We arrived safe and sound back in Chania…. a mere 16 hours in the travel log this time (an improvement over the 20 hour trip out to NY). Got home just in time for a sunset swim. Ah, it’s good to be back.

Much love to all the family and friends back home, miss you already. See you soon we hope, here on sunny Crete.
- Kristy, Dave and Pita

From "More Istanbul" set

First, a disclaimer: Sadly, between the rain which lasted nearly our entire trip and the diminishing quality of our abused digital camera, we managed to return from Istanbul with a lot of really bad photos. The trip was great… wet, but great. The photos we took don’t really do that magnificent city justice.

Luckily, our travel companions also took lots of photos and links to them are included below as well.

The Photos

• Kristy’s Picasa account > Constantinople…I mean, Istanbul…I mean, Constantinople
• I uploaded more Istanbul photos to my Picasa account, in addition to my really lame How To Travel To Istanbul (and back) photo set (just in case you missed that…)
• Koumbaros Christos put his Constantinople October 2008 collection up on Picasa as well.

Some of my favorites:

• the post-hamam experience – hamam is a Turkish bath… we got scrubbed GOOD!
• our travel companions in Istanbul: Vassilis, Anastasis, Christos (r-l)
• our late night troop, gettin’ jiggy wit it
• the whole gang: (l-r) Vassilis, Irini, Kristy, Dave, Christos, Anastasis

So there you go – photos as promised. Kristy still owes us all a recount in prose, but at least for now we’ve delivered (sorta) the goods on the photographic proof. And it only took us nearly three weeks…

It’s The Journey, Not The Destination

We took nearly every type of transportation on our trip to Istanbul, and it was likely the longest trip we’ve ever taken in terms of total traveling time. If you care to try it for yourself, here are the simple directions.

Starting from Chania, Crete, you’ll take the following:

1. bus
2. boat
3. metro
4. metro again (after strike ends… typical Greek stuff)
5. train taxi (go figure: no seats available on the train until midnight, so take a taxi to the bus station instead)
6. bus
7. car

After traveling for an estimated 30 hours, you should be in Istanbul. Congratulations. Walk around and explore this incredible city.

For the trip back, you’ll take:

1. car
2. train
3. car
4. bus
5. plane
6. bus

Only 20 hours of travel, and you’ve arrived back home in Chania. How was your trip?

Well, our trip was fantastic – as Kristy will detail in wonderful prose and pictures… any day now.

Until then: non-scenic photographic proof of our journey.

So, we are here, finally! Arrived very late last night / early this morning at Irini’s house (Christos’ sister) after a LOOONG trip and some fun at the border. We will soon be venturing out to explore the city, which according to all reports is one of the most beautiful in the world. We’ll take pictures!

Oh yeah, an added surprise. I thought we were only going to the western side of Istanbul which is still on the European continent. But we crossed over into the eastern half; which means in addition to Turkey, we can now say officially we’ve been to Asia. Pretty cool

The interwebs ain’t so great here (this and the last post actually had to be republished b/c the connection died while writting them) so we’ll probably not write again until we are back home… hopefully with lots of photos.

Our destination: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Yeah, as in TURKEY.

Some preparation music, please: http://tinyurl.com/3m9aoh

We’re going with Christos (our koumbaros – best man) – he’s been there before and knows what’s what. Maybe we’ll actually write something about it during our trip and when we return… on this poor excuse for a blog. Otherwise, we’ll at least share photos over on our Picasa accounts (see the sidebar, too lazy to link).

This should be pretty cool so I just wanted to share, but also maybe a few people back home should know where we are in case we end up in a Turkish prison (kidding… I hope).

We certainly manage to keep ourselves busy in the more traditional sense: Kristy is (still!) working on her thesis, and I’ve got chunks of client web design work coming in plus some ongoing personal projects. So we’ve got enough work to, well, keep us busy.

But as they say out here, you work to live – as opposed to the “live to work” attitude that seems prevalent elsewhere. More simply, all work and no play makes TKD a boring pair – so here’s a quick update on some of our more recent avocational activities.

Kedrodasos

Kendrodasos, beach camping

Kedrodasos (literally “Cedar Forest” in English) is near Elafonissi in southwestern Crete. This was the perfect way to say goodbye to our good friend Stephane, who left Crete soon afterwards. Ata and our dear koumbaros Yiorgos joined us for the camping trip. Really, this deserves more than my words can convey – some photos and a video will have to do.

The Spice of Life

Friends are the spice of life, and summer nights should always be generously seasoned with plenty of quality time with good friends. We’ve hosted several parties at our flat in Chania with many of the usual suspects, as well as enjoying the occasional night out wandering the harbor and local tavernas.

There have of course been numerous trips to the beaches in and around Chania, but time is just as well spent meandering through the empty, quiet streets of the old town while the rest of the populace is taking their mid-day nap.

One Year Anniversary

One Year Anniversary BBQ

August has been trucking along. We took an incredible camping trip to Balos beach on Gramvousa peninsula, celebrated Kristy’s birthday, and had an always wonderful visit by our dear Koumbaros Christos… but I believe these more recent events can be given greater attention in future posts.

Suffice it to say, summer in Crete has been another season in paradise and we don’t want it to end any time soon.

This past week, we spent four days on the island of Gavdos, which is a small (10 sq. miles) island off the south coast of the rather large Crete.

Before I get into it, I want to clarify the notion of paradise… if you are thinking thatched roofed bungalows and five star restaurants, forget it. This is paradise Greek style: total isolation, little to no modern luxuries, and almost near abandonment.

There is a boat from Crete to Gavdos twice a week, if it comes, and only about 50 people live on the island. But from the golden sandy beaches flanked by juniper spotted dunes you can see the outline of Crete from the north and Africa from the south. The clear water on the boat ride there is the purest blue and it gives way to something reminiscent of an iceberg as you approach the shore of Gavdos.

At the port, the ferry is greeted by a handful of the locals (a.k.a. half of the island’s population) collecting supplies or visitors. The flurry of activity and excitement at the arrival of the ferry solidifies how remote this island really is; it seems greeting the boat is really the only thing to do.

A walk around the island – which is possible to accomplish in a few hours — will introduce you to just about every resident in Gavdos. One of our friends in one excursion met the lighthouse keeper, the baker, and everyone else that came on the boat with us. They all greeted him with smiles and enough raki that he was found (by our other friends who were driving by with the guy who runs the Gavdos radio station) swaying down one of the roads of the island.

My clumsiness prevented us from taking any excursions, so we spent the days enjoying the beach and exploring the semi-permanent structures occupied by the modern nomads who live on the beach. We were happy on the beach, but feel like we missed a few things. So, as the toe-healing is well underway, we begin again plans to return to Gavdos and practice our own life as modern nomads.

We took a short drive to Akrotiri, a peninsula east of Chania, with our friends Christos, Stephane, and Jose, and found our way to Stavros, a quiet little beach with a shallow, calm bay overlooked by a bare mountainside. We spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming, the water still a bit chilly but very refreshing.

An interesting piece of trivia: the movie Zorba the Greek was filmed entirely on location on Crete, and the famous dance scene with Anthony Quinn was shot on the beach at Stavros. We were there.

Later we ate at a local taverna where the tasty food was well complemented with traditional Greek songs courtesy of a pair of musicians playing a Cretan lyre and (I believe) a lute.

But wait… it will get even better

This beach day was merely a training exercise, however, compared to what is next.

This weekend we travel to Gavdos, an island approximately 50 km south of the western side of Crete and which holds the distinction of being the southernmost point of Greece and Europe. With less than 100 permanent inhabitants on the island, and few tourists visiting this early in May, it is guaranteed to be a very relaxing time.

Come this time Sunday, we’ll be camping on the beach with a handful of friends and nothing but the sun, waves, and a few shady trees to keep us company… swimsuit optional.

This is one of the top three festivals held in Greece each year, and Greeks from all over pour into the city for the parade and subsequent debauchery (as only Greeks can do!).

Kristy and I went with our good friends Stephane (from France) and Ismael (from Morocco).

We always get a good laugh at the contrasts between living in Crete and living in NYC. The example on this day was the fact that in this “major city” in the middle of the biggest annual event in Crete, we managed to randomly bump into SEVERAL people we knew but didn’t pre-arrange to meet up. That just doesn’t happen at the St. Patty’s parade in NYC

Pictures are posted in David’s Picasa album.

Update: I found some youtube videos of the event! Maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of us among the masses