Guess I should write one of these before I have even more to write about. I have done a bit since I last wrote. Other than the one photo I don't think I've written anything since before I got to Crete. And I'm not even in Crete anymore. Actually quite far from Crete. I've done a lot of travelling in the last few days.
But that's getting ahead and if I do that then I might never go back and since I don't seem to really be writing my journal anymore this is sort of the only record of my trip so I should probably at least make mention the earlier parts.
I arrived in Heraklion at about 6.30 am after not the best overnight ferry (on the boats that do that route the cheap seats are really not designed for sleeping) and the youth hostel didn't open until 8 so i found a bench and ate some breakfast and watched the sun rise. Or at least I watched the sky go from dark to light. The sun wasn't really visible. Then I dumped my stuff and decided to head over to Knossos. Some of you may have noticed that I tend to visit a lot of old stuff. I don't think anyone can be that surprised. I do have a degree in classics. But after a while some of the old stuff does start to look kind of the same. Knossos is not one of those. There isn't really any other site in the world quite like Knossos. For those of you who didn't major in classics Knossos was the main palace in the Minoan civilisation. And the Minoans were a big deal up until about the 14th century BC when they went down pretty fast. So Knossos is REALLY old stuff. Except for the parts that are really quite new. See Knossos was excavated back before archaeology was really a thing. Before there were rules and systems for how to do things. The guy who did the excavations (hence forth he shall be referred to as Evans) did some things that are a little controversial today. He reconstructed parts of the palace the way he thought it would have looked. The trouble being that there wasn't always enough evidence to support his theories. So he jumped to a few conclusions which he left permanently on the site in concrete. There are debates about whether his reconstructions were good or bad. Point is: these days no archaeological site would ever be treated that way which makes Knossos unique. Because Evans' reconstructions may not be entirely accurate but they tell a good story. They may not show what the palace was like but they show what it could have been like. There are whole rooms that he put back together and repainted. When you are standing in those rooms it doesn't matter if it's not right, you get a sense of context that you can't get from the accurate reconstructions of other ruins. Knossos is full of imagination.
I spent the afternoon just wandering the city. It's a nice city. The next day I caught a bus to Chania. Which is also sometimes spelt Hania. If it was up to me I'd probably choose to spell it Khania but it's not. Probably they get more english speakers closer to the correct pronunciation with Hania. But phonetics aside, Chania was very pretty. It's got a venetian harbour and lots of beach and twisty streets in the centre of town. I specifically went to Chania because there are some really good day trips from there. But as it turns out at the end of October they stop almost all of the buses so there was only one bus to each place each day. The latest one left at 6.45 am. I didn't end up doing any day trips. But I was paying €12 a night for a room that in summer would cost €65 so Greece in winter has it's bonuses.
Instead of thrilling day trips I slept in and had a bit of a lazy day. Which I liked but doesn't make for much of a blog post. And the next day I started my way to the next place on my list. Delphi. Which required a bus to Heraklion, a ferry to Piraeus, metro and then bus to the Athens bus station (did they purposefully make it as hard as possible to get out of Athens?), and then the bus to Delphi. I'd thought I might be able to do Delphi in the afternoon and head straight on to Meteora but turns out there was only one bus a day and it left at 10 am. So I had to stay the night. Which turned out to be quite nice. It felt good to get out of the cities and apparently I'm a fan of mountains. Who knew? I headed over to the archaeological site but didn't realise it would close at 3pm. I probably should have been prepared for that because a few other things here close that early at this time of year but I didn't think to check so I showed up at 2.15 and had to convince them to let me in even though I wouldn't have time to see the whole thing. But I saw most of it and took a moment to ask Apollo where he thought I should go next. I guess I don't have what it takes to be an oracle (or hadn't inhaled enough noxious gases) because I got nothing. So today I went with my original plan and headed for Meteora. Which actually means heading to Kalambaka. Turns out it's a good thing I couldn't start the trip yesterday afternoon. It sounded so easy but ended up taking 4 buses and about 7 hours. It wasn't bad though. Saw a lot of little mountain towns (and got that harbour union song severely stuck in my head. I only know the one line) and dramatic vistas. Also saw a lot of the inside of bus stations. But I got here in the end and it seems nice enough. Tomorrow I will check out the monasteries and maybe find out what the deal is for climbing stuff. Just for a change of pace.
But that's getting ahead and if I do that then I might never go back and since I don't seem to really be writing my journal anymore this is sort of the only record of my trip so I should probably at least make mention the earlier parts.
I arrived in Heraklion at about 6.30 am after not the best overnight ferry (on the boats that do that route the cheap seats are really not designed for sleeping) and the youth hostel didn't open until 8 so i found a bench and ate some breakfast and watched the sun rise. Or at least I watched the sky go from dark to light. The sun wasn't really visible. Then I dumped my stuff and decided to head over to Knossos. Some of you may have noticed that I tend to visit a lot of old stuff. I don't think anyone can be that surprised. I do have a degree in classics. But after a while some of the old stuff does start to look kind of the same. Knossos is not one of those. There isn't really any other site in the world quite like Knossos. For those of you who didn't major in classics Knossos was the main palace in the Minoan civilisation. And the Minoans were a big deal up until about the 14th century BC when they went down pretty fast. So Knossos is REALLY old stuff. Except for the parts that are really quite new. See Knossos was excavated back before archaeology was really a thing. Before there were rules and systems for how to do things. The guy who did the excavations (hence forth he shall be referred to as Evans) did some things that are a little controversial today. He reconstructed parts of the palace the way he thought it would have looked. The trouble being that there wasn't always enough evidence to support his theories. So he jumped to a few conclusions which he left permanently on the site in concrete. There are debates about whether his reconstructions were good or bad. Point is: these days no archaeological site would ever be treated that way which makes Knossos unique. Because Evans' reconstructions may not be entirely accurate but they tell a good story. They may not show what the palace was like but they show what it could have been like. There are whole rooms that he put back together and repainted. When you are standing in those rooms it doesn't matter if it's not right, you get a sense of context that you can't get from the accurate reconstructions of other ruins. Knossos is full of imagination.
I spent the afternoon just wandering the city. It's a nice city. The next day I caught a bus to Chania. Which is also sometimes spelt Hania. If it was up to me I'd probably choose to spell it Khania but it's not. Probably they get more english speakers closer to the correct pronunciation with Hania. But phonetics aside, Chania was very pretty. It's got a venetian harbour and lots of beach and twisty streets in the centre of town. I specifically went to Chania because there are some really good day trips from there. But as it turns out at the end of October they stop almost all of the buses so there was only one bus to each place each day. The latest one left at 6.45 am. I didn't end up doing any day trips. But I was paying €12 a night for a room that in summer would cost €65 so Greece in winter has it's bonuses.
Instead of thrilling day trips I slept in and had a bit of a lazy day. Which I liked but doesn't make for much of a blog post. And the next day I started my way to the next place on my list. Delphi. Which required a bus to Heraklion, a ferry to Piraeus, metro and then bus to the Athens bus station (did they purposefully make it as hard as possible to get out of Athens?), and then the bus to Delphi. I'd thought I might be able to do Delphi in the afternoon and head straight on to Meteora but turns out there was only one bus a day and it left at 10 am. So I had to stay the night. Which turned out to be quite nice. It felt good to get out of the cities and apparently I'm a fan of mountains. Who knew? I headed over to the archaeological site but didn't realise it would close at 3pm. I probably should have been prepared for that because a few other things here close that early at this time of year but I didn't think to check so I showed up at 2.15 and had to convince them to let me in even though I wouldn't have time to see the whole thing. But I saw most of it and took a moment to ask Apollo where he thought I should go next. I guess I don't have what it takes to be an oracle (or hadn't inhaled enough noxious gases) because I got nothing. So today I went with my original plan and headed for Meteora. Which actually means heading to Kalambaka. Turns out it's a good thing I couldn't start the trip yesterday afternoon. It sounded so easy but ended up taking 4 buses and about 7 hours. It wasn't bad though. Saw a lot of little mountain towns (and got that harbour union song severely stuck in my head. I only know the one line) and dramatic vistas. Also saw a lot of the inside of bus stations. But I got here in the end and it seems nice enough. Tomorrow I will check out the monasteries and maybe find out what the deal is for climbing stuff. Just for a change of pace.
No comments:
Post a Comment