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...yes, so I went for a hike! In total it was 12.8 km (the longest gorge in Europe!), and the terrain changed all the time. The first about 4 km were down this incredibly rocky slope, and then it was through a bit more easy walking forest, and then the last 6 or so km were actually through the gorge, so you were walking through everything from sand to loose rocks to really big rocks. The walls of the gorge are soooo high (at times as high as 600 m) and at one point the gorge itself is only 3 meters wide. You have to cross over a small river a few times, and overhead the walls tower and there are these huge tree covered mountains in the background. It was really incredible (and I am not in tooo much pain today either!). And guess what? I had a hiking buddy! I met a lawyer from Singapore on the ferry to Crete, and he ended up giving me a ride in his rental car (yaa no buses!) to Chania, and then we met up again to hike the gorge. He was great company, though pretty much the total opposite of me in every way (at least in travel styles for sure) - haha...for example: Chin carries a "trolly bag", hires rental cars, and eats 3 meals a day. Crazy! haha. So yes, my time in Chania was fantastic (even though it was so short).
This morning I took a bus from Chania to Iraklion (the main city in Crete), where I will be getting my ferry to Santorini at 6:25 am tomorrow morning (ew!). I had a bit of a crazy day concerning finances when my bank was slow in transfering money, and my credit card locked me out - so I thought that I would be living on $10 for the whole day (sleeping at the port again!). But luckily, everything is sorted out and I won't have to sleep outside (though really, when I am waking up at 5am what is the point!?). I went to the ruins of Knossos today, which are the ruins of the biggest Minioan palace on Crete, which was the main centre for the Minioan civilization (around 3000-1500 BC) in Greece. Some really tacky reconstruction was done in the early 1900s though, so it is really hard at times to see what is old and what was re-created. It been cool though to see so many differnent time periods in Greece from the beginnings of civilizations in Ancient Greece with the Minioans, to the Classic period in Athens, to all of the Byzantine and Ottoman influences in all of the major cities and quite often added onto Ancient sites. And of course, all of this amid modern Greece which has its own culture as well.
So yes, it is off to Santorini tomorrow morning - I am there for 4 night, back in Athens for 2 nights, and then I am HOMEEEEE on Tuesday! I am very excited for Santorini, I think it is going to be the perfect way to end this trip.
This internet cafe is boiling (too much heat from all the Greek gamers around me!) so I am going to escape..and off to bed!
P.S I saw "My life in ruins" when I was waiting for my ferry to Crete - hilariouis!! Probably not the greatest movie, but when you are travelling in Greece everything makes sense in it - all the stereotypes about travellers...ie. drunk Aussies, obnoxious Americans, and super polite Canadians with Canadian flags plasterd all over them. Honestly, I didn't realize how often Canadians wear their flag when they travel until an American pointed it out to me and it is sooo true! The only travellers I have seen who have their flag on their bag is Canadians! I think there are two reasons for this: 1) Attempt to steer clear of identification as Americans 2) People seem to like Canada. Before I left Kelsey gave me this flag to put on my bag, and now I can't bring myslef to do it! It just seems sooo typical now haha!
Ok bed time :)
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