Heraklion, Iraklio, HPAKNIO, what town is this?

In Greece, like in many countries, they often spell things how they sound so sometimes it takes awhile before we figure out yes, we are in the right place. I have now familiarized myself again with the Greek alphabet, you know, a P is an R, an r is G, a pi is a p, etc. We've got some great e-mails lately and one prompts me to lay out some basic details about how we are doing things.

First of all, we have not been camping. We never planned to camp as, at minimum a heavy, bulky sleeping bag would be involved, not to mention maybe a tent, a cook stove, etc. So we have been staying in youth hostels and hotels. We just stayed in a hostel in Rethimno, or Reathymno or whatever. It was very basic and cheap, $6 per person which is much easier on the budget compared to the $20-30 that we have been paying in Greece for other accommodations. The youth hostel has let's say 50 beds, spread out in about 4 rooms. We were lucky since it's still low season we were able to get a private room, just us and 10 bunk beds. Normally, if the youth hostel doesn't have double rooms, just dorm beds, we would have to split up into the male/female dorms. This place was very basic as it did not have a kitchen. It had propane burners and if you bought the fuel, there were pans and dishes to cook with. The showers/toilets are centrally located and usually, the water is about lukewarm at best. When we stayed in Auckland we had a hotel room quality hostel room with private bath but then again, that was $20.00. When we stayed in Hania, or Chania, or Xania, or whatever, we managed to snag a $20.00 studio apartment complete with mini-stove/oven, mini fridge, and bath. That was a pretty excellent deal since when we have a kitchen, we don't have to spend $20 for dinner, we can cook it ourselves for around $5.

How do we do laundry? Funny, an American tourist in Kenya that we ran into in Amboselli, asked us the same question. In southeast Asia, usually you can get the maid/cleaning woman at the hotel to do your laundry for the extra cash, say $2-4 for a load. Otherwise you find a self service laundromat like in the states which we did in New Zealand, or you can hand wash if you have a sink or bathtub in your room. Handwashing is the reason I had to go out a buy practically a new wardrobe of synthetic blend cloths. See those materials dry overnight (usually) whereas 100% cotton can take days if conditions aren't right. So I did alot of handwashing in Africa and SE Asia where the temps were warm and we could hang the cloths to dry out on the balcony or porch or whatever. If I know we are going to be staying in the same place for more than 2 days and there is a decent heater in the room, then I can handwash there as well. We brought a clothesline and bar soap or dish soap do the job well enough. Today, we just dropped off a load of clothes at the laundry. Here I haven't seen any self service laundromats, just to drop off places. So for a load, it will be 6 euros or about $6.60.

Let's see, what else? The intercity bus system in Greece is excellent with buses going from city to city at least twice a day, if not hourly. So we don't have to plan too much, just walk to the bus station buy a ticket and then hop on the next bus out of town, excellent!

What's in our backpacks? Here's mine, first the clothes. I'll denote the special purchases for this trip with an N. 2 pairs of convertible pants (zip off legs that can be shorts) (N) 1 long sleeve t-shirt (N), 3 short sleeve t-shirts, 1 sleeveless black jumper dress (N), below the knee length, and matching long sleeve jacket top (N). 1 long sleeve white blouse (N) one skirt, 4 pairs of sox, unmentionables (N), one hooded Columbia wind/rain breaker (N), one pair of Tevas (N), one pair of Timberland walking/hiking shoes (N), swimsuit, large scarf which can also be used as a sarong, towel (N).

I'm a walking pharmacy; I've got every recommended medication before we left. We have cold medicine (all used) anti-fungal cream, antibiotic cream, Gold Bond powder, Cipro, another anti-biotic, anti-diarrhea meds, sunscreen, sunburn gel, moisturizer, Purell, needles in case we needed some life saving injection in a place where they re-use needles on a regular basis, prevacid for my acid stomach, allergy pills, aspirin, tylenol, advil, some anti-vomiting suppositories, other miscellaneous pills. Band aids, gauze and tape, Thank goodness we haven't needed to use half of the stuff we bought! But we're still lugging it around, just in case.

Then we have the guide books, originally like 40 pounds of them before we figured out we could leave 1/2 at home and get them in South Africa. So we have each had about 10 pounds which happily, gets lighter and lighter each country we finish. We try to resell them or trade them at bookstores otherwise we give them to other travelers or leave them at the hostel.

Swiss army knives, duct tape, sewing kit, suction cup hooks, clothes line, playing cards, pony tail holders, razors, a squash ball to use to plug sinks, a key chain (haven't used it so far but it was a present from my old boss and it has a compass on it), a regular sized compass, flashlights, diaries, cameras, portable hard drive (Image Tank), Instruction manuals for the above, USB cables, 8 re-chargeable batteries and the battery charger (for the digital camera), current converter, adapter plugs, re-writable CDs, address book, pens, toiletries, tweezers, clippers, one small tube of foundation, one mascara, and one eyeliner. I can count on my hands how many times I have put any makeup on and have not used the eyeliner at all.

Well that's all I can think of, that's most of it anyway. Each one of our packs weight about 17 kilos or 37 pounds. The first night I loaded that puppy up and tried to put it on I thought maybe I have made a mistake, I could barely lift it. I was trying to figure out what to leave behind, splitting bars of soap to lighten the load, it was pathetic. I can lift it now, thank goodness.

We haven't really bought any souvenirs: 1) we don't have room 2) it costs too much to mail things home 3) we don't really have the money 4) most of it is crap which would end up on a shelf collecting dust somewhere.

Language basics: You can almost always find someone who speaks English. If you're in the grocery store at the deli counter and she doesn't speak English and your Greek consists of thank you, good morning, and I don't speak Greek, just point. It will work out fine. If not, you just end up with a little more turkey than you wanted.

See easy! So why not take the trip of your dreams? Get your passport and visa, buy the plane ticket and a guidebook and go.

So what's going on here on the Island of Crete? It's raining. The ferry ride from Gythio was interesting. It's the largest ferry I have ever been on and it was the furthest into the sea we have ever been. It was more like a cruise ship as it had a restaurant and sleeper cabins but also there was a room with reclining seats (where we sat). We took the ferry to Kissamos and checked into a $30 room around 11 pm. The book said the price included breakfast which it did and then the knucklehead turned the heat off at about 1 am. Next morning (on the 3rd) we were off to Hania, the old capital of Crete. It was invaded by the Venetians which built a wall around the city and influenced the architecture strongly. It's a very pretty little port town with the ancient winding streets, pastel buildings, lighthouse, you know, that Mediterranean feel. That night was the last night of the Greek carnival so there were plenty of youngsters walking the streets in costume (like Halloween) and spraying each other with some sort of spray foam. The next morning the sea was littered with them.. We ducked into a heavy metal cafe to watch the festivities unfold and avoid the foam.

That's where we met Mick and Dusty. Mick was a 37 yr old in the British navy who was shipping out on Wed. He kept asking if we believed in God because apparently he had just recently found his belief. Maybe he was hoping for belief. All I know he was definitely scared of shipping out and so I thought some platonic friendly hugs would help. He hugged me so tightly that I had a back-ache the next day, as well as the nasty cold. Dusty was a 22 yr old rough and ready US marine just itching for an excuse to blow something up. His words, 'anything come within 500 meters of our ship, we shoot first ask questions later' even a fishing boat (and there are alot of those around here). Just sitting there with these two, realizing to myself that they will probably go to war and maybe they won't come back. Depressing!! How many enlisted men and women do you know?

So I woke up on 'Clean Monday' with a nasty cold and missed the whole kite flying festivities which is what Greeks traditionally do on that day. I stayed in bed the whole day. The next day was a little better and we walked around town and went up in the lighthouse which could fall apart at any moment. The sea and the sky were blue, blue, not navy but bright Mediterranean blue! Beautiful! That night we had a fantastic meal at Tamam, a restaurant built in a former turkish bath house. Tim had mussel risotto and I had lamb. The Raki was too much for me to handle. They often bring a free desert, a milk pudding I think, similar to rice pudding but made with wheat.

On Wed., the 12th we took the bus to Rethimno, another port town with the Venetian fortress, which was closed for remodeling (those stupid Olympics). We stayed at the youth hostel as mentioned above which was nice because we had a chance to talk to fellow travelers. We went to an Irish cafe and listened to a brilliant variety of rock music which we hadn't heard for quite a while. They have excellent radio stations here which play the largest variety I have ever heard! Plus it's all in English, bonus. Greece is the first place we have been where people assume we can speak their language so just start talking to us, which is why I know who to say Dhen me lau helenica, I can't speak Greek.

We got our plane ticket to Madrid for Wed. the 26th. We bought the round trip ticket which was a few buck cheaper than the one way because they are having a special right now. Cool. We had a great meal of octopus appetizer and pork loin at a restaurant in R. and spent too much money. We took a little hike up into the hills in Rethimno past a small forest and olive trees. The wildflowers are blooming, purple poppies, yellow pulminaria, roses, wild geraniums, beautiful. Alas, the rain clouds started moving in so we headed back to the hostel. People in Greece speak very loudly!!! It's starting to bug me here at the internet cafe.

Yesterday we took the bus here and it started to rain as we passed through the green terraced hills of the countryside, along the sea and through the valley of the snow-capped mountains. I really think this is a lovely country! So we arrived in the rain and trudged around looking for a place to stay. The youth hostel here was another big empty dorm room with no heater and Tim just wasn't up for that so we went to every other budget hotel in the guidebook and every one was closed. We found 1 that's open for 30 euro a night but it has a heater and is clean and it's open. So there goes the budget again! At least today when we visited the Archeological museum it was Free. A pretty good little museum, supposedly the next best after Athens, which you may recall was closed (stupid Olympics). So we dropped off the laundry and here we are. It's still raining so not much fun trudging through town exploring. What can you do? Eat sleep and hope Tim who has caught my cold can recuperate before the weather gets nice again.

On Tuesday we take the ferry to Santorini and stay there until about the 21st. Then we fly to Athens, head directly for Delphi for 2 days, back to Athens, and then Espana! Hope everyone is having a good Spring! TTFN.