Moving on to the islands

We have really enjoyed our time here in Crete, particularly Xania (or Chania to the common tourist, like us). This is a very different place. It was occupied by the Venetians, and then by the Turks for a couple of centuries, and there seems to be a bit of a Morroccon influence, as well. I think the Venetian influence is definitley noticeable in some of the harbour front architecture. The food here reflects all that complex past. There is a lot of the standard Greek fare (moussaka, souvlaki, etc) but always with a twist. They also have food that we never saw in Athens: imam (eggplant), boureki (zucchini pie) and lots of different fish. This is a beautiful and very foreign-feeling place. Possibly the only downer was that the Samaria Gorge was not open yet for hiking...it opens the day after we fly out. Google it and you wil see why we wanted to hike it.

Further to our previous post about trying to speak Greek, trying to read it is another challenge all together. Chania (pronounced with "ch" as in chutzpah or challah) is written XAVIA in upper case Greek letters. Crete (pronounced kree-tee in Greek) is spelled KPHTH. Try throwing the letters that look like pitchforks and crosshairs into the mix, and it gets a little confusing just tying to figure out where we are, forget about trying to pronounce anything!

At the conclusion of nearly every dinner we have had here, the waiter brings over a small flask of booze accompanied with a pair of shot glasses. We think it is typically customary to receive this. Very nice gesture but proceed with caution! This unassuming clear liquid tastes like paint thinner and packs a wallop. We think it is Raki. We were told its about a 100 proof...harsh stuff for these two wine/beer babies.

We are flying to Athens early tomorrow morning to embark on our 1 week yacht cruise. We aren't too sure if there will be much WiFi in the ports, but we will post when we can and leave the rest for when we fly to Milan on May 7.

Oh yeah - a VERY big thanks to our friend Pam, who was kind enough to let us ship a package to her office from Greece. We will be travelling a little bit lighter and a lot happier since we got rid of the extra things that we had to buy to get through our lost luggage days. Thanks Pam!