Crete Sunday 9th March

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We arrived in Souda, the port near the western end of Crete, at about 7.30 am. From there we travelled by bus to Chania, the second largest city in Crete. We anticipated a telephone call from Greg and Anne, our couch surfing hosts, around mid-day, so we left our bags at the bus station and set off to explore.

Chania is a beautiful city with small scale, but well cared for squares, fountains and statues and a fairy tale Venetian harbour. The streets around the harbour are small and twisting, with endless handwritten signs announcing ‘Rooms for Rent’. The folk art shop was closed but we could see the most intricate embroideries through the windows.

The water was crystal clear. People were gathering in tavernas and in street cafes. Every child was wearing fancy dress. One small beetle refused to get in the car with his parents and tossed his antennae as he screamed and put on the universal tantrum.

The Naval Museum was open and, unlike any other, gives its cost and a list of what you can see there so that you can decide whether you want or visit or not before you enter. There was a comprehensive summary, with models, of the history of sea travel and battles for Crete and the Chania area in particular. In English it is written Chania but it is pronounced and written here with just an H.

Crete has had a most turbulent history. Because of its position, midway between several other Mediterranean countries, it has been of strategic importance to just about everybody who has aspired to invade someone else or to control trade routes. This includes Romans, Venetians, Turks and, during WW11, the Germans. Throughout, they retained a fiercely independent spirit and their Hellenistic culture. This was easy with the Romans, since they utilised the bureaucracy and community organisation already in place and didn’t attempt to change the language. The Venetians treated the Cretans as slaves but both communities were united in their opposition to the Turks.

Finally, Germany invaded in 1941. The Greek government had already relocated to Crete because Greece had fallen to the Italians. English, Australian and New Zealand troops were deployed on Crete, both in battles on land and sea and in evacuating civilians. Eventually Crete was conceded and an enormous secret evacuation of troops took place. Some troops were trapped and were helped by Cretans in the mountains. Some others undertook the dangerous sea voyage to Egypt in very poor small fishing boats. One soldier made it, but had had to swim for the last nine hours supported by an empty water canteen, because his boat had fallen to pieces.

It was very moving to read the stories and to see photos of the fighting. There was a book donated by the Australian War Memorial board with photos of all the Australian soldiers who had died helping Crete. Most were so young but some would have been well into their thirties.

I cried when I told Keith about the village where, after the German Occupation, reprisal killings were conducted because of the Cretan resistance and the help they gave the allied forces. The German soldiers rounded up the villagers and walked them out into the country. They then separated the men and tried to send the old people, women and children back to the village. This saga is shown in photos – I don’t know which brave person recorded and preserved this. The next photo shows everyone walking away with soldiers with guns behind them. The final picture shows a white haired old man leading the old people back and the caption says that he was shouting out something like, “We will not go, you can kill our sons but we will stay to see our children die, we will be with them until the end.” Somehow, being here, made this so poignant for me, and I have tears in my eyes even as I type this.

We made contact with Greg and arranged to take a taxi out to their village of Kambani, seven kilometres from Chania. As we drove along we saw lots more costumes, with plenty of teenagers dressed up as well.

Greg and Anne had ridden their bikes up to the Mini-Mart to collect us and directed the taxi to follow them to their home, set deep in the olive orchards. Beyond the olive trees, nearby mountains rose, grey and rocky. In the distance, snow covered mountains looked as if they had been mistakenly put in as the back drop for the play we were in, set as it was on a sunny day.

Greg and Anne have lived here for two years, choosing to change their lifestyle completely from the speed and pressure of Brussels in Belgium to slower paced and supportive Cretan village life. They live in a very beautiful area and appreciate how lucky they are, and relish it all. They have made friends and understand much of the culture. They speak Greek but would see themselves to be still very much in the learning stages. They were so welcoming and kind to us, and we enjoyed chatting and laughing with them. They were able to explain our latest puzzle to us – the dress ups are for Carnivale, connected to Greek Orthodox rituals and similar to a festival before the privations of Lent. Kite flying is part of the celebration too. After a delicious lunch of Cretan salad, and a long chat, we set off for a walk to their nearby beach while they continued to work in their home office.

The road led through the olive trees and, while many had grass under them, the red soil around others had been cultivated, and crops like pumpkins or zucchinis planted under them. We could hear sheep bells and, away in the distance, a small flock of shaggy sheep was being guarded as they grazed in a tiny oasis of emerald green grass.

Once out of the farm lands, we noticed dozens of wildflowers and stopped to take photos of them. Many are ones we coax into growth in our gardens and here they were - everywhere. There was a messy area of rubbish, which Greg had warned us about, lamenting the lack of environmental awareness it showed.

After that we reached a wide sandy beach where some people were swimming and others were relaxing. A little island just off shore would have been easy and fun to swim out to. The next cove was completely rock covered. We walked around the headland and returned along the cliff top, which was a veritable seaside garden, like the ones at Port Fairy.

A delightful meal shared over interesting discussions before we went to bed ended a wonderful day.

Around Chania are many sculptures of heroes of the Cretan struggle against the Turks in the late 19th Century.
This is the square in Chania where we got off the bus then tried to get our bearings via the hard to read Lonely Planet map.