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I am really out of it these days. I can get enjoy where I am and get things done, but always in a kind of daze. It seems like we're travelling really fast and not getting to know places well, but 4 or 5 days is pretty standard. I guess it's something about coming up to the end of th trip--it gives everything a different perspective. Throughout out time in Crete I kept asking Scott where we were, and where we had just been--since I am used to being very aware of these things it was kind of unnerving not to have the names on my tongue, but the disorientation was also kind of fun.
I'm not sure how we managed to spend a whole 5 days in Rethymno, but we did. We enjoyed our cheap hostel a lot--reading on the porch, playing backgammon or rummy in the lobby, or drinking and talking with new friends late into the night. And we walked aimlessly a lot--strolling the kitschy streets, looking for new graffitti. We were blessed with delicious and affordable food--often hard to find in Europe--and each day we delighted in the gyro-style pita full of fried zucchini, tzatziki sauce and french fries!
We did have two more adventurous days. In Rethymno we spent an afternoon exploring the Venetian fortress. It was great fun to clamber around the ramparts, peer our the bastions on every corner, and sneak into all the old, rotting buildings. It wasn't as huge as Tivoli or as beautiful as Budapest castle, but it was up there in adventure.
Two days ago we hiked the Samaria Gorge, and my legs are still aching. The blisters on my feet have now healed, but I'm like an old lady when I hobble down the stairs. But it was so worth it--it was o beautiful! The entire five hour hike Scott and I were oohing and aahing, and reminding each other to look away from our footing and 'look up there!' at the amazing cliff face towering over us. THe second half of th ehike allowed us to follow a stream, and challenged us to find a way across a couple times--an unusual feat for such a touristy trail. The beauty and adventure were definitely worth the pain I feel now, but five hours later I wondered whether they were worth the difficulties in transportation.
When our weary bones finally made it to Agia Roumeli, we saw the 3:45 ferry pull away and knew we would havbe to wait another 2 hours for the next boat. What we didn't know was that in all the transportation was a full 5 hours, and that we'd had to transfer buses in some little town along the way. So after a missed connection, much frustration, and a 50 euro taxi ride, we arrived home at 11pm dirty, starving, and exhausted, but my mind's eye was still full of beautiful scenery.
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