Dear David, A Series of Letters to a Longtime Friend April 2008

Hersonissos

Crete

April 2008

Dear David,

 A Trip to Ierapetra, The Dikteon cave, Onions, a Meal Out, the Extending Ladder, a Village in The Clouds, Easter Fireworks, and Gay Tourists!

 Yes of course you are quite right, this month is my birthday and I will be nineteen, again. It is also 3 years since Steve passed away and since you ask, yes I do miss him sometimes even still. I think this is only natural after 22 years with the same person, don’t you?

 I am pleased that you think it would be a good idea to publish these letters as a monthly travelogue, and you seem to have been doing your homework on what Crete has to offer for the gay or lesbian traveller! Most gay travel sites only send visitors to Mykonos, which is all very well if all you want to do is party all night and sleep all day, but if you want to come to Crete as a gay tourist and see the sights and walk the walks, then you have to ‘do it yourself’. Any gay travel agents that do have hotel accommodation on Crete usually only have the expensive ‘gay friendly’ (supposedly) hotels on offer, rather than cheaper self-catering apartments or bed and breakfast lodgings.

 With the arrival of April so we get the arrival of the first tourists even though many places are still not open and parts of the Port look like a lunar landscape with piles of builders rubble and timber where desperate attempts are being made to rebuild and refurbish before Easter which is the last weekend of the month.

 As this building work reaches its peak, so does my popularity in the village, to paraphrase a well-known British comedy show ‘I am the only gay in the villa ge with a triple extending aluminium ladder that goes up 7 metres.’ This to you may seem only a small thing but if you have ever seen a Greek ladder you will know what I mean, as they usually consist of two pieces of 3x2 with planks nailed across as the rungs, none too evenly spaced or level I might add. Why ladders should be so expensive here I do not know, anyway mine came from B and Q in England on the back of a truck courtesy of ‘King’ Philip the roving rabbi.

 Around the house birds are nesting in every available corner, and a pigeon is trying to build a nest in a big flower pot on the top balcony, but at least this year I do not have a pair of those daredevil, boy racers of the sky, swallows. Why is it that swallows only seem to have two speeds, very fast and stop? Mind you the aerial acrobatics and the swoops and about turns are really something to watch. Dog didn’t like them much because they used to swoop down nearly on top of her. And they do like to come indoors too, I have had them swoop in the front door, do two circuits of the lounge at breakneck speed and fly back out again!

 You will please to hear that the onions are in and are doing well, not only mine but George’s, which I planted of course. The first tomatoes are forming on the vines, and my peppers and other salad plants will soon be ready to plant out. I am also growing lupins this year although I not quite sure why!

 Now I did say that there wouldn’t be any more travelogues but as I mentioned a couple of British guys were staying here with a friend in Elounda further along the coast and they asked if I would drive them around for a couple of days so having hired a suitable vehicle from Manos at Orion Car Hire, I trotted off to Elounda to collect them one sunny morning. Elounda takes about 40 minutes from my place, skirting around Agios Nikolaos to avoid the traffic, particularly as it was Wednesday, which is market day. Whenever I go to Elounda I think of that Hayley Mills film from the 60’s, The Moon Spinners, which was filmed around that area. In the opening scenes they are on a bus which rounds a corner and before them and down a hill is a small village, these days the view is considerably altered of course, with 5 star hotels and lots of other development on the hills opposite.

 Finding my tourists at the bus stop was easy and we headed off to Knossos, which they had never been to in spite of coming here several times. This also meant of course that I actually drove back past my own house!

 The trip to Knossos takes about half an hour from my place, provided the traffic is not too heavy, and there is now a new slip road off the National Road, which I missed, so had to go to the Mires turning and come back again! The road works are nearly complete on the Knossos road with the addition of a lot of mini roundabouts, which noone seems to know what to do with, but it was the usual chaos when we approached the hospital.

 I refused the offer of a free ticket to walk around Knossos with them as I have been there six times and sat in a cafe across the road with my crossword.

 Two hours later my charges reappeared suffering from ‘Knossos overload’! It is a big site with many interesting features and you really do have to limit what you try and see on any one visit! Heading back into the city we found parking was best in the car park, it is so much easier to pay €3 than drive round for ages trying to find a free place!

 The museum is currently undergoing massive renovation so there is a small display open in a building to the rear of the old museum, why they didn’t just build a completely new museum out by Knossos I don’t really know. The visitors had a joint ticket for Knossos and the museum. I had to pay €4. The displays contain the best of the finds from around the island, including the ‘Phaistos Disc’. Some of the frescoes are also on show, regrettably not my favourite, the Blue Dolphins’, that have become a symbol of Crete.

 Our next stop was to be The Dikteon Cave where Zeus was born, high up on the Lassithi plateau, where there not any windmills anymore, even though some of the guidebooks still insist in printing a photograph of them.

 Heading East back along the New Road we took the turning for Lassithi and headed into the hills towards Potamies, passing on the way the earthworks for the new resevoir, although there is still some doubt about how much water it is going to collect. I do hope that they take the opportunity to utlilise it as a tourist attraction either for birdwatchers or for sailing or perhaps both!

 I prefer this route on to the plateau as the road twists and turns as it climbs ever higher and unnerves the passengers no end as if they look to the right there is often a sheer drop! Stopping at Kera for lunch turned out to be a mistake for us, but a bonus for the restaurant as shortly after we sat down two more busloads stopped as well. The normal stop for lunch at Kera is the Monastery but we tried a small family run place called Ilias, on the roadside, very passable it was too!

 As we completed the final ascent I stopped where the road passes through a cutting as there is a parking place which makes a good photo stop, as you can look back across the villages you have just passed through and see right out to sea. Unfortunately a reinforcing steel fence has been erected along the crash barrier so the view is a bit spoilt. Either side of the cutting is a row of ruined stone windmills standing like sentinels, these must have looked quite impressive when they had their white sails still attached, but of course in this modern era we use electricity instead of wind power, so we have those characterless wind turbines everywhere. How nice it would be if they could re-use those old stone mills for the same purpose!

 After all that climbing it often surprises visitors as you pass through the cutting and there, before you lies the plateau, which you then have to drive DOWN to! As we hit the plateau we took the turning to the right and passed through a few small villages such as Metochi (where you can get, I am told, a very good meze lunch) and it did not take long to get to Psichro and the Dikteon Cave just outside the village and up the hill. There is a large car park and a couple of cafes as this site does get a bit busy, so I sat with a Greek coffee while the visitors climbed up to the cave, returning shortly afterwards because it closes at 3pm! Hence the mistake referred to earlier, we should have gone straight to the cave and had a late lunch! More recent visitors have told me the cave is still closing at 3pm, and it would be helpful if they put a sign up at the bottom of the hill before the climb up to cave.

 Not deterred we continued our trip around the plateau and descending at the eastern end by a winding, twisting road we rejoined the National Road near Neapoli and then back to Elounda.

 My second day as impromptu tour guide started early again as I always feel it is nice to take a leisurely drive and see the scenery.

 The route for today was to Kritsa to the Church of Panagia Kera, famed for its rich decorations, a short trip to the ancient hill village of Lato, the archaeological site at Gournia and then on to Ierapetra, in time for lunch naturally!

Kritsa is only a short trip from Agios Nikolaos (I resisted the temptation to stop at Lidl on the way past) and the church of Our Lady of Kera has many Byzantine frescoes, I think this was possibly the model for the church used for ‘The Moon Spinners’ as I don’t think the church itself was used as the film set. The visitors did not spend long inside and although I have never been inside I left my own visit for a future time!

 By this time it as time for morning coffee, which we took in Kritsa a village populated by many resident foreigners. The place is pleasant enough with an abundance of cafes and tourist shops but of course at this time of year it was only just opening up so there was quite a wait for the coffee while they found the cups they put away last year I guess!

 On the way back to Agios we diverted to the site at Lato, unfortunately it was closed, however some intrepid French tourists, having taken the trouble to drive there, had climbed over the fence to have a look anyway. My guests didn’t like this idea so we carried on back to the main road, heading for Ierapetra. This is actually the road to Sitia, which I have mentioned to you before so I will not go into too much detail, suffice it to say that on the previous trip I passed the site at Gournia. This time I stopped but sat in the car with a crossword while the visitors did the archaeology. I did find something else of interest though, some of our native orchids in full bloom!

 From here it is not a long run to Ierapetra, which is the main commercial town in the area, is surrounded by agriculture areas and greenhouses, and is the most southerly town in Europe. The town itself seems to be more of a city than Heraklion but with more traffic lights that seem to take forever to change! On the plus side there is a nice local museum, a Venetian fortress, and a small port with fishing boats, this is also the place where the ferry leaves for Chrissi Island. As is usual here the beach front has many places to eat with ‘tents’ actually on the beach a few feet from the water, then a road, and then the buildings housing the kitchens etc. I didn’t make a note of the name but we got an excellent meze lunch for four including the drinks for under €50!

 Now you know me, always ready for a trip into the unknown, and one of the visitors had expressed a desire to visit a nearby village called Agios Ioannis, about 20km away to the east of Ierapetra. The purpose of the visit was to check on a house belonging to one of his friends in England, just to make sure it was all secure and so on. This turned out to be quite an interesting little excursion as after leaving the main coastal road we took a small winding road which climbed steeply into the hills and high above clinging to the side of the mountain we could see occasional glimpses of the village, which if it had been any higher up would have been on top of the mountain, and as it was, was nearly in the clouds.

 As we left the car on the outskirts of the village, the only sounds to be heard were the gentle sighing of the wind and spring water rushing on its way down the precipitous mountain (probably why the village was located here as running water is rare on Crete). We stopped to admire the view down the valley and out across the Libyan Sea.

 Entering the village we became aware that all was not as it should be and as we walked the narrow hilly streets the atmosphere became quite eerie as we realised the place was deserted and that what from a distance appeared to be a typical Cretan hill village, was, in the main, ruins.

 So used we are to the constant hum of humanity that the absence of noise seemed absolute and yet somehow our passing by the open doors and blind windows gave new life to the surroundings and in the echoes of our subdued conversation perhaps we could imagine that we could hear the laughter of children, the wailing of the fractious baby, the rapid click of the dice and counters as the men played tavli in the golden evening light, the rattle of dishes, the trilling of caged canaries, and somewhere close by, the sobbing of the bereaved widow.

 It is enough to say that we found the house we were looking for, and walking further found that some of the larger properties, originally homes to the more wealthy, have been restored and are used as holiday homes, many of them by Italians who perhaps find similarities with their own hill villages. As far as we could work out the only inhabitants seemed to be a couple who ran the kafenion, and the only activity we saw was in the churchyard as a grave was being prepared to receive another son or daughter of the village, long absent perhaps, but finally returning home.

 For my part I felt a little subdued on the way back to Ierapetra, and the conversation certainly didn’t sparkle as you would expect it to with four gay men in the car! Very ‘Englishly’ the visitors decided it was time for afternoon tea and cakes which lifted the slight depression that I think we all felt.

 While down this way I had hoped to take the visitors to the memorial to the Cretan Massacre and then inland through the mountains passing one of the few large bodies of water on Crete, time was against us though and so we headed back to base the way we had come, so there are two more things left to do another day!

 Sorry to say this is almost certainly going to be the last of the monthly travelogues as I will be too busy from now on, but I will write next month and answer some more of your seemingly interminable questions and explain the difference between ouzeries, kafenions, meze houses, and estiatorios!

 As usual I have given some links with pictures and a bit more information for you. 

Some photographs can be found here http://www.villaralfa.com/ierap.html

And a gay blog on Crete is here http://gaycretegreece.blogspot.com/

Yours as ever,