Rethymno manages to strike a balance between nice old town and tacky tourist shithole. I imagine that in the peak of summer it learns a lot further towards the later. Pretty much any avaliable waterfront space in the old town is taken up by a cafe or bar or restaraunt and continues in a loop cafe / hotel / car rental agency as you move further town the beach into package holiday territory. Away from the beach it is a joy to walk through the narrow streets amongst the old venetian buildings where the restaraunts are a bit thinner on the ground and interesting doors seem a lot older than the walls around them.
I was in Rethymno for Orthodox Easter which explanied the eratic ringing of church bells from dawn until midnight from every church in town for the past week. If I didn't know any better I would say they were competing to be the most annoying. All the ringing of church bell concluded on the Saturday night with a candle lit march from ???? church to ???? church in the town square. In front of the church where the people gavered there was a ceromony (in Greek) concluding at midnight with fireworks. Ten minutes later the streets were bare.
I left the town for a walk in the surronding villages of Agia Irini, Rousospiti, Mili and Chromonastiri. All much the same. A few churches (one per citizen it would seem) and a town squarewith a few taverna. Usually the best thing to do was to sit at a table and watch the old folk of the village. The men sitting next to you in the taverna playing backgammon already with a few empty cans next to them. The women on the balconies haging out washing or sweeping the pavement in front of their homes. Of course the other joy of the taverna was the food. If my wallet (or belly) allowed it I would have spent most of my time in Crete eating. I returned to town through the Mili Gorge following a stream all the way down through abandoned villages and numerous churches back to the sea.
An other day I hired a car with an American and went to a few places the local bus network or my legs didn't reach. We started off a lake which was good from afar but far from good. Most of it was surronded by thick bush and the parts that weren't had cafes in their place. Said cafes were having their septic tanks pumped at the time so the whole stunk. From the top of a nearby hill it was a pretty lake at the foot of the mountain next to a pretty village that didn't stink.
We drove through a few more villages, all much the same, until we got to Argiroupoli which was distinguished by its springs and Minoan ruins. This is also where we stopped for lunch. Almost everywhere was closed, obviously moth balled until the summer and the only place open had a few coaches parked in front. Usually this is a definite no go and we were both hungary so we gave it a shot. As it turns out it was probably the best restaraunt I had eaten in on the Island. We were both expecting small serves so ordered a few things between us and we ended up spending most of the afternoon eating and recovering.
This was followed by a drive over the mountains, through rural crete to plakias and Preveli beach on the south coast before returning to Rethymno.
Hania is a bigger and better looking version of Rethymno and hence has more tourists. Like Rethymno the entire length of the Venetian Harbour was a string of cafes and restaraunts. Through the old town it got little tacky and among the traditional Cretian crafts there were traditional Cretian novelty T-Shirts, traditional Cretian bumber stickers, traditional Cretian Che Guevra Towels and traditonal Cretian Irish Pubs.
I was in Rethymno for Orthodox Easter which explanied the eratic ringing of church bells from dawn until midnight from every church in town for the past week. If I didn't know any better I would say they were competing to be the most annoying. All the ringing of church bell concluded on the Saturday night with a candle lit march from ???? church to ???? church in the town square. In front of the church where the people gavered there was a ceromony (in Greek) concluding at midnight with fireworks. Ten minutes later the streets were bare.
I left the town for a walk in the surronding villages of Agia Irini, Rousospiti, Mili and Chromonastiri. All much the same. A few churches (one per citizen it would seem) and a town squarewith a few taverna. Usually the best thing to do was to sit at a table and watch the old folk of the village. The men sitting next to you in the taverna playing backgammon already with a few empty cans next to them. The women on the balconies haging out washing or sweeping the pavement in front of their homes. Of course the other joy of the taverna was the food. If my wallet (or belly) allowed it I would have spent most of my time in Crete eating. I returned to town through the Mili Gorge following a stream all the way down through abandoned villages and numerous churches back to the sea.
An other day I hired a car with an American and went to a few places the local bus network or my legs didn't reach. We started off a lake which was good from afar but far from good. Most of it was surronded by thick bush and the parts that weren't had cafes in their place. Said cafes were having their septic tanks pumped at the time so the whole stunk. From the top of a nearby hill it was a pretty lake at the foot of the mountain next to a pretty village that didn't stink.
We drove through a few more villages, all much the same, until we got to Argiroupoli which was distinguished by its springs and Minoan ruins. This is also where we stopped for lunch. Almost everywhere was closed, obviously moth balled until the summer and the only place open had a few coaches parked in front. Usually this is a definite no go and we were both hungary so we gave it a shot. As it turns out it was probably the best restaraunt I had eaten in on the Island. We were both expecting small serves so ordered a few things between us and we ended up spending most of the afternoon eating and recovering.
This was followed by a drive over the mountains, through rural crete to plakias and Preveli beach on the south coast before returning to Rethymno.
Hania is a bigger and better looking version of Rethymno and hence has more tourists. Like Rethymno the entire length of the Venetian Harbour was a string of cafes and restaraunts. Through the old town it got little tacky and among the traditional Cretian crafts there were traditional Cretian novelty T-Shirts, traditional Cretian bumber stickers, traditional Cretian Che Guevra Towels and traditonal Cretian Irish Pubs.
Hello Scott,
ReplyDeleteIt is a great pleasure to visit your nice and interesting blog for the first time.
Best wishes from Brazil:
Geraldo