Day 8: Iraklio & The CretAquarium

Thursday, September 20

I forgot to mention that Iraklio is on Crete. When we started researching our trip, both Daniel and I had been under the impression that Crete was an independent country. In fact, it's been a province of Greece for almost 100 years. It's the largest of the Greek Isles, the 5th largest island in the Mediterranean, and home of the oldest civilization in Europe, the mysterious so-called Minoans (no one knows what they called themselves, with this name coming from the mythical king of Crete, Minos).

Knossos was a definite draw, as was the CretAquarium, which Lonely Planet said was the largest in that part of the world. I enjoy going to aquariums. When I was growing up, I thought about becoming an oceanographer, but between my intrinsic queasiness and my astonishing ability to pick the worst way to do any calculus problem, I never seriously pursued it. Instead, I visit aquariums. The Minnesota Zoological Gardens had some impressive marine mammal displays when I was growing up. Then the New England Aquarium in Boston was a favorite place, even if it was just saying hi to the harbor seals who lived in a display at its entrance. In my travels, I've been to aquariums in Brest, France; Dingle, Ireland; Monterrey, California; and Seaside, Oregon (where you can feed the harbor seals). I also volunteered at the Seattle Aquarium for almost 4 years.

Crete was actually third on my list of islands to visit. Santorini was definitely #1. Rhodes was #2, but sadly it is part of the Dodecanese islands while Santorini is part of the Cyclades and travel between island groups is not easy. Rhodes is also the farthest out of the Greek islands, so we reluctantly gave up trying to go there.

So, Day 8 we got up a little after 7. We packed before heading out as we were supposed to change rooms that day (when Daniel had called from Athens, we were told we'd have a room with a bathroom for 2 nights, but when we got there, we were told it was only available that night and we'd need to switch to a room with a shared bathroom for the second night).

I'd seen a French bakery, complete with mini 3D Eiffel Tower on its sign, the day before and with some effort we found it. I regret not taking a picture of it or its display case. Daniel got an apple-filled turnover-like thing and I got a croissant that looked like it would be almond but turned out to be filled with banana creme. We ate in the park where there were some impressively fruit-heavy palms, and then headed down to the bus station, stopping to get fruit and water at a small grocery store.

We were able to get tickets for both the bus and the Aquarium at the bus station. We were told to wait outside for the bus. The benches outside seemed fine until one realized the pigeons in various places above. We didn't really notice until one of them shat on me. *sigh* I was able to wash off in the bathroom and we stood away from the overhang until we figured out which bus was ours.

Now, all our information had talked about "bus to the Aquarium". That was a bit of a stretch. We were told which stop to get off at and then we followed the sporadic signs, mainly heading towards the water. It was a 15-minute walk. The Aquarium was pretty nice. A lot of the animals themselves were repetitious from tank to tank. They had two sea turtles, one of which had been rescued after swallowing a fishing hook and will likely be released back into the wild at some point. We also saw a bit of a film about the ocean, part of which was about how orcas hunt other whale's calves just to eat their brains and move on.

We had lunch at the cafeteria there (spanakopita) and then walked down to the water. Daniel went in but I didn't have the right shoes, so I just photographed him. Then we headed back to the bus stop to catch one of the few buses back.

When we got back to the hotel, we had the same room. The people who were going to be there wanted to go to Santorini Friday but couldn't get tickets. This immediately made me concerned as we wanted to go to Santorini the next day, which was Friday. We tried to get a ticket but the ferry was all booked (note: this is the second delay in our getting to Santorini), so we got tickets for Saturday morning. Daniel made a reservation for a hotel on Santorini, too. We also extended our stay at our hotel, but were definitely going to need to change rooms to a shared bathroom one the next night.

In the afternoon, we did laundry, which actually just meant dropping it off a place to have it done. We went searching for the Bembo fountain and, as we walked along, I tripped over a pipe sticking up from the sidewalk. A taxi driver actually laughed and pointed, a la Nelson. I wouldn't have minded so much but I was now wearing sandals and I caught my big toe's nail on the pipe and shattered it a bit, which was quite painful. I happened to have a band aid with me so I put that on and went on, feeling a bit wobbly.

After checking out many places for dinner, we wound up at the first restaurant we'd looked at. Daniel got goat. It was okay, and the wrangler guy seemed pretty nice. It was across the street from a super market so we checked that out, getting some breakfast bars (a staple of the trip). We got our laundry and headed back to the hotel.

We'd been planning to do a night out, since we'd not really done that yet, but Daniel collapsed at 7:30, saying he needed 2 hours. I was betting 14. I went out without him. Twice. The first time, I got postcards. The second was after he admitted my bet was more on the money. I just walked around, though, not really wanting to go any place by myself. The city was amazingly vibrant at 10PM. The guide books said that it is after 9 or so when Greek's eat their dinner (breakfast being a slice of bread and a cigarette and lunch being a big meal around 2; by the end of the trip, we were more on the Greek food schedule, although generally had a more substantial breakfast). I did get an ice cream at one place. I'd been looking for gelato, but no luck. It was nice being out and seeing so many people enjoying themselves.

I came back and read for a bit before joining Daniel in sleep.