nickolaos. Being primarily agricultural, Krete is the only island that could survive without tourists.
Hania is a pretty city that has been around since Minoan times. Elements of Byzantine, Venetian, and Turkish architecture are abundant. The local mosque has been converted to a tourist center. There were minarets everywhere. We took a stroll around the city and the local fortress. There was a large indoor market place which looked like the Greek version of a supermarket, except each stall was run by its own proprietor. We ate lunch there. I had smelts, just like mother used to make, for the first time in years. Pam couldn't believe I liked them.
We rented a car and drove to Rethminon. Rethminon is a smaller version of Hania, but with a larger fortress. We saw Kretens walking around in their traditional knee high black leather boots. It was difficult to find a hotel room and we ended up in a very small room with a single bed.
We went to the beach immediately. As we walked toward the water, I saw a beautiful blond woman sitting in a beach chair next to her husband, reading the newspaper. She looked up in my direction for a moment, lowering her newspaper in the process. That's when I realized that this was a topless beach. I was momentarily surprised and forever grateful that I had eye surgery to correct myopia. Continuing further along the beach, I noticed many other similarly attired unattached young women enjoying the day. Several smiled at me.
Pam and I finally settled on a spot for our blanket. Pam likes to lay in the sun and sleep, but I find that very boring. I convinced her to help me build a sand castle. We built it with a Byzantine dome and fortress walls. We pretended that the incoming tide was the Turkish Janizzaries storming the walls. When the inevitable fall came, I was left with little to do except go into the water.
There were several girls windsurfing. A Canadian girl's sail was in the water so I offered to help. She accepted and when I got close I could see she was bare breasted also. Pam was furious, and wouldn't let me forget about this for the rest of the evening. The girl didn't seem to mind being half naked.
Later we went out and ate red snapper and wine. The wine was only four dollars for a bottle, but it was good. We had the good sense not to finish it this time. While we were eating, a local entrepreneur with thick dark eyebrows and mustache came into the garden restaurant selling pig knuckles. He said they were good for soup.
Kretens have a different appearance from mainland Greeks. Kretens represent the Minoan civilization (4000 BC), which ethnically were a separate people from mainland Mycenean Greeks (2000 BC), who in turn are ethnically different from Dorian Greeks (800 BC). Each consecutive civilization was ethnically a blend of the previous ones, so that the common misconception is that Greeks are a ethnically uniform people. However, my observations clearly prove that is not the case. Kretens have darker skin, their hair is black, not brownlike mainland Greeks, their eyes are deeper and more intense and eyebrows wide and thick. The men all wear mustaches and knee high black leather boots. They even have a different accent. They don't know what a WC is either, you have to say toilet. In Rethimnon, I saw a bunch of men eating spaghetti and beans for breakfast. I don't know if this is typical, Pam said it was a typical farmer's breakfast.
The two towns we've been in seem to be real working towns, not just tourist meccas. The countryside looks less fertile, but the water is warmer. Daylight extends to 10:00 p.m. There are more Greek tourists here than elsewhere we've been. For that matter, there are more tourist of every nationality here than elsewhere.
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