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.

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.