Changes are afoot here as the first phase of my adventure comes to a close. Julie got back from England last night and so the house and animal sitting time is finished. I had my last swim this morning, the hire car has been handed back and tomorrow morning I will board a bus to go to the town of Chania for four days, returning to Julie's place for just one night before flying back home next Tuesday.
Chania is about forty minutes' drive away and I will be staying in the Old Town, a pedestrianised area around the old port. It has been settled since Neolithic and Minoan times and there are Minoan remains that I want to see, but the town as it is now was essentially built by the Venetians and the Turks, so there's a moody mix of architecture and history.
I hope that I'll have a chance to talk to Greek people about their view for the future of their country. The election results and stalemate have shown the enormous dilemma between the need for economic survival and the great sense of injustice in the detail of the austerity measures, which would inflict more hardship on ordinary people without bringing either politicians or the banks - national and international - to any sort of reckoning.
The visual backdrop to my time in Chania will still be the awesome White Mountains. While Jo was here, we drove up into the mountains and came really close to those white peaks, now devoid of snow but white from chalk deposits that seem layered over the rock. Here's a few photos of the breathtaking views as we climbed at least a mile up from sea level and reached the entrance to the Samaria Gorge
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Chania is about forty minutes' drive away and I will be staying in the Old Town, a pedestrianised area around the old port. It has been settled since Neolithic and Minoan times and there are Minoan remains that I want to see, but the town as it is now was essentially built by the Venetians and the Turks, so there's a moody mix of architecture and history.
I hope that I'll have a chance to talk to Greek people about their view for the future of their country. The election results and stalemate have shown the enormous dilemma between the need for economic survival and the great sense of injustice in the detail of the austerity measures, which would inflict more hardship on ordinary people without bringing either politicians or the banks - national and international - to any sort of reckoning.
The visual backdrop to my time in Chania will still be the awesome White Mountains. While Jo was here, we drove up into the mountains and came really close to those white peaks, now devoid of snow but white from chalk deposits that seem layered over the rock. Here's a few photos of the breathtaking views as we climbed at least a mile up from sea level and reached the entrance to the Samaria Gorge
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