Moving on to the south coast!

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Greetings!

Well, I’ve definitely found my Minoan palace, but before we get to that, let me catch you up on dinner last night and the events of today!

After four different appetizers yesterday at lunch, surprise! – we weren’t all that hungry last night. So, decided to opt for pizza. Walked down the beach front and first went to see the remains of old Roman fish ponds that have now been incorporated into a public pond. Then went to Da’Georgio’s facing the beach and ate inside – we are having problems with the cigarette smoke – seems to be the thing “to do” with the locals as well as many of the tourists! Lovely restaurant. We ordered one 8-piece pizza with mushrooms and ham. It was absolutely the perfect size, AND an incredible pizza as well! Really thick crust; nice and chewy and lots of toppings. Yum! Then, as we were trying to get out without dessert, voila! Compliments of the house, two helpings of tiramisu! Great! What’s a person to do? Did not want to seem rude … so downed the tiramisu. We had a split bottle of red wine from the Sitia wine cooperative. It was excellent! Back to the hotel then, and to sleep by 10!

Up about 7 and headed back to yesterday’s bakery for a repeat – one cheese pie to split for the two of us, two large glasses of freshly squeezed O.J. and filtered coffee for Robert. Great! Then back to the hotel to check out. One thing that we noticed – in one of my postings, there is a picture of the swimming pool – a beautiful GREEN color! We both thought that was the color of the pool tile! But today – oh my, they were BLUE! Can only wonder what might have happened to me had I decided to chance the green pool…???

From Sitea, we headed across the island to Ierapetra, which is a large town on the south coast, and then followed the coastline more or less, until we finally arrived at Matala and found our hotel. (Editor’s note: R is starting to teach me the Greek alphabet, which certainly makes looking for signage and sites easier. I figure if I learn a couple of letters a day, by the end of our trip, I may have it! Although don’t count on it…) Matala sits at the end of the road where it meets the Libyan sea. It is definitely a touristy-beachy kind of place. Not much there, but we were able to find our hotel, the Valley Village, a few km out of town. And yet again, yes, folks, we’re opening up another hotel! This one is WAY behind the Sitia Beach Hotel – they have workmen all over the place trying to get things ready. They’re still filling the swimming pools!! We’re in a two bedroom bungalow, which is really lovely. There are two bedrooms, one at either end of the bungalow, with a hallway in between – filled with closets and drawers and a mini-fridge. The bathroom is off the hallway and sits between the two bedrooms. There is a HUGE jacuzzi tub as well as a shower! Everything is spotlessly clean, and they’ve left fresh roses in our room, along with a nice bottle of red wine and two glasses. The only problem: No internet access in the rooms; we have to go to the main house, and no restaurant or facilities there either, as they’re not ready for people yet! I was a bit discouraged, but R was fine – says at least we won’t have to worry about noisy neighbors, which is true. Settled in the hotel and then drove the couple of km to Matala for some lunch. Keeping to our 2 appetizer maximum, R ordered a cucumber and tomato salad, and I had eggplant salad – which is really eggplant dip with bread. (By the way, Cretan bread may actually rank right next to French bread as the best in the world – it is fabulous!) After lunch we headed back to the bungalow for a nap. Up around 4 and decided to go see a site – and that’s where I found my own personal favorite Minoan palace!

Depending on the translation, it is either Faistos; Festos or Phaistos – you pick! (In Greek, it is Φαίστόϛ.) At any rate, it’s open at night until 8 p.m. which was nice. Actually basically had the site to ourselves. A few other tourists, but only a handful! Took a very leisurely walk around – and loved it! This excavation of a site more than 3,000 years old was wonderful! Lots of steps and levels and it was signed really well – made it much more substantial in my mind; I could actually picture people living and working there! While I had really been disappointed in Knossos and Zakros, this place is magic!

From there, back to the bungalow and now I’m blogging prior to heading out to dinner. As our access will be fairly limited the next day or so, I’ll be in touch … just not as constant!

Lots of love,
m
x