Buses, Ferries and Taxis

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Well after 2 taxis rides, a 7-hour ferry ride and 2 buses - I arrived in Nafplio after 12 hours on the road yesterday, my heaviest day of travel yet. Nafplio is a little, old Venetian town by the sea about 2 1/2 hours south of Athens. I went to Mycenae this morning to look over the old ruins there.

I'll remember Hania, the last more beautiful Venetian town I was in on Create fondly -- although there's not much to do there except shop, lounge at waterside cafes, wander the streets and use it as a base to visit the Samarian Gorge and the beaches -- it was a lovely break (me shop -- I only bought one thing, I swear!). My only bad memory of the trip so far also occurred here [I accepted a dinner offer from a Greek guy who ended up trying to paw me up and begged me a little too forcefully to come home with him -- until I stalked off into the night.] But this in no ways mars how nice Crete was.

I hiked the Samarian Gorge on Thursday -- awoke in the dark for the 6:15 am bus ride(yes me - and no alarm clock Brooks!). We took a hair raising bus ride through the dawn light. The valley was surprising lush -- ripening orange and lemon trees and grapes and olives. The mountains towered over us, some with snow still on the top. As we began the climb I noticed how narrow and curvy the roads were -- until toward the top we were guard-railess and the road was barely wide enough to fit 2 cars across. The bus driver beeped at every blind turn to warn oncoming traffic. Buses streamed in behind us until there were about 4 bus loads to start the hike around 7:20 -- although there were always people around, it thinned out gradually. The top was chilly. Then the 5 1/2 hour trek began.

I don't think I've ever walked over so many rocks in my life -- small ones, big ones, boulders. Any time I looked up to see the gorge rising above me, I generally tripped over something in the path. The hike went 3 hours straight down along a winding, treacherous path until we were finally at the bottom. I joined up with two 40-something British working class blokes -- Malcolm and Nigel (you can picture them from their names, can't you?). We shared lunch and their watermelon at the 1/2-way point. Spring water was delicious at every stop. At its narrowest point the gorge was only 10 feet across and a couple hundred feet towering above us next the the river's edge. At the end, the concrete of the city streets of Ayia Romeilli felt like rubber underfoot. After the long walk (16 km), the Libyan Sea glimmered in the distance, and we got a gyro and 3 beers along the sea's edge and waited 2 hours to take 45 minute ferry ride to get the bus back to Hania. It was worth it all the way.

I will now be high tailing to Athens, then Italy and then France as I only have 10 days to get there -- and so much I want to do in the intervening time. Ciao, Eliz