Crete: Exploring the South Cost

June 22 is a special day for me. Apart from being one of the longest days of the year, it is the birthday of my dear late father Moisei Levin, who passed away 16 years ago. Today he would have turned 72. It is also the day when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union 68 years ago, an event that left deep scars in the fates of our family (see http://www.levins.info/history/history.htm). We started the day by remembering my father.



As usual here, we had a delicious breakfast consisting mostly of the local food. I get up about 6 or 7 in the morning and walk downtown to buy some relatively inexpensive but amazingly tasty local produce, so we had freshly baked bread, local sheep yogurt and sheep cheese, local cucumbers and tomatoes, apricots, freshly pressed orange juice and a watermelon. I’ve made my usual smoothie for all of us, by mixing in a blender some bananas, oranges, apricots, peaches and strawberries.

Then we decided to relax at the swimming pool until noon, so that Anne Sophie can then sleep in the car on our way to a new destination. It was really enjoyable for all four of us to swim in the pool, although Anne Sophie was mostly running around or floating on an inflatable raft.

Having spent the previous days in the north and east of the island, today we set off for the south. After a 1.5 hour drive (which gave Anne Sophie plenty of time for her midday sleep) through beautiful mountainous countryside, we arrived to the Messara plain, which boasts some of the oldest and finest ancient cities: the Roman city of Gortys, as well as the Minoan settlements of Phaistos and Aghia Triada.

We skipped Gortys and started with Aghia Triada, which is an amazing ancient site on a hill top overlooking the Messara bay and the high peaks of the Psiloritis range (reaching up to 2500 meters above the sea level). There are remains of late Minoan and Mycenaean buildings (2500 to 1300 BC), such as a shrine, large Royal villa, the settlement area and the agora (market). It is fascinating to see the stones and walk the ground that ancient Cretans used to walk as early as 4500 years ago! Amazing if you think that it would take 1600 years before Jerusalem would be built and more than 2000 years before the peak of Greek (Hellenistic) civilization, which by the way borrowed a lot from the Cretan Minoans.

There is also a beautiful small 14-th century Byzantine church of St. George with fine frescos.

A 3 km drive took us to another fascinating ancient Minoan site: Phaistos, widely known for the disc of Phaistos, a clay disc with still undeciphered hieroglyphic characters, which is supposed to be some form of prayer or hymn.

Situated in a beautifully scenic location, Phaistos used to be a Royal Minoan palace with a number of courts, a theatrical area, the main palace, many store rooms, stairways, cult rooms, workshops and other dependencies, truly worth a visit. Anne Sophie was running around and talking all the time, making it difficult for me to concentrate on the numerous plaques describing the various parts of the site. Once again, my mind went “wild” imagining what it would be like to be here 4000 years ago.

To cool off, we drove another 12 km down to the coastal town of Matala, with its fine pebble beach and quiet clear sea waters. According to legend, it was here that Zeus swam ashore in the guise of a bull with Europa (his beloved Phoenician princess) on his back. It was nice to swim in the sea, view the sunset and enjoy a spectacular view of ancient caves in a nearby cliff. The caves are thought to have been started by the Romans or early Christians to be used for tombs, but many hippies made new elaborate caves in the 1960s. They say that people like Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan used to live here for some time.

On our way back, we stopped in a small village of Ayios Ioannis (St. John) for an evening meal in a picturesque local tavern (recommended by our Rough Guide). Being the only customers on a Monday evening, we sat under the grape vines looking down over the valley, savoring excellent rabbit and lamb meat with Greek salad and an amazingly delicious side dish (too bad I forgot the name) consisting of yogurt, Feta cheese and peppers. Anne Sophie ran around playing with a little kitten and with backgammon pieces. The hostess (the cook) and her son (the waiter) were extremely friendly and offered us watermelon and their home maid raki (a kind of vodka). Only my mother tried the raki, which was very strong, while the rest of us enjoyed the watermelon :)

It was fun driving home in complete darkness, listening to local music and switching the far lights on and off at the approaching cars, with Anne Sophie sleeping quietly in her seat. We stopped on a high pass for a few minutes to stare at the multitudes of stars in the sky.

It was a truly wonderful day. Sleep in peace, dear papa.

P.S. On our last full day on Crete, we visited the remains of the ancient Mycenaean city of Dreros. Then we went to Kritsa, which boasts a beautiful medieval church and an amazing gorge. Me and Anne Sophie (on my back) ventured to walk up the gorge, but had to give up after a few hundred meters because of a few huge boulders that I didn't dare to climb fearing that I can injure my daughter if I fall (see the pictures).

Anne Sophie was really looking forward to a bus ride to the airport and to the flight back home. She would repeatedly say "на автобусике, на самолетике", which means "on a bus, on an airplane". However, she slept peacefully in her mother's lap through most of our flight :) By the way, we flew above Venice and could clearly see the city!