Day 9: Kamilári – Knossos – Krasi

In the last episode: Poseidon turned against us, so we arrived to Kamilari soaked, shivering from cold, swearing out loud and sad. It did’t last long though as the village was too beautiful by any weather and besides, as a compensation for the suffering we treated ourselves with two (!) restaurants in a row – and I do struggle to remember when was the last time we had done something similar. Why two? Because the first one, no matter how tasteful its interior was and delicious food it had, was made by Germans for Germans. Whereas the second place… well it was run by Greeks for Greeks. A good chance to compare. 😉

Phaistos Archaeological Site

A bit about Knossos. It isn’t worth it from aesthetic point of view. AT ALL. In Crete there are dozens of Minoean archaelogical sites which were not spoiled by an arrogant British amateur, much cheaper and less crowded. By now you know already that it’s useless to search any traces of the Minotaur and co. But. Somehow we were still happy to have visited this ancient place.

Knossos Archaeological Site

Day 10: Krasi – Lasithi – Plaka – Kavoussi

This was probably the worst day of this part of our trip (and of the trip in its whole tbh). First, we again soaked to the bones. Upon arriving to our destination finding a place to eat and to stay appeared to be quite a challenge – for the first and the last time in Crete! As they told us, Krasi is the favourite outdoorsy spot for people who live in Heraklion. Everything was completely booked. Still, we got lucky and took the last available bedroom, which was removed from the booking platforms because of the leaking roof. 😁

In one word, the mood around had nothing in common with the Crete we grew to know over the last week. It did have its own charm and beauty of course. That day we planned to see Lassithi, but I suppose half-hidden in the mist was not the best state to see the agricultural paradise of Crete.

Cold and shivering we arrived to Plaka with a hope to visit the Spinalonga fortress. Then several things happen: I loose my bank card (quckly found by a kind soul who contacted me via FB). We notice a horrible scratch on the scooter – where did it come from? God only knows. On the top of all this finding a decent place to eat was impossible – apparently in this area the target audience comes with bigger money but once you get used to the average Cretan prices coming back was err… difficult. But the worst of all was the camera that stopped winding the film…

For the rest of the day we tried to persuade ourselves that spending a week without a camera is not really THAT bad (of course it was exactly that bad and even worse). Luckily, the existance of this article is the spoiler to that part of story, which had a happy ending. To finish the list of troubles, we didn’t go to Spinalonga because of the high ferry price + entrance fee. We would have probably gone if our camera had been OK, but the only desire we had at that moment was to google if changing our plane tickets to the earlier dates were possible.

Day 11: Kavoussi – Moloch – Sitia – Palekastro

Thank God this rough patch didn’t last long. The camera was back in service, the weather got much better and more Crete-like and what’s even more important – we left the mass tourism zone and found ourselves in an empty, gorgeous scenery. Alone. In Kavoussi we had a micro hike to reach the Ancient Olive Tree and all way long it felt as if we were breathing over a teapot with infusing herbs – so powerfull and mesmerizing was the smell. As for the tree… Its effect was as strong as the one from the one in Vouves. Probably even stronger, as the environment around this olive tree is not so domesticated. Neither camera nor film betrayed us this time, so we brought more than ONE picture of that grandpa.

Moloch was love. Everything we saw there was love. It made us think a bit of Isle of Wight – a place not so far from civilization but feels like very very far. I could easily see myself stay here for a whole week just looking at the waves crush against the cliffs.

Our first impression of Sitia was far from positive. It looked sad, empty and dirty. So when we realized that Sitia was heavily hit by the Poseidon’s rage, which brought quite a damage, we were ashamed. People were in the middle of cleaning this mess, and I was wondering whether the insurance policy of the wrecked cars owners was good enough…

Palekastro

Day 12: Palekastro – Kato Zakros & Gorges of the Dead – Xerokampos

If the day 10 hit the total bottom, the day 12 will be probably my favourite in Crete. A night in a simple old hotel “with character”, some wild empty nature, swimming, delicious food, beautiful hiking in the Gorges of the Dead – it was in equal mesure full of chill and adventure. We congratulated ourselves on choosing the itinerary of the trip with the start in the West part of Crete – had we made otherwise, the beautiful West would have seemed so much more crowded and commercial after the savage East.

Zakros

Wild sage

Gorges of the Dead

Day 13: Xerokampos – Ziros – Ierapetra

If your day starts with swimming naked in paradisiac waters, it can’t go wrong after that. There was nobody around and Xavier and I were like the first people on the Earth (considering the recent statistics on the world population, it’s quite ironic). As promised, here is one of the places to stay that we’d wholeheartedly recommend in Crete: Villa Petrino – Taverna KOSTAS. Owned by a family, here you will be fed, advised and provided with a charming space for the night. I do wish we could stay there longer.

Xerokampos

The end of the trip was drawing nearer and it was a perfect moment for conclusions: we still loved and wanted to travel. Our situation in Toulouse is temporary and we can easily put an end to all things that keep dragging. The war in Ukraine will be over. It must be over. We will have to deal with this war for decades coming and no matter how big its place will be in our lives, it can’t be their central part. Thinking about making again some distinctive life plans was delicious.

Ziros was the most phantom town we saw in Crete. Yet again, it was difficult to believe we were still on Crete – the landscape and the mood had nothing to do with the postcard Greece. Hungry and cold, we found zero open restaurants, saw hardly anyone but generously treated ourselves to the grapes hanging on the walls – nobody wanted them – what a waste!

Another place I will recommend here and grave thus in our memory – Taverna Kamares. Yes, we are probably biased. Yes, it must be because we were really hungry and on the verge of desperate. But if I think of the top gastronomic experience of Crete, it would be this one. And believe me, there is what to choose from.

The rest of the evening in Heraklion was devouted to the last proper meal and the search of souvenirs (tea, olive oil, a soap in shape of a penis…) It’s funny how Heraklion seemed so much different from our first day there, as if two weeks around the island gave much more sense to the town. God, we didn’t want to leave.

Day 15: Heraklion. Departure

Our journey to Crete easily made it to the top of our long trips. In these troubled times feeling a bit of serenity, reconnecting to the nature and sorting out the things on one’s mind is a precious gift, and Crete gave it to us. Along with a beauty that made us (me) cry, new passion, new vision and plans. Some people go to Bali to find themselves, but for us Crete was more than enough. One thing for sure: this is not our last time in Greece.